Activate collective brilliance to accelerate strategic execution
Challenge
In a global luxury groupa Senior Commercial Manager responsible for affiliated boutiques was tasked with leading a strategic initiative involving several departments.
In this organisation - highly matrixed, cross-functional initiatives require strong alignment across multiple functions: retail, sales, operations, marketing, and support teams.
However, several obstacles limited the execution:
- Divergent priorities between departments
- Siloed communication
- Sometimes competing functional interests
- Difficulty in mobilise stakeholders around a common goal
These dynamics slowed down project progress and complicated the implementation of strategic initiatives at a global level.
To overcome these blockages, a co-development session was organised, bringing together several senior managers in order to mobilise collective intelligence and generate concrete solutions.
About
In matrix organisations, the main issues are relational and organisational.
Leaders must navigate between:
- different functional cultures
- sometimes conflicting priorities
- internal influence games
The core question of these sessions was: how can a leader effectively engage multiple stakeholders and align teams around a shared objective?
Following the clarification phase with the client, one main objective emerged: achieve clear alignment and genuine engagement from all stakeholders around a common objective.
To achieve this, the support aimed to:
- clarify roles and responsibilities
- strengthen the leader's influence within the organisation
- improve cross-functional communication and collaboration
- install mechanisms of collective responsibility
Structured co-development session, bringing together senior managers from different functions.
The format has allowed for mobilisation the group's collective intelligence, which I also like to call collective brilliance to explore the client's issue, challenge viewpoints, and build concrete solutions.
The identified areas of work:
Generate quick results
- setup of regular cross-functional check-ins
- organisation of alignment meetings
- clearer structure of the objective setting process
Clarify roles and expectations
- clarification of responsibilities of each stakeholder
- Setting common expectations to facilitate collaboration.
Strengthen influence and communication
- completion of a stakeholder mapping
- identification of preferred communication styles
- adaptation of communication for strengthen engagement and strategic influence
Build a shared responsibility
- encouragement of the collective responsibility between departments
- Clearer objective setting
- setup of structured feedback loops
✔ Enhanced alignment between departments
✔ Better coordination in the execution of strategic initiatives
✔ Smoother cross-functional communication
✔ Clarification of roles and responsibilities between teams
✔ Strengthening collective responsibility
✔ Increased leader confidence in their ability to influence the organisation
✔ Enhanced capacity to navigate internal political dynamics
✔ Adoption of new sustainable collaboration practices
Are you facing a similar situation?
In matrix organisations, the ability of leaders to mobilise the right stakeholders is a key success factor for strategic projects.
Co-development sessions allow you to:
- Quickly unblock complex situations
- mobilise collective intelligence
- generate concrete solutionsactionable insights.
Do you want to help your leaders better navigate cross-functional dynamics and accelerate strategic execution? Let's talk.