Cross-Functional Teams consist of different people from different areas of organizations. These are working groups consisting of members who belong to their function as well as the cross-functional teams. Or in some organizations, their primary structure is based on these teams.
The sole purpose of having cross-functional teams among organizations is to have cross-functional teams is when these people are working on a single mission, optimized use of money, time and effort not only benefits customer satisfaction but help reach organizational goals
Why Botsify has a Cross-Functional Team
“Cross-functional teams are what makes startups greater and better than the other startups around. As a startup, we have built the culture of stepping up and doing what you are capable of doing instead of what you already know you can do.” Usama Noman – CEO
Botsify is a chatbot platform that helps businesses optimize their website and messenger live chat and caters to all your customers without you having to worry about.
Here are the 13 ways Botsify uses cross-functional teams for business growth
1. Encouraging an Experimentative & Collaborative Culture
Cross-functional teams put together individuals of different backgrounds and expertise to make a collective knowledge base.
“Imagine two team members, one from the sales department and one from the product development side work together, an IT guy will be able to relate to a sales pitch as an end user more than the sales team member himself. That’s when the new ideas pop up, and new experiments take place.”
2. Out of the Ordinary
Cross-functional teams help people take a break from their daily grind when they are tired of doing the same thing every day by bringing exciting new tasks. And it is not always the best idea to do so, but when employees are thrown in a new environment, their mental abilities are stimulated and makes them a little more creative.
3. Company’s Vision Strengthens
In cross-functional teams, people realize the importance of what they do, the people from one side of the company acknowledging and reminding folks from another help everyone understand the vision of the company they all work for is the same and it is made up of every individual’s effort.
4. Better Communication Skills
Communication can make or break the level of productivity and effectiveness of teams and it is not just about better listening, there’s more to it. Understanding diversity problems, communication channels that everybody agrees upon and constructive criticism are a few aspects.
Cross-functional teams really put people’s communication skills to test.
5. Improving Management Skills
It isn’t very realistic to smash different departments together and hope for an excellent merger, as this may have never happened in the 50 years of management history.
But the truth is when managing cross-functional teams, project managers gain the long-term benefit of tackling two completely different teams effectively.
6. Learning New Ways
When working in a cross-functional team, people learn to do things in a different way than they have always been doing. For example, one team member from IT struggles to manage his to-do list and learns it from another team member of production who swears by a task manager tool.
7. A New Leader May Rise
The fun part of having cross-functional teams is businesses get to try new people in the leadership positions and see whether or not they are capable of managing a newly formed team on their own. Here – the managers of specific departments are no longer in charge which gives a whole new perspective to this project.
8. Brings Innovation
When different people having different roles work together on the same project it’s almost impossible that they won’t think outside of the box. Cross-functional teams encourage employees to see things from a new dimension which will spark innovation in the resulted work.
“In order to make our team cross-functional we have built the culture of suggesting, and openness between the team members, our open space with one big conference table in the middle has allowed us to sit together in a room and interact with each other on much shorter notices and easier terms.”
9. Peering Outside of Department
This directly does not help your business or the employee’s growth but cross-functional teams help them make easy conversations with people they never had a chance to get along with.
10. Speeding up the Processes
When working under a cross-functioning team, everyone brings the successful processes to one table and this will make the team thrive. On the other hand, each member of the newly formed team will try to avoid the roadblocks and leverage team resources in the best possible ways.
11. Optimized Cross Functioning
Cross-Functional Teams can be made easier to work around with using the right tools to communicate and get things done. Remote cross functioning has made possible with the help of tools; Usama and all the employees from different departments use Slack to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Some other tools like Dropbox, google drive, Zapier, and many others can help smooth out processes while working with new people. These handy online tools also keep your focus on the important block rather than logistical stuff.
12. One Goal
When everyone has a single goal in hand, it is very likely that they will be motivated to see how their part has led to another and into the end product.
13. Focusing on the Big Picture
The sole purpose of working in cross-functional teams is to make something big happen, that couldn’t have been achieved by a single department.
This spans out multiple departments, includes multiple mindsets because it is so significant that it requires the best of people keeping their departments aside.
Which is why forming a cross-functioning team usually is a top priority of the entire organization as they are working on the project beast.
To Sum Up
Introducing cross-functional teams help promote cohesion within organizations, enabling them to optimize efforts in achieving set targets, faster and with the least possible waste. However it is scary and challenging to put together different minds on a single desk, and it’s very normal to be skeptical about the results too. But by managing a team that consists of experts in their areas you can also achieve great success on organizational and individual levels.
Botsify not only encourages cross-functional teams but implemented its practices to provide a different perspective from the usual Tech Bob.
Interested in learning more about Botsify? Check out how it provides an optimized solution to your customer support.