It seems appropriate on this Earth Day that I am scooting along the French countryside at about 180 mph on one of Eurostar’s fast trains on my way to Amsterdam. I decided that the chance to spend a few hours away from hotels and airports might be a refreshing change. I was right. The scenery is lovely and the ride comfortable. If governments and organizations could move this fast, there is no telling what could be accomplished.

I have been working a lot this trip with the question of how to get more velocity into my client’s decision-making processes. This includes inquiring into how to get a group of people to align on what they decide. ‘Alignment’ is management lingo for commitment. Alignment is not the same as agreement. Agreement is about everyone sharing the same point of view or opinion, and does not allow for differing perspectives. Most people think they need to agree before they can commit. The fact is I have rarely seen a group of managers agree on much of anything, other than how difficult it is to get people to agree.

Skill in creating alignment is an important aspect of leadership. The key is that you cannot ‘make’ someone else be aligned. It must be their choice. If you want or need people to really be committed and you need to count on them, most of the management techniques for control and motivation don’t work—they lack this critical element of choice.

Members of powerful teams are already committed to being aligned when they go into a meeting. They do not expect, nor do they need, others to convince them why they should align. By itself, this basic idea can transform most meetings and create a powerful team where everyone is responsible for the ‘whole’.

As I get older, I appreciate more and more how our egoistic belief in control can undermine and destroy even the best of intentions. Our misplaced need to control is the underlying condition that has us not trust each other, wastes countless hours in unnecessary work, and keeps us mired in futile attempts to predict an increasingly unpredictable future.

In a world where time is of the essence and technology is moving everything faster and faster, can we afford to continue to crawl in our capacity to work together? I think not. It is time to innovate, commit and align on whatever actions are necessary to confront and successfully deal with our growing mountain of intractable problems.