Flowing Past Organizational Walls

Abstract

Industry is well past the era when marketing can throw an idea over the wall to research, which throws a prototype over the wall to engineering, which throws a design over the wall to manufacturing, saying Make it, with accounting scurrying after everyone to find out what happened. In order to move products and services effectively from the laboratory to the marketplace, teams comprised of individuals from all functions inputting their wisdom, knowledge and expertise are needed from day one. However, many of us work in functionally-organized companies in which the collaboration across these functions is not as effective as it needs to be. In this article, I wish to share something that has worked for me, and perhaps it will work for you, too. For simplicity, imagine my comments against the context of a functionally-organized company that does have some cross-functional teamwork and collaboration internally and with customers and suppliers, but not nearly as much as it should have. If you want to be a change agent, you will need to have a vision of the eventual organizational dynamics you desire. Note the term dynamics. This is the interaction of people with each other and with groups. If you value your life and property, you will not tamper with the formal organizational chart. This is a battle-and-a-half that you need not fight. You can affect the organizational dynamics without changing the organizational chart. Also, if you are to be a change agent, you will need leverage. Your leverage can derive from being the organization's general manager, head of one of the larger functional groups, or a member of a small coalition of peers who think similarly and who have sworn a pact in blood to move together. With a vision in mind and leverage, the easiest place to start is with your own organization. I shall outline five steps. The first is to align rewards and recognition with the behavior you desire. If you are asking your people to function collaboratively and as members of teams, you will want to reward them commensurate with the contribution they make to the team's success. Here the model of a sports team is very appropriate. All members of the winning Super Bowl team receive the coveted ring. This is a team award. Sure, there is also a Most Valuable Player award, and you will want to continue to give your Most Valuable Player awards, but you will want to have a large number of team rewards and recognitions to use. These rewards can range from public, management and peer recognition, certificates and plaques, special award luncheons and dinners, to monetary compensation. You are limited only by your imagination. Initially, when you are attempting to effect behavior changes, you will find few examples of the behavior you are looking for, but when you do find them, put a spotlight on them and celebrate them. Organizations are pretty smart at catching on to what the desired behavior is. The second step is to build trust between you and your organization. Actions that demonstrate that all people are treated with dignity, respect, sensitivity, and equity go a long way toward building trust. So does accessibility that comes in the form of frequent casual walkabouts, informal group discussions, an open-door policy, and quarterly full site meetings in which you give a state-of-the-union status report and answer all questions openly and as fully as your state of knowledge permits. An additional action that will build trust, and which is also my step three, is obtaining employee involvement. Share your concerns with your employees. Let them know what you and the organization need to achieve. Ask what their concerns are. Ask for their recommendations. You will be surprised how often their recommendations are better than anything you could have thought of yourself. CONSULTING THE R&D LEADERSHIP Here is something I did at Johnson & Johnson. It demonstrates trust, employee involvement, and the last two steps, which are employee empowerment and training. …