Tips to Improve Cross-Team Collaboration at Your Business

Interdepartmental communication drives business growth through cost savings, productivity enhancements, and creative problem-solving. When your teams communicate and collaborate effectively, you can feel confident that everyone is working towards the same goals. But cross-functional team collaboration isn’t always easy. Cross-team collaboration can fail for several reasons, from poor management strategies to a lack of employee accountability. Here are some tips from Dunhill Staffing Systems to help you create a culture of communication and collaboration among your teams.

Strategies for Creating Collaborative Reports

Often, cross-functional teams need to work together to produce and present reports to leadership. Give your teams the tools they need to excel at this task. If your teams have several documents, charts, and graphics to include in their presentation, help them stay organized with digital document tools. For example, you can use a PDF tool to add an additional page to PDFs. This tool will also allow your team members to delete, rotate, or reorder pages.

Common Communication Failure Points

Even with access to the right tools, cross-functional teams can fail for a number of reasons. According to Virtira, a whopping 75% of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional. Teams that collaborate poorly struggle most with meeting budgets, staying on schedule, adhering to team roles, meeting customer specifications, and aligning with the company’s overall goals.

There are several red flags that increase the chance that cross-functional teams will perform poorly. Teams without a systemic approach, accountability, clear goals, clear governance, or a focus on overall success are likely to fail. What’s more, 76% of employees say that a company’s collaboration style directly reflects the company culture.

Establishing a Culture of Collaboration

Establishing a company culture that prioritizes and values communication is key to avoiding these failure points. ContactMonkey.com explains that complaints about workplace communication issues often point to broader cultural problems, like ambiguous goals, inconsistent expectations, lack of diversity, and lack of accountability.

To build a better company culture around cross-functional team communication, try to lead by example. Listen to your employees and communicate with them openly. Over-communicate during times of change and ask for regular feedback from your team. Your goal is to make communication feel easy and comfortable for everyone at your business.

Using Technology to Improve Communication

 Tools that facilitate internal communication will make it easier for your cross-functional teams to stay in touch. Instant messaging tools are a must! Apps like Slack and Flock are designed for instant communication of text, images, videos, documents, and web links. These tools are superior to email for quick conversations and group collaboration. Used in conjunction with collaboration software such as Google Docs, your teams will be able to work together on projects as efficiently as possible.

 Hiring the Right Employees

In the end, there’s only so much you can do as a manager to encourage good cross-team collaboration. You must rely on the communication skills of your individual team members. This is why it’s important to hire staff who are excellent team players and strong communicators. When you interview potential candidates, keep an eye out for essential communication skills including listening, nonverbal communication, clarity and conciseness, confidence, friendliness, and open-mindedness to new ideas.

Cross-functional teams that communicate well are positioned to succeed. Support your teams’ collaboration efforts by acknowledging potential failure points, creating a workplace culture that prioritizes communication, and providing your employees with the right technology, such as PDF tools, to create collaborative reports. Help your employees stay connected, and their performance will improve significantly!

 

Are you looking for new employees? Dunhill Staffing Systems is a full-service staffing agency servicing companies across the nation. Contact us today so we can discuss your recruitment needs!