Cross-functional teams consist of employees from various departments who come together to collaborate towards meeting company goals. These may be permanent arrangements or all-star squads assembled specifically for projects.
Without proper leadership and communication, this team could quickly go off track. Here are some helpful strategies on how to manage it effectively.
1. Identify the Right People
Create an effective cross-functional team can be challenging. It takes time for people in different departments to understand each other’s roles and responsibilities, and getting everyone on the same page when it comes to goal setting or standard processes. Furthermore, these difficulties can only intensify if members don’t work well together as a unit.
When selecting new members for a cross-functional team, it’s essential that individuals possessing diverse skills and experiences can work effectively together. You should look for team members who are comfortable working across departments and can teach others. Also take into consideration how new team members might develop their management abilities over time. A useful way of finding potential team members is using Runn, which provides a bird’s eye view over each individual’s availability; this way you can quickly assess whether an individual can commit enough time and energy towards cross-functional projects or not.
Once you have identified the ideal team members, it is critical to provide them with clear guidelines and leadership. Make sure that there is one person designated to lead them towards project success; assign metrics/goals so your team can track progress easily; additionally appoint an end-to-end owner who oversees every stage of project lifecycle management is wisely recommended.
As important, it’s also essential that teams have a clear sense of direction and are transparent about how decisions will be made. You should set an exact deadline for completion of the project and ensure each member understands their role and purpose within it. Furthermore, it would be useful if clear protocols existed for communication and conflict resolution between team members.
Though managing cross-functional teams requires extra time and effort, they can be an extremely powerful way of improving your organization’s performance. By pooling expertise from various departments together, cross-functional teams create solutions more effective than any single department could achieve on its own.
2. Establish a Clear Vision
Like with any project, cross-functional teams require everyone on the team to be in agreement about its goals and what needs to be accomplished. This is even more essential as members may work in different departments or not understand each other’s “language.”
Before the team is formed (or at the very start of any project), a clear vision should be established. It should outline specific goals the team should strive towards and how each member fits into this process; having this clear picture makes following protocols much simpler while making everyone aware of their responsibilities.
Vision statements must be short, motivating and measurable so team members can easily track progress and make adjustments as necessary. Now is also an excellent opportunity to determine your project schedule, set deadlines for tasks as well as hold regular meetings with a consistent agenda in order to keep everyone on track.
Diversification should always be at the core of team selection decisions. Multidisciplinary cross-functional teams comprised of people from varying departments, ages, genders and races can bring new insights and innovative solutions into play.
Multidisciplinary teams offer another advantage to companies, particularly those operating across multiple countries or regions. Furthermore, cross-functional teams may help increase employee morale and productivity by offering exciting and challenging work environments.
Cross-functional teams can be an excellent way to tackle complex projects, but managing them effectively does require considerable effort. As with any team, ensuring the right people are present as well as having a solid leadership team is absolutely key to its success. With proper support from management and other members of a cross-functional team’s staff it can become an extremely useful asset in project success.
3. Prioritize Problem-Solving Instead of Open-Ended Discussions
Cross-functional teams form the cornerstone of innovative products, uniting members from different departments and disciplines. If managed well, cross-functional teams can be key in developing and delivering products that outshone competitors; but when mismanaged they can quickly devolve into chaos with missed deadlines and unclear responsibilities.
Setting clear priorities and goals is at the core of effective cross-functional team management, helping all members of a cross-functional team stay on track while dispelling any confusion regarding where their efforts should be focused. Establishing an environment which encourages risk taking can also facilitate successful teamwork as it encourages innovation through mistake making; providing teams with space to experiment, fail safely, learn from their errors, and come up with new solutions to old problems that benefit not only themselves but the organization as they evolve and mature together.
Before beginning any project, it’s essential that all parties involved understand each individual’s current priorities. This is especially crucial when working on cross-functional teams where members may have different priorities due to profession or different experiences in the workplace. As such, understanding where everyone stands on their list and then working collaboratively on prioritizing the overall project are two vital steps.
Untangling cross-functional teams’ communication challenges is another of their primary obstacles, often caused by people not knowing each other or lack of appropriate tools for effective exchange. To address this obstacle, ensure everyone has access to all available communication channels related to your project and are using them regularly; additionally provide a central location where team members can find each other’s contact details easily.
Get the most from your cross-functional teams requires striking a balance between creativity, collaboration, and structure – not an easy feat – yet with the proper tools in place, you can achieve remarkable results and remain on schedule with projects.
Are you interested in learning how to manage cross-functional teams more efficiently? Schedule a demo with Runn. Our team management software will show how it can streamline communication and boost productivity – so that your project delivery can reach new heights!
4. Set Clear Goals
Cross-functional teams often form for projects outside their department’s scope, making it easy for team members to lose sight of project goals and timelines. Managers must keep this top of mind and keep team members moving toward meeting those objectives as quickly as possible.
It can be done by providing regular feedback to the team; ideally this should occur at least weekly. This gives teams an opportunity to discuss results, challenges, successes and issues related to them as well as work together towards solving any that arise. It also gives managers a chance to evaluate progress made over time while making any necessary adjustments moving forward.
Collaborating with a cross-functional team poses many unique challenges for even experienced managers, including diverse working styles and perspectives that may cause conflict between members of the team. To effectively navigate such circumstances, leaders should establish an action plan to manage conflicts while encouraging open communication and mutual respect from day one.
leadership must set clear goals for their team from the outset, using an OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework as a goal-setting method to develop measurable, attainable goals for assessment of team performance by leaders.
Finally, leadership should set clear processes in place for decision-making on their team. This means creating a hierarchy to clearly delineate who is accountable for making decisions and the manner by which decisions are made – this will prevent confusion and inefficiency within their work environment.
Managers who can successfully overcome the common obstacles associated with cross-functional team management will find it incredibly rewarding and difficult work is ultimately more satisfying than expected. By following these tips, managers can ensure their teams are productive, collaborative, and efficient to help reach business outcomes while becoming more successful themselves in their careers.
