As a leader, how often have you witnessed the ball being thrown at each other in your meetings? Have you been in a situation where the failure of one department is attributed to lack of support from the other department? Have you noticed some of your team members getting frustrated due to the bottlenecks with the other functions? You are then experiencing problems with your CFT – Cross Functional Team.
If you have been leading a team that consists of several sub-functions, you must have experienced all the above. If your business process cuts across several functions in creating value to the end-customer, you are bound to face this challenge.
Unless leader intervenes and makes efforts to align the CFT, it can soon turn dysfunctional and end up in a blame game. When the conflict deepens, it will even become personality clash among the functions!
What can a leader do?
1. Co-create the plan with the involvement of all the functions
2. Communicate together and never resort to “I tell you – you tell them”
3. Create forums to discuss problems than leaving them to the individuals; everyone may not be mature enough
4. Consciously stay neutral and avoid taking sides
5. Coach them to focus on end goal than their functional goals alone
6. More importantly, drive solution-centricity than fixing individual accountability; effort must be towards building team accountability!
