Unless you’re working in an extremely tiny organization like a startup, your work probably has co-dependencies with other departments. The friction and stress you may feel with those other teams may not be related to the complexity of your dependencies. It may simply be a result of your cross-team communication.
To those of us with an engineering background, cross-team communication may feel like a “check-the-box” exercise, where we make sure we share the information we think the other teams need. But smooth cross-team collaboration requires more than that.
Sure, one of the goals of communication is to help the other teams be informed. But two other goals are to make sure they also feel respected and confident in working with you and your team. And those last two aren’t just “check-the-box” kinds of communication.
In your regular updates, share more than just what you’re doing. Also include what you need from other teams to be successful. And in doing so, frame your requests in such a way that you show that you understand the context and constraints that those other teams are working under.
When other departments need the output of your team’s work, let them know as soon as that output is available, rather than waiting for a scheduled check-in that may come later. And if there’s a delay, make that information known as soon as you’re aware of it.
Approaching cross-team communication this way helps reduce stress across the organization and gives your team a reputation that makes other leaders say, “I love working with them.”
And if you’d like to explore your specific situation in more detail, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/talk to start the conversation.
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