Originally Posted: March 29, 2020
Over the past few weeks, I have witnessed the C-Suite of the company I work for invest hundreds of thousands of dollars so that almost all of the 600-person company is working from the safety of their kitchen tables. This transformation is an impressive feat for organizations all over the world facing the same challenge. But at my company it has been a remarkably painless process and the business has only improved. I’ve witnessed a profound lesson in these weeks which has taught me more than any MBA class.
The company I work for is a passionate mid-size mortgage company in Maryland. We have a strong national brand, good technology, and an impressive, niche product. But most important, we have a culture and infrastructure that is designed to adapt and change with whatever comes our way. As a business analyst, I am on the front lines of this techno-logistical ecosystem. Over the last 3 years, I’ve come to know my company’s leadership as thoughtful, intelligent, and forward-thinking. They’ve learned the lessons of the past two financial crises and invested in the people and the mechanisms required to promote rapid and fluid change. How else, in the past 14 days, could we have moved the company out of the office, retooled our product offerings twice to align with the market, and handled four times the normal amount of incoming business?
In his book ‘The World is Flat’, Thomas Friedman (2005) contends that rather than interdisciplinary teams we need more interdisciplinary people who can understand the big picture and the minutiae; who are expert enough in many aspects to speak intelligently to the experts but diverse enough in their viewpoints to be extraordinarily creative and adaptive. My company’s leadership has built a workforce interspersed with interdisciplinary people across management levels and departments. The power of cross-pollinated expertise is the secret sauce that has made my company flourish in these hard times. We have our share of hiccups, miscommunications, and bad fixes. But what I’ve witnessed from the front lines is that interdisciplinary people can overcome any challenge.
We need more people like this in the workforce and in powerful positions. Change management is by definition a juggling act. But by having people throughout the company who can add up all of the little things into the big picture, we ensure that efficient and effective solutions are created on the first try. In these weeks, we have had hiccups that have costs thousands of dollars. These things happen when there is a siloed perspective in charge.
At my company, we provide opportunities to change departments, we train thoroughly, we promote often. It is vital that traits such as learning ability, data processing, and diverse experiences are valued from the hiring process through promotion decisions. These are the activities that leaders in any company can take to foster more interdisciplinary people within their organizations. In doing so, they can be ready for the next crisis.
Friedman, T. (2005). The World is Flat. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.