not sure it is about aligning goals, It seems more like maximizing collaboration in spite of diverging goals, and doing so without compromising upon them.

If your goals, and their goals either conflict or do not intersect, either one or both compromise, or dont -- and can't... In theory neither holds any more power than the other. In practice and politics collaboration as a social activity is subject held beliefs by one or both parties which distort this aspect of equal power.