Recognizing the power of stream-aligned teams
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Successful digital transformation relies on teams empowered to achieve business outcomes. This is nothing new. What is new in 2025 is the broad acknowledgment that the teams should contain both business and operational capabilities. Enter stream-aligned teams.
In our experience leading transformations dating back to 2012, getting team formation, dynamics, and configuration aligned with goals has always been the critical success factor. In simple terms, a stream-aligned team brings together product, technology, and operational business units to be equipped to share and take on accountability for business outcomes.
I’ve talked before about how different types of work require different approaches to setting goals and commitments. For eight years now, our manifesto-of-sorts, “Moving from projects to products“, has promoted the shift from organizing by function and departments to organizing by products and value streams.
Stream-aligned teams: a proven approach
Last year, Gartner named this topic and provided supporting data. In their 2024 report, “Fusion Teams: A Proven Model for Digital Delivery,” the authors provide quantitative evidence that multidisciplinary teams address both key challenges for enterprises undergoing change. Without team formation across different functions, there is significant risk that digital delivery will fail to add value to the business. Stream-aligned teams – or, in Gartner’s terms, fusion teams – meet or exceed transformation goals 71% of the time. Now compare that to Gartner’s average of 48% or with the results in your own organization, and it’s likely to represent a huge step up.
I was particularly delighted to read this. It highlights the criticality of bringing the right people together to pursue value-oriented goals. In 2025, the CIO’s role will be more critical than ever. Successful digital delivery hinges on structuring product development, IT, and business functions into value-stream-aligned teams.
That is why we’ve made this the focus for our first webinar in 2025 – Accelerating value delivery: the power of stream-aligned teams. Emergn and invited experts will convene at a roundtable discussion to dissect the practical side of stream-aligned teams and answer three crucial questions:
- How can you organize your teams around value?
- Where can stream-aligned teams have the most impact?
- What measures can you use to make the business case?
Additional insights
3 game-changing lessons from 2024
The five key areas of transformation fatigue
Embracing uncertainty when making technology investments
