6. Agility and the Company

Sometimes it’s the headwind, which carries you higher and further.

—German proverb

Large companies often run large projects. The organizational structure of the companies habitually forces the projects to be run in a specific way, which gives rise to various problems. A commonly spouted philosophy regarding this situation is, “if you cannot change the organization, change organizations.” I believe there are other ways to deal with these issues.

Typically, a large company is structured more by department than by project. The departmental structure was originally invented to support the organizational hierarchy and to control the projects, not to provide the necessary support for projects. Consequently, these organizational ...

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