Various industries are implementing a form of integrated operations where decision-making is distributed along the value chain rather than just centrally controlled.
This requires a communication model that goes beyond enterprise-wide scenarios toward a flatter, more matrixed, more lateral approach to sharing information.
This model is especially helpful for:
- Work management and logistical coordination
- Policies and procedures
- Training and professional development
- Sharing knowledge and best practices
It also is a major delegation of communication responsibilities, requiring staffers at all levels to acquire strong communication skills.
This will especially help frontline workers, who are often those most in contact with customers and who identify service and supply chain issues first.
The access to information – and autonomy in using it – will encourage all workers to better use their talent in the service of company goals and strategy.
Have you noticed your company becoming flatter and more matrixed in the area of decision-making? How about in communication tools and channels? It is a trend that is likely to continue and become permanent.
“Business leaders need to drive communications strategy as strongly as business-model innovation… focus on the accumulation of relationship capital, not the casting of messages.”
Don Tapscott, David Ticoll & Alex Lowy, Digital Capital
“Communicating strategy across multiple organizational channels is the key to getting attention for it and producing change.”
Thomas H. Davenport & John C. Beck, The Attention Economy