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Can you share more of your experience? Mine tends to be like the OP. For example, suppose a company has a new product and everyone believes there is a lot of o

Can you share more of your experience? Mine tends to be like the OP. For example, suppose a company has a new product and everyone believes there is a lot of opportunity with new product. So then each team figured out a strategy on how to approach said product independently -product managers build new features and iterate -marketers start launching campaigns to drive adoption and engagement -data science is building new models to find the best customers for -customer support is trying to figure out what the hell new product is and what all these complaints are referencing Etc Depending on the product / size there may be some self organizing collaboration but many times not, or certain teams are left out unconciously. At least one reason is that each team doesn’t yet trust other teams to help set their strategy - not maliciously but just from a lack of evidence. If you are trying to maximize impact the intuitive thing is to work out what you can contribute and ask for what you need from other teams vs developing a joint strategy / approach. Collaboration takes time with an unknown return. Now if you happen to know the other teams and already have worked a lot together you are more likely to reach out from the start. It’s the senior managers / directors that are calling out that teams should be talking with each other sooner than later, getting buy in, etc.

astazangasta 7y ago
My experience is that senior managers don't have the time or inclination to be aware of operational issues. They are unable to perceive something like there is a structural issue between units A and B. These issues are actually seen and surfaced by workers in units A and B, who actually experience the result of the mismatch. If they are able to cross-communicate directly they may be able to resolve the issue without intervention from above. However, they may not be able to, typically if this involves hiring. But the only way that a senior manager could even understand there is an issue is if someone in unit A or unit B makes them aware of it. This is useless overhead. The workers have to be able to successfully communicate the issue up to senior management and usually also suggest the resolution, then get buy-in from senior management on implementation. If instead the workers were more empowered to make decisions themselves the information and decision-making bottleneck could be avoided.

astazangasta 7y ago

My experience is that senior managers don't have the time or inclination to be aware of operational issues. They are unable to perceive something like there is a structural issue between units A and B. These issues are actually seen and surfaced by workers in units A and B, who actually experience the result of the mismatch. If they are able to cross-communicate directly they may be able to resolve the issue without intervention from above. However, they may not be able to, typically if this involves hiring. But the only way that a senior manager could even understand there is an issue is if someone in unit A or unit B makes them aware of it. This is useless overhead. The workers have to be able to successfully communicate the issue up to senior management and usually also suggest the resolution, then get buy-in from senior management on implementation. If instead the workers were more empowered to make decisions themselves the information and decision-making bottleneck could be avoided.