Back to Chapter 2

Practice area 2

Out of 9

Integrating practices across teams

Integrating practices across teams includes the activities, methods and tools that establish the collaborative behaviours required to embed journey management across an organisation. This practice area focuses on building cross-functional literacy, distributing operational ownership, setting quality standards for shared assets, and piloting new delivery models. It also encompasses the enablement, cultural reinforcement and change management efforts necessary to sustain ways of working across teams.

What activities, methods and tools make up this practice?

Survey respondents first rated the relevance of each practice (0–5, from 'not relevant at all' to 'very relevant'). For practices scoring 3 or higher, respondents scored their organisation's effectiveness in applying them (0–5, from 'not effective at all' to 'very effective'). The chart above shows both the range and average scores for relevance and effectiveness across each practice.

Avg relevance 2.01–3.98 · Avg effectiveness 2.67–3.72
12345
Internal mapping services
Piloting and trialling
Integration of practices
Co-creating and distributing ownership
Journey literacy
Defining tasks and responsibilities
Reviewing quality
RelevanceEffectivenessAverage

Insight

Delivering internal mapping services work well from the start

Internal mapping services are the one practice that doesn’t depend much on an organisation's practice stage. 67% of respondents state that delivering Internal mapping services across the business is either very or extremely relevant when integrating journey management across the business, and almost half (49%) say that they are very or extremely effective at delivering this. Applicability only varies by 0.28 between emerging and advanced practices.

Insight

Delivering internal mapping services work well from the start

Internal mapping services are the one practice that doesn’t depend much on an organisation's practice stage. 67% of respondents state that delivering Internal mapping services across the business is either very or extremely relevant when integrating journey management across the business, and almost half (49%) say that they are very or extremely effective at delivering this. Applicability only varies by 0.28 between emerging and advanced practices.

Insight

Delivering internal mapping services work well from the start

Internal mapping services are the one practice that doesn’t depend much on an organisation's practice stage. 67% of respondents state that delivering Internal mapping services across the business is either very or extremely relevant when integrating journey management across the business, and almost half (49%) say that they are very or extremely effective at delivering this. Applicability only varies by 0.28 between emerging and advanced practices.

Insight

Approaches that change other people’s capability and accountability take time

Other practices that seek to build the capability of others, such as increasing Journey literacy, co-creating and distributing ownership and integrating practices into existing workflows, are harder and have a much wider gap between how relevant they are and how effective organisations are at implementing them. Effectiveness scores for these across emerging and established practices are far lower than for advanced-stage practices.

Insight

Approaches that change other people’s capability and accountability take time

Other practices that seek to build the capability of others, such as increasing Journey literacy, co-creating and distributing ownership and integrating practices into existing workflows, are harder and have a much wider gap between how relevant they are and how effective organisations are at implementing them. Effectiveness scores for these across emerging and established practices are far lower than for advanced-stage practices.

Insight

Approaches that change other people’s capability and accountability take time

Other practices that seek to build the capability of others, such as increasing Journey literacy, co-creating and distributing ownership and integrating practices into existing workflows, are harder and have a much wider gap between how relevant they are and how effective organisations are at implementing them. Effectiveness scores for these across emerging and established practices are far lower than for advanced-stage practices.

Insight

Organisations don't 'feel' more effective in this practice area until practices are at a more advanced stage

Early-stage and Established practices rate these practices as more relevant than effective by about half a point. On average, they’re “very” relevant but only “moderately” effective. Advanced or Leading practices close the gap completely. They rate them slightly more effective (4.16 out of 5) than relevant (4 out of 5). Effectiveness rises more than twice as much as relevance (+1.09 vs +0.43), and the effectiveness difference is significant (p = .008). Advanced practices don’t consider these more relevant (the relevance gap is only 0.44), but they’re much better at making them work.

Insight

Organisations don't 'feel' more effective in this practice area until practices are at a more advanced stage

Early-stage and Established practices rate these practices as more relevant than effective by about half a point. On average, they’re “very” relevant but only “moderately” effective. Advanced or Leading practices close the gap completely. They rate them slightly more effective (4.16 out of 5) than relevant (4 out of 5). Effectiveness rises more than twice as much as relevance (+1.09 vs +0.43), and the effectiveness difference is significant (p = .008). Advanced practices don’t consider these more relevant (the relevance gap is only 0.44), but they’re much better at making them work.

Insight

Organisations don't 'feel' more effective in this practice area until practices are at a more advanced stage

Early-stage and Established practices rate these practices as more relevant than effective by about half a point. On average, they’re “very” relevant but only “moderately” effective. Advanced or Leading practices close the gap completely. They rate them slightly more effective (4.16 out of 5) than relevant (4 out of 5). Effectiveness rises more than twice as much as relevance (+1.09 vs +0.43), and the effectiveness difference is significant (p = .008). Advanced practices don’t consider these more relevant (the relevance gap is only 0.44), but they’re much better at making them work.

Methods, tools and activities that make up this practice area

Journey literacy

Educating and training teams in journey maps and tools, research practices, human-centred design methods or shared terminology

Internal mapping services

Delivering journey mapping and or research services to different teams across the business

Co-creating & distributing ownership

Involving stakeholders directly in journey work and transferring ongoing responsibility for journeys into relevant operational teams

Integration of practices

Establishing new rhythms and workflows to ensure activities are embedded across ways of working, such as agile ceremonies and/or product or project delivery cycles

Gaining and retaining the buy-in of participating teams

Securing and retaining leadership endorsement for journey initiatives, participation from team managers or SMEs

Defining tasks and responsibilities

Defining new journey management tasks and responsibilities

Reviewing quality

Articulating quality standards, conducting quality assessments, audits or reviews of journey maps and assets

What challenges do organisations experience with this practice?

The following challenges summarise the core themes identified across participant interviews. Survey participants rated the frequency of each challenge. The graph below compares average scores by different stages of practice:

Emerging practicesEstablishedLeading
Low awareness of valueSkills and adoptionLimited leadershipsponsorship and investmentResistance to researchand journey practicesInconsistent pilotparticipation

Insight

All challenges are felt similarly by all organisations regardless of their stage of practice

All challenges scored within an average range of 3.59 out of five and 3.67 out of five. This means, regardless of their stage of practice (emerging, established or advanced) organisations consistently score the frequency of all challenges between "sometimes" to "often".

Insight

All challenges are felt similarly by all organisations regardless of their stage of practice

All challenges scored within an average range of 3.59 out of five and 3.67 out of five. This means, regardless of their stage of practice (emerging, established or advanced) organisations consistently score the frequency of all challenges between "sometimes" to "often".

Insight

All challenges are felt similarly by all organisations regardless of their stage of practice

All challenges scored within an average range of 3.59 out of five and 3.67 out of five. This means, regardless of their stage of practice (emerging, established or advanced) organisations consistently score the frequency of all challenges between "sometimes" to "often".

Insight

The frequency of challenges does not diminish the more advanced you get

While there are small fluctuations between practice stages, no challenge shows a statistically significant decline over time or with increased effectiveness. Even the most advanced practices continue to face hurdles in driving cross-team buy-in and adoption. This persistent prevalence indicates that cross-team integration challenges stem largely from structural or cultural factors independent of practice effectiveness. Rather than reflecting a team's proficiency (skill and know-how) in driving alignment or influencing stakeholders, these challenges are shaped by broader organisational and external dynamics unrelated to Journey Management.

Insight

The frequency of challenges does not diminish the more advanced you get

While there are small fluctuations between practice stages, no challenge shows a statistically significant decline over time or with increased effectiveness. Even the most advanced practices continue to face hurdles in driving cross-team buy-in and adoption. This persistent prevalence indicates that cross-team integration challenges stem largely from structural or cultural factors independent of practice effectiveness. Rather than reflecting a team's proficiency (skill and know-how) in driving alignment or influencing stakeholders, these challenges are shaped by broader organisational and external dynamics unrelated to Journey Management.

Insight

The frequency of challenges does not diminish the more advanced you get

While there are small fluctuations between practice stages, no challenge shows a statistically significant decline over time or with increased effectiveness. Even the most advanced practices continue to face hurdles in driving cross-team buy-in and adoption. This persistent prevalence indicates that cross-team integration challenges stem largely from structural or cultural factors independent of practice effectiveness. Rather than reflecting a team's proficiency (skill and know-how) in driving alignment or influencing stakeholders, these challenges are shaped by broader organisational and external dynamics unrelated to Journey Management.

Insight

Advanced practices face leadership sponsorship challenges most often

55% face it often or very often, the highest of any stage, even though their average score is slightly lower than early-stage practices. This suggests that as Journey Management scales, securing ongoing sponsorship and investment becomes a more frequent issue.

Insight

Advanced practices face leadership sponsorship challenges most often

55% face it often or very often, the highest of any stage, even though their average score is slightly lower than early-stage practices. This suggests that as Journey Management scales, securing ongoing sponsorship and investment becomes a more frequent issue.

Insight

Advanced practices face leadership sponsorship challenges most often

55% face it often or very often, the highest of any stage, even though their average score is slightly lower than early-stage practices. This suggests that as Journey Management scales, securing ongoing sponsorship and investment becomes a more frequent issue.

Challenges that organisations experience

Limited leadership sponsorship and investment

Having to defend, justify or secure the time, funding and resources required for research initiatives and journey mapping

Low awareness of value
Skills and adoption
Inconsistent pilot participation
Other practice areas to explore

Practice area 1

Practice area 2

Practice area 3

Practice area 4

Practice area 5

Practice area 6

Practice area 7

Practice area 8

Practice area 9

Get new findings
& report updates

By subscribing, you agree to receive communications about the State of Journey Management report.

state of

journey

management

About

Report

Survey

Legal Notice

Privacy Policy

© 2026 Stickdorn Service Design GmbH

Made with Framer by Sayali Bharambe