Cross-functional cooperation plays an important role in achieving the common goals of a company or organization. The success of collaboration between teams and individuals can increase productivity at work. Not only that, it turns out that there are benefits of cross-functional communication in teams that are a shame to miss.
Before further discussing the five benefits of cross-functional communication in teams, let's go deeper into the notion of cross-functional collaboration and communication first.
What is cross-functional collaboration and communication?
Cross-functional collaboration and communication occurs when individuals with different skills and key performance indicators (KPIs) work together to achieve common goals. Usually, this goal is centered on the return on investment (ROI), which is a ratio to calculate the effectiveness of the investment that has been made by a company or organization.
Cross-functional communication optimizes everyone's competence and expertise to achieve business goals more efficiently and quickly. In this case, adaptation, alignment, and accountability are needed from each individual involved in it. Every decision taken is the result of team discussion and agreement.
What is an example of cross functional communication? In a cross-functional project management team, it involves people from finance, operations, marketing, human resources (HR), technology and information (IT) to achieve business objectives in a larger scope. Optimal cross-functional communication can be a medium for managing and preventing potential conflicts that arise due to change.
The benefits of cross-functional communication in teams
For a product manager or program manager, it is important to learn more about the results of consumer or user research. However, it should also be realized that apart from that, there are contributions and other team roles that have the same goals. That's when, cross-functional communication within the team is necessary.
Challenges such as miscommunication and conflict between individuals or teams can be avoided if cross-functional work is implemented proportionally. The following are five benefits of cross-functional collaboration and communication that can have a significant positive impact on business output and performance in a company or organization.
1. Creating innovation
Collaborative teams are innovative teams. Why so? Work divided into more people will get a more diverse input. In addition, a collaborative team also encourages the exchange of expertise of each individual involved in it. That way, the resulting product will better accommodate the needs of consumers or users.
For example, before a product is released to the market, ideally it should go through the suggestions and input stages first from related parties. Input from marketing, sales, or research and development teams, can answer the challenges of various customer needs.
Molly Hellerman, Head of the Global Innovation Program at Atlassian, emphasizes the importance of cross-functional collaboration and innovation, especially in the digital space. Hellerman said, “to encourage wider collaboration; companies must break down information silos that tend to involve little communication. In fact, the more people involved, the more input and suggestions that can be accommodated. That way, better product development opportunities and opportunities can be achieved earlier.
2. Develop an inclusive culture and communication style
Product teams sometimes have their own communication style and culture in their daily work internally as a team. There are times when this is formed by accident and then it becomes commonplace. Even so, the internal culture of the team (of course not just the product team), can limit the space for open communication between teams.
In that case, the benefits of cross-functional communication can avoid the potential for miscommunication. Collaboration between teams can use an inclusive and general communication style, so that the messages to be conveyed can be understood by all the departments involved. This cross-functional collaboration strategy can also include knowledge of the use of certain terms in business operations across all departments within the company. This knowledge base can be used as a reference or 'glossary', so that every employee (new or old) can stay informed.
3. Having central or shared data
The success of marketing, sales, finance, and customer or user service teams has specific data sets that are valuable to the product design and development process. A cross-functional communication culture encourages teams to share data in a more empathetic way. That is, each party has the awareness that the individual or team that receives the data can understand it easily.
For example, the shared data is more than the result of exporting emails. Recording a video with a short explanation or having a discussion session together will be more helpful. In this way, other teams can easily understand and process the data more optimally for common business goals.
4. Development of products that are more consumer/user friendly
Suggestions and input from consumer or user experience of a product are very important for the business development process. That way, product development that is aligned with the needs of consumers and users can be fulfilled.
The benefits of cross-functional communication within the team are also able to create a product development process that puts consumers/users first. This process involves various inputs and data into product development and manufacture.
For example, the marketing or customer service team has data on the number of website visits and complaints submitted online.
“Which blog pages or articles are visited the most?”
“What is the most frequently asked customer question?”
"What complaints do consumers/customers often submit?"
The answers to these questions provide useful insights for optimizing products and consumer/user satisfaction.
5. Alignment of goals
Furthermore, the crucial point of the benefits of cross-functional communication within the team, namely goal alignment centered on overall business/operational goals. Each department or team can identify where and when to synchronize so that business goals can be achieved effectively and efficiently.
For example, cross-functional communication can identify cross-team collaboration adjustments needed at each stage of prototyping a new feature or product. Be it user experience testing or new product tests directly to consumers/users.
The five examples of the benefits of cross-functional communication within a team that have been described above are important points that need to be worked out in achieving business/operational targets. These benefits can only be felt if inclusive collaboration and communication are continuously encouraged, in which each individual contributes to the maximum.
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