Virtual collaborative workspaces, on the other hand, accomplish both things. And it also doesn’t solve the problem of storing and sharing digital assets. Rearranging office space isn’t a long-term solution, since people work better in different environments. Between geographic distances, office arrangements, and separate job functions, it’s impossible.īut creating a workspace that accommodates everyone’s needs, while keeping them in the loop is also incredibly challenging. Your employees can’t effectively communicate, collaborate, share knowledge and manage tasks without the right workspace. Any effort you make to introduce employees and build goodwill between them will help you build a solid foundation for your new organizational workflow. Advise them to connect their team members with other employees in the company who can help them solve problems. Encourage your management teams to get to know each other better and find common ground. So, be intentional about making connections. This can be a major barrier to cross-functional collaboration, as familiarity is what breeds trust. Unless you’ve spent lots of time on team-building and cross-functional work before, your employees probably don’t know each other very well. Doing so will refocus everyone on the big picture and help you kickoff your new workflow, successfully. Sometime during this process, you should also remind your teams about your company’s mission, vision, and goals. In fact, it’s often better to stretch out this step over the course of a few weeks or months to avoid overwhelming people. This doesn’t have to happen all at once, though. Not only will it help employees gain a deeper appreciation for other departments and teams, but it should also get them thinking about potential opportunities for collaborative processes and projects. ![]() Either way, you should take some time to catch everyone up to speed on the projects being worked on across the organization. This might be because the work is team or department specific, or because you’re battling silos. There’s likely a lot of work being done in your company that your employees don’t know about. It’s also important to help your employees see the value of this workflow to their specific job function and responsibilities, as it will give them more incentive to actively participate in it. They should understand what it is, how it works, and why your organization needs it. The first step to building a cross-functional workflow is to educate your teams on it. ![]() How Do You Create a Cross-Functional Workflow? Used correctly, cross-functional workflows can help you ensure that work is done in the most productive way. They keep departments and teams talking via an open network of communication channels, and they provide you with a logical structure for collaborating on projects. It requires teams to be in constant communication with each other and to share the responsibility for tasks and projects.Ĭross-functional workflows help you accomplish both. Why You Need a Cross-Functional WorkflowĬollaborating cross-functionally is about a lot more than periodically getting together to work on a shared project. ![]() By following the steps and suggestions below, you’ll have a solid framework in place to successfully collaborate cross-functionally. That’s why we’ve put together a quick guide to help get you started. But for many, the issue is simply not knowing how to do it right. Innovation slows down (or stops altogether), projects hit roadblocks and people get frustrated.įor some, it may be a force of habit. The reality is, when we choose to work in a vacuum – either by working on our own or by working in a silo – things take longer. This isn’t just about “two heads being better than one” though. One of those things is trying to work in isolation. In fact, we often do things that are counterproductive to efficiency.
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