Home Page
Matrix Management
Strategic Planning
Cross-Functional Teams
Facilitation & Training
Visit Our Library
Customer Service Training
Management Consulting
Marketing Services
Who We Are
Contact Us

  Strategic Futures® is a
  registered service mark.

All of the interfaces between horizontal teams and vertical functions are “not created equal.” (I am not referring to the specific employee who functions as an interface here, but instead to the cross-cutting issues which need to be matrix-managed at the structural interface or intersection between a goal team and a discipline, or between a customer team and a function, etc.) You can display the relative importance of interfaces graphically. You can also stimulate important conversations, debates, and decisions using this technique and make it clear where leadership attention is focused.

Specifically, I depict some interfaces as large and hot requiring significant investment of attention and resources; I depict others as small and cool, meaning that while significant, the interface is not super-critical or urgent. Finally, some interfaces are mere dots, indicating that the interface exists, but that it is not intrinsically rich in importance or significance because of the narrow nature of the relationship between a given horizontal team and function.

Copyright © 2000-2005 by Strategic Futures Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced, copied, transmitted, or disseminated in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author.