Feature: The brave new world of working in a matrix

Bob Dignen has recently returned from a day in Jurmala, just outside Riga in Latvia. His mission was to run a workshop for a major Scandinavian bank which focused on the challenges of working in an international matrix organisation.

The demand for support with this aspect of international working is growing. Many of our clients now inhabit the fuzzy world of the matrix where the traditional single reporting line to a familiar manager now co-exists with numerous dotted lines to a host of other individuals scattered across the organisation. For organisational theorists, the benefits are clear in terms of knowledge sharing and optimised use of resources. The reality on the ground can be rather different with a range of problems like these being voiced:

• I now have two bosses. Which one has priority?
• How do I influence someone when I don’t have any direct authority?
• I don’t have enough time to do everything. Didn’t they plan resources before setting up the organisation?’
• I have to report to someone in Hong Kong. I’ve never met him and he sends me one email every month asking for data which I can’t deliver. I don’t see how this can be an effective way of working.

So what are the solutions to matrix working? These will depend a great deal on the specific type of organisation which you inhabit, its maturity, and the resources and commitment which senior management has invested in the matrix. However, three key skills are likely to prove important:

1.    Manage your time

Dual or triple reporting lines and multiple tasks are part and parcel of the matrix. If you are poor at time management, you will see deadlines missed, colleagues irritated and your own stress levels rocket. Take a training course in how to prioritise and how to say no. It will keep you healthy.

2.    Build your network

Matrix organisations work through networks of people cooperating spontaneously and positively. Professionals can only build effective networks by investing time in people, meeting and greeting, socialising, understanding their working contexts and pressures, and making themselves available when help is requested. If not, your requests for support are likely to fall on deaf ears when you least need it.

3.    Take responsibility

Clarity and transparency around reporting and decision making have largely disappeared and may not reappear. Part of matrix competence is the ability to tolerate such ambiguity but also to take responsibility to make things happen, and to get decisions made rather than wait for others to authorise or confirm. The future matrix professional is proactive, entrepreneurial and responsible. This actually requires a courageous mental shift from older certainties to newer possibilities.

What is your experience of matrix working? What are your frustrations? What tips and tricks would you like to share? Start networking that knowledge. We’ll be facilitating this process too in the autumn with our redesigned website and new blogging opportunities to discuss different aspects of international communication. Watch this space.

 

Feature: The challenges ya clients face – ask ya …

As course coordinator at our training centre in York, Peasholme House, Director Fiona Mee not only does a formal feedback session with every client to visit us at the end of every week’s course but also spends a lot of time talking informally to them in coffee breaks and during social events. Here she identifies three frequently expressed challenges that she hears and the questions she often asks in response.

1. We have difficulty influencing and engaging diverse people in diverse locations

Have you built in ‘virtual time’ to get to know the people you are working with even if you may never have met them?  Have you established some ground rules as to how you will work together for example to establish response times, frequency and mode of communication?  Have you asked your partners what is important to them, what are their priorities? Is everybody clear about the goals?  Are these shared goals?

2. We have trouble participating proactively in virtual meetings

Have you tried some active listening techniques such as “If I can come in here, I think that’s a very interesting point and I’d like to add …”or  “I can see your point, Sylvie, but what about in India? how could that work?” or “When you say that this is the right model, do you mean … ?”

In this way you are giving positive signals to your partners to show that you are listening and engaged and at the same time, that you are creating an opportunity to contribute your views.

3.  We can understand all of our partners except for the native speakers

Have you considered that it may be the native speakers who need to improve their communication skills and not you?  We must all take responsibility for effective communication.  If the native speaker is not clear, give some feedback such as “I’m sorry, Robert, but you are not speaking very clearly. Could you please state your point again?” or  “I’m afraid we can’t follow you. Please would you slow down and explain again in different words?” Be confident with native speakers and push them to use international English and to check understanding by summarising and asking for feedback.