The Cross-Pollinator
Early in my managerial career, I had the mistaken impression that if I was responsible for any effort, that it could only be done by members of my team. As my analysts and project managers began to take on more and more work, the team would tire under the pressure, or simply be less efficient if the work requested was outside their specialization. In an effort to be more efficient, managers and other analysts would find others in the organization with similar specialized skills and start going to others for their requests. The resulting perception of redundancy was frustrating, not only for myself as a manger, but also for my team. We had to be careful of not being repetitive, but still viewed our area as responsible for the requested analyses and projects. In my rush to provide services for the company, I inadvertently caused confusion and added bureaucracy to the process. In short, I lacked Cross-Pollination skills.
Great Cross-Pollinators intuitively seek out others who are already experts. They find ways to partner across groups, thus allowing their own teams to stay focused while extending their reach into other areas. They take advantage of managerial inefficiencies, and find ways to engage and reward other cross-functional resources who may be underutilized because they are not operating at maximum capacity.
I first met the Cross-Pollinator when I worked for Kelly Truax at Dell. She was a newly minted executive straight from the outside. Almost instantly, she developed a loyal base of cross-functional contributors that extended beyond her core team. These contributors seemed to relish in taking on the extra efforts, given the executive exposure they received (sometimes more than they had received from their own managers). Additionally, these role players cycled in and out with a predictable cadence, like task force agents on special missions. Kelly held them to deliver and rewarded them as much as any of us, and when their focus returned to their original teams, they were now evangelists for her vision, largely because they had an ownership in it! Her effectiveness was magnified because of her ability to Cross-Pollinate her vision throughout the organization. She viewed her organization as interdependent and without boundaries.
To be honest, I initially resisted the idea of Cross-Pollination, mainly because I perceived the skill to be a political one, rather than subject-matter-expert driven. Today, I view Cross-Pollination as a key asset to my overall productivity. I constantly look for ways to expand the reach of my team through others. For example, my current team of 10 analysts is largely dependent on the efforts of multiple teams, and as a result I have Cross-Pollinating analysts and project managers across the company, including I/T, customer research, finance, forecasting, online marketing, demand generation, and data warehousing. I use Cross-Pollination heavily to bring these special agents together to solve tactical efforts, which drives results and enables my core team to focus on their primary web and multi-channel analytics. I give credit liberally, even if I'm heavily involved.
Keys for Cross-Pollination
- Don't think in terms of your organization only, great talent is everywhere
- Focus the primary team on core efforts, outsource everything else to special agents
- Give credit liberally, both internally to your team, and externally to your Cross-Pollinators
- Don't delegate the management of Cross-Pollinators, if they feel like they work for you, your vision will be what they take back to their teams
- Cross-Pollination is efficient - if you can do more without hiring, you're bound to be productive and make friends with your CFO!
The saying is true, "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." The irony is that when you give credit away, it comes back to you.
Concepts in this series are based on the book, The Ten Faces of Innovation, by Tom Kelley, 2007.
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