To foster cross-departmental collaboration and teamwork, you — the leader — must help build and nurture a safe, transparent culture in which information flows freely.
In this article, second in my series about fostering collaboration, I will focus on tunnel vision and department silos. It happens all the time: When employees get so caught up in their job or their department’s goals they can lose sight of the bigger mission. Unfortunately, collaboration can’t thrive in an environment of competing priorities.
The key to building collaboration is consistently and effectively reinforcing the overarching objectives that your team is set to achieve.
Breaking down department silos is a critical step to foster collaboration and improve organizational performance. One effective way to break down silos is for department leaders to come together and set cross-departmental goals. When departments work together toward a shared goal, they are able to see the value of each other’s contributions and understand the importance of cross-functional communication and cooperation.
To establish cross-departmental goals, you first need to define companywide goals if this has not yet been done. This process is a crucial part of the success of breaking down department silos.
To make the most of this approach, executives should involve representatives from all departments in the goal-setting process, so that everyone has a voice in the direction of the organization. Developing goals in silos is the mistake we see too often among organizations and executive teams. Companywide goals that have not been discussed and agreed upon as a team rarely produce results or show growth.
CLOs play a critical role in facilitating cross-departmental collaboration and alignment in organizations. One of the ways they can help create cross-departmental goals is by leveraging their expertise in learning and development to identify common training needs and learning objectives across different departments. By working with department heads and senior leadership, CLOs can help create a shared understanding of organizational goals and identify areas where departments can work together to achieve those goals.
Once you establish companywide goals, your next steps are to ensure each department’s goals are aligned with the overall organizational goals and encourage departments to work together to achieve those goals. The major issue that I see in working with many organizations is a lack of alignment between companywide goals and departmental goals.
When team members’ goals are aligned, their overall performance skyrockets.
Your next executive team discussion
How can you keep your employees focused on the bigger picture? You might consider:
- A weekly staff meeting under 10 minutes with a two-minute priority report from the executive team.
- A monthly email reporting on progress toward big goals.
- A visual display in a prominent area of the workplace/virtual digital board with key performance metrics.
Also read part one in this series: “Nurturing collaboration: A CLO’s guide to process flow.”
