Workflows are an equally integral part of structure. If people cannot depend on one another, they must become self-sufficient. Then, no matter what their organization chart looks like, its boundaries will not be respected. People will naturally evolve into small islands of generalists who replicate all the skills necessary to satisfy their customers.

In fact, those who give up on improving the processes of cross-boundary teamwork intentionally design "stovepipe" organizations made of little groups of generalists who do everything for a given business process (a common result of business process reengineering). Of course, these generalists cannot compete with better-designed organizations of specialists.

On the other hand, the better people are at teaming across organizational boundaries, the more they can focus on their respective specialties and the better they will perform.

In the past, many organizations depended on the management hierarchy to form and coordinate project teams. Of course, this creates bottlenecks that reduce an organization's capabilities. A healthy organizational structure includes mechanisms that induce self-forming and self-managing teams.

The most flexible approach to workflows is to think of each group as an independent business within a business, selling products and services to peers within the organization as well as to clients. Each project is assigned to the group that sells that product.

This "prime contractor" then forms a project team by "hiring" subcontractors from throughout the organization.

In this way, teams quickly form across boundaries without the need for management intervention. Teams include just the right people at just the right time. And accountabilities are always clear, so people on the project team can be trusted to deliver their share of the project.

(Note that this doesn't mean that money changes hands. Rather, it's a powerful paradigm of project planning.)

To make this process work, the design of structure must include the definition of every group's product line. Inherent in these definitions of products, people sort out who sells what to whom, and the patterns of teamwork (workflows) are established. In this way, sorting out workflows involves defining each group's products.

In summary, structure must consider both the organization chart that defines everyone's lines of business (people's specialties), and the processes of teamwork that cross organizational boundaries.

Unlike business process reengineering (the assembly line approach), Structural Cybernetics creates flexible workflows tailored to the unique needs of each project. Dynamic teams include just the right people at just the right time, all with clear individual accountabilities and a clear chain of command.