May
2
Written by:
host
5/2/2010 6:36 PM
If a culture, country or an organisation has to develop innovation, freedom of thought, liberated mindsets, out of box thinking, outward to inward thinking then it should develop its people to think without fear across boundaries and develop a mindset where things can continuously improve and evolve.
A function based structure essentially acts as an impediment towards achieving a free thinking, liberated society.
Why would that be the case?
When a person starts working in a function a person starts associating his/her identity with that particular function and as the person gets older and deeply entrenched in to a function it gets harder and harder to think beyond the function which is more like a personal identity now.
This would further make a person control the functional domain and guard it closely. Such a person would always be circumspect and suspicious of others entering in to the domain and will be very insecure. A mindset of this nature can never allow a society and an organisation to think beyond narrow lanes of a function.
Is there a solution in place?
The simplest solution or one may argue the only solution for the above mentioned issue would be to create a culture or an atmosphere around a team based working. In a team everyone assists everyone else, there are no hierarchies and people embrace learning across functions as well as across different vertical levels.
This can be achieved by aligning the structure of the organisation from Function based to Process based. The kind of culture this structural change will bring is that of ownership, empowerment and liberty to operate. It will further create agility and quicker responsiveness.
Best fit people should be aligned with best fit processes to deliver best fit solutions.