Background
In Part I of my two part article, “Is your Staff Weak? Sharpen your Management Practice.”, I discussed the direct management practice. In Part II, I discuss the Cross-Department Management practice. When you adopt both the Direct Report and Cross-Department practices, it promises to produce more time, accountability, time, and productivity.
You may want to revisit Part I as I will continue the discussion assuming that you are current on that discussion.
The Cross-Department Practice
The Cross Department Practice is designed to ensure that your team works together so they don’t each become a bottleneck to each other. You need this practice because business is fundamentally a set of coordinated acts toward some set of promises ultimately to your customers. Because I am speaking fundamentally, I can safely say that you need to ensure your staff works well together to deliver on your vision and customer promise.
Cross-Department Report
The Cross-Department Report is a shared document structure that typically is represented in spreadsheet form but can be more elaborate given the great web structures available today. The document (example below) has the following major elements in a table (rows and columns) with the following headings:
- Key Project / Initiative (row): Organized by key project or matter you care about. Often this is by major customer or business channel.
- Direct Report Name (column): Name of the person who will “own the column”.
See the example of a report structure I used in 2003. This example can be used for inspiration but it will be up to you to design what works best for your organization. Personally, I possess the skill to do this well as I think categorically and logically. If you find you this is not intuitive to develop, you may want to get some help getting this built. The document should live electronically in a place that all team members can access as needed. Typically, we see this on a shared file server but these days, it is often in some type of web portal, such as SharePoint or Google Docs.
Action during the Week
During the week, your staff will be making new requests of each other and taking care of existing requests. As they do, they will record their request within the Cross-Department report by finding the cell that is the intersection between the table-row related to the project / major initiative the staff is working on, and the person who is being requested. Your team member will record their initials and make their request in summary form as well as a “requested by” date.
For example, a request that I made to Tanya Blenner may look like this “MZ: Need marketing pamphlets for STK1010 by 4/3” in the “STK1010 New Product Initiative” row under the “Tanya Blenner” column.
Your team members should not solely record their request in this tool without other clear communication to the person being requested. This structure is to help team members remember the requests that their other team members have made so they can help each other move toward goals you care about.
Weekly Meeting
Like the weekly Direct Report meeting, you will hold another, at a minimum, weekly meeting. I like Wednesdays because on that day, we are typically in the middle of major action for the week. This meeting is run quite different from the Direct Report meeting because you and your entire direct report team will be together as a group. At the meeting, you will organize around the Cross-Department document discussed above.
The meeting will have two parts. During the first part, you will open by speaking any updates that the team needs to collectively hear. This usually is a good place to make new announcements and to reinforce the existing business strategy.
The second part takes considerably more time and once your team understands how this works, you will be mostly quiet as they will do the talking. You can designate a member of your team to be the organizer to step through each spreadsheet table row (project / topic) and to record key elements within the related cell. The document should be displayed, for example on a large screen, where you and each member can see the document clearly. If team members are remote, I suggest a desktop sharing program, such as GoToMeeting.
The conversation goes something like this:
Designated organizer: “Jim, what is your progress on the new SBT order integration for Lynette?”
Jim: “We are on track for delivery on 4/12”
Designated organizer: records in cell: “on track for delivery on 4/12”.
Or sometimes it goes like this:
Designated organizer: “Lynette, what is your progress on the getting Walmart their Point of Presence displays for Tim?”
Lynette: “I have an issue with my supplier and I will not be able to make it by 4/15. Tim, may I set a meeting up with you to discuss what I am facing?”
Tim: “Yes, let’s talk after the meeting to find time as I am concerned that the customer will be upset.”
You: “Lynette, be sure you bring this up during our weekly as I thought I offered a way to get through that supplier issue and I would like to learn more.”
Designated organizer: records in cell: “Issue with supplier. Meeting to discuss option.”
Like the Direct Report meeting, the purpose of this meeting is not to solve problems. The purpose is to report status and ensure you work to free up bottlenecks. There are times that the team will need your direction on specific issues and you will offer advice. But if there are complexities, it is best to create a separate meeting specifically on the concern.
The goal for each of your reports is to have nothing in their column. If the cell is empty, that would mean that they are satisfying requests and they do not represent a bottleneck to the organization. The meeting can be fun if the mood is lightly competitive – I observe that most team members enjoy demonstrating that they have nothing in their column and are helpful and responsive; all team members recognize and appreciate good performers.
Remember the purpose of the meeting is to ensure the team is coordinated and is in communication toward your goals. Here are some key suggestions and features for running this meeting:
- Produce the meeting on the same day and time on a regular minimum weekly frequency
- The discussion is led by you to demonstrate your commitment to action and resolution
- Have the room be quiet, comfortable, and conducive for precise conversation
- Turn off outside communications and do not allow interruptions
- Ensure that people are on time and that they are ready to work through the entire meeting in one sitting
- You will open the meeting but most of the time you will be listening to your direct reports
- The meeting is typically two hours in duration but should not be longer as it may be too hard to hold attention.
- The public forum puts pressure on your direct reports to perform in a positive fashion.
- The forum is not to solve issues but to make announcements and new requests and get status. Typical dialogue is to request for offline meetings to solve specific concerns.
The Promise
I learned this practice from someone I highly respect. He had a military background and he taught me what an operation is and how to be an effective leader and manager. Here is what I can promise:
- Your staff will be less confused and you will get what you want in a more reliable and predictable fashion.
- You will produce more time to take care of things because you will always be informed and you will not feel the need to chase after information or project status.
- Your team will have more time to work because they will have fewer interruptions by you and they can make space to be prepared.
- Your staff will work more like a team and develop mutual respect for each other.
- You will develop more loyalty because you will understand your staff better and they will feel understood and heard.
- You will discover if you make too many requests and if you need more capacity.
- You will understand if you are in a fantasy about what you think your people can deliver and what they actually do deliver.
- You will learn about the strengths and weaknesses of your team and you will have opportunities to calibrate its configuration and structure.
My Offer
I am happy to have conversation about this practice to help you see if it is applicable in your situation. This practice is one of the offers I make for my clients who are looking to develop internal excellence. I use this practice when my firm leads major client project initiatives.
Sometimes, my clients ask me to help them get these practices started so they can learn and then take it over once they get the feel for it. Along the way, I make assessments of my client’s leadership style so that they can learn how to improve their managerial effectiveness.
Feel free to comment for more conversation.
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Marty Zigman
Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.
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