How To Improve Cross Team Collaboration

Cross team collaboration is a group of people with a variety of expertise who come together to achieve a common goal. It usually happens in one time project like website creation or product feature launch. 

Table of Contents

Establish Clear Communication Channels

Define Shared Goals and Objectives for Cross Team Collaboration

Create Interdependent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Develop a Shared Vision for Success

Encourage a Culture of Cross Team Collaboration

Clarify Roles and Responsibilities

Implement Cross-Functional Training

Streamline Processes and Workflows

Utilize Technology for Collaboration

Can AI be part of Cross Team Collaboration

Measure and Evaluate Collaboration Efforts

Conclusion

If you are going to build a new product feature in the next 2 months, you need people from the following team to make it happen.

• UIUX designer

• Content writer 

• Developer

• Quality analyst

• Product marketer

Collaborating with people from different teams will consume your valuable time, also they may have other high priority work to do which will delay the project progress.  Research shows that 67% of remote workers report feeling less connected to their cross-functional teammates. 

In this article, we will provide clear guidelines to improve cross team collaboration to bring the best out of it.

Establish Clear Communication Channels

Most organizations use between 3 and 7 communication channels, each team may use different communication channels. This makes it difficult for you to align them together for effective cross team collaboration.

Implement Collaboration Tool

Before starting a project, implement a cross team collaboration tool and make sure everyone on the project uses tools like Swatle. This allows your team members to easily chat, create, manage, assign tasks, and schedule discussions in one place. 

By implementing Swatle, your team will stay aligned and focused towards the common goal. With everything in one place you can make sure that nothing slips through cracks.

Schedule Regular Cross Team Discussions

The ideal time to schedule cross team collaboration discussions is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 10 AM to 11:30 PM. These days avoid the Monday rush and Friday wind-down. People are generally more focused and settled into their work rhythm mid-week.

Try not to exceed 45 minutes in discussions. This will help everyone to stay focused throughout the discussions and respect everyone’s time. You can schedule discussions without any back and forth emails using Swatle Calendar, once the discussion is created it will send an email to all the participants and a reminder email 15 minutes before the discussion. 

Encourage Open and Transparent Communication

Discuss project related ideas and queries in a conversational group where all the project members are present, with Swatle, you can easily create tasks directly from messages in the conversation group with a single click. 

Casual and transparent communication in a conversational group will break the ice and allow team members to share their ideas. It also will keep everyone in the team aligned towards a common goal. 

Define Shared Goals and Objectives for Cross Team Collaboration

A major goal in cross team collaboration is to set up common objectives that different teams within the organization work together to achieve. Creating a unified direction for people from different teams is not an easy task.

Align Team Objectives with Overall Organizational Goals

Aligning team objectives with overall organizational goals is necessary for ensuring that all members of the team are working towards the same ultimate vision. Here's a process to achieve the alignment:

Clearly communicate organizational goals

Make sure the top-level goals are well-defined and widely shared, these goals should be easily accessible to all the team members, you can utilize Swatle group chats or knowledge sharing platforms like Confluence to make the organizational short and long term goal documents easily accessible to the team. 

Cascade goals downward

Break down high-level objectives into smaller, team-specific goals with milestones it will help your team members to get a feeling of accomplishment whenever a small milestone is completed. Ensure each member of the team understands how their work contributes to the bigger picture.

Use goal-setting frameworks

Implementing systems like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and SMART goals will improve cross team collaboration by providing structure, clarity and alignment. 

These frameworks allow flexible, measurable targets that can span multiple teams. 

SMART goals add value to this by ensuring objectives are (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), reducing uncertainty and creating a shared sense of purpose. 

Both frameworks initiate a common goal, facilitate regular progress discussions, and encourage teams to think beyond their immediate responsibilities. 

They help identify dependencies between people and provide clear success criteria that multiple people can work towards collectively. By implementing these frameworks, organizations can break down silos, improve communication, and create a more symmetric, collaborative environment where teams understand how their efforts contribute to organizational success.

Create Interdependent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To develop interdependent key performance indicators in cross team collaboration. You have to start by identifying bigger objectives that require input from various teams. Break it out by using the SMART framework to demonstrate how each member's contribution impacts the overall goal.

Consider creating KPIs that combine metrics from different members of the team to show collective impact. 

For example, a customer satisfaction KPI might incorporate elements from product development, customer service, and sales teams. 

Regularly review and adjust these KPIs to maintain their relevance and effectiveness. Ensure that the interdependent nature of these KPIs encourages collaboration rather than competition between teams. This approach not only measures performance but also encourages a culture of shared responsibility and cross team collaboration. 

Develop a Shared Vision for Success

It is crucial to develop a shared vision for success in a cross collaboration team. This process involves alignment of different members from different teams towards common goals and unified organizational structure.

To create shared vision encourage input from everyone to ensure the vision resonates across different departments. Focus on identifying bigger goals that go beyond individual team boundaries and connect to the company's broader mission and values.

Encourage a Culture of Cross Team Collaboration

Teamwork and mutual respect among team members is the key to bring a culture of cross team collaboration. This begins with leadership setting the example and creating opportunities for different teams to interact and work together on projects. 

Recognizing and rewarding collaborative efforts is crucial; this can be done through public acknowledgments, performance evaluations, or even dedicated awards for successful cross-team initiatives. 

Conduct regular inter team meetings and encourage knowledge sharing 

through Swatle Calendar where employees can easily communicate and share insights. These strategies help companies to break down silos, enhance innovation, and create a more balanced and productive work environment. 

Clarify Roles and Responsibilities

To bring out the best from a cross collaboration team, it is necessary to clarify roles and responsibilities from the beginning. Defining clear boundaries between teams helps prevent overlap and confusion, making sure that each member understands its specific contributions to the project. 

You can start utilizing the RACI chart (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) this will help your team members clearly understand who is responsible for each task, who has the ultimate accountability, who should be consulted during the process, and who needs to be kept informed of progress.

Implement Cross-Functional Training 

Organizing regular skill sharing sessions allows team members to teach their unique expertise to people from the other teams; this will encourage cross team collaboration and build a more skilled team. 

Developing cross-functional mentorship programs pairs employees from different teams, facilitating knowledge transfer and building relationships that span organizational divisions. These initiatives not only improve communication and collaboration between teams but also create a more agile workforce capable of adapting to changing business needs. By encouraging cross functional training sessions companies can easily break down silos, spark innovation and develop a culture of continuous learning and collaboration. 

Streamline Processes and Workflows

The first step is to identify and eliminate silos that delay communication and cooperation between departments. This may involve restructuring reporting lines or implementing collaborative tools like Swatle to facilitate information sharing. 

Standardizing procedures for cross-team projects such as developing common templates, establishing clear communication protocols, and defining project milestones that all teams can align with. 

This will ensure consistency and reduce confusion, allowing team members to work together more efficiently.

Implementing agile methodologies can significantly improve flexibility and responsiveness in cross-team efforts. 

Agile practices like daily stand-ups, sprints, and retrospectives can be adapted for cross-functional use, promoting regular communication, rapid iteration, and continuous improvement.

Utilize Technology for Collaboration

Most organizations use different collaboration tools for various purposes such as communication, project management, calendar management, meeting scheduling, AI assistance. This not only increases the expense but also scatters data which makes a lot of valuable information fall through cracks.

Swatle is a centralized team collaboration tool where you can manage projects, chat instantly, schedule meetings and complete tasks faster with AI assistants. By choosing Swatle, you can reduce more than 90% in tool expenses and ensure that your team members are aligned and informed. 

Can AI be part of Cross Team Collaboration

AI plays a vital role in organizations today, if your collaboration tool lacks AI, it might be the time for you to explore other options. 

Swatle Genie can significantly improve cross team collaboration by AI chat bot, project management, timeline estimation and creating to-do lists for tasks. It also can generate ideas that bridge different team perspectives.

Measure and Evaluate Collaboration Efforts

Set up a report or chart to measure progress of the project which involves cross team collaboration. You can create this report manually or you can use Swatle report to visualize all the project related data like number of tasks in To Do, In progress and Done. also it will show the workload on each member of the team. It will automatically visualize the data in attractive line, bar and pie charts which will make decision making easier for you. 

Conclusion

Cross team collaboration not only helps you to build a product feature or website. It will also make your team members learn new skills and make them a better all rounder which will increase their problem solving skills also it will break the silos between teams. 

Selecting the centralized single collaboration channel Swatle will improve cross team collaboration without any doubt. Try now.