Tips for Better Collaboration as Your Staff Grows

As soon as a small business moves from a handful of employees to a few dozen or more, the task of corporate communication becomes more important than ever. However, at the same time, collaboration transforms from something that is natural and easy, to a task that’s increasingly difficult to manage.

In a complex business with various teams, managers, and groups, how can you improve cross-departmental collaboration and make it a strength, as opposed to a glaring weakness?

Why cross-departmental collaboration matters

It may seem like an obvious question, but why does communication between different departments within your organization matter?

Tears down internal walls

You’re not in the business of making everyone comfortable, but what a world of difference it can make when your employees feel like they can be open and honest with coworkers, upper management, and everyone else they interact with in your organization. Healthy communication between distinct areas of your business tears down walls and allows everyone to feel at ease.

To avoid dissension

Disagreements in the workplace lead to conflict and tension, which are both detrimental to a healthy business. This is especially true when one department feels like another is treating it poorly. Dissension can shut down your entire workflow and greatly diminish productivity and efficiency. An emphasis on cross-departmental collaboration, on the other hand, ensures problems are handled as they arise.

Customer service

Finally, healthy cross-departmental collaboration is good for your organization because it improves your ability to deliver good customer service. When accounting, sales, marketing, and production are all on the same page, you can deliver a seamless and cohesive experience to your customers – which keeps them coming back for more.

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Tips for better collaboration

Despite the obvious importance of communication, it’s anything but easy to get everyone on the same page. Each organization has its own issues and quirks to sort through. With an understanding that what works for one business may not work for yours, here are some tips to consider:

Admit there’s a problem

Brace yourself, this is going to sound like a psychologist’s answer, but you have to start by admitting there’s a problem. This will allow you to gather key decision makers and uncover the root causes of why cross-departmental collaboration is so poor.

Provide opportunities for mingling

n many cases (especially in large corporations), the problem is that employees from various departments don’t know their coworkers from other departments. This leaves them with a “my department first” mentality and very little loyalty towards other areas of the organization. One of the surest ways to overcome this is by giving employees opportunities to mingle, interact, and build personal bonds with other coworkers. Ideas for facilitating this include team building exercises and Friday afternoon mixers.

Launch hybrid teams

One simple solution is to launch hybrid or cross-functional teams. These are small cohorts of employees with one or two representatives from each department. They meet on a daily or weekly basis and ensure their department’s needs and concerns are heard. It also helps humanize each area of the organization by putting a face and name to the title.

Stay organized

Sometimes the lack of cross-departmental collaboration simply comes down to a lack of resources. For example, if accounting needed to work through an issue with someone from marketing, is there an easy way to handle it? According to the blog post "3 Collaboration Tips for Enhancing Teamwork" from Wrike, you need to push tools for sharing. These include real-time messaging tools (Skype, Google Hangouts, etc.), task management tools, file sharing tools, and knowledge based tools.

Be willing to listen

If you’re going to openly place an emphasis on communication, you must be willing to deal with conflict in the beginning. While the goal is to reduce the number of serious conflicts in the future, you’re essentially opening the floodgates at the beginning, and anything that was held up behind it in the past will seep through. Be willing and ready to listen – frequently and often.

Establish the right environment

Ultimately, the longevity and health of your business will depend on internal communication. As a manager, owner, or CEO, it’s up to you to provide an environment that’s conducive to cross-departmental collaboration. By implementing these tips and understanding the critical importance of seamless communication between each area of your business, you can do just that.