Knowledge Library
Every question leaders ask about alignment, answered.
27 articles. Plain language. No form required. Built for leaders who are done guessing why the strategy is not translating.
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How does Pulse protect staff anonymity?
Individual responses in Pulse are never visible to any leader or admin. Anonymity is structural, not just policy. Leaders see aggregated alignment signal, not individual answers. The anonymity protection is visible to respondents before they fill out any check-in.
What does Pulse actually measure?
Pulse measures two things: comprehension and belief. Comprehension is whether your team understands the strategic direction well enough to describe it. Belief is whether they think it is the right direction.
What is alignment intelligence, and why isn't my engagement survey measuring it?
Alignment intelligence is the measurement of whether your team understands and believes in the strategic direction. Engagement surveys measure how people feel. Alignment intelligence measures whether the strategy has actually landed.
Getting Started
Getting Started
What alignment intelligence is, why it matters, and whether Pulse is right for your organization.
We communicated our strategy constantly. Why doesn't the team seem to get it?
Repeated communication does not produce internalization. Hearing a message and building a working model of it are two different cognitive tasks. Most strategies are communicated in formats that optimize for delivery, not for comprehension.
My engagement scores look fine. Why does it still feel like something is off?
High engagement scores and a persistent sense that something is off are not contradictions. Engagement and alignment are two different things. You can have both good scores and a real gap in how the team understands the strategy.
What's the difference between my team executing the plan and my team believing in it?
Execution and belief look the same in the short term. They diverge under pressure. A team that executes without believing will slow down, revert to previous patterns, and disengage when the work gets hard.
How do I get honest feedback from my team when they just tell me what I want to hear?
Social desirability bias is real and well-documented in organizational research. Teams tell leaders what they think leaders want to hear. Structural anonymity and specific question design are the two levers that change this.
Is Pulse right for a business team?
Pulse is built for business leaders responsible for strategy execution in teams of 15 to 500 people. Chiefs of staff, VPs of Strategy, and division heads use it to measure whether their team actually understands and believes in the direction.
Is Pulse right for a nonprofit?
Pulse is built for organizations where strategy execution depends on a team that has genuinely internalized the mission and direction — not just heard it. Nonprofits with 15 to 500 staff are the core use case.
Is Pulse right for a school or school network?
Pulse helps school principals and heads of school measure whether staff understand and believe in the improvement plan and instructional strategy. It gives leaders a signal before alignment gaps show up in student outcomes.
How do I know if my team actually understands our strategic priorities?
Most leaders find out their team does not understand the strategic priorities through execution gaps, not diagnostics. There are leading indicators that signal misalignment before outcomes suffer.
What does Pulse actually measure?
Pulse measures two things: comprehension and belief. Comprehension is whether your team understands the strategic direction well enough to describe it. Belief is whether they think it is the right direction.
What is alignment intelligence, and why isn't my engagement survey measuring it?
Alignment intelligence is the measurement of whether your team understands and believes in the strategic direction. Engagement surveys measure how people feel. Alignment intelligence measures whether the strategy has actually landed.
What is Pulse and who is it for?
Pulse is an alignment intelligence platform for leaders who are responsible for strategy execution and want to measure whether their team actually understands and believes in the direction.
Why does our strategic plan keep stalling even though everyone says they're on board?
When the strategic plan stalls despite visible agreement, the cause is almost always a gap between what leadership decided and what the team actually internalized. There is a word for this: the alignment gap.
How It Works
How It Works
The process, check-in cadence, comparisons to other tools, and what to expect in the first 30 days.
How does Pulse actually work — what does a check-in look like?
A Pulse check-in is a structured alignment read — not a 60-question survey. It takes 3 to 5 minutes for a team member to complete, arrives on a cadence leadership sets, and produces a dashboard view of alignment signal across the team.
How long does it take before Pulse shows useful data?
The first Pulse check-in produces useful signal. You will see where comprehension and belief are distributed across your team immediately after the first cycle closes. Trend data — which is the most powerful signal — develops over three to four cycles.
How often should we run Pulse check-ins?
The right cadence depends on how frequently your strategic context changes. Most organizations start monthly. Schools often align to academic quarters. The key factor is that a response loop follows every check-in.
How do new EDs or principals use Pulse when they're inheriting a team?
New leaders entering an established team face a specific problem: they need to know how the team understands and believes in the current direction before they decide what to change. Pulse gives them that baseline without requiring weeks of one-on-one listening tours.
What kinds of partnerships does Pulse offer?
Pulse offers referral partnerships for consultants and advisors who introduce qualified clients, and co-delivery partnerships for practitioners who want to integrate alignment intelligence into their client engagements.
Can we pilot Pulse with one team before rolling it out org-wide?
Yes. Starting with one team or department is a legitimate approach and often produces the clearest initial data. A smaller group gives you faster feedback and lets you refine the check-in framing before rolling out to the full organization.
How long does Pulse take to set up?
Most organizations are live with Pulse in one working session. We configure the platform to your context, set up your check-in cadence, and do a team walkthrough before the first check-in goes out.
How is Pulse different from Culture Amp, Lattice, or 15Five?
Culture Amp, Lattice, and 15Five are engagement platforms. They measure how employees feel about their work and manager. Pulse measures whether the team understands and believes in the strategic direction. These are different questions.
How is Pulse different from Envisio, Cascade, or strategy execution software?
Envisio, Cascade, and similar tools track whether the work is getting done. They measure task completion and goal progress. Pulse measures whether the team understands and believes in the direction behind those goals.
Who makes a good referral partner for Pulse?
The strongest referral partners are practitioners whose work sits in the space between strategy formulation and execution — consultants, coaches, and advisors who have watched the handoff break and have clients who describe the alignment gap in their own words.
Before You Sign
Before You Sign
Pricing, data privacy, anonymity protections, and what it looks like to exit if it is not working.
How does Pulse handle the data if we cancel or leave?
If you leave Pulse, your alignment data is exported to you in full before account closure. We do not retain your data for use after your account is closed.
How do I make the case for Pulse to my board or leadership team?
The most effective internal case for Pulse is built around a problem your board or leadership team already recognizes: the strategy is clear at the top but execution is inconsistent or slower than expected. Frame it as measurement infrastructure for the strategic direction you already have.
How does Pulse protect staff anonymity?
Individual responses in Pulse are never visible to any leader or admin. Anonymity is structural, not just policy. Leaders see aggregated alignment signal, not individual answers. The anonymity protection is visible to respondents before they fill out any check-in.
What does Pulse cost?
Pulse has two published tiers for nonprofits and education organizations. Foundation is $4,800 to $6,000 per year for organizations with 15 to 75 staff. Systems is $12,000 to $18,000 per year for organizations with 75 to 500 staff or K-12 schools. Business pricing is custom.
Who can see what in Pulse? What do leaders see vs. what stays private?
Leaders see aggregated alignment signal across the team over time. They do not see individual responses. The specific data visibility depends on the role configured in the platform.
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