It's a typical staff meeting. The function heads sit around the table with the boss. One of them describes a hiccup or problem he's encountering that's outside of his control because it originates in another department. An action item is assigned, and we move on to the next topic. Good to go, right? Isn't that the boss's job? To assign action items?

The challenge

Let's expand the role of the boss a bit. Rather than being the conduit of all information, isn't the role really to ensure that cross-functional coordination is happening?

If these meetings are weekly, there's a weekly cadence to this kind of coordination, meaning if the issue comes up right after a meeting, it's a week before a decision is made. On average, it's a few days.

Let's look at the nature of the language being used. The implied (but often unstated) question being asked by the function heads is, "What do you want me to do?" The even worse implication is, "I'll work on cross-functional issues when I get an action item to do it." Not exactly teamwork.

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