Managing in a Matrix Organization - Part 1

At last! I've been waiting 2.5 years

At last!

I've been waiting 2.5 years for you guys to finally break down and address "reality" as I know it.

Don't get me wrong. Much of what MT covers is applicable in any organizational structure... I'd say 85%. There is no doubt that I am MUCH more effective for having listened to Mark and Mike every week. But I've been struggling with the other 15%, patiently waiting for the day when it would be practical for me again.

Here's the rub: I don't have any "directs", though I may have up to 30 people accountable to me at any given time. I can't "delegate", but nor can I possibly do it all myself. The fact is, I need a slightly different set of tools than the typical middle manager.

Wish fulfilled.

Thanks for finally popping the red pill, Mark!

Shawn- Thankfully, I don't feel

Shawn-

Thankfully, I don't feel hairless. ;-)

Mark

Maybe this just affects me but: A

Maybe this just affects me but:

A definition of "Matrix Organization" would have been useful at the start. I'm still not sure what the term refers to. I may know this by another name but starting with a definition would really help this cast. Is it an american term?

Thanks for your great pod-casts.

Lincoln

Thanks Lincoln I was just about to

Thanks Lincoln

I was just about to ask the same question.

Paula

Can we get a copy of the white paper

Can we get a copy of the white paper you wrote on ..."Why People Want a Boss"?

I would love to learn more about this. Thanks. Jon

Jon- Huh?

Jon-

Huh? :-)

Mark

Paula and Lincoln- I am pretty sure

Paula and Lincoln-

I am pretty sure that in part two, we talk more about the details of the Matrix organization.

I think it's safe to say that if you don't understand how they're different you're not in one, and if you ever are going to be in one, rest assured that your new org will be letting you know!

Mark

Thanks for this cast. In my

Thanks for this cast.

In my experience, the matrix can become an enabler for downsizing decisions. This is related to the second reason you cite for matrixes: the centralization of human resources for the purposes of supposed efficiency.

1) Matrixes, by their very nature, "muddle" reporting lines;
2) The effect is to devalue the role of any single manager, because management functions get dispersed among different groups (e.g., the day-to-day manager does not perform the annual review of her directs, but only gives input to a function manager who oversees all staff in a particular title);
3) So then removing a manager becomes easier to justify - because their role as a link in the vertical hierarchy chain has been undermined by the matrix

The logical extreme is "Nobody has to be a manger, because Everybody is a manager!"

Alice in Wonderland.

You're right guys: they don't work. No matter how elegant the theory.

Keep up the good work!

Crikey. I only asked for this last

Crikey. I only asked for this last week. Good work chaps......

Now what shall I ask for?

Colin.

Shawn: BLUF: Delegating is having

Shawn:

BLUF: Delegating is having the most applicable person do the work. In a matrix organization that person doesn't report to you. You can still delegate to them. Or you can do it yourself. You decide.

I've found it useful to reframe delegating in this fashion. In my matrix organization I have broad responsibility but no directs. By delegating through the matrix I get the work done by the experts in each area. How? O3's every week, with each person I work with. The only piece of the trinity I don't use regularly is coaching. And brush up on the deadline casts. It's slow, but it is possible.

In this cast you mention a white paper

In this cast you mention a white paper that people really do want bosses. I think you said you wrote it, probably a long time ago. You mentioned it right before talking about Edward Wilson.

Jon- Ahh! I listened and got it. I

Jon-

Ahh! I listened and got it. I will find it, but the part about bosses is just one part of a larger discussion.

Mark

Mark- While my company is very far

Mark-

While my company is very far away from the matrix organization (our little size would just allow a matrix of one collumn!), I have experienced it in my relation with one of my biggest suppliers of consumables.

When they went from a customer/market oriented structure (local production units)to a matrix organisation where people were reporting at the same time to a worldwide sales manager and a local production manager, response time got longer and longer and communication deteriorated rapidly and the local unit I was depending upon began to loose staff at an alarming rate.

As a distributor, I lost market shares because of the lack of reactivity of my supplier. I decided to reference one of their competitors which was a small family owned company to compensate it.

And guess what, it seems now that the big supplier is now going back to a more natural organization where all the local units will again be managed as small companies...

Ced.

Ced- And the pendulum swings....

Ced-

And the pendulum swings.... ;-)

Mark

Mike & Mark: Thank you for producing

Mike & Mark:

Thank you for producing a series on matrix management. Years ago I was in favor of matrix management. However, as a project manager that's been there - it's not worth the effort.

When I was the non-line manager, I could be nice and get people to do the things I wanted, but it only lasted so long. Eventually, everyone realized I didn't have any reward system to back me up. Very few people were willing to take my requests and advice.

I would much rather manage someone who lacks skills than plead with someone with skills. Sure, pure technical skills are critical at specific moments in time, but a motivated individual can consistently outperform a person who isn't motivated.

"Morale is to the physical as 3 is to 1." - Napoleon Bonaparte.

Thanks again. Really looking forward to next week's cast.

-Steve

Steve- A GREAT QUOTE! One of my

Steve-

A GREAT QUOTE! One of my favorites.

Mark

Hi there, Am I the only one not able

Hi there,

Am I the only one not able to print the show notes? It prints a bunch of codes and signs, but nothing like on the website.

FX

Dear Mark and Mike, I was somewhat

Dear Mark and Mike,

I was somewhat disappointed with this cast. It is close to 36 minute and out of which 27/28min is spent on matrix - history, how it is etc. May be I misunderstood the title : "managing effectively in a matrix org".

Can I ask for these for the next cast?

1. How to ask for resources?

2. How to get work done when you are in a critical scenario?

3. How to get the committment from the resources - as there are multiple lines of reporting

4. How can you put pressure on non performers if he is the blue eyed boy of the Functional manager?

5. If you move in from a projectized or prodcut organization to a matrix org, how to fit in?

6. How to handle the ego clashes, which is very much out there? Like in a high tech company, in essence, the HR manager is not actually needed till the hiring. But then, they are needed and can put in anyone!

7. And as you have very well informed in this cast, miscommunication is rampant in matrix org. How to deal with it?

etc.

Also, will you address various forms of matrix org., balanced/strong/weak (Good Lord!, who thought of all these) or will it a generalized one?

Will eagerly look forward to it.

Thanks,
Satya

Dear Mark and Mike, I have a couple

Dear Mark and Mike,

I have a couple of suggestions, which I believe will be helpful for all.

1. Can we have an alert mail when we get a reply for the question posed (for a specific article)?

2. Can we have a related links for a particular one, like the management trinity - which will help to know what are there in the same line of thought?

Thanks again for your wonderful insights and discussions.
Satya

jpdesmarais, Point well taken. I

jpdesmarais,

Point well taken. I will have to go back and dust off the delegation and deadlines casts. Like you, I also apply the MT trinity on a regular basis, despite being a manager of one. However, there are special considerations when working laterally across teams and not down the chain of command.

Speaking of Trinity, wasn't that also a character in the Matrix?

Shawn

Like Neo in the Matrix movie, I started

Like Neo in the Matrix movie, I started listening to this cast without an understanding what a Matrix Organization was. About 15 minutes into the cast it hit me - "Oh my gosh. I'm working in a matrix organization and I didn't know it!"

I'm the Engineering Manager for a small company of 100 people. I have had many frustrations with the organization and I wasn't able to put my finger on it. Your cast on Matrix Organizations really has started to make me think. I'm looking forward the the rest of it.

I've been with the organization since I left college. This is the only way of doing business I know. I'm now in a position to change it but I'm at a loss as to how to do it economically for a small project based organization. I'm hopeful that the rest of the cast will continue to open my eyes to better ways of doing things.

Satya- Sorry you're disappointed.

Satya-

Sorry you're disappointed. If we were to address all of those issues, we'd have a 10 hour cast. There are entire business school courses taught on the matrix orgs.

We intend to address all of those issues in future casts...we have thousands of casts in our future, and sorry we can't deliver them all now.

Mark

Thanks Mark for your response. I

Thanks Mark for your response.

I agree with you that it is impossible to have all of them at one go:-)

May be like the casts done before, I was looking for same handson approach here, which is actually rare (perhaps getting addicted to your site), along with the distilled wisdom. Will look forward to other casts.

Thanks again.
Satya

ndsatya, Stay tuned ... that was

ndsatya,

Stay tuned ... that was only part 1. We'll get to the hands-on stuff this week.

Mike

Great cast Mark and Mike, so

Great cast Mark and Mike, so recognizable... I'm working in a pretty matrixed organization for my whole 10 year career, and now it's getting even more complex. The way I see it down here, from having a matrix per business, we become "market facing" and "customer solution focused" (finally??) which means that parts of several businesses will be matrixed together for specific markets. How would you describe that, 3D matrix? Cube? It feels like spaghetti! While most of the times it still works (we must have brilliant leaders who do understand all this far better than I do) I'm really looking forward to the things MT will teach me in the upcoming casts. Thanks!

What success I've had managing large,

What success I've had managing large, dispersed teams in a matrix organization comes from a couple of straightforward guidelines:

1) Business Objectives and Client Needs Come First; internal organization and processes are subordinate

2) In my particular circumstances, it's possible to organize people as either "client facing" or "machine facing" (the first is self-explanatory, the second means that your job is to focus on our systems, processes or resources needed to produce the outcome that the client is paying for)

3) Whether you're "client facing" or "machine facing" detrmines where you're located (near the client site, or at our headquarters)

4) Specific functional role descriptions, based on the producing the results that the client is paying for.

If I have these four in place, I can do pretty well at keeping the matrix in it's proper place: SUBORDINATE to achieving our business objectives and satisfying our clients.

It ain't perfect - but it's a start!

-Hugh

Thanks a lot Mike for your

Thanks a lot Mike for your response.

@Hugh,

I agree with 1 and 4 - not with 2 and 3, in most of the cases. I was once a liason officer to an A-Pac client based out of Japan. That was all in one - tech guy, project coordination, consultancy, management. And though I was very much into hardcore product development, the matrix structure was used to drive me nuts a number of times. Decisions had to be made mostly on the spot and for that comm. line was not smooth. I had to come up with specific escalation mechanism to address cases. In this particular case 1,2, 3 and 4 will not apply.

In fact, my experience with PMI-PMP is very similar to what Mark and Mike are saying here. They are here to stay, though creates less loyalty, confusion, friction most of the times due to mutiple lines of reporting. They have some techniques to address them, but I am eagerly looking to MT's next cast. Here, the beauty of MT is - it is very handson.

Btw, it is Satya, not "ndsatya" -- my offshoot from 'how to remember names' cast :-) But then, in this info-age which is mostly across the web, it becomes very difficult to remember names across different nationalities.

Thanks again.
Satya, PMP

Hi Mark & Mike, Great timing on this

Hi Mark & Mike,

Great timing on this cast.

I took a a new job at the start of June, working in a matrix organisation for the first time.
I thought it would be a good learning experience. :o)

Over the last few weeks I have been constantly frustrated, bemused at how anything gets done and amazed at how much time and resource is wasted.

I feel like a fish out of water, especially as an action orientated high D!

Your cast has been a godsend, and has given me insight into how I can take positive action to adapt to get results.

Thanks

Gordon