Fleas can jump many times their own height, but not elephants.
Large organizations cannot be versatile. A large organization is effective through its mass rather than through its agility. Mass enables the organization to put to work a great many more kinds of knowledge and skill than could possibly be combined in any one person or small group. But mass is also a limitation. An organization, no matter what it would like to do, can only do a small number of tasks at any one time. This is not something that better organization or “effective communications” can cure. The law of organization is concentration.
Yet modern organization must be capable of change. Indeed it must be capable of initiating change, that is innovation. It must be able to move scarce and expensive resources of knowledge from areas of low productivity and nonresults to opportunities for achievement and contribution. This, however, requires the ability to stop doing what wastes resources.
ACTION POINT: What is the small number of tasks that your large organization is doing? Are they the right ones? If not, discontinue them and focus on others.