Setting a Strategic Goal of Cross-Functional Collaboration

A mini case study – Part 2

Refer to Part 1 of this case study before reading Part 2.

Pulling Together the Team and Getting Them Started

The core team of 10 employees gathered together to lead the initiative, reporting directly up to the CEO, represented each division within the organization and each geographic location. They included individual contributors, supervisors and mid-level managers. Abudi Consulting Group provided change management support for the CEO as well as guidance to the project manager leading the core team.

The First Team Meeting

While much of the team’s work as well as future meetings would be virtual, the initial team meeting brought the entire group together. This was a two day event with the following high level agenda:

The evening before the initial team meeting was focused on a team building event to enable project team members to get to know each other and begin to build trust. It was the first time that many of these individuals would meet face-to-face as well as the first time that many had ever worked together.

The CEO, along with Abudi Consulting Group, spent much of the first day as well as part of day two talking about the project and the value to the organization with the team members. But they also shared that this would be a very challenging project that required managing stakeholders’ perceptions of change.

Once the team was pulled together, an email as well as a global voicemail message went out to the entire organization announcing the team members as well as sharing roles and responsibilities of the sponsor (CEO), Abudi Consulting Group and the core project team.

While overall the project objective was to increase cross-functional collaboration; much needed to happen before that could even be achieved. There were actually a number of “mini projects” that would need to be accomplished first. The next meeting, therefore, was to understand the details of the project and understand how to break it down in order to accomplish the overall project goal. The team was asked to discuss what might have to be done to accomplish this overall project goal and to bring their ideas and thoughts to the next meeting.

Stay tuned for Part 3 – Breaking the Project Down