On the same page

On the same page

Do you remember in school—I don’t know if your school was like this—but in my school, the teachers would often teach and refer to the textbook . So when you were listening to the teacher, you were looking at the book. Listening and looking, listening and looking, and hopefully learning.

This really only worked if you were looking at the right page . So that’s what I want you to think about when we talk about “on the same page.”

This is a kind of business-slash-workplace slang. A lot of times, the business-office buzzwords come and go and are not worth learning . But this one is—this is really common. On the same page.

“On the same page” is an expression we use when people share the same understanding or are working in synch . If you’re “on the same page” with someone, you’re thinking alike or you’re working together. If you’re not on the same page, you don’t share the same understanding or you’re not working well together.

Being on the same page is good. You want to be on the same page as the people you’re working with—and especially the people you’re working for.

Common understanding

You can use “on the same page” to confirm that everyone understands what has been said or what’s expected . This often happens in discussions or meetings when people need to be clear on what’s been said or agreed on. For example, you might hear someone say, “I want to make sure we’re on the same page about the deadline . We absolutely have to finish this by Friday.” If someone says that, the person wants to confirm that everyone understands the deadline is Friday; there is no confusion . There will be no excuses later.

Friday night comes, the project is not done. One of the team members says, “Oh, we can finish it over the weekend.” And the frustrated project leader might say, “Look, I thought we were on the same page about this.” That means, I thought we had agreed —I thought we all understood—I thought there was no confusion—that the deadline was Friday.

If someone says, “I thought we were on the same page about this,” that person is not happy with you! That’s a way of saying, you broke your word , or you didn’t meet your obligations , or you didn’t do what was expected.

Acting together

For people or teams to work effectively together, they have to be on the same page. So we often use “on the same page” when talking about two people or two groups working together toward a common goal , coordinating , sharing information, things like that.

In this sense, it’s not just about understanding but making sure that everyone is aligned in what they are doing. They’re working in synch. What one person does makes sense vis-à-vis what another person is doing. For example, “The marketing and sales teams need to be on the same page to launch the campaign successfully.” This shows that both teams need to work together smoothly to reach a common goal.

Get on the same page

You can say, “get on the same page with” someone. So you might say, “We need to get on the same page with the marketing team about the upcoming promotion.” That’s not about casting blame . That just means, there might be some confusion. It’s important that we work together; it’s important that we be connected; it’s important that we share a common understanding . So, “we need to get on the same page with the marketing team.”

That means, we need to set up a meeting; we need to talk; we need to develop a common understanding; we need to make sure we work well together. We need to get on the same page.