Sky Team: Communicating for Intent Alignment

Imagine this: you leave a meeting certain everyone is on the same page—only to find out later they weren’t. Best case, you need follow-up to realign. Worst case, the misalignment derails execution, costing time, money, and credibility.

Whether you’re landing a plane or launching a project, alignment before action is critical. That’s exactly what Sky Team—a two-player cooperative game—teaches so well.

Sky Team: Prepare for Landing

In Sky Team, one player is the captain and the other the co-pilot. The goal: land the plane safely. The twist? You can’t speak during the round. All discussion and strategy must happen before or between rounds, making intent alignment absolutely essential.

Here are three lessons the game highlights:

1. Pre-round communication = Intent alignment – When you can’t talk mid-action, success depends on clear planning upfront.

2. Trust and decision authority during execution – Clear role expectations and confidence in decision-making speed up action and build trust.

3. The post-mortem: Feedback and learning – You can’t fix mistakes mid-round, but you can use them to improve the next one.

This Is Your Captain Speaking: Pre-round Communication

In business, moments like project launches, weekly staff meetings, or shift handoffs all demand clear role and expectation alignment. These moments are opportunities to:

• Set shared objectives

• Identify priorities and potential obstacles

• Create contingency plans

• Define decision authority

In Sky Team, players discuss priorities before each round. Once it begins, each rolls four dice behind a screen, placing them on action spaces like pitch, speed, or runway clearance. One player’s move often affects the other, so being in sync is essential.

When the plan is clear, even an unexpected move makes sense—if the agreed strategy was to play a 4 or higher on airspeed but a player places a 3, it’s clear they lacked the dice, triggering the backup plan.

You’ve Got This: Trust and Decision Authority

Teams thrive when members trust each other’s judgment and understand their roles. A lack of trust invites micromanagement, slows progress, and erodes motivation.

Decision authority—knowing who makes which calls—offers three big benefits:

• Speed – No delays chasing multiple approvals.

• Trust – Entrusting authority signals confidence, which is reciprocated.

• Efficiency – Leaders gain time for high-value work instead of handling every decision.

In Sky Team, the captain trusts the co-pilot to clear the runway, and the co-pilot trusts the captain to manage speed. Even when deviation from the plan is necessary, mutual trust keeps both working toward the same goal.

What Just Happened?: Post-Mortem Feedback and Learning

Not everything will go to plan—but handled well, missteps become fuel for improvement. Post-mortems should surface assumptions, clarify miscommunications, and strengthen shared understanding—not assign blame.

In Sky Team, players debrief between rounds:

• Did we achieve our intended results?

• If not, why?

• Did someone deviate from the plan, and what prompted it?

• What changes are needed for the next round?

Even after a crash landing, recovery is possible if the team uses failure as a learning opportunity.

Putting It Into Practice

While intent alignment matters in every communication, it has the biggest impact before high-stakes or complex actions—project kickoffs, product launches, daily standups, or shift handovers. Keep it focused:

1. Intent alignment – Does everyone understand the plan, their roles, and expectations?

2. Decision authority – Does everyone know what’s in their scope, and who to consult?

3. Post-mortem – Did we get the results we intended? If not, what can we adjust?

Consistently applying this cycle builds trust, improves operational effectiveness, and creates a culture of reliable execution. Whether at the game table landing a plane or in the boardroom launching a campaign, alignment before action is the difference between turbulence and a smooth landing.