Drive Collaboration

The mark of a good manager is commitment to the team. Managers that can guide and motivate a team have the ability to drive bigger efforts and achieve higher levels of impact - for longer - than an individual can. But only if the team works effectively with others.

Which leads to today's Monday Mantra: Drive Collaboration.

Few projects are ever completed in isolation. Sales, marketing, development, test and support are all team sports. They require, and are more successful when, individuals pool their talents to define and deliver the best possible approach to solving a problem. The challenge is that defining the 'best' approach is subjective. And when a cross-functional team is collaborating on a project, there are likely to be multiple opinions - and agendas.

This can make collaboration on project execution difficult for even the most seasoned manager, especially if things become... political. To avoid conflict that can slow down or derail efforts, it is important to:

• Define Arbitrators: To resolve differences in opinions, any cross-functional team requires at least 2 arbitrators. A team leader and an executive sponsor. The team leader should be a good listener and be viewed as responsible (no RACI - just R!) for outcomes. The executive sponsor should be viewed as the supreme court - impartial and only pulled in when things become contentious or compromise is not possible.
• Publish a Plan: If you have a short document / presentation that outlines goals and tactics to achieve those goals, it forces alignment - even if team members change. Make sure the plan contains enough background detail to justify decisions so you can avoid 'well I think' conversations. Also, make sure it covers 6, 12 or 18 months and is not a bulleted list of things to do over the next few weeks. That isn't a plan.
• Meet Regularly: Even if your cross-functional group is only 'loosely' formed - engaging periodically - the fact is that you are still working towards a common goal (alliances are a great example that cover GTM, engineering, etc.). To ensure you stay aligned, have the full team meet regularly, do read outs to leadership periodically and do a mandatory progress review quarterly where you can cover data-driven adjustments to the plan - cannot 'well I think' or 'this 1 person said' adjustments (arbitrator makes the call).

The other thing I would say is to be open-minded and tell team members to DOCUMENT bad behavior immediately. You can't always root out bad apples, but if you document what they are doing, you can ensure that the arbitrator and executive sponsor consider carefully - and objectively - any commentary that comes from someone causing trouble.

To be sure, there a lot more that goes in to cross-functional collaboration, and entire books have been written on the ideas of win-win (or win-win-win), listening, influence, etc. But where I've seen the biggest breakdowns over 20 years is around these 3 bulleted areas. If you do those, the rest becomes exponentially easier.

With that said. Have a great week and be the leader your people need you to be.