Unifying Cross-Functional Teams Across Hybrid, Remote, In-Person, and Different Time Zones: Breaking Down Silos for Seamless Collaboration
It all begins with an idea. Here are ad hoc action plans how you can break down silos and improve cross-functional collaboration:
Make sure your strengths are visible to broader team, so they know and they can utilise your help when needed. You can do this by making it visible on your profile what you can do for the team, or send an email to relevant department describing how you can contribute.
Offer to help within certain project if you have knowledge and experience that can help
Get to know your wider team - call people for quick 15 minutes virtual coffees, ask them about their work, their goals, and see how can you help them to reach that goals
Leaders need to help people develop the capacity to overcome these challenges on both individual and organizational levels. That means providing training in and support for four practices that enable effective interface work.
Be Cultural Broker - Cultural brokers promote cross-boundary work in one of two ways: by acting as a bridge or as an adhesive. A bridge offers himself as a go-between, allowing people in different functions or geographies to collaborate with minimal disruption to their day-to-day routine. Bridges are most effective when they have considerable knowledge of both sides and can figure out what each one needs.
Be a Role Model - Asking questions also conveys the humility that more and more business leaders and researchers are pointing to as vital to success. According to Laszlo Bock, Google’s former senior vice president of people operations, humble people are better at bringing others together to solve tough problems. In a fast-changing business environment, humility—not to be confused with false modesty—is simply a strength. Its power comes from realism (as in It really is a complex, challenging world out there; if we don’t work together, we don’t stand a chance).
I hope this helps.
