4 organisational tips'

25 June 2013

As a CIO I've sometimes to face crisis : a critical system is down, it has to be repaired as fast as possible.

Playing with the ball 3

In this case, a good organisation and good processes are mandatory to be efficient.

When 2 remote teams have to work together to solve the issue, it's even more critical.

The 4 key points I check to be sure of the efficiency of the teams are :

1 leader per team. These leaders need to be in close communication and to trust each other. During the crisis they should be very close. These leaders need to be real leaders, not just guys that follow actions.

-** 1 common action list**. A clear action list (who / what / when / status) has to be shared in real time if possible by both teams.

For each action, apply the process : Assign / Acknowledge / Report status. The task is explicitly assign to an owner(a person). The owner explicitly acknowledge that the action is assigned to him (her). The owner reports on regular basis about the progress.
Regular overall status published by the leaders. This in mandatory to give clear visibility to all the team members, it's also important because it obliges the leaders to take a step back and make a status.