In my work experience at Bristol-Myers Squibb, I noticed key environmental factors that influenced how the company functioned. Their organizational culture/ structure were very well defined into specialized departments (silos) that preformed primarily project based tasks. In addition, the Symyx electronic notebook was heavily utilized to record results.
As far as organizational procedures, BMS employed its “standard method” in its approach in the analytical chemistry department. In addition, as also stated by ginger Anderson, SOP’s are also frequently utilized.
Now if I was charged to initiate a project within my previous department utilizing these methods, I would call together the department into a meeting so that I could get all staff on the same page and then hold further meetings with the senior employees to further get my point across. In addition, I would track progress though the periodic review of the electronic notebooks to make sure the project was progressing as planned.