How can an organization get its experts to work better together? The article describes the integrator – a role that brings together different skills and helps people solve common problems. The integrator does not replace the experts, but ensures that their contributions work together and create value for the organization. An important tool is organizational sandboxes: limited experiments where different parts of the organization test solutions and new ways of collaborating. Here, the group can identify obstacles, clarify responsibilities, and see what actually produces results before the approach is implemented on a larger scale. The article also explains why the role needs clear authority, support from management, and common goals. The goal is not more meetings, but better solutions and collaboration that lasts in everyday life.
The integrator – a key role in the organization of the future
The organization of the future does not only need deep expertise, but also the ability to bring together different areas of expertise so that they together create business benefits. Here, the integrator plays a central role: connecting knowledge, perspectives, and working methods around common goals and translating specialist expertise into solutions that work for the entire organization. When roles and responsibilities are mainly defined around individual expert areas, the interplay between them risks becoming a matter that no one clearly owns. The integrator’s mission is to develop this interaction – not to replace the experts or take over their responsibilities. Organizational sandboxes become a way to test how different competencies can work together before new working methods are introduced on a larger scale.
From expertise in parts to business benefits in the whole
The specialist role is based on mastering a specific area. The integrator role is based on understanding how several areas need to work together to solve a common problem. The shift therefore does not mean that expert knowledge becomes less important, but rather that it needs to be complemented by a clearer ability to combine the organization’s various competencies. A new offering may, for example, require interaction between technology, sales, finance, law, and business development. Each expert area can contribute a well-founded solution within its area of responsibility, without the parts of it having to work together as a whole. The business benefit only arises when the solution meets a real need, is implementable, and works in the organization’s everyday operations. The integrator therefore strengthens the ability of the whole to create value by highlighting dependencies, managing goal conflicts, and helping experts develop solutions together. It’s more than coordinating activities: it’s about shaping how competencies are combined and how their collective contributions are monitored.
What does the integrator do in the future organization?
The integrator brings together understanding of the organization’s goals, a cross-functional perspective, and a focus on implementation. The role needs to be able to ask qualified questions, understand the different starting points of the experts, and create a common direction. The integrator does not need to be the foremost specialist in each area, but must be able to understand connections and determine when additional expertise is needed.
1. Start from the business needs – not from the organizational chart
The integrator helps the organization formulate the problem to be solved, for whom, and with what expected benefit. The shared mission becomes the starting point for which expert areas need to be involved and which tradeoffs need to be made. Then the work can be guided towards an operational outcome rather than a collection of separate functional deliverables. At the same time, the mission needs to have a clear client and an explicit mandate. It should be clear what the integrator is allowed to decide on, what resources are available, and what issues need to be brought to the attention of responsible managers or the leadership.
2. Create a common language between expert areas
Different fields of expertise use different concepts, methods, and measures of success. The integrator helps participants understand each other’s perspectives and translate specialist issues into consequences for the common mission. This means highlighting dependencies, assumptions, and goal conflicts before they become obstacles. For example, a technically feasible solution also needs to be evaluated based on customer value, cost, regulatory compliance, and practical usability. The integrator brings these perspectives together without replacing the expert’s assessments.
3. Develop the interaction in organizational sandboxes
One organizational sandbox Here, there is a bounded and time-limited working environment where different expert areas test how they can solve a concrete business problem together. What is tested is not only the solution itself, but also the collaboration: roles, responsibilities, information flows, decision-making paths, and handovers. The integrator keeps the experiment together by bringing together the right competencies, clarifying what needs to be tested, and creating a common rhythm for decision-making and learning. The sandbox is not a free zone from responsibility or applicable requirements. It needs clear frameworks for, for example, resources, data management and risks, as well as criteria for when the work should be adjusted, terminated, or carried forward.
4. Test whether the collaboration creates business benefits
A sand box should start with a clear assumption about the benefits. For example, can a common approach shorten the time from customer needs to a finished offer, reduce rework, or improve the quality of decision-making materials? The integrator helps the group choose what to follow up on and compare the outcome with the baseline. More meetings or more joint activities are not in themselves a proof of business benefit. The follow-up needs to show whether the collaboration yields a better result and whether the benefit is reasonably proportional to the effort. Even an attempt that ends can provide valuable knowledge about which combinations of competencies and working methods do not work.
5. Transfering working methods that work well into the business operations
The value of the sandboxes does not stop at the trial phase. When a working method proves beneficial, the integrator helps the organization clarify what should be retained, what needs to be adapted, and who is responsible for implementation. The experience needs to be translated into functioning processes, clear interfaces, and follow-up in the regular operations. A successful attempt does not automatically mean that the same approach works everywhere. The implementation needs to take into account other prerequisites, available resources, and the responsibilities of the affected departments. The goal is to build a common organizational capability – not to create a permanent dependence on the integrator.
The integrator needs mandates – and the organization needs space to learn
Integrator is a role and a skill, not necessarily a specific title. The role could, for example, be part of a Chief of Staff role or given to someone who leads cross-functional development. Regardless of the role, the following prerequisites need to be in place:
- A clear and communicated mandate – the ordering party, decision-making authority and limits regarding expert and line responsibility must be known.
- Active support and allocated resources from management – The participants need time to contribute and support to manage goal conflicts between functions.
- Defined sandboxes with clear rules of the game – the problem, participants, timeframe, access to information and risk limits need to be defined.
- Trust and respect for expertise – The participants need to be able to highlight uncertainties, test assumptions, and understand each other’s perspectives.
- Common new goals and a recipient within the organization – The attempts should be evaluated and the working methods that work should have a clear owner afterwards.
The organization of the future needs both the depth of specialists and the ability of the integrator to combine their contributions. Organisational sandboxes create space to develop this interaction in practice. The ambition is not more collaboration for the sake of collaboration, but better ways to translate the organization’s collective expertise into business benefits.
Brief definitions
Integrator: A role that brings together the knowledge, perspectives, and working methods of different expert areas around common operational goals. The integrator highlights dependencies, supports joint assessments, and brings together work from problem identification to implementation, so that specialist expertise is translated into business benefits – without taking over the responsibility of the experts.
A defined and timed work environment where different expert areas test solutions and forms of collaboration around a specific operational need. The aim is to develop and evaluate roles, decision-making paths, and working methods within clear frameworks, before implementing a functioning setup into the regular operations.
