Almost like independent nations, the three departments of this company: Sales, document management, and technology operated with their own worldviews and approaches to work.
With excellent social skills but improper ethical guidance, the sales department focused on closing deals at any cost. Often, without concern to agreements, deadlines, or prices, they would make unrealistic promises to clients. With an organized, pedantic approach led by introverts, the document management department faced difficulties when presented with vague agreements. They were frequently overwhelmed with poorly formulated agreements that required extensive restructuring. Untenable promises and deadlines frustrated the technology department as well. Unsurprisingly, this led to conflict between them.
The Morgan Impact team conducted an in-depth analysis, including interviews with employees and clients. The purpose was to make each department aware that their conflicts negatively affected client relationships.
Morgan’s team organized a two-day transformation session outside of the office to reframe the context of the office’s relationship. The first day introduced a design thinking session with blended teams from all three departments working together to design product prototypes for clients. Outsiders, composed of demographics matching the company’s clients, were invited for interviews and prototype testing.
After bonding on the first day, the focus of the second turned to improving internal processes. Participants interviewed one another in depth, tested prototypes of new interaction processes, and produced as a unified team.
Key solutions included:
Involving a representative from the document management department in final negotiations with clients.
Organizing "open-door days" in the technology department for sales employees.
Regular educational sessions from the technology department for the sales team every two weeks.
Quarterly meetings of all three departments to exchange market news and develop new offers for clients.
The unification process that began with a single two-day event continued as prescribed. The results were impressive. Conflicts and complaints from clients decreased significantly, and the speed of closing deals increased by a miraculous 37%. Silencing the discord stemming from understandable discontent between departments provided a much needed perspective alignment.
Organizations are famous for demanding results immediately. They want the bad actors found or broken piece repaired like you’re fixing the finicky copy machine. Cases like these demonstrate that simple requests often require complex solutions – in this case, simply retraining the sales department may have shown temporary results, if that, but mending the disharmony between departments is the long term solution with greater, ongoing rewards.
With excellent social skills but improper ethical guidance, the sales department focused on closing deals at any cost. Often, without concern to agreements, deadlines, or prices, they would make unrealistic promises to clients. With an organized, pedantic approach led by introverts, the document management department faced difficulties when presented with vague agreements. They were frequently overwhelmed with poorly formulated agreements that required extensive restructuring. Untenable promises and deadlines frustrated the technology department as well. Unsurprisingly, this led to conflict between them.
The Morgan Impact team conducted an in-depth analysis, including interviews with employees and clients. The purpose was to make each department aware that their conflicts negatively affected client relationships.
Morgan’s team organized a two-day transformation session outside of the office to reframe the context of the office’s relationship. The first day introduced a design thinking session with blended teams from all three departments working together to design product prototypes for clients. Outsiders, composed of demographics matching the company’s clients, were invited for interviews and prototype testing.
After bonding on the first day, the focus of the second turned to improving internal processes. Participants interviewed one another in depth, tested prototypes of new interaction processes, and produced as a unified team.
Key solutions included:
Involving a representative from the document management department in final negotiations with clients.
Organizing "open-door days" in the technology department for sales employees.
Regular educational sessions from the technology department for the sales team every two weeks.
Quarterly meetings of all three departments to exchange market news and develop new offers for clients.
The unification process that began with a single two-day event continued as prescribed. The results were impressive. Conflicts and complaints from clients decreased significantly, and the speed of closing deals increased by a miraculous 37%. Silencing the discord stemming from understandable discontent between departments provided a much needed perspective alignment.
Organizations are famous for demanding results immediately. They want the bad actors found or broken piece repaired like you’re fixing the finicky copy machine. Cases like these demonstrate that simple requests often require complex solutions – in this case, simply retraining the sales department may have shown temporary results, if that, but mending the disharmony between departments is the long term solution with greater, ongoing rewards.