How to Use Cross-Functional Collaboration to Propel Teamwork

Sometimes, one team just isn’t enough.

So what happens when multiple teams that perform different functions need to work together?

Well, usually, they’ll have a couple of meetings, only to end up not communicating and misaligned on project goals anyway. 

That’s why the project manager in charge needs to facilitate and nurture collaboration — in a process called cross-functional collaboration.

Let’s see what this process is all about and how you can implement it to ensure your next cross-functional project thrives.

What is cross-functional collaboration?

Cross-functional collaboration is the process of teams with different skill sets, expertise, and functions working together. 

This type of collaboration can be deliberate, but it can also happen spontaneously. For example, a sales manager may ask devs about new feature updates so that they can update their pitches. 

Many project goals also require cross-functional collaboration. 

Think of creating a website, for example. From the get-go, you need developers and designers working together, not to mention content, SEO, or any other teams that might be needed. So, if they aren’t able to collaborate well, you’ll get a website that’s a mishmash of different ideas, probably barely functional, and disjointed. 

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Top 4 cross-functional collaboration benefits

No one can argue against collaboration — we all just take for granted that it’s beneficial. And it is!

Here are some of the most important benefits of cross-functional collaboration to keep in mind:

• Team engagement — Cross-functional work introduces a change in what might otherwise be monotonous work. With new challenges and new conversations to strike up, your teams will rely on each other and be more involved in their shared goals.
• Knowledge sharing — Working with different teams will give everyone access to useful knowledge, e.g., a designer learning how to create mockups that are easier for developers to code. Aside from technical knowledge, teams can share productivity tips with each other too. Team members that share expertise like this are beyond valuable, as they always end up increasing the overall productivity and quality of work.
• Refined workflows — When a team member isn’t limited by the team they’re in, you can find tasks for them that perfectly match their skills. As knowledge is shared, team members’ skills expand, allowing them to fill in the blanks for the other teams whenever it’s necessary.
• Improved innovation — You know when you have an idea, and you need a quality brainstorming session? This type of collaboration gives your teams full-time access to exactly that. With different mindsets coming from different fields, your teams will be able to look at a problem from every angle and come up with the best (and most creative) solutions.

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Common cross-functional collaboration challenges + solutions

Connecting teams that have never worked together before comes with its own share of hiccups. It’s good to stay aware of the various types of project risks, so we’ve compiled some issues you might expect to run into — and a few ideas on how you could solve them.

Communication issues

Communication is a key part of collaboration — when teams don’t talk to each other, the whole project can fall apart.

In reality, people who work in different departments are just not used to communicating with each other. While it’s often accidental, not malicious, a lack of communication can cause lots of issues, like: 

• Missed deadlines,
• Quality drops,
• Lower productivity, and 
• A rise in workplace conflict.

Potential solution

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Lack of trust

Working on a project where quality results are expected of you is stressful enough — the last thing you need is working with a bunch of people you don’t know. That’s when the stress can really get to you.

Couple this environment with teams who don’t know each other, and it will often lead to a lack of trust between them. 

Departments who are used to working together are loyal to each other, so outsiders can feel unwelcome. This can easily lead to blaming others if quality is not met, or to a rise in working in silos — a mindset where departments resist sharing information with others. 

However, this is all a means of avoiding the above-mentioned stress.

Potential solution

No cross-collaboration habits

Like we mentioned, teams across an organization usually aren’t used to collaborating cross-functionally. So, when you put them in a cross-functional environment, their habits (the ways in which they’re used to communicating with their own team) may prevent them from collaborating with other teams effectively.

This might seem minor — but if you leave it unchecked, your teams will stay coddled in these habits. So, they’ll end up isolated anyway.

Plus, without proper communication in a cross-functional project, you’ll end up with poor quality results, unmet milestones, missed deadlines, etc.

Potential solution

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Workplace conflict

As opposed to a lack of trust, which is more subtle, with poor cross-functional collaboration, your teams can end up in open conflict.

This is, again, because of the stress of a new environment. If you leave it unchecked, it will distance your teams even more, making communication much more difficult.

After all, a frustrated team may get demoralized, experience drops in productivity, and care less about their own responsibilities overall.

Potential solution

Insufficient collaboration tools

Getting your team hyped to collaborate is worthless without the means to do so, especially if you’re dealing with cross-functional collaboration in remote teams.

Without the right collaborative tool, team members can face missed messages, lost files, and unseen notifications. Plus, even when they try to collaborate, the wrong software can discourage them from doing so.

Eventually, you’ll once again end up with missed deadlines, productivity drops — the whole band.

Potential solution

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Resistance to change

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it — right? This is what most of your teams probably think about your current strategies, so any change can be difficult for them to approve of.

But, team members with resistance to change can slow down your acclimation process, and lead to all of the issues mentioned so far. Let it go unchecked, and you’ll find yourself delaying project kickoff again and again.

Potential solution

How to improve cross-functional collaboration 

We know that collaboration skills are not easily measurable. Indeed, having someone tell you to “just communicate better” can feel frustrating.

So, let’s keep collaboration skills in mind, but talk about some actionable practices for successful cross-functional collaboration.

Use a project management tool

One solution that always does the trick when improving collaboration is using project management software (PM software). Before crafting a collaboration plan, set up a PM tool where teams can share updates about their work, talk to each other about specific tasks, and make sure that no one is isolated.

Using a PM tool:

• Improves communication by giving your teams a clear place to communicate,
• Promotes collaboration by keeping everyone in the loop, and
• Helps you track the success of your collaborative efforts through progress tracking.

Create a collaboration plan

Define why you need your teams to collaborate. A good collaboration plan should include the following:

• Clearly defined goals — When teams know what the end goal of their work is, they can coordinate with each other to achieve those goals. For this purpose, it’s best to set S.M.A.R.T. goals (goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound). For example, instead of saying “The marketing team will create a marketing campaign,” say: “The marketing team should collaborate with the dev team to create a successful product launch campaign over the next 4 months.”
• Transparent team roles — Teams can easily start shifting blame if roles are not properly set up. Defining clear responsibilities increases accountability. Moreover, it lets your teams know exactly who’s responsible for what, and who they can talk to about any task.
• Defined KPIs — You need a way to measure how well your teams are collaborating. This way, if a collaboration problem pops up, you’ll be the first to notice and fix it before it affects the project.

Then, you can use these KPIs to track the success of your collaboration plan as the project goes. By keeping an eye on the results, you can work out kinks as they appear.

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Automate repetitive tasks

Since repetitive tasks can further frustrate and isolate your team, they are the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve. So, get rid of them! Use modern tools to automate repetitive tasks so that your team members can collaborate on things that actually matter.

Practice transparent communication

An actual way to improve communication is by making it more transparent. Basically, always focus on the why of any decision. 

You need to help your team understand the thought process behind them. Plus, a greater level of transparency will give them more peace of mind and make it easier for them to champion those decisions.

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A 5-point kickoff checklist for your cross-functional project

Cross-functional collaboration isn’t something you can smack into the middle of a project. Like with any worthwhile venture — you need to plan ahead.

So, we’ve gathered the best practices for jumpstarting a cross-functional project.

#1 Define goals and deliverables

The main struggle of cross-functional collaboration is team cohesion. Like we mentioned, it’s easy for teams to ping-pong responsibility when project deliverables (milestones in the completion of your project) and goals are not clearly set.

So, the first step is to ensure all project goals and deliverables are clearly defined — you want your teams to know exactly what they’re working toward and the steps they all need to take to get there. 

Make sure to set clear responsibilities for all deliverables — so that you ensure accountability across the board. This means that the design team knows not just what they need to do, but what the devs, marketing, product, and all other teams need to do to lead the project to success.

In the end, this will strike a balance between the responsibilities of each department and the project priorities.

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#2 Rally a cross-functional workforce

Who do you need in your cross-functional project? You might need the whole department, or just a few select team members. You might want to put all cross-functional workers in one team, or keep them separated while collaborating.

Next, which specific skills do these team members need to have? Have they worked with cross-functional partners before?

It’s good to have an experienced cross-collaborator in a team — this way, they can lead by example and help every other team member become a more effective collaborator in the future.

That said, remember to create a diverse team. Different perspectives don’t just come from different departments — they can also vary based on age, experience, or professional backgrounds. This diversity brings innovation, more knowledge to share, different perspectives on project issues, etc.

#3 Assign clear roles

Now that you have team members, you need to assign their roles and responsibilities. You can do this with the RACI method, where you take every task or deliverable and decide who’s:

• Responsible — Who will be doing the task?
• Accountable — Who has the final call on the task/Who reviews it?
• Consulted — Who needs to provide input before the task is completed?
• Informed — Who needs to be updated on the task’s progress?

This will improve team cohesion — as everyone knows who to talk to and which function all other team members serve. 

Plus, with a cross-functional RACI chart, team members will know who to consult on a daily basis about issues, suggestions, etc. For example, a salesperson can consult a developer when a new feature launches in order to better understand it and include it in their sales pitch.

#4 Set up collaboration channels and KPIs

You need to set up a space for your teams to collaborate. However, a simple communication tool might not be enough. 

To manage responsibilities, share files effectively, and set clear tasks, you need a project management tool that comes with all those functionalities.

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After deciding on your PM tool of choice, you need to set up KPIs (key performance indicators). These will allow you to track the progress and health of your cross-functional teams.

Luckily, in Plaky, the summary row makes tracking KPIs a walk in the park. There, you can see the progress or percentage of each field in an item group — basically, how close your tasks are to completion, how many are of a certain status, etc. 

#5 Hold a kickoff meeting

Finally, you need to get your team on the same page — however, you shouldn’t just share the project plan and be done with it.

You need to set up an effective kickoff meeting that’ll ensure everyone’s voice is heard so that collaboration flows from the get-go. 

To make sure the meeting is engaging, you should:

• Create a clear meeting agenda,
• Go through the project goals and deliverables,
• Talk about everyone’s roles and responsibilities and make sure each team knows what’s expected of them,
• Introduce the tools they’ll be using and answer any onboarding questions,
• Leave room for questions and ensure you take the time to answer each concern instead of directing team members to a file, and
• Try to engage other team members into each discussion point.

If all goes right, after the kickoff meeting, you should have a cross-functional workforce that’s eager to collaborate.

The skills you need to lead a cross-functional team

Leading a cross-functional team isn’t easy — you have to navigate through different viewpoints and work habits from different team functions.

Do you think you have the chops for it? Let’s take a look at some of the most important skills a cross-functional project manager should have.

Open communication

Totally saw this one coming, didn’t you?

Open communication is the #1 skill for project managers in a cross-functional setting. 

As we mentioned, people with different professional backgrounds may have different perspectives. This can come with its fair share of challenges — so lead by example and foster transparent communication yourself.

If you create a culture of open communication, the teams won’t feel restricted or unwelcome in sharing their thoughts. 

You want diverse insight to improve innovation and task planning, so open communication is essential.

Understanding of technical skills

Say you walk up to your designer and ask them how a task is going. They reply: “I’m stuck, I need to find a way to counterbalance the negative space.”

What?

You need to fully know what your team’s work looks like — otherwise, you run the risk of creating misunderstandings yourself. 

When you understand your team’s work, you set responsibilities more accurately, your tasks are clearer, and you know exactly how to align your teams.

Vision casting

While you go about your work, how often do you think about your project’s mission or vision?

Me neither.

If team members aren’t aware of what they’re working toward, their quality of work will drop. Their results might be technically fantastic — but they may not have a place to fit in your project.

It’s a separate facet of communication to be able to make your team understand why you’re doing the work in your project. So, you need to show the meaning behind your decisions to your teams — they’re bound to be more supportive.

Active listening

One aspect in leading a cross-functional team that often gets overlooked is making your team feel heard. 

Without cross-functional collaboration, each team will only worry about their tasks from their own perspective. It makes total sense — they’ll be thinking about the tasks they need to perform.

So, it’s up to you to connect those dots.

Essentially, to ensure efficient cross-functional collaboration, you need to act as a translator for your teams and get them to understand each other. 

This will open up a path to improved communication between the teams themselves — not to mention that it will make ideas and productivity flow freely.

Showcasing skills

But, even when you do have the right skills — how can you showcase them to your cross-functional team?

Here are some steps you can take:

• Lead by example — Providing strong leadership is the best way to showcase your skills. If you want your team to communicate frequently, be the first to communicate. Show them what effective, quality communication looks like.
• Define clear tasks, goals, and objectives — Making sure everything you share with the team is transparent, easy to understand, and direct lets your team know that you know what you’re talking about. More importantly, it shows them you know how to talk about it.
• Share collaboration success — Sharing success metrics showcases the positive results of your work in setting up collaboration. It also lets you reflect on and communicate with the team about areas that can be improved.
• Resolve conflicts — When conflicts arise, step in as a mediator. Let your team know you’re an active listener and a reliable decision-maker.

How to measure cross-functional collaboration

Ideally, your cross-functional collaboration will flow smoothly — but how can you be sure? 

This can’t be a guessing game, so you’ll need specific metrics to measure its success, i.e., KPIs.

These are the most important KPIs for cross-functional collaboration:

• Communication frequency and quality — The first question that probably comes to mind here is ”How often do my teams communicate?” However, you’re looking for quality in that communication as well. You want those conversations to be productive, share important information, or share knowledge.
• Deliverable quality — If teams don’t collaborate, there’ll be a noticeable drop in the quality of their work. So, track what caused these quality drops and note whenever it’s collaboration-related.
• Cross-functional meeting quality — Engagement in cross-functional meetings is crucial, so track it thoroughly. When teams are present in meetings, they communicate more clearly and ask crucial questions.
• Resource allocation — When teams don’t collaborate well, they use resources ineffectively (for example, hoarding a printer because they don’t realize another team needs it). Tracking the quality of resource allocation in your project can tell you a lot about collaboration. If resources are shared rather than hoarded, it means your team’s collaboration is on point.
• Team trust — Even though this metric sounds vague, there are multiple ways to track it (conflict resolution rate and speed, workflow efficiency, rate of delegated tasks, delays on dependent tasks, etc.). For example, if conflicts take a while to resolve, it could be because your teams don’t trust each other enough to be open in solving it. Or, if they delegate tasks without issue, it indicates a higher level of trust.

In the end, these KPIs will help you effectively report on the project’s progress and answer key questions about it, like:

• How well did my cross-functional approach work? Where did I succeed/fail?
• How can I include these lessons learned in my next project?
• Is there a better way to handle a project that requires different departments to work together?

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Real-world examples of successful cross team collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration can be tough to pull off — but when you do, you reap tremendous benefits. 

Now’s your chance to learn from real-life experts about how they overcame issues to create a perfect cross-functional environment in their projects.

#1 Stepping in for communication 

If you want communication to flow in your teams, you must lead by example.

This is exactly the situation Vasilii Kiselev, a skilled and experienced executive working in education, encountered while managing a cross-functional team.

“Picture this scenario — we’re deeply engrossed in developing a learning platform. The developers are discussing code, educators are focused on pedagogy, and designers are working on enhancing the user experience. The developers were throwing around terms like ’API integration’ while educators were concerned about whether a 10-year-old could navigate it. [And] the designers? They were concerned about creating appealing designs.”

Sounds like a doozy — an average manager would simply encourage teams to communicate. However, Vasilii took matters into his own hands.

“One particular moment that struck me was when I noticed a lack of communication among everyone involved. That made me think, ’If I don’t step in, we’ll end up with software that’s completely impractical.’ I took on the role of a mediator simplifying concepts into everyday language to ensure everyone was on the same page or at least in sync. This led to the creation of a platform that seemed to reduce stress for the team.”

#2 Managing a team member’s frustration

We talked about the importance of setting clear project goals and how confused and frustrated team members can get when they don’t know what they’re working toward.

This is exactly what Chris Gleason, who’s been working in real estate finance for over 12 years, encountered in his project.

“Most people are better at completing tasks than they are at understanding the bigger picture that the tasks that they complete are a part of. Of course, that’s true even when there’s only one function or discipline that those tasks belong to.”

Luckily, Chris kept a clear head — and kept his project goals even clearer. As he told us, he gives team members a transparent view into the importance of each function and how they fit into the bigger picture.

“When team members aren’t able to understand or see why it’s necessary to be cross-functional, they can get frustrated. They’ll naturally prefer one function over the other, so it’s critical to cast vision and highlight the importance of the cross-functionality so that they don’t naturally deemphasize one function or another simply because they don’t enjoy it, don’t think it’s important, or don’t understand its utility.”

#3 Technical skill advantage

We mentioned how knowing technical skills your team works with helps you foster collaboration by understanding their issues better.

According to Dennis Lenard, who’s been running projects for more than 15 years, this skill isn’t just helpful — it’s crucial.

“I prioritize technical skills because they allow me to understand the day-to-day of team members and the spectrum of possibilities within which they operate. As a cross-functional team lead, you have to handle trade-offs, which means putting certain team members in more challenging positions at times.”

These types of decisions make your collaboration efforts hang by a thread — and, according to Dennis, knowing technical skills lets you make the right ones.

“[Poor decision-making] leads to employee disengagement or makes them turn to questionable practices, creating conflict among co-workers. On the other hand, if people feel understood and deem your decisions to be fair, they will strive to support the team as a whole.”

Simplify your collaboration process with Plaky

Choosing a PM tool that facilitates cross-functional collaboration is a hassle in its own right.

So, why not go with the one that solves collaboration, communication, and progress-tracking issues? 

Plaky’s top features for cross-functional teams include:

• Comments and @mentions — When 2 teams are working together, things can get hectic. Use these features to make sure that notifications stay relevant to the specific tasks that people are assigned to.
• File sharing — Share files in Plaky to avoid information silos and ensure everyone can access relevant project materials. With the file-sharing feature, team members collaborating on tasks together can also easily share their results and improve their work.
• Gantt view — Improve project and task clarity by using Gantt charts. We’ve talked about your team learning how their work fits into the project as a whole — and the Gantt view lets them do exactly that. With it, they can clearly see how their tasks relate to other tasks in the project, improving coordination between teams.
• Notifications — Use notifications to make sure everyone is up-to-date on their relevant tasks. Every time a change is made to a task someone’s subscribed to, they’ll be notified in real time.

If you choose a paid plan, you can also get access to Plaky’s board automations — and get rid of those pesky repetitive tasks to ensure your teams can focus on collaborating on things that truly matter. 

For example, you can set up an automation that sends out notifications when a certain task is completed. This way, the right teams stay informed, while there’s no worry about people forgetting small details that can lead to terrible delays.

Best of all, Plaky takes barely any time to get used to it. 

So, since it’s so easy to navigate and user-friendly, your team can avoid wasting precious time acclimating to a new app — and get to collaborating cross-functionally without pause.

Need a reliable platform to implement cross-functional collaboration? Plaky is the tool for you — sign up for a free account today.

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