Alignment with your peers and leadership is paramount. The longer I work, the more time and energy I spend making sure everyone is rowing in the same direction. That seems to address many problems before they come to exist.
This is especially true when it involves cross organizational folks with different priorities. I will spend the extra 30 minutes before a meeting to make sure that my team is aligned. Nothing is worse than the fallout of when disorganization and lack of agreement make it outside of our team's boundaries.
I agree about the importance of alignment. The recent evolution in my thinking is to take into account the power differentials between the folks who need to be aligned. As The Boss it's easy to say, "Everyone should be aligned," without seeing the incentives you are creating for folks not to align. And then fuss about their lack of alignment.
This is especially true when it involves cross organizational folks with different priorities. I will spend the extra 30 minutes before a meeting to make sure that my team is aligned. Nothing is worse than the fallout of when disorganization and lack of agreement make it outside of our team's boundaries.