How does the concept of span-of-coordination benefit Agile & Lean in the office?
The Agile & Lean Glossary defines span-of-coordination as the reach of an individual’s or team’s responsibilities; involving both leadership and support responsibilities in addition to authority (span-of-control). In the past management hierarchies almost totally functioned under span-of-control. Coordination involves the exchange of ideas, formally and informally, outside of span-of-control boundaries. In an office environment work can be thought of the flow of ideas from one activity to the next. Sales, marketing, engineering, and customer service all work with ideas; capturing, enhancing, connecting, and promoting them. Lean Office is an umbrella term for techniques to maximize the value of ideas. Establishing span-of-coordination concepts within an organization helps to maximize the benefits of Agile & Lean by increasing the breadth of individual and team responsibilities. They will be encouraged to maintain a greater system-wide view outside of their particular span-of-control and
