{"id":225833,"date":"2021-09-16T05:29:54","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T11:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/corevalues.com\/?p=225833"},"modified":"2021-09-16T05:29:54","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T11:29:54","slug":"how-to-get-the-most-from-your-cross-functional-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/2021\/09\/16\/how-to-get-the-most-from-your-cross-functional-team\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Get The Most From Your Cross-Functional Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Picture yourself as manager of a medium-sized firm.\u00a0 An issue surfaces.\u00a0 You identify the problem.\u00a0 Then you assign a cross-functional team to solve the problem.\u00a0 You supply this team with everything they might need to solve the setback:\u00a0 office space, Covid-19 safety compliant meeting areas for collaboration and co-working, and the like.<\/p>\n

Yet, meeting after meeting, the problem STILL isn\u2019t getting solved.<\/p>\n

And you thought that this cross-functional team is supposed to make life easier.\u00a0 That\u2019s what cross-functional teams are supposed to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s worked before, why isn\u2019t it working now?<\/p>\n

Cross-functional what?!<\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>A cross-functional team is a group made up of team members or employees from different functional areas within a company or organization.\u00a0 They are put together to collaborate and reach a clear objective.<\/p>\n

For instance, a software company can create a cross-functional team composed of individuals from sales, marketing, customer service, engineering, and development.\u00a0 They all work together as EQUAL stakeholders to come up with a new application.\u00a0 In some cases, a cross-functional team can even include customers and outside stakeholders.<\/p>\n

Cross-functional teams are often temporary.\u00a0 They only operate for the duration of a specific project.\u00a0 However, many companies now organize permanent cross-functional teams in a more traditional hierarchical structure.<\/p>\n

Ideally, a cross-functional team puts less emphasis on the members\u2019 specific roles and titles in the organization.\u00a0 Where they are in the totem pole doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 The goal is to simply\u2026 work together.\u00a0 An analytics team may include a business analyst, quality control engineer, product managers from different divisions, and even executive sponsors, top vendors, and technical writers.<\/p>\n

Their purpose is evident: produce better results quickly.\u00a0 So it shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone to expect cross-functional teams to be high-performance groups.<\/p>\n

But given these advantages, why do many cross-functional teams fail?<\/h3>\n

Nearly 75% of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional. \u00a0They fail on at least three of five benchmarks:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Staying within a planned budget;<\/li>\n
  2. Keeping within the schedule;<\/li>\n
  3. Observing specifications;<\/li>\n
  4. Meeting customer expectations; and<\/li>\n
  5. Staying aligned with the organization\u2019s corporate goals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The culprit is often a lack of a systemic approach to cross-functional team development.<\/p>\n

    Momentum is destroyed by vague governance, goals that are not specific, and a lack of accountability.<\/p>\n

    In the mid-2000s, Cisco created a cross-functional team that included people from marketing, manufacturing, software engineering, customer service, and quality assurance.\u00a0 The objective was to improve the security of router lines.\u00a0 The team had a three-layer structure that allowed 100 people to attend meetings.\u00a0\u00a0 But what I found valuable was a core group of 20 who would report back to their functions.\u00a0 They also had a governance team at the top, albeit small, that was composed of two vice presidents, a chief development officer, and the leader of the 20-person core groups.<\/p>\n

    This setup worked for them.\u00a0 This cross-functional team was responsible for securing Cisco\u2019s lead in the router security vendor segment.\u00a0 Their business has grown 80% every year from 2015 to 2020.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Can leaders facilitate this type of problem-solving and planning at this time?<\/h3>\n

    YES.<\/p>\n

    Organizations of any size benefits from problem-solving and planning using the cross-functional team model for agile team<\/a> results.<\/p>\n

    If this is something you\u2019d like to try out, know that this isn\u2019t a team huddle.\u00a0 It\u2019s a dead-serious department, even if it\u2019s temporary.\u00a0 Here are a few rules to remember to ensure success and avoid friction between clashing personalities:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    EVERYONE SHOULD BE ON THE SAME PAGE<\/h5>\n

    At the beginning of the project, the approved budget must be clear.\u00a0 There must also be a written agreement defining priorities, expected outcomes, as well as timeframes.<\/p>\n

    And while different functions bring with them different priorities and personalities, acknowledge that conflict will certainly arise.\u00a0 To ensure that everyone has the project\u2019s success as their main objective, make the success or failure of the cross-functional team part of their performance review and compensation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    THE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM SHOULD HAVE AN ACCOUNTABLE LEADER AND SPONSOR\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    The challenge of large companies is the sheer size of the hierarchy.\u00a0 If this is the case with your organization, you might benefit from a mirroring structure.\u00a0 Say you have vice presidents from research, customer care, design, marketing, and finance.\u00a0 Have their subordinates (such as the manager) be part of the team as well.\u00a0 There should also be an accountable team member per function and one overall accountable team leader overseeing everything as well as an accountable senior executive to report to.<\/p>\n

    EVERY DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE RE-EVALUATED REGULARLY\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    Projects and issues that aren\u2019t related to the goal should be pruned.\u00a0 Weed regularly.\u00a0 One of the advantages of a cross-functional team is its agility and speedy reaction to change.\u00a0 Today\u2019s rapidly changing marketing landscape forced everyone to attune themselves to the times.\u00a0 If nothing has been canceled or adjusted, the cross-functional team is likely not doing what it should.<\/p>\n

    How\u2019s your organization faring at this time? Cross-functional teams have been the silent heroes of many companies because they\u2019re the reason for speedy innovations in the market as well as speedy responses for complex problem-solving and decision-making.\u00a0 These teams are akin to first responders in emergencies.\u00a0 In the last 18 months, they have been responsible for the survival of many companies during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

    If you\u2019d like to give this setup a try, start on the right foot.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Talk to us HERE<\/a> and see what facilitator training for cross-functional teams can do for your team.<\/p>\n

    Copyright TIGERS Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton<\/p>\n

    About TIGERS Success Series<\/h3>\n

    TIGERS provides a comprehensive, multi-pronged and robust system for improving your collaborative workforce behavior, collaborative work culture, profitability, project management and team leadership success. We license existing coaches, consultants and HR professionals in the use of these tools.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>We specialize in building cooperation among employees and collaboration between departments for profitable, agile, and high performance team outcomes.\u00a0 Scaled to\u00a0 grow as your organization and leadership performance improves, our proprietary\u00a0TIGERS Workforce<\/a>\u00a0Behavior Profile<\/a>,\u00a0Micro-Training technology and group facilitation\u00a0<\/a>methods result in your\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>high performance team outcomes and change management success.<\/p>\n

    Here is a\u00a0complimentary 30 minute webinar on the TIGERS 6 Principles<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0Course Certificate for Completion.<\/p>\n

    Join our Newsletter for subscriber savings. content and announcements:\u00a0https:\/\/corevalues.com\/tigertracks-newsletter\/<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Picture yourself as manager of a medium-sized firm.\u00a0 An issue surfaces.\u00a0 You identify the problem.\u00a0 Then you assign a cross-functional team to solve the problem.\u00a0 You supply this team with everything they might need to solve the setback:\u00a0 office space, Covid-19 safety compliant meeting areas for collaboration and co-working, and the like. Yet, meeting after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[966],"tags":[959,392,734],"class_list":["post-225833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cross-functional-teams","tag-agile-leadership","tag-cross-functional-teams","tag-leadership-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}