The hidden cost of incoherence.
Most performance problems are not effort problems. They are alignment problems wearing an effort costume.
May 12, 2026·1 min read·Cinquelli
When a team underperforms, the first instinct is to ask for more — more focus, more hours, more accountability. It is almost always the wrong instinct.
In our work with executive teams, the pattern repeats. The team is not under-working. It is over-working in directions that quietly cancel each other out. Sales pushes one narrative; product builds for another; finance models a third. Each function is excellent in isolation. The system, in aggregate, is incoherent.
The cost shows up as missed quarters, but it lives upstream — in the shared map the leadership team never finished drawing.