Symptom: While individuals and small groups may be capable, the organization is not good at cross-boundary teamwork.
For projects of any magnitude or complexity, no single group can do everything. Organizations depend on the synergy of teams that combine people with complementary skills. High-performance teamwork is the foundation of high-performance organizations. But it isn't simple. Consider the challenge:
Self-forming teams: Teams should form laterally, not waiting for top managers (who may not have sufficient time and attention) to charter them.
Dynamic teams: Teams should combine just the right talent for the project at hand, and people should join project teams as needed and leave when their work is done. These dynamic teams are far more effective than a fixed group of people for the entire life of a project.
Empowered teams: Everybody on the team should have a clear understanding of their deliverables. Then they can be empowered to work as they wish, so long as they produce the agreed results. Clear accountabilities within the team also relieve the project manager of having to tell everybody what to do all the time, a job which makes project management nearly impossible. And it reduces disputes over "territories."
Self-managing teams: In addition to clear accountabilities, the flow of accountability should be clear. Every project needs a single project manager who is accountable to the client for the entire project. Others within the team "work for" that project manager, sharing the workload by managing sub-projects. And in the course of doing their piece of the work, these sub-project-managers may in turn employ team members to deliver sub-sub-projects. In this way, everybody's objectives are aligned. And if differences of opinion should arise, it's clear who's the boss on every issue.
The best way to achieve of all of these aspects of high-performance teamwork is through an internal "marketplace."
By looking at the nature of a project, it should be absolutely clear who the project manager is to be, based on clear organizational structure. This project manager can be considered the "prime contractor."
In an internal marketplace, groups view each other as customers and suppliers. Prime contractors form project teams that cross organizational boundaries by hiring subcontractors from other groups. Of course, subcontractors may in turn subcontract for pieces of their work.
In this way, teamwork automatically ripples across the entire organization as needed, with a clear flow of accountability within the team.
