Almost anything can inspire a blog post, but it isn’t complete until the comments are don…

Trying to find resources out of our own area is a classic organization conflict. “Collaboration” is still pretty much an aspiration in corporate america. It’s funny how prevalent the resource hoarding practice is.

Following the dictum that structure needs to support strategy (or at least mirror it to a high degree), one of the keys to securing cooperation across departments is to make sure that C-level leaders are vocal, active supporters of project teams. Not only do incentives need to be aligned with the importance of matrix-oriented projects, the words and deeds of the key leadership must demonstrate the value that members of proejct teams bring to the entire organization.

It is only when the entire enterprise sees that working within one of the project teams is a good thing for the participants as well as for the business that the obstacles to sharing time and talent across departments and divisions will begin to break down. At one progressive organization where I worked, one measure of your leadership skill was how many of your subordinates were working within matrix teams. Sounds simple, but it really demonstrated the importance of “pony-ing up.”

As the saying goes, “Listen to what they say, but watch what they do.”

It seems that you are encouraging leaders to become more like patrons, particularly those leaders in the C-suite. Without them, this goes nowhere. The question lies with how to present to leaders that it’s okay to share their “weatlh” in talent and resources. There is a ROI and/or a way to leverage their generosity and forward thinking. Unfortunately, the “what’s in it for me” mentality must be addressed.

Every week I select five excellent posts from this week’s independent business blogs. This week, I’m pointing you to posts on strategy, project-based leadership, blame, compensation, and the purpose of a corporation. …

Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom! Best, -Art

I always figured if you could lead an enterprise-wide or matrixed project, you could do almost anything. Unfortunately, I’ve often seen it as the beginning of the end for project leaders through no fault of their best efforts.

These project managers are often talented individuals who take a licking for not giving “stakeholders” everything they want – with good reason because they must compromise and collaborate in order to obtain the best solutions. We should be more mindful of supporting them because they will pick up their considerable talent and skills and go somewhere where they are appreciated.

Here’s to giving more respect to our project leaders!

While in an ideal setting, managers across all functional areas would be eager to offer assistance to other areas of the organization. My experience has demonstrated that reality rarely fits that model. Often, managers have been reluctant to “share” their resources in instances where a positive and direct impact to their own measurement scorecard won’t be felt. I am curious to know, if in your experience, measurement tools for “assists” are utilized. I’m not sure that a system that deems it necessary to incentivize cooperation is going to last long. But, I was just curious if you’ve encountered a system that recognizes and measures “assists”.