This post show my opinion about how coordination should be. So what’s coordination? Coordination’s the process of organizing work and exchanging knowledge across the organization.

The problem

In some organizations, meetings are needed at every level to gather, package, filter, and transmit information as it flows up and down the chain of command. The higher level you are, the more meetings you attend. The typical day of a top manager consists of back-to-back meetings. Senior partners become “meeting persons”. Decisions are naturally pushed up to the top, as it’s the only place where decisions and tradeoffs can be informed from the various angles involved. With a pyramidal shape, people at the top of organizations will complain about meeting overload, while people below feel disempowered. And the result? Fuck up.

My opinion

So what should we do? When a problem or an opportunity arises, an ad hoc meeting is convened. When a more permanent form of coordination is needed, a specific role might be created. For instance, teams could create a role for sharing best-practice. When coordination is no longer needed, the role disappears. None of this needs approval from above. Team should be self-managed and autonomous.

The simplest form of coordination is simply one colleague speaking with another colleague – whatever their role and place in the organization. No superior needs to be informed when a colleague wants to reach out to another colleague. We shouldn’t have fixed, recurring meetings to coordinate across teams. Meetings should be called in ad-hoc fashion when someone feels that should be important.

The ad-hoc meeting process should be like:

• Someone notices a problem or opportunity and takes the initiative, or alerts someone better placed to do so.
• Prior to a proposal, the decision-maker may seek input to sound out perspectives before proposing action.
• The initiator makes a proposal and seeks advice from those affected or those with expertise.
• Taking this advice into account, the decision-maker decides on an action and informs those who have given advice

That sounds like a fantasy. Luckily, I’m in a position (not too high but not too low) that can do all those above things in my team.

DISCLAIMER: the opinions expressed within the content are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of any organization.