4 Ways To Encourage Cross Collaboration In Your Business

by Contributed Post | Blog, Business Plan, Contributed Post

***Contributed Post

Every single department in your company has a very specific role to play. All of those roles build toward the common goal of the business and when one department isn’t working effectively, the whole company suffers. But a lot of business owners fail to see that and they think of all of the departments as separate entities, rather than parts of a larger whole. If you think of your business like that, you’ll end up with departments striving for different goals and working against one another rather than pulling together to push the business forward. The key is to encourage cross collaboration between all of the different departments in your company. If you’re worried that they’re not working well together, here are some simple ways you can change that.

An Open Plan Office

One of the reasons that departments don’t work well together is that they’re stuck on opposite sides of the building. They can still collaborate over email but it’s a lot easier if you bring everybody together. That’s why a lot of companies are moving toward an open plan office instead of separate ones. It’s a lot easier for people from different departments to work together if they’re all in one big office. You should also create some group working areas to encourage people to collaborate on projects.

Share Information

Knowing what other departments are working on and having access to information makes it a lot easier for employees to make suggestions about projects outside their department and suggest collaborations with other people. Implementing a knowledge transfer program is the best way to share information between departments. You can learn more information on how to put one in place. Click here for more information on how to put one in place. When your employees have more access to information about other departments, they’ll find it easier to identify coworkers that they can work with.

Cross-Department Projects

Finding ways to encourage your departments to collaborate is important, but sometimes, you might want to give them a bit of a push. That’s why you should launch projects that draw from the skillsets of multiple departments. Once you’ve overseen a few projects yourself, you’ll find that employees will start to suggest their own. When you’re launching these projects, it’s important that you give your employees some context. If they don’t have any idea why they’re working with another department, they won’t commit to the project. But if you give them an insight into your thinking, they’ll have a lot more direction.

Scrap Business Jargon

Business jargon is a big problem when you’re trying to cultivate a culture of cross collaboration. If each department has their own different terms for things, they’ll struggle to understand one another properly. Create a common language that all departments can use so when they’re trying to work together, there isn’t any confusion. There is going to be an adjustment period while everybody gets used to the new way of doing things but once everybody is familiar with the new language, things will run a lot smoother.

Cross collaboration between all of your departments is the only way to ensure that your business is a success.