Building a global team without losing local ownership

Bringing regional teams together changes more than reporting lines. It changes where people go for help, how decisions are made and what they can do without waiting for someone elsewhere.

In building a global technology function, I wanted shared capabilities to make the businesses stronger. Local teams still needed the ownership and understanding that came from being close to the people using the services.

That meant developing people and agreeing responsibilities alongside the structure.

Decide what should be shared

Start with the work. Some capabilities benefit from common standards, specialist expertise and coordination across the organisation. Others need local knowledge and a close relationship with the business.

Service operations, engineering and security can all involve both. A shared capability should give local teams somewhere useful to turn, with responsibilities that people understand.

Explain what becomes easier through working together. People are more likely to support a common approach when they can see how it helps their service, their team or their customers.

Make ownership clear

A matrix creates questions. Who sets priorities? Who develops the team? Who makes a decision when local demand and group requirements compete?

Work through those questions with the people affected. Give managers clear responsibilities and a route to resolve disagreements. Where a decision belongs with the local team, let them make it.

Shared standards provide a basis for coordination. They still need room for circumstances that matter to the business, with an understood way to discuss an exception.

Develop people into the model

Some managers are ready to take on broader responsibility. Others need support, experience or a clearer understanding of the role. Make time for that development.

I want people to build judgement as well as technical skill: understanding the consequences of a choice, explaining a trade-off and knowing when to ask for help. Those abilities become more important as their responsibilities grow.

Clear expectations help. So does giving someone real ownership, with enough support to succeed. A role should be substantial enough to develop the person carrying it.

Keep a connection to delivery

A leadership team needs to know what the businesses are experiencing. Listen to service teams, engineers and the people relying on the work. Check whether the operating model is making it easier to act.

Look for recurring waits, responsibilities falling between functions or decisions being escalated because nobody is sure who owns them. Address those problems with the relevant managers and teams.

The useful measure is whether people can deliver, coordinate and solve problems more effectively. The organisation chart is one part of that.

Be clear and follow through

I have described the approach I took as: “I set clear standards, developed people, let evidence lead, and acted when it didn't.”

That requires fair expectations, honest discussion and support for improvement. It also requires decisions when a responsibility or approach is not working.

A good global function gives people access to stronger shared capability while keeping meaningful ownership. It develops leaders who can carry that work forward and makes the organisation less dependent on one person holding everything together.