You’re Part of an Ecosystem. Act Like It.

This issue of The Narrative Intel is about interdependence at scale.

As individuals gain unprecedented power to execute on their own, the real challenge isn’t speed - it is keeping the system in sync. AI-driven autonomy can quietly erode alignment unless people  stay connected through clear expectations, shared context, and mutual awareness.

Effectiveness today depends less on control and more on integration

• how easy it is to work with you;

• how clearly you define what you need; and how reliably are you deliver

The essence of an ecosystem is realizing you don’t operate in a vacuum. Your results roll up into someone else’s, and theirs into someone else’s again. That’s not just about org charts or OKRs — it’s the invisible web of dependencies that stretches across the company.

A product launch is a perfect example. It might sit in Marketing on paper, but its success depends on alignment across Product, Sales, Finance, RevOps, Customer Success, and even HR. Everyone’s work is part of everyone else’s system.

This issue is about recognizing that you’re part of a larger ecosystem — that your effectiveness depends on how clearly, consistently, and collaboratively you connect within it. It’s about both awareness and communication: understanding how your work fits into the whole, and making it clear to others how to work with you.

From Ownership to Alignment

At Freshworks, we used to say: “Be the CEO of your job.” It was a simple way to reinforce ownership — to remind everyone that we were accountable for outcomes, not just tasks.

It wasn’t about asking for permission. It was about acting independently within a shared understanding of success — knowing the outcomes that mattered, how to measure them, and how your work fit into the larger story.

I’ve written about that before — in Never Mind, I’ll Just Do It and The Flip Side of Delegation — because it captured something powerful about culture and accountability. But as organizations grow and technology accelerates, that idea alone isn’t enough.

Ownership matters. But ownership without alignment creates friction. Friction that slows execution, distorts intent and breaks trust. 

The further teams get from your direct focus, the less clear they are on what you actually do. A given function may look slightly different from what it was at someone’s previous company. Multiply that by everyone in the organization and you get a huge pile of assumptions.

In my Analyst Relations role today, for example, people often assume I manage review sites like G2 — the business world’s version of Yelp. That might be true somewhere else, but not in my program right now.

But that could change. And if it does, I’ll need to update my “what I do” and “what I don’t” — and make sure everyone knows.

Think of that as a simple clarity exercise: every role has boundaries that shift over time. Being explicit about what’s inside your lane and what’s not helps others know when to engage — and when to look elsewhere.

Part of healthy collaboration is not just explaining what you do, but keeping that definition current.

Every unclear boundary is a potential API conflict — the human kind –- where two systems try to connect without agreeing on the rules. Multiply that by hundreds of people and functions, and you get an organization running on mismatched assumptions.

The Compression Effect

AI has compressed what one person can do. A single individual can now ideate, build, and deliver faster than entire teams once could.

That’s incredible leverage. But it also creates tension.

When individuals outpace the systems they operate within, connection becomes the bottleneck. The faster we move, the more essential clarity, awareness, and communication become. Speed without shared clarity only multiplies confusion.

AI amplifies what you can do alone. But success still depends on how well you stay connected to the people and systems around you.

Integration: The Hidden Work of Collaboration

In software, systems connect through integrations. They use APIs — Application Programming Interfaces — the rules that define how one system shares information with another.

Work isn’t much different. Healthy teams build their own APIs — ways of working that make it easy for others to connect, collaborate, and depend on them.

Think of APIs as the basic rules for connection — the how of communication. Integrations go deeper. They’re the structured, reusable pathways that make those connections consistent, efficient, and effective.

In software, deep integrations keep systems working together seamlessly. The same holds true in organizations: your human integrations — the relationships, rhythms, and shared processes you maintain — are what keep everything moving in sync.

That means being explicit about how you communicate, what you’re responsible for, what you expect from others, and how you handle change. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s what keeps organizations in sync.

When those human APIs break down, you get the equivalent of a system timeout — endless alignment meetings, duplicated effort, and growing frustration.

Collaboration isn’t about meetings. It’s about building clean integrations — being easy to work with, clear about what you need, and consistent in what others can expect from you.

The best leaders don’t just own outcomes; they engineer integrations — the human and operational bridges that make collaboration effortless.

The Rollup Effect

In every organization, outcomes cascade upward — from individual actions to team goals, from team goals to company strategy. But alignment isn’t about the hierarchies or OKRs; it’s about the health of the connections between them.

When those links are visible, progress compounds. When they’re weak, momentum breaks. 

The most interesting part is: misalignment doesn’t always look like failure — it looks like delay. And delay is the tax organizations pay for unclear boundaries.

The best organizations make these links visible –- through small, repeatable habits. They don’t wait for annual planning cycles to align; they design micro feedback loops into daily workflows. 

Product shares positioning briefs before finalizing features — so Marketing shapes the story while the product is still being built. RevOps and Finance stay in sync on forecast assumptions — adjusting spend plans as conversion patterns shift. Leaders publish short ‘decision notes’ after key calls documenting not just what changed, but the reasoning behind it, so teams can self-correct without waiting for clarification.

Coherence, not control, becomes the aim — ensuring that as each part moves faster, the whole still moves together.

Alignment becomes a living system — continuously updated through communication and awareness.

The New Definition of Effectiveness

Being the CEO of your job still matters. But what that job means keeps evolving.

True effectiveness now depends less on what you control and more on how well you integrate — how you connect, communicate, and create clarity across the boundaries of your role.

Your personal ecosystem isn’t just your tools or tasks. It’s the web of relationships, dependencies, and expectations that make your work possible. The stronger and clearer those connections, the stronger your impact.

Berkson’s Bits

One of my go-to leadership principles is: you can't steer a parked car. It's easier to guide people when they are already in motion, even if they aren’t yet on the perfect path.

So, don't be a parked car.

What Am I Listening To…

I crossed off a bucket list item this week. 

I got to see jazz legend Herbie Hancock live. At 85 years old, he still doesn't miss a beat -- figuratively AND literally. One disappointment was he didn't play one of my all-time favorites, Watermelon Man. 

Here he is being interviewed by Elvis Costello talking about how he came to write that song. Then, of course, he plays it. If you want to skip the talking, jump to about 4 minutes in.

The target keeps moving. But so can we — if we keep clarity, alignment, and awareness in motion.

Every company runs on an ecosystem of systems. Every person does too.

The essence of an ecosystem is understanding that everything connects — that no outcome stands alone. Your success depends on how well you stay linked to the people and systems around you, and how clearly you communicate what others can expect from you.

Alignment isn’t a milestone;  it is a cycle: build, set expectations, listen, adjust, rebuild. That’s how healthy ecosystems stay alive.

The target keeps moving. But so can we — if we keep clarity, alignment, and awareness in motion.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation… 

Alan