Misidentifying the Enemy - Increasing Cross-Departmental Teamwork

One of the most common consulting requests we receive involves helping executives and their organization improve cross-departmental teamwork. As organizations grow and competition increases, this lack of teamwork across departments can create serious problems.

 In the business of sports, it’s common knowledge that you can’t consistently win without working as a united team. Unfortunately, some executives and managers don’t feel the same concept applies to their work.

In one extreme case we worked on this year, the executives had not only stopped communicating with each other, they were actively trying to undermine each other’s success. In simplest teams, when managers are not able to work with each other, we describe this phenomenon as misidentifying the enemy. The teams get into turf wars and start battling each other as the enemy instead of the competition. 

If you are still looking for a reason to improve the cross-departmental teamwork in your area, remember, leaders who have a reputation for strong collaboration across departmental lines are more promotable than leaders who have a reputation for building a fence around their turf. Here are some ways to help your organization build strong cross-departmental collaboration.

Be clear on the mission, vision and goals of the organization. Firefighters, when on an emergency call, seldom face a lack of cross-departmental communication and teamwork. This is because the collective mission is crystal clear: Save someone’s life, or put out the fire. The power of a united team is significantly more effective than the work of individuals when it comes to achieving a mission. Could you imagine an engineer on a firetruck telling the rest of the crew, “My job is to flawlessly drive you to the scene and turn on the water pumps if needed. I did my job, now you go save those people.”

We can chuckle at this example, but the equivalent of this happens in organizations every day. “Our job in marketing is to get the message out. We’ve done our job, the problem is in sales and operations.” The first step to success is to gain agreement, from all departments, on a common mission, vision and goal.

Be a bridge builder. There are two types of managers: bridge builders and fence builders. Fence builders do their best to grow their departments, steer more resources into their area, and isolate exactly what they are responsible for delivering. Fence builders don’t want anyone communicating with members or their team unless the communication goes through them. With a good fence built around their department, the goal is to have less communication and reliance on cross-departmental teamwork. Fence builders are famous for words such as, “We’re too busy to meet,” or, “If everyone would do their job, we wouldn’t need to meet.” Bridge builders, on the other hand, are leading at a higher level. They recognize the importance of everyone working toward a common vision and goals and are actively building bridges between departments to make that happen.

Hold consistent cross-departmental meetings. When two departments are dysfunctional and not working well as a team, they will do anything humanly possible not to meet. When people know they’re going to meet face-to-face on a regular basis, there’s a strong chance they will start to work better as a team. As a bridge building leader, recognize that people are going to fight this initiative initially, and it will take strong leadership to improve cross-departmental teamwork.

Reward collaborative behaviors. Promote and reward the people who do what’s right for the organization, not the people who do what’s right for them individually and their specific team. Fence builders create teamwork problems that leaders need to waste valuable time trying to resolve. Reward the people who avoid or solve problems by working together, rather than forcing the leader to get involved to take sides or make a decision.

Take a strong stand. As a leader, you always have a choice. You can weaken cross-departmental teamwork by meeting individually with employees and listening to them complain about all the others, and you can set individual goals that ensure internal competition for customers and resources. Or, you can be a bridge builder and lead strong cross-departmental teamwork. You can set goals that all team members need to work together to achieve, and you can hold frequent meetings to help employees resolve differences and ensure they are working toward a common vision and goals.

Improving cross-departmental teamwork creates change that deeply impacts the culture of your organization. People will feel uncomfortable being forced to work with team members they have avoided in the past. If you want your organization to thrive and compete in the market, teams within your organization need to be united. It’s up to you to set the example and make sure each member on your team understands that teamwork is not an option, but a necessity.