6.6. Results in Progress

Our team-strengthening effort is a work in process. Nevertheless, we have seen noticeable changes for the better in the way people work with one another. Many old antagonisms between the subgroups have been resolved, members from different groups are more willing to depend on each other rather than insisting on completely owning their own destinies, and in general there is a renewed sense that ITSec belongs to all of us.

We plan to administer another ONA later this year, in the hope of confirming analytically what we have witnessed. A word of warning: we found that the hiatus between Waves 2 and 3, roughly six months, was too long. During that time, we saw that people occasionally slid back into their old habits. In a perfect world, we would have established a cadence for the projects early on and maintained it going forward.

The beauty of our approach was that we were simultaneously accomplishing important business tasks and addressing "soft" issues of trust and collaboration. Senior managers didn't have to choose between these two imperatives. At a time when companies in many industries are under increasing pressure to be attentive to the bottom line, and therefore could be less inclined to invest time and energy in less-tangible issues such as team harmony, this project-based approach to strengthening networks could be a wise choice.