How to get your people working together

One of the most common issues I see when working with underperforming Singaporean companies is a failure of management to get the separate divisions, functions and individuals to work together effectively.

This usually has little to do with the people – in my experience, 99% of employees come to work to do a good job – it is instead more to do with deficient planning and communication processes. In the absence of clear direction and understanding of what is required, employees usually do what they think is required, based upon their experience, their position within the organisation and their own view of what is important.

Unfortunately this approach, whilst driven by good intention, often results in decisions being made with little or no visibility of the requirements and activities in other parts of the organisation.

The sum of these poorly co-ordinated efforts actually adversely impacts the overall performance of the organisation rather than moving it towards its business goals. The analogy of ‘the boat full of people rowing in different directions’ is often used to describe this all too common outcome.

This can be a particular issue around projects, where different functions within the company involved with a project may have different priorities. This typically leads to delays, rework, conflict and either missed project deliverables or a last minute rush to get the project completed.

This way of working is not the best use of the human resources deployed on the project.

So what’s the answer? Companies that wish to address this issue and get the maximum results from the efforts of their employees need to introduce effective planning processes that co-ordinate activity across the organisation.

Integrated Business Planning is one such planning process. Led by senior management, it is a common sense approach, aligning the company plans every month to ensure cross-department and managerial-level groups effectively communicate and engage with one another.

Advantages of introducing effective integrated planning processes include:
· Employees have an enhanced understanding of the company goals and strategy, their role in achieving them and how their efforts need to link with others in the organisation to achieve the desired outcomes.
· Greater consideration for the needs of other individuals and departments within the company, at all levels of the organisation. (Most people don’t deliberately try to make life hard for others but a lack of integrated planning can often make it appear that some individuals and functions are deliberately going out of their way to interfere in the plans of others).
· Less internal conflict. (Some organisations spend more timing ‘fighting’ amongst themselves than focusing on their customers or striving to win against their competition. Integrated Business Planning addresses this).
· Better visibility. Any changes to the business plan are clear to all areas of the organisation.
· Improved outcomes. The result of the team working to an integrated plan and ‘all rowing in the same direction’ is that goals are achieved and performance improved.

It is only through integrating and aligning the plans and activities of the various individuals and departments in the organisation that a company will be able to effectively progress towards its goals.

So, the next time you bemoan the failure of your organisation to deliver on its plans ask yourself the question, ‘do we have clear integrated business planning processes that make it easy for our people to effectively work together?’

You may discover the root cause of your problems.  

Stuart Harman, Partner, Oliver Wight