Creating an environment of clear and frequent communication in any workplace is vital – and the Lines of Defence are anything but exempt. The more these lines share knowledge, insights, and ideas, the better the business will run overall – so why do so many companies struggle with it?
The Divide
Making the 3 lines more effective and harmonious is all about communication, matching work styles, and creating cohesion in their cultures. In some financial institutions, it often feels like the first and second lines aren’t speaking the same language, and it shows. When communication is lacking, it negatively affects every aspect of day-to-day operations. Things get out of balance, mistakes are made, and opportunities get lost.
Bridging the Gap
If working together is so essential for both business and workplace environment, what’s the best way to ensure it happens all the time? The way we see it, there are two main ways to promote effective 1st and 2nd Line collaboration.
1. Hiring the right profiles and continuously training existing employees to ensure their interpersonal and soft skills are strong. It’s vital that you can assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses without personal bias in order to find the gaps and fill them effectively.
2. First Lines sometimes take an AGILE approach, but this can leave Second Lines behind. If your Second Line can’t respond quickly enough, they can’t be effective. To help fix this issue is to is set up Competence Centers who the second line can fall back on. In this way, the most substantive people are not needed in the second line and the business-oriented people with more business knowledge can also have role in the second line.This knowledge and expertise sharing style of working helps the Lines better understand each other, their issues and problems. In this environment, advice can be given and taken, concerns shared, and problems solved. Competence Centers can be created for any service or product and are totally scalable to any need.
At ACE, we specialize in optimizing every aspect of business. We can help you understand any potential being lost by lack of communication within your Lines by assessing your teams. We can then find you the right people to help fill in your gaps and strengthen your weak points. We can also help by giving you the blueprints to best create and implement Competence Centers so that your Lines work as effectively as possible.
If you’re curious about how we can lend you our expertise and create a bespoke solution to help your Lines work more effectively together, reach out.
As always, thanks for reading,
TEAM ACE