CIO —
By Maya Townsend
Several weeks ago, a distraught vice president called. His organization had just been restructured. He needed to integrate his new divisions quickly and help them collaborate with his existing organization. The problem: He had inherited a group of people who didn’t understand why the change had happened and were struggling with why they should redesign their processes to accommodate the new organization chart. In addition, they were used to working alone and saw no reason to collaborate with their new peers. The VP had to help them find the way while continuing to raise the performance bar.
This situation is not unusual. Technology executives live in a world of change where the only constants seem to be the need to boost performance, increase productivity and collaborate with others. In this highly matrixed, integrated, driven, global environment, there are too few people and too much work for us to section ourselves off from others. We rely on our colleagues to share knowledge, solve problems jointly, provide data and information and support our work. In return, we do the same. Yet, collaboration is easier than it sounds. Successful collaboration takes time and focused effort. But where to start? Here are some tips on how to build effective alliances across divisions.
Start with the Why People have a lot to do. If they don’t truly understand the importance of collaboration, they won’t do it. For example, someone might agree with a vague rationale for collaboration, such as, “It will improve our customer service.” But that doesn’t give a person the motivation to insist on collaboration and work across boundaries when deadlines loom and the pressure is high. Why take time for some fuzzy concept that may or not be achieved?
A much more compelling rationale is: “The X Department works with our customers every day. If we don’t develop close relationships with the department, we’ll never know enough to please our customers.” This rationale lays it all out on the table: what the partner has that is critical, why it is needed, and what consequences come from failing to collaborate.
Coming up with this kind of business rationale for collaboration is the first step in building a successful relationship across divisions. To clarify the business rationale, answer these questions:
- What is at stake for the company and customers if divisions don’t collaborate effectively?
- What does each group have that the other group needs?
- Why are others counting on these groups to perform?
- What could happen if both parties don’t collaborate effectively?
