opinion | COLLABORATIVE & MATRIXED ORGANISATIONS
www.thehrdirector.com
TOO MANY COOKS
Regardless of what it produces, an organisation is a factory that manufacturers judgements and decisions”. [Kahneman, 2011]. Tere is a belief that making decision can be extremely difficult, if too many people give their opinion. So, should a business be more liberal in its approach to organisational framework, or stick with traditional values and the tried and tested leader/subordinate set up?
ARTICLE BY ALEXANDRA POOLE, MANAGING DIRECTOR - THE INNITI EFFECT
In today’s business environment, there is a need to be flexible and adaptable, allowing for fast and effective decision making based on data. In order
to do this,
engaging all areas of the organisation is critical. Despite ‘collaboration’ being a value often espoused by businesses, their organisational structures are all too often designed in such a way that this is prevented. The slow and siloed nature of the traditional department structure adds time, waste, and money to the process. Decision making is often done by individual senior managers based on the retention of power. The communication of the reason behind these decisions is poor and further enhances the silos. This leads into individuals being unclear on why a decision is needed and what the process was for making it, resulting in decisions that are shrouded in chaos and complexity that rarely resolve the root cause of the problem. In order to address the issues of ownership and sustainability in decision making, a different approach is needed. This approach should focus on collaborative decision making as part of a cross functional group structure and can be extremely beneficial to organisations when trying to successfully implement change. Where there is limited good quality data for decision making, a collaborative approach that utilises the expertise and experience of a team rather than an individual can increase the likelihood of making a good decision. To ensure members are able to contribute freely and equally in a collaborative environment, the roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined, such as appointing a group co- ordinator to maintain pace and structure of sessions, a reflector to assess group performance and a chairman to maintain decision making standards. These roles should be rotated to maintain group engagement, especially when group members are contributing remotely via conference call, which should always be chosen over simple phone calls as being able to see engagement in the meeting is vital to the decision-making process.
DECISION MAKING IS OFTEN DONE BY INDIVIDUAL SENIOR MANAGERS BASED ON THE RETENTION OF POWER. THE COMMUNICATION OF THE REASON BEHIND THESE DECISIONS IS POOR AND FURTHER ENHANCES THE SILOS
Individual expertise should be acknowledged within a group to provide motivation to team members. In some instances, however, there can be conflict with the individual’s other organisational responsibilities which can have a bearing on the group’s ability to reach a consensus. This can be mitigated by setting clear mutual objectives that drive collaboration as opposed to rewarding individual contribution. Another useful methodology in collaborative working is to create a standard for making decisions. A decision matrix will provide the assessment criteria for validation of new ideas, allowing any combination of team members to come to the same decision, every time. This allows the dissemination of the responsibility of decision making whilst still ensuring quality. This dissemination is particularly important for those organisations that are virtual in nature or have multiple locations as it allows for contribution from all, resulting in timely decisions and buy-in to the solutions offered. Collaborative working not only increases the quality of the decision, but it builds on commitment from team members. This creates an increased likelihood of the solution or decision being implemented successfully within the organisation. Group decision making also takes significantly less time than that of individual decision making. These attributes are likely to set apart an organisation from that of its competitors, allowing it to implement change swiftly, successfully and, most importantly, in the right direction for organisational growth.
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38 | thehrdirector | DECEMBER 2019
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