On Culture: The Wisdom of Water

Myste Wylde
6 days ago
4 min read

Dear Culturati Insider,

Most organizations are perfectly aligned on one thing: believing they are more aligned than they really are. The reality is, if strategic alignment were as easy as agreeing it matters, this would be a very short newsletter.

To be clear, alignment is not intent. In a 2025 survey of 400 executives, 91% said strategic alignment drives business success. But what is it truly? Effective alignment is sustained coherence between strategy, operating choices, and leadership behavior (regardless of internal or external pressure). And it holds when CEOs treat it as an ongoing discipline through the deliberate use of capital, incentives, decision rights, and tradeoffs as conditions shift. This matters enormously when leadership capacity is stretched.

Enter the era of the “megamanager.” As orgs flatten to move faster and reduce cost, managers are asked to do more with less. They lead bigger teams, carry more individual work, and absorb complexity that used to be shared. And when they have less capacity to coach and reinforce priorities, strategic alignment starts to fail. The antidote is not reversing flattening, but setting the right conditions for it to work. Gallup’s data shows that there is no universal "right" team size. Larger teams can outperform when managers are selected for the role, protected from excessive individual work, and expected to provide regular, meaningful feedback.

Another useful (often discussed, but inconsistently deployed) tool that can keep an org connected is mentorship. Mentorship reinforces credibility through behavior, builds trust through regularity, and allows priorities to travel through the organization without distortion. It also reshapes how leaders define progress and expands how they see people and potential.

In close, and with an interesting spin on focus, learning, and ultimately alignment, Taoism offers us the wisdom of water. This means acting with wu wei, carving direction through presence rather than pressure by choosing a course and resisting the urge to constantly add, adjust, or intervene. The result is an organization that moves forward with clarity, needing fewer signals to keep people oriented.

Channeling steadiness and steadfastness,

Myste Wylde, COO

What Leaders Get Wrong About Strategic Alignment

Harvard Business Review

By Jonathan Trevor

Summary: Most executives agree alignment matters, yet many struggle to sustain it at scale. In a 2025 survey of 400 executives, 91% said strategic alignment drives business success though only 1 in 7 strongly believe they've got it right. When alignment falters, silos weaken collaboration, change stalls, execution breaks down, and trust declines. The issue is largely leadership-driven. Alignment is often diffused across roles, crowded out by short-term delivery pressure, and undermined when leaders optimize for functions. Organizations that outperform treat alignment as a continuous leadership act, connecting purpose, strategy, capabilities, structure, and incentives, revisiting it regularly, and making context-specific choices rather than copying others.

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Welcome to the Era of the Megamanager

Business Insider

By Juliana Kaplan

Summary: Organizations are flattening fast, and the role of the manager is being stretched in the process. As companies cut layers to reduce cost and speed decisions, middle managers are disappearing and remaining leaders are absorbing broader spans, heavier individual contributor workloads, and greater coordination risk. The consequence becomes role dilution. When management capacity does not scale with responsibility, coaching becomes transactional, development wanes, and trust (once again) erodes. Flattening can improve efficiency, but only when organizations are explicit about what managers own.

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Span of Control: What's the Optimal Team Size for Managers?

Gallup

By Jim Harter

Summary: While there is no universal “right” team size, Gallup data shows the median span of control remains six. But performance depends on conditions, not headcount. Teams of 12 or more can do well when managers spend less than 40% of their time on individual contributor work, have the talent to lead at scale, and provide real, regular feedback. When these conditions are absent, engagement, productivity, and retention suffer regardless of team size. In order to succeed, organizations can invest in manager capability, protect time for people leadership, and design structures around engagement.

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What Mentorship Taught Me About Credibility, Timing and Trust

Entrepreneur

By Jack Cline

Summary: Mentorship shapes leadership from both directions, as a learner and as a guide. From being mentored comes the lesson that credibility is established through conduct long before authority is exercised. From mentoring others comes the realization that progress depends less on perfect timing and more on steady movement and iteration. Across both roles, mentorship expands how people see people. Assumptions narrow potential, while curiosity grows it and builds trust over time. Viewed this way, mentorship changes how success is defined, shifting it from personal achievement to sustained influence created through development, judgment, and long-term investment in others.

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What Taoism Can Teach Us About Learning in the Age of AI

Fast Company

By Laetitia Vitaud

Summary: As AI reduces the cost of information, the value of sustained attention and deep learning rises. Taoist philosophy frames learning as transformation rather than accumulation, prioritizing patience, simplicity, and restraint as the conditions where judgment forms. In practice, this shows up in deliberate limits on stimulation, from screen-light education to focused work environments that protect cognitive space. In an economy shaped by uncertainty and shifting skill demands, deep learning strengthens orientation, discernment, and decision quality. Taoism offers leaders a practical reminder that clarity emerges through presence and the discipline to stay with complexity long enough for insight to take hold.

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