You’re leading a change initiative. How can you build a cross-functional team that drives results?

Understanding your objectives, the ‘why’ behind them, and your success metrics is just the beginning. As you assemble your team, consider the diversity of thought, experience, and background as key elements in driving innovation and overcoming challenges. Diverse teams are not just a matter of equity but a strategic advantage. Remember, the strength of a team lies not in its similarity, but in its diversity. This approach will not only help you achieve your goals but also foster a culture of learning and adaptability, which is crucial for the success of any change initiative.

I agree, in fact assessing the landscape with a clear business outcome in mind, helps the team rally around the common goal. In addition, clarity in the role and ownership for each of the teams to achieve this goal ensures their buy-in is measurable. Change management in itself is a journey, the driving forces will constantly need to remind themselves to let the pit stops and the potholes are part and parcel of it. Communication will play the key factor in driving change management success with stronger collaboration in cross functional teams.

You can take a system thinking approach at addressing the problem. A systems map will help people from the team to understand the dependence as well as the feedback loops (negative or positive). A better understanding of each other allows team members to be more emotionally, intelligent and more productive as a team.

Projects with strong cross-functional collaboration have a 76% success rate, according to Stanford-based transformational leadership expert Behnam Tabrizi. My keys to success: 1. Scope out the challenge/opportunity, and identify functions needed. What are the risks, and who are the internal experts who can understand and mitigate these risks 2. 'Goldilocks' team size: Make sure that the team is not so large that progress is stalled, and not too small to create blind spots. Typically 6-10: A meeting should have no more than the number of people you can feed with two pizzas (Jeff Bezos) 3. Set goals as a team, with intermediate milestones. Share progress, identify + remove barriers, and celebrate small wins along the way. Your thoughts?

Diversity is not a nice to have, it brings better business results ? A cross-functional team thrives on diversity — not just in skills but in thought, experience, and perspective. Make sure you pick persons accordingly. However, establishing a common language and understanding is crucial. Everyone should rally behind the common vision. Trust and transparency will help through turbulent times. Good luck!

When leading a change initiative that required a cross functional team, we need to understand what is the value that the change brings to each team. Then we identify a person in that each team that is receptive to general change and has a presence that gives confidence. Talk with each of them about the change and how it will benefit the team and them. Ask them how they feel about it and the willingness to become part of the team to lead the change. Treat them with respect for the knowledge they have, and influence they carry within their team. Draw from your experience to establish mutual benefit in the change success. Reassure them that time spent is applied to important change tasks. Align with them what success looks like in the change.

In many cases, I found that some of the cross functional team members mostly come from or represent critical stakeholders. They make part of their organizations. The cross functional team members skills, social capital and their managerial cognitions are critical for their success as a team. The cross-functional team lead is a critical player to defining goals, engaging the team members and setting success metrics. The leader is the glue of the cross-functional team operation.

Getting the right team together is vitally important. You need people that bring different perspectives, have an action oriented mindset, demonstrated leadership and a strong sense of responsibility/accountability. It’s important that they represent their team and are decision makers. With all this said the one element that I cannot underscore enough is Attitude. Having a collaborative attitude on a team makes such a difference. I know people usually say assume positive intent… I like to say engage with positive intent.

People is key. Always. Growth mindset, out of the box thinking, creativity - best collaboration happens putting various skillsets & experiences, backgrounds together. Each individual keeps on learning from each other at the same time stepping into new learning experience themselves!

The right people on the team make all the difference in the world when implementing a cross-functional change. You want diverse perspectives, levels in the organization and representation from multiple departments or functions. Look for individuals that have subject matter expertise, different amounts of tenure with the organization and positive attitudes.

En muchos proyectos se llega a perder el objetivo, el scope del proyecto por la falta de seguimiento y sobretodo por la laxitud en el cumplimento de las normas, además porque a medida que se logra caminar el camino trazado, las expectativas cambian de manera involuntaria así que hay que tener anotada toda esta información para recuperarla sesión de seguimiento a sesión de seguimiento.

It's critical to specifically plan for how decisions will be made throughout the process. By definition, a cross-functional team does not have a clear hierarchy the way an established team does. Some projects benefit when a less-experienced subject matter expert is given more authority because of their experience in a certain area. Prevent power struggles and feedback hesitation by defining key decision milestones, creating a decision framework to objectively make those decisions, and identify who has input and the final say using a RACI chart or similar tool to explicitly distribute the decision-making roles.

To build an effective cross-functional team for a change initiative, strategically plan and take deliberate actions. Key steps include articulating clear objectives, identifying diverse skills, fostering trust and collaboration, defining roles and responsibilities, promoting shared leadership, establishing robust communication channels, encouraging innovation, providing adequate resources, celebrating achievements, emphasizing adaptability, and implementing KPIs for continuous progress tracking. This approach ensures a united and efficient team that collaborates effectively to drive impactful results in the change initiative.

Define Team Protocols and Standards With your team assembled, it's crucial to establish clear protocols and standards for collaboration. This entails detailing each member's roles and duties, laying out the procedures for making decisions, identifying methods of communication, and setting up systems for providing feedback. Moreover, it's important to set concrete guidelines for collaborative efforts including conflict resolution, information sharing, and mutual support. Involving your team in the development of these rules and expectations can enhance their engagement and dedication to the group's mission.

It is not a matter of you CAN involve your team in creating these norms but you SHOULD involve your team in creating these norms! Don’t forget to have the regular courageous conversations on how the team feels they live up to norms and expectations and where norms or attitude or behavior needs to be adjusted. Continuous improvement is a continuous team effort!

In my experience, it’s important to have clarity of purpose and value generation for all key stakeholders. Get the co-ownership and buy-in upfront from business teams or multidisciplinary teams, and follow through from start to finish. Definitely listening and learning from team members is important. Also, showcasing small successes which build the confidence and momentum to scale up globally.

Offer training and development opportunities to fill any skill gaps within the team. As a leader, provide constant support to the team. This includes being available to address concerns, remove obstacles, and facilitate decision-making. Implement tools and platforms that facilitate collaboration and communication across the team, especially if members are distributed or remote.

1.Enable people to be successful by asking them what they think they need first. 2.Motivate people to work together. Think about what gets them going! 3.Create a kit with templates, micro-learnings, and job aids. 4. Don’t forget to do regular pulse-checks. Seize the opportunity to polish the approach, and to make it better for your team by listening to each person.

The buy in aspect is key to an initiative like this… without almost complete buy in, most of the time endeavors like this will fail. Progress has to be shown along the way in the form of meaningful metrics. Communication in the most effective ways is absolutely necessary. People generally don’t like change, so everything you can to to cast a positive light on the initiative is critical to overcoming slow to adopt stakeholders. People believing the change will be beneficial is critical to success. You have to sell it, then deliver what you sold.

I was working as Improvement projects manager, and passed through several change initiatives, and from my past experience I want to confirm that cross-functional team is a critical success factor for that change as Change Initiative is a strategic process and no one can achieve it personally, to achieve that I was always in direct communications with the whole departments through periodic meetings and emails, change agent should be very clear in supplying the data and support the whole system for better understanding for everyone, as we should all work together to push the organization forward against any resistance.

Los cambios disruptivos son muy difíciles de implantar, si la organización no lo percibe como una necesidad a gritos. Soy mas partidària de hacerlo como la història de la Rana e ir calentando el agua a poco a poco. La adaptabilidad y la resilència mejoran y los cambios sedimentan y consolidan mejor, cuando poco a poco vas aumentando los professionales convencidos, y q ademas se sienten parte del cambio, porque han participado en él. Se implican en los resultados. Sin Prisa però sin pausa. Enfoque y perseverància. Paciència y mucha comunicación, mucha, mucha.

Monitoring and evaluating the progress is the most crucial step for any change, it defines where gaps can be, also, defines what enhancement can take place for efficiency. Finally, while taking feedback from related stakeholders, it generates useful ideas which can be beneficial for the initiative.

I think one of the biggest things that people overlook is the need for regular check-ins and giving the opportunity or set space to bring up issues. Change is hard, and you have to make the time to manage it. Weekly check-ins with the team leading up to and immediately during a change are my go-to. Some people like to chime that it’s overkill, but I believe you can never have too much communication. The odds are when you start to think you are communicating too much, you’re just starting to communicate enough.

Based on my experience, monitoring progress is key not just during the change program but also after completion. I used to tell my team that we had a phase after roll-out when we would need to work with critical stakeholders to truly embed the change to ensure it’s longer term success. Evaluating progress during this transition period is vital to sustaining the change in the longer term.

Monitoring and evaluating the progress of a cross-functional team is not just about the outputs, it's also about the HOW. What we sometimes forget is that even though we all work for the same organisation, each function has its own language, sub-culture and ways of working. So when you have a team with people from a range of different functions, tension can arise because we assume that everyone shares a common understanding and approach. It's helpful to build in time to review how the team is working together and asking questions like: - How are we feeling about how we collaborate? - What are the behaviours that surface in our meetings that are not productive? - What's going on with our team and how can we take it to the next level?

Embedded in the question is the first sign of a problem. The assumption is that you need a “cross-functional team” to deliver the result. The question is preemptive and jumps to conclusions. The team you need will depend on WHAT change you are enacting. Jumping to conclusions can lead to lost time, energy, as well as escalating (and unnecessary) costs. My advice: Focus on WHAT is changing before you jump to HOW you might bring about this change.

I spend a lot of time helping clients build change capability and practice that supports this. One of the biggest blind spots, and I see this repeatedly, is that those that lead (or typically commission) the creation of 'change teams' fail to ensure that they also consider what capability they themselves need to develop, and also often fail to support these teams on an on-going basis. Change is in effect sub-contracted to these teams, and I often notice they struggle to get time with the very people who are making decisions that impact change they are supposed to facilitate/support/deliver etc. It is a form of psychological splitting, the creation of a container for anxiety that leaders then do not have to deal with.

I am confused that there is the idea that a person would lead a change initiative and NOT have a cross-functional team? I mean, how does that work? For any organisational change to happen, you need the help of people across the operations and support teams. It is impossible for the change to happen without them. Change is not a one man band activity!

This doesn't need to be so complicated, start by asking these 2 questions: - what are the benefits we want from the change? - who will get the benefits of it? Build a team, a community would be a better term, which includes sponsors for the benefits and influential people who are closer to the issues that need fixing, to support the sponsor with engaging people and teams locally.

Building a cross functional team that drive results is about defining the problem, involving the right stakeholders across multiple teams, and aligning on a shared success criteria. I’ve managed many cross functional teams, and it always comes down to being clear on the problem you’re trying to solve, inviting multiple view points, being clear on roles & responsibilities, and executing against the plan with flexibility to adapt / change.