A studio invests over one hundred million dollars in its latest production, but the director, set designer, producers, and other creative talents are at each others’ throats, with a real financial threat of the picture never being completed.  A bank launches a global initiative to reduce delays in transaction processing but regional leaders are hesitant to talk to each other for fear that others will see flaws in each country’s operations.  A hospital seeks to improve its quality indicators for trauma patients, but the intensive care unit staff remain distrustful and reluctant to work with the emergency room staff.  And so on…

Despite having exceptional talent and exceptional ideas, organizations in every industry fail miserably in major efforts.  This happens for a variety of reasons, including a lack of skills in how to assert, negotiate, and influence others towards the goal of alignment.  It is never possible to get everyone to be “lovey-dovey” with each other, nor should it be the goal.  Rather, alignment implies that everyone will be working towards the same goal in the same general direction, even if they are approaching the goal from different trajectories with different personal needs.

Creative Team Alignment (CTA), the process of bringing together a group of people towards a common goal of innovation or creative production, involves individual and group coaching by Dr. Rao to assess points of friction and provide specific communication techniques to avoid costly misunderstandings and detrimental avoidance.  This is dramatically different than a traditional “team building” activity in that CTA involves a specific focus on the processes involved in creative collaboration and the inherent struggles that result.

Each CTA process looks slightly different, with some having Dr. Rao provide each individual counsel while others involve more formal “group training” on the root causes of conflict, disclosure discomforts, the ten duties within a successful team, and anonymous 360 feedback.