Breaking Down Organizational Silos With Cross-Departmental Teams
Team work and communication are vital in today’s fast-paced business world. It is more important than ever to have your entire organization aligned with the vision and goals of your organization. One way to foster communication and alignment is to create cross-functional or cross-departmental teams. These teams can help open communication that will make your organization agile and quick to respond to a rapidly changing market place. Here are some ways to build and nurture a cross-departmental team.
- Keep busy
Sometimes there is so much going on in a team project that we don’t know where to start. It’s better to dive in and make something happen than it is to wait and be tentative. Other team members appreciate colleagues who get busy and move the team effort forward. - Cooperate with the inevitable
Everyone has worked with a team member who overreacted to every crisis, no matter how small. Not only is it disruptive to the team, but it accomplishes nothing. Every organization has inherent, inevitable challenges like production delays, weather, sales cycles, shipping and receiving errors, staffing challenges, and so on. Deal with it. - Try to profit from your losses
Every team challenge offers an opportunity to create better organizational skills, processes, or relationships. When we view setbacks as opportunities to improve and grow, our attitudes and our chances for success improve dramatically. - Do the very best you can
When team efforts fail to turn out as planned, we feel stressed and worried. It’s even worse when we know that we could have tried harder and done better. When we apply this principle, we guarantee that we will always be able to feel a sense of pride in our work. - Clear your workspace
A clean workspace clears our mind, just as a cluttered, disorganized workspace confuses us and slows us down. Most of us have common workspaces that we share with others. We help the entire team by keeping those spaces organized and cleaning up after ourselves. - Prioritize
Being a member of a work team often means being in the center of shifting priorities. One of our most important challenges is to sort out those priorities and act on them as quickly as possible. This might mean negotiating conflicting priorities within the team. Other members of the team respect and understand shifting priorities when we explain them thoughtfully and honestly. - Solve problems then and there
Procrastination undermines effective teamwork. As team members, we feel anxious and stressed when responsibilities pile up. Other team members appreciate in us an ability to get things done and move on. - Put enthusiasm into your work
Everyone has worked with a team member whose lack of energy and enthusiasm brings down the rest of the team. Despite setbacks, obstacles and frustrations, it is our responsibility as team professionals to maintain our own personal level of enthusiasm and to take on our responsibilities with an upbeat attitude. - Expect ingratitude
In today’s professional work environment, everyone on the team is expected to work hard and do their best. There isn’t necessarily someone telling us what a great job we are doing. In fact, many people may not fully appreciate how much work we do to further the team effort. Waiting for compliments can be an exercise in frustration. When we don’t expect gratitude, it means even more when we get it. - Don’t fuss about trifles
One of the keys to being an effective team member is having the ability to keep things in perspective. There is rarely enough time for any of us to get worked up over insignificant issues. As a team professional, we sort out the important concerns from the unimportant ones and avoid wasting time.
Advertisement
