This is the first edition of a series of articles addressing the transversal nature of projects we deliver to our clients: why they are sometimes challenging, why they are vital - especially in an online world, and how we help our customers address such projects from an organizational, project management and content perspective.
- Silos are easier
If you ever worked on a cross-organisational project, you surely know what it means to work in between silos and might have spent a few nights wondering how to eventually deliver tangible results. Online and digital projects are no exception. They might even be more challenging and demand more transversal alignment.
Why? How, if at all, can such projects be truly successful? How important are they for an organisation?
A client's employee told me once that he preferred to concentrate on his silo and generate quick wins: been there, done that. Such a comment was, in context, not surprising and not particularly politically correct. The opposite would be to develop transversal solutions for the benefit of the entire organisation, by leveraging and horizontally integrating silo-driven solutions from the start.
Is such an attitude damaging? It might be more effective than spending energy on projects that never end. So as usual, it depends.
- Corporate structures do not help
Interestingly, corporations are rarely geared to favour transversal projects. Especially when they are online, which are relatively new and evolving.
Success at silo or unit level is often more visible, easier to achieve and better rewarded. Employees are, for the most part, measured within their silos and results achieved by those working horizontally across the organisation are less visible. In turn, visibility in other silos increases, which can be good, but also counterproductive if agendas are not aligned. As a result, goodwill, more necessary than in other situations, can be quickly lost.
The next article of this series will provide a few examples of transversal projects we recently completed and how they often drive towards digital transformation of entire organisations.
