2 | Building Cross-Cultural Intelligence
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1. Clarify the Organization's Value Proposition.
The organization's value proposition is its reason for existence. It describes how the organization adds
value to the larger company. Is the organization expected to drive cost savings, improve customer
satisfaction, create new revenue streams, or increase revenue in existing streams? Perhaps all of the
above? If so, then what are the priorities within those expectations? Does customer satisfaction trump
revenue? Or are cost savings what's really important these days?
The value proposition serves as your anchor amidst the tumult of organizational life. Once you have
clarity with your executive team on the true value of your organization to the enterprise, you can identify
whether a proposed initiative or project fits. Some will clearly match. These are the high-value projects
that go on top of the priority list.
Other projects won't align with the value proposition. Deciding how to handle these projects can be
tough, especially if their sponsors are particularly committed to them. However, if leaders have done their
ground work and gained consensus with the executive time on the
value proposition, telling a customer "next quarter," "next year," or
even "no" becomes much easier.
This is exactly what happened with BetaCorp's Marketing VP.
He confirmed with the executive team that the value of marketing
was to build corporate image and awareness within key channels.
With the team's agreement and support, he renegotiated priorities
with internal customers, dropping the non-value-added projects
clogging his portfolio.
2. Create Logical, Fact-Based, Prioritization Processes for Investments.
Unless you're lucky enough to be in an organization with unlimited
resources, there will always be tension between who gets what
they want and who doesn't. The best organizations prevent
destructive politicking by creating logical, fact-based prioritization
processes for investments.
These processes, based on the value proposition, strategies,
and goals of the organization, are transparent. Anyone in the
organization can see exactly how decisions are made and how
funds are allocated. Projects can be evaluated for potential return on investment, cost to implement,
match with resource capabilities, or other pre-set criteria. A weighting system allows criteria to receive
varying degrees of importance depending on organizational goals.
3. Develop Structures That Identify and Resolve Resource Allocation Conflicts.
Internal organizations inevitably butt heads despite clear prioritization processes. These conflicts are not
necessarily negative; often, they direct attention to important issues. However, when the conflicts stay
under the surface or aren't managed well, they can create nagging and disruptive problems.
One team, for example, was pulled between requests from two different departments. Instead of
resolving the issue, the team worked for both departments, sacrificing quality in favor of responsiveness.
The problem wasn't discovered until a department review session surfaced serious issues in the projects
