Mastering Complexity

9

Cross-Organizational Collaboration

Businesses are organized to facilitate solving what is believed to be the principal goals for the organization. However, we must deal with problems residing within multiple dependency structures. Their intrinsic dependency structures constrain effective solutions. But, there may be trade-offs. If functional integrity is deemed more essential than a specific project’s lead time or cost, it might be preferable to keep the current organizational structure but carefully manage cross-functional exchanges.

Business processes are the flows of work and information throughout our business. Some processes (e.g., software programming) might be contained wholly within a function. Most processes (e.g., order fulfillment) ...