Over the years I’ve been involved in dozens of meetings, workshops and conference calls aimed at trying to achieve “alignment” between groups in a company. Piles of books have been written, conference sessions presented, seminars held at airport hotels, all aimed at helping companies get aligned.
Generally what this means is trying to get two or more groups that are dependent on each other to all pull in the same direction. When I was running development teams, it was often between sales and product development. Later it was sales and marketing alignment. Like a meditation practitioner seeking enlightenment, alignment is often spoken about as if it were some higher state of consciousness where multiple groups within an organisation move together in harmony like a school of fish avoiding predators.