# Presentation: 125349

## Unleashing the Power of Horizontal Teams at NOAA:

- Avoiding Pitfalls and Achieving Success
- Presented by Ronald Gunn, Managing Director
- Strategic Futures® Consulting Group, Inc.
- Under Subcontract to Pal-Tech, Inc.
- Arlington, VA

## Cross-functional teams cobbled together into a network of interfaces where vertical and horizontal chains share resources and pursue mutually reinforcing objectives.

***Matrix Organization and Management***

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## NOAA Matrix Diagram

## Understanding the Matrix

- Personnel are drawn from functional units to perform a specific project or task.
- The matrix team is built around **the purpose** to be accomplished rather than on the basis of functional similarity, or other traditional bases.

## Characteristics ofCross-Functional Teams

- Focus on managing results, not on activities.
- Wider range of cross-functional skills.
- Greater decision-making authority.
- Each team member shares responsibility for outcomes.

## Components of the Matrix

- The Traditional Vertical Management Chain
- Non-Traditional Horizontal Axis/Cross-Functional Team
- The Matrix **Interface**, where vertical and horizontal authority and responsibility find unified expression

## Organizational Relationships

- The management of matrix organizational relationships is multidimensional.
***The Horizontal Leader relates —***
**Upward **to top management
**Horizontally **to team members
**Diagonally **to functional leaders
***The Vertical Leader relates —***
**Upward** to top management
**Vertically **to team members located in function
**Diagonally **to horizontal leaders

## Profile of Major Changes

***The Vertical Leader *****—**
- Must share decision-making that was once more autonomous, and may experience this as a loss of status, authority and control.
- As time goes by, functional managers adapt, finding role not only tolerable but more stimulating and challenging, particularly the complex people planning that must be done.
- Must balance needs of different business units in the organization and balance workloads to avoid excessive peaks and valleys.
- Learn to serve as well as to dictate and prove the function is the best available: There is a burden of proof in matrix that did not exist in the functional organization.

## Profile of Major Changes (cont’d)

***The Horizontal Leader *****—**
- Knowledge about a business line and communications and relationship skills become more important than ever.
- A mix of reason and advocacy becomes essential: Bluster and threats are out.
- Stand up for requirements without developing a fatal reputation for overstating them.
- Search with peers for imaginative ways to share resources.
- Empathy with people in a number of functional areas is essential.

## Challenges of Dual GroupMembership  At the Interface

- Build coalitions — work actively with your matrix leaders to win support.
- Understand the alternative viewpoint’s position to determine where trade-offs can be negotiated and where objectives overlap.
- Avoid absolutes.
- Negotiate to win support on key issues and yield on less critical points.
- Maintain frequent contact with leadership to avoid surprises — communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Prepare more thoroughly before entering negotiations than you would in a non-matrix situation.
- Seek bilateral agreements.
- Emphasize and play on the supportive role that the vertical and horizontal players can provide for the other.

## Unity of Command... and the Interface

- The matrix model is an *apparent *violation of the principle of **Unity of Command, **which states that one should receive orders from only one individual in the chain of command.
- This apparent violation can be avoided by the use of the **Basic Matrix Role Dichotomy**.

## Slide 15

## To Be in the Game ...Success Requirements

***Communications Technology*** — everyone has access to and *uses *technology to enhance team communication.
***Managing Meetings*** —  everyone plans and conducts effective meetings as a matter of habit.
***Conflict Resolution*** — everyone has and uses the ability to discuss and resolve differences with straight talk.
***Open Communications and Trust —***** **everyone feels free to surface issues and express views**.**

## Pitfalls to be Overcome

- Unclear roles, responsibilities, objectives and accountable performance metrics.
- “Dueling Priorities” when vertical and horizontal goals and objectives are not aligned.
- Key Result Areas/Critical Success Factors are unclear or uncommunicated.
- Lazy communications rather than rapid, “rifleshot” communications.
- Unknown or unclear priorities.
- Unknown and/or unmanaged resource constraints.

## Pitfalls to be Overcome (cont’d)

- The overarching theme: *Method, Not Magic.*
- Communication and clarity are the keys — not just top-down.
- Waiting for a from-above formula, rather than thinking and negotiating from where you are.
- Failing to recognize that the Matrix is *inherently unstable.*
- Matrix organization is more than matrix structure; it must be reinforced by:
*Matrix Systems, *such as dual sign-offs on objectives and performance appraisals.
*Matrix Leadership, *operating comfortably with lateral decision-making.
*Matrix Culture, *fostering open conflict management and an appropriate balance of power.

## The Staff Interface

- The Make-or-Break Player in the Matrix:The promise of the matrix resides here.
- The Interface Station requires carrying two portfolios at once:
- It’s not about X% time for the Vertical Boss and Y% time for the Horizontal Boss.
- Carrying out a functional agenda on a cross-functional team and bringing the cross-functional agenda to the function.

## The Staff Interface (cont’d)

- Interface Staff Member manages significant issues and is responsible for knowing correct answers to the following questions and in influencing actionable decisions for the following:
- Who performs what work?  Who makes what decisions?  With whom must I consult?  Whom must I notify?
- What is to be done?
- Why is certain work to be done?  How does my contribution serve corporate goals?
- Where is the work to be done?
- When is the work to be done?  How are deadlines to be set?  What is to be done when vertical and horizontal timelines are misaligned or conflicting?
- How is work to be performed, meaning using what procedures?  How well must the work be performed?
- Unsure?  Uncomfortable?  Call a 1-on-1 or 2-on-1 Meeting!

## The Blend of Independence and Connection—At the Interface

- Understand the alternative viewpoint’s position to determine where trade-offs can be negotiated and where objectives overlap.
- Avoid absolutes.
- Negotiate to win support on key issues and yield on less critical points.
- Maintain frequent contact with leadership to avoid surprises — communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Prepare more thoroughly than you would in a non-matrix situation.
- Strike bilateral agreements.
- Emphasize and play on the supportive role that the vertical and horizontal players can provide for the other.

## Strategic Futures®Matrix Success Leadership Model

## Vertical and HorizontalHealth Criteria

- Common goals and objectives
- Contributions of all team members
- Utilization of resources
- Accountability
- Trust and conflict
- Shared leadership
- Open communications
- Effective control and procedures
- Effective problem-solving and decision-making
- Experimentation/creativity