Charalambos Vlachoutsicos wrote a great article for HBR acknowledging that it’s very tough to get alignment in today’s complicated organization.  The basic premise is the same my grandmother used to say:  you can’t solve a problem until you name it.  Vlachoutsicos did a great job creating an open forum for his sales people to talk about the issues of a new candy line – and came up with creative suggestions about how to make changes.