This document discusses ways to increase productivity through better alignment between organizational departments. It proposes measuring interdepartmental relationships and implementing interventions to improve collaboration over time. Key steps include identifying each department's role in the organizational value chain, understanding expectations and realities of internal relationships, surveying employees, analyzing results, and creating action plans to address issues. Past experience applying this process in a large IT company found relationship issues and improved alignment after implementing recommendations.

1. Increased Productivity Through Aligned Organization 1

2. Business Value Chain How effectively the internal departments work towards organizational goals? How do the internal departments view each other and contribute to the whole process? How do the specialized cells help in the workflow? What can be done to increase collaboration? 2

3. Measure and Improve Put a measure to the interdepartmental relationships Use the findings to create systemic interventions to improve interdepartmental relationships over time (functional level and organizational level) 3

4. Process Identify the organizational value chain and how each department adds value What does one department expect from its internal customer and internal provider to perform effectively? Does the department get what it needs to perform from its internal customer and internal provider? Identify mismatch and the related issues 4

5. Steps in the Intervention Interact with senior management to understand the business value chain Interview with the departmental heads and top team to understand expectations from internal customer and internal provider Interact with the departmental heads and top management to understand the reality Create a questionnaire and send it to larger audience in the department Collate data and rate the departmental relationships on a scale of 1 – 10 5

6. Example 6

7. Sample Questionnaire 7

8. Analysis Report Identify the departments that have good working relationship above 70% Identify departments that have areas of improvement < 70% Qualitative comments are provided along with the quantitative comments Create interdepartmental action plans and resolve the concerns Carry out the survey once again after six months 8

9. Measures 9

10. Past Experience Similar exercise carried out for a product department in a large IT product company Issues identified and report prepared and presented to the head of the organization Organization was in full acceptance of the report prepared and decided to take action internally 10

11. Dimensions for Increasing Productivity How are revenues, costs and manpower productivity ratios changing over time? Is the role holder doing the appropriate work or is doing higher order or lower order work – reference Requisite Organization Are there prevalent silos in the organization? Is the organization structured in a departmental manner or a process centric manner? 11

12. Dimensions for Increasing Productivity Is every link of the value chain adding significantly? What are the key issues in which top management team spend their time? What are the questions that get asked and reviewed at every level? Is there a strategic alignment? 12