Most change makers and innovators spend a lot of time looking for support. They wrongly believe that getting support, particularly from senior executives, is enough to succeed.
The problem is that support alone doesn’t create momentum.
A recent Harvard Business Review article introduced the idea of the False Alignment Trap – the tendency for leadership teams to assume they are aligned when they are actually working from very different interpretations of the future.
In my experience the deeper problem is that false alignment creates supporters, not champions. Supporters have a positive view of the transformation, but they don’t actively contribute to it.
In contrast, champions are not simply people who like the idea. They are people who are willing to invest time, energy, credibility and effort into making it successful.
This distinction matters because transformation is not powered by passive approval. It is powered by active participation. It is active participation that produces visible results and that in turn encourages others to join.
The absence of disagreement should not be mistaken for commitment. In fact, healthy disagreement is often a sign that people care enough to engage. The goal of transformation is not to create agreement, but genuine alignment and contribution towards shared goals.