CROSS-FUNCTIONAL

COLLABORATION
 WHAT IS A CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION?

Cross-functional collaboration is collaboration between people from

different teams or departments, with a common goal.

WHAT IS A CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM?

A cross-functional team is a group of people from different functional parts of an

organization, who work together to achieve a common objective. These are groups
consisting of a small number of people with complementary skills, who are mutually
accountable and responsible for:
• Developing new products;
• Improving customer relationship;
• Re-imagining organizational processes;
• Improving organizational performance.
 W H AT A R E T H E C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S O F A N E F F E C T I V E C R O S S - F U N C T I O N A L T E A M ?

For Prospectors and Analyzers, cross-functional collaboration plays a crucial role in

establishing effective teams. It is the driving force behind high-performing and sustainable teams.
• Cross-functional teams are unavoidable when it comes to projects that require people with different
skill sets and from different functional parts of the company. In these situations, they have
various benefits, such as:
• Increasing the speed of development;
• Driving continuous improvement within the company;
• Reducing cost;
• Enabling agility and adaptability;
• Enabling creative problem-solving and innovativeness.
 Effective cross-functional collaboration empowers teams to deliver all of these
benefits, and be as productive as possible.
In this segment, we will take a closer look at the features of high-performing cross-
functional teams. The more characteristics from the following list a team has, the more
likely it is to be successful.
• Permanence
• Clear, compelling, and challenging goals
• Positive climate
• Empowerment
• Exemplary leadearship
• Support from senior management
• Team champions
• Excellent communication
10 BEST PRACTICES TO HELP IMPROVE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL
TEAM COLLABORATION

• Select the right team members

• Provide appropriate training
• Assign an experienced leader
• Set clear organizational objectives
• Create key performance indicators
• Use boundary objects; It can be 1.) Concrete boundary object 2.) Epistemic boundary object
• Be transparent about rewards and repercussions
• Recognize the value of diversity at work
• Ensure your technology stack enables collaboration