As a cross-functional team leader, you need to communicate and report your team's performance results and recommendations to different stakeholders, such as senior management, clients, or other teams. How do you do this effectively and persuasively? Here are some tips to help you:
Before you prepare your communication and report, you need to understand who your audience is, what they care about, and what they expect from you. For example, senior management may want to see the big picture, the strategic alignment, and the return on investment of your team's work. Clients may want to see the value proposition, the customer feedback, and the next steps. Other teams may want to see the collaboration, the best practices, and the lessons learned. Tailor your message, tone, and format to suit your audience's needs and preferences.
Make sure you are clear about how your team, your project, your mission drives to the corporate goals. How does it support the mission and vision of the company? How does it achieve the revenue and growth metrics? Who does it impact in the company, ie; what resources do you need to get it done?
In my experience, when communicating and reporting cross-functional team performance results and recommendations, it is crucial to employ effective strategies. ?? Provide clear and concise information using data and visuals. ?? Emphasise the impact on organisational goals, processes, and stakeholders. ?? Tailor the message to different audiences, adapting language and examples. ?? Present actionable recommendations supported by evidence. ?? Use visuals such as charts and graphs to enhance understanding. By employing these strategies, you can effectively communicate and report your cross-functional team's performance results and recommendations to different stakeholders, ensuring a clear understanding and fostering meaningful engagement.
I concur with the above narrative re: "knowing your audience" to address communication strategies/approaches. In my experience, especially whenever leading a large-scaled cross-functional project team, within a cross-divisional business environment, it is imperative to learn the expectations, objectives, goals of key stakeholders (i.e. Project Sponsors, Business units impacted. etc.)…assuming kickoff meetings, project scope have been defined...the above next steps should occur (e.g. questionnaires, surveys conducted, with returned feedback received from identified senior management/key stakeholders, et al). The accepted communications & reporting strategies should be followed throughout the entire accepted program/project(s) life cycles
Typically, cross-functional teams are formed to complete specific projects and have finite life-cycle. Each function contributes expert skills in various areas such as technology, engineering, finance, risk management, etc. towards meeting the common objective. While each function plays a specific role and delivers certain outputs, providing information about the current state of the overall project objective; each individual work-stream state; budget state, challenges encountered in the period, sharing best practices and work to be completed, is highly advisable. So knowing your audience is key in providing timely, quality, complete and reliable updates.
Honing in on the key areas that require collaboration across teams is a good starting point. You can then focus on those areas first and vary the level of detail depending on the audience. For the executive team, crisp messaging outlying key takeaways and requests for help are important. For the broader audience, more details on progress and roadblocks is important so everyone understands the collaborative work and challenges. You might be surprised at how this approach can create out of the box thinking to address roadblocks. The best solutions can come from other functional areas because they are well grounded on the issues but not limited by the blinders of functional expertise.
Next, you need to define what you want to achieve with your communication and report. What are the main points you want to convey? What are the actions you want your audience to take? What are the benefits and challenges of your team's performance and recommendations? How do you address any potential questions or objections? Having clear and specific goals will help you structure your content, highlight your key messages, and persuade your audience.
In my experience, defining the project goal(s) and objective(s) that the cross-functional team is engaged is of high importance. The project goal(s) and objective(s) must be aligned with company strategy and the sponsor's vision and mandate. Defining and aligning the goal(s) and objective(s) will help facilitate/determine cross functional teams needed and their specific contributions.
It is important to collaborate with leaders and stakeholders upfront and regularly on defining goals, needs, principles, and values around conditions for healthy teams and the organization, as well as delivery of value. Favor where possible collaborative review, getting time at the table with leaders and product teams or product leads together, which will support alignment sooner. And focus on leading indicators, that the product team can influence, which increases the chances of meeting goals.
I agree with Mark (below). And I would add that you should find out what's not important to the various stakeholders. This can become the increased bandwidth the team needs to produce the desired results. No use in trying to produce a result that isn't important to people, even if you, and the team, think it is critical.
To support your communication and report, you need to use data and stories that illustrate your team's performance and recommendations. Data can include quantitative and qualitative metrics, such as sales, revenue, customer satisfaction, feedback, or testimonials. Stories can include anecdotes, case studies, or examples that show how your team solved a problem, created a solution, or delivered a result. Data and stories can help you demonstrate your team's value, impact, and credibility.
To enhance ownership and accountability, I believe each cross functional leader should provide data, stories and present directly to management, the team and all stakeholders. In my view, stories become more powerful when shared directly by team members engaged in the project work.
Depending on your audience, goals, and content, you need to choose the right channel to communicate and report your team's performance and recommendations. You can use different channels, such as email, presentation, video, dashboard, or report. Each channel has its own advantages and disadvantages, such as accessibility, interactivity, visual appeal, or detail. Choose the channel that best suits your purpose, audience, and context.
While it can be exhausting at times, I always err on the side of the channel that suits each audience member. Which means multiple channels and multiple "cuts" of the message. Everyone in an organization has a role, including mine; as a cross-functional team leader, the most important thing I can do I communicate effectively. This keeps everyone informed and highlights when the team is not on the same page. This technique includes standard dashboards and reports, time-triggered flagged emails, slack messages to confluence/jira/asana tasks, and - sad but true - text messages with vital, personalized points and links to the standard material. Ryan "The Office" should have made that "Woof" app!
Finally, you need to seek feedback and follow up on your communication and report. Feedback can help you evaluate your team's performance, improve your communication skills, and build trust and rapport with your audience. You can ask for feedback directly, through surveys, or through informal conversations. Follow up can help you reinforce your message, address any issues, and maintain the relationship with your audience. You can follow up through email, phone, or meeting.
I feel that this are considerations for any communication, but not specific to cross-functional team performance. Plus it is not clear if you are making this to the team itself, or to other audience.
In my experience, cross-functional leadership boils down to having a conversation - just one meaningful conversation at a time. Just talking to people is often overlooked. But before we can start building fancy charts and reports - just talk. People know how to do their jobs. Trust them to do it. What might be missing for them is how what they do affects other departments or impacts a new project. Once you unlock that door, and let them in on the bigger picture, friction disappears and collaboration skyrockets.
When you're working with different teams or business units, it's absolutely vital to have the right people in the room at the right time. And trust me, the sooner, the better! Let's say you have a project that requires input from your legal team. Don't wait until the very end when you're desperate for their sign-off. In my experience, it's best to involve them right from the start when you're shaping the original vision. That way, they can share any concerns or issues they might have. Bringing them into the conversation early on means they can contribute to the design, saving you from having to make big corrections later on.
In a world where everyone has more emails than time in the day, effective and efficient communication is the cornerstone of success. All too often, our key messages get lost at the bottom of a very detailed update. To truly make an impact, harness the power of backward thinking. Starting with the conclusion or outcomes may seem counterintuitive, but we ensure that the "so what" is top of mind and allow the audience to decide how much background information they need for their role. For example, the strategy team may need to know all the points behind the rebranding, but UX only needs to know which version was approved and when it should go live on the website. This approach saves time for teams like UX that only need the decision points.