The Project Management Ecosystem—Working in Silos Doesn't Work

 

Events of the last couple of weeks have reinforced in my mind how we are all a part of one complex system.  As volcanic ash from the eruption in Iceland drops ash over Europe, grounds airlines, and strands travelers, the ripple effect is costing millions of dollars.  Driving into work this morning, I heard that Great Britain estimates they are losing $30 million dollars a day resulting from the lack of air traffic—and is sending out the Royal Navy to retrieve stranded British citizens abroad—which will also be expensive.  The airline industry is estimating that the losses will ultimately be in the billions of dollars.

Considering these delays the result of an "act of God," the airlines feel it unnecessary to provide much assistance to stranded passengers.  However, the media reported on one New York couple who opened their home to a stranded family from Ireland, inviting them to wait in comfort for at least a few hours. (Having spent a week in Kennedy one afternoon, I can only imagine the horror of being stuck there for any length of time.)  Although they were total strangers, I'm sure this random act of kindness has made an otherwise unbearable situation more tolerable.

I wonder if cross-departmental teams could learn something from this experience.  It's only natural for departments to believe they work within a vacuum.  However, just as with the grand ecosystem of the earth—everything within the corporate ecosystem is also interconnected.  For example, the fallout (pun intended) from the challenges (or delays) faced by an IT project designed to make an accounting or HR process more efficient, has a greater impact than those faced by IT.  By stepping out of departmental silos and avoiding the impulse to throw IT under the bus, cross-departmental cooperation can mitigate the collateral damage caused by our struggling IT project example.  After all, we're all on the same team, right?

Pointing fingers and assigning blame in the case of grounded airliners does nothing to alleviate the problem of stranded passengers or lost revenue.  However, dispatching other means of travel (Britain's use of the Royal Navy) or providing a comfortable place to stay (the kindness of the couple from New York) does.

Unfortunately, I don't think I have ever seen a project that was executed flawlessly.  Inherent in any project based work is the need to overcome challenges and adapt work management methodologies to accommodate changing circumstances.  I imagine if the volcanic eruption in Iceland could have been accurately predicted, the world might be dealing with a different set of circumstances right now.  However, like most project challenges, some catastrophic events cannot be accurately predicted and must be dealt with as they occur.  And consequences, even anticipated ones, will still create issues to be dealt with.

Project and portfolio management best practices encourage looking at how projects interrelate, and groups together projects with similar objectives within related portfolios.  No project is an "island," and as such often requires cross-departmental cooperation to ensure success.

Hopefully, you don't have to deal with the equivalent of an unforeseen volcanic eruption in your current project plan, but how do you encourage cooperation among departments?  Please feel free to share some of your work management best practices here.