Our Principles for Succeeding at Cross-Organizational Processes and Issues
The choice between creating a Tribe and running a cross-organizational process is a strategic decision for any organization, and especially for large companies contending with complex challenges across many domains.
Each model offers different advantages, and the right fit depends mainly on the complexity of the task and on what it demands in terms of organizational collaboration. In this article we examine both models, look at what each can contribute to the organization, and set out when to choose which.
Tribe – A Management Model of Autonomy and Innovation
Tribe is a model in which the organization is divided into small, focused teams called tribes. Each tribe concentrates on a particular goal or project while keeping full autonomy over how it works. The teams are independent and can decide how to carry out their tasks, all within the organization’s broader objectives.
The advantages of the Tribe are that working this way encourages integration and collaboration between different departments in the organization. The focused structure of tribes also makes it possible to respond quickly to cross-organizational change without getting stuck in internal bureaucracy.
Each team in a tribe works autonomously but in coordination, which allows more flexibility. Employees feel ownership of the process as a whole rather than of one narrow area, which raises motivation. Working in tribes also helps spread technical and operational knowledge across the organization.
That said, tribe work comes with no shortage of drawbacks. The tribe model requires coordination across many teams, and it is sometimes hard to ensure that every tribe works to the same method, which creates management complexity.
There is also potential for power struggles – because some tribes work toward similar goals, conflict can arise over resources, authority and even strategic direction. A further consideration is the constant coordination required between the teams inside a tribe and between different tribes, which can overload internal communication.
The Cross-Organizational Process – A Model of Coordination and Lateral Collaboration
A cross-organizational process describes complex processes that require collaboration between different departments and disciplines in the organization. These are strategic, large-scale projects that require coordination across every department working together toward a shared goal.
The Cross-Organizational Process as Support for Strategic Projects
A successful cross-organizational process, one in which every department taking part genuinely collaborates with the others, supports the success of large-scale projects and organizational change. Coordination between different departments also makes it possible to create solutions that span and integrate several disciplines. A further advantage is the broadening of organizational knowledge and understanding: each department brings its own expertise into the process, which leads to well-grounded solutions.
The Five Principles for a Successful Cross-Organizational Process:
- Defining a Critical Business Issue (CBI) – The driving force behind any process-improvement project is a critical problem with a direct impact on revenue, quality, cost or cycle time (usually a mix of these) and not improvement for its own sake. Therefore, the CBI must always be defined up front, in focused terms everyone agrees on.
- Targets and Success Metrics – Clear targets must be defined, not only around the CBI but also on further metrics such as role clarity, systems alignment and cultural change. These metrics provide the guiding lines for the project and make it possible to assess its success.
- Project Constraints and the Structure of the Leading Team– The constraints hold the new process within defined limits (such as the volume of resources or the technology systems in use), and set clear roles to lead the new project, usually the project management team, a lead team and a steering committee. You must also define the project TimeLine, including the deliverables of every stage in the process (mapping the current state, shaping the concept, and implementation).
- A Deep Understanding of the Current State (IS) in order to understand the starting point and build an efficient future process. That way, when designing the Should process (the improved future process) we build on and preserve the strong points of the current state, while identifying and addressing today’s failure and pain points, and eliminating activities that add no value (redundancy, bottlenecks, unnecessary documentation, and any sequential activity that can be made parallel). In a typical project, the ratio between current-state analysis and the design, shaping and implementation of the new operating concept is 1:5.
- Encouraging Creativity in Designing the Future Process (SHOULD) – Creating the optimal Should process takes creativity, so it is worth putting a diverse team on the task, one that can offer genuinely original thinking. You can even run a design competition, which can help reach a breakthrough. In most cases the final solution combines several of the ideas raised.
These principles provide a systematic, structured approach to improving organizational processes, with the emphasis on focus, measurement, deep understanding and innovation.
Tribe versus Cross-Organizational Process – When Should You Choose Each?
The choice between a Tribe and a cross-organizational process depends on the nature of the task and on the organization’s needs:
Tribe fits a focused task, where the work does not require broad collaboration between departments. It also fits tasks that demand a high degree of team autonomy and independence, and cases that call for innovation and a high degree of flexibility.
The cross-organizational process is the better fit for a strategic change or a large-scale project that requires central coordination, and for tasks that require close collaboration between different departments and disciplines . In general, when every organizational need has to be answered at once, as in enterprise-wide projects, the rollout of new systems or structural change, the cross-organizational process is the better instrument for the job.
In summary, choosing the right management model –Tribe or cross-organizational process – depends on the complexity and the type of task facing the organization. The Tribe suits tasks that call for autonomy and innovation in independent teams, while the cross-organizational process centers on lateral collaboration between departments. The right choice will help the organization avoid delays in its processes and raise the effectiveness of the system as a whole.
Choosing the management model is an important decision, and it is worth making a precise assessment of organizational needs and organizational culture before making it, so that the model you choose delivers the results you want.
