Most organizations understand the importance of inter-team collaboration and actively encourage it with team bonding activities and group discussions. However, interdepartmental cooperation can be just as crucial. Here is how to improve cross-team collaboration in your organization.
Encourage Collaboration
Creating a culture of active collaboration will go far. Be sure to develop channels of communication between various teams and departments. This will make it easier for them to work together and make your business feel more cohesive rather than disjointed and separate.
Allow your employees to broaden their knowledge base by learning from experts in other departments. This will streamline your processes and ensure that employees aren’t reinventing ideas that other departments have already brainstormed.
Limit Meetings
This may seem counterintuitive, but overscheduling meetings can frustrate employees and make it more difficult for them to complete their individual tasks. Instead, limit the number of department- and company-wide meetings you schedule.
When you do have a meeting, you should make the most of your time with a concise, strict agenda. Document any information discussed and redistribute it to attendees after the meeting is over to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Host Leadership Development Workshops
Leadership development workshops provide many benefits. They can go a long way toward ensuring that the company’s leadership is on the same page. They can also get your executive leadership working to solve the same problems and face the same challenges.
Furthermore, they can be very effective when setting clear objectives. Collect information on challenges each department faces, and look for common threads. See where the overlap lies, then determine whether interdepartmental solutions can solve these issues. After that, set clear objectives and next steps for each department. You should plan to follow up in the future. From there, you can adjust your approach as needed.
With these strategies, cross-team collaboration within your business should improve in no time.