Enabling Teams need to ensure that the work that they do aligns with the goals of the Ecosystem to ensure that they are focusing on the right things. This alignment is achieved through a combination of strategic planning, regular reviews, and transparent communication.
Purpose
The purpose of this alignment is to ensure that all teams are working cohesively towards common ecosystem objectives, maximising efficiency, and fostering innovation through effective collaboration and data sharing.
Because Enabling Teams are indirectly supporting the Stream Teams they can be seen as a cost center instead of a profit center. This alignment ensures that Enabling Teams focus on streamlining the Stream Teams in quantifiable ways and that EcoSystem Teams are aware of the value that they provide.
Principles and Practices
Effectiveness
| Principle | Goal | Practice |
|---|
| Not all opportunities are worth solving | We need to identify the opportunities that align with our strategy and deliver the best impact for customers. | By understanding the long-term vision of the ecosystem as well as the more medium-term strategy we can ensure that we are working on the right things. |
| Fail to plan, plan to fail | We need to ensure that the Stream Teams are looking at the big picture and not just the immediate work. | By running an annual planning process that identifies the key bets that the team will make we can balance the benefits of long-term planning with the flexibility needed to respond to change. |
| Involvement drives commitment | We need to ensure that people are committed to the Stream Team objectives | By involving the Stream Team in the setting of the objectives we can ensure that they are committed to them. |
Efficiency
| Principle | Goal | Practice |
|---|
| Collaboration across teams is expensive | We need to minimise the overhead of collaboration between Enabling Teams and Stream Teams. | By defining that Enabling Teams and Stream Teams will interact using a Facilitating interaction mode we can reduce misunderstandings and ensure that the teams are working together efficiently. |
Sustainability
| Principle | Goal | Practice |
|---|
| Cost Centers are the first to be cut | We need to ensure that EcoSystem Teams are aware of the value that Enabling Teams provide. | By setting up a Quarterly Objective Setting Meeting we can ensure that Enabling Teams focus on quantifiable ways of improving Stream Team performance and that the EcoSystem Teams are aware of the value that Enabling Teams provide. |
Criticisms
| Criticism | Description | Mitigation |
|---|
| Resource Intensiveness | The alignment process requires significant time and effort, potentially detracting from other critical tasks. | Streamline the process and integrate alignment activities into regular workflows to reduce overhead. |
| Cost-Centre | Creating teams that increase cost without having a direct impact on revenue can be seen as a negative. | By ensuring that the Enabling Teams are focused on quantifiable ways of improving Stream Team performance we can ensure that they are seen as a value add. |
Anti-patterns
- Checklist Compliance: Treating alignment as a tick-box exercise rather than a meaningful strategic endeavour can lead to superficial compliance without real commitment or understanding.
- Misaligned Incentives: Enabling Teams might focus on quick wins and easy-to-measure outcomes rather than the more challenging but more impactful long-term objectives.