Foster Interdepartmental Collaboration at Work [with Examples]

Good interdepartmental collaboration helps all departments in the company work efficiently, thereby increasing labor productivity. A standard cross-departmental collaboration also helps businesses engage employees, contributing to promoting corporate culture. In the following article, Viindoo will share the secret to effective interdepartmental collaboration at work.

The benefits of interdepartmental collaboration

Interdepartmental collaboration

How to foster interdepartmental collaboration

Defining goals

This is an important step in fostering cross-departmental collaboration. Leaders will have to discuss and define specific goals for the work to be performed. This helps businesses clarify the meaning, methods, and order of collaboration work.

Set goals for cross-functional ​work

Defining the scope

The next step is to define the scope of the cross-functional collaboration. At this step, leaders establish the scope for the application of this collaboration. The cross-functional work process should be applied flexibly and comprehensively to ensure the most effective work performance.

Define the scope of the collaboration

Defining the content of the interdepartmental work process

To encourage collaboration, leaders should know important information about the business situation. Leaders also need to identify the responsibilities and scope of work of different departments. To do that, leaders can rely on a number of factors:

• Input: Define what the workflow input includes.
• Output: Determine what the output of the workflow consists of.
• Apply the 5W + 2H method and the 5M method to solve the related problem.

5W2H principle is about:

• What: Define the content of the job.
• Why: Define goals as well as requirements at work.
• When: Define the execution time, the start time, and the end time of the job.
• Where: Determine the location and the location to conduct the work.
• Who: Identify the staff performing the work, the support staff, and the supervisory team.
• How: Determine the method of doing the work.
• How much: Determine the cost and resources to do the job.

Model 5M includes:

• Manpower: Human resources to carry out the work need to ensure the necessary qualifications, skills, and qualities.
• Money: What is the budget to do the work and how many times will it be disbursed?
• Material: What are the standards to be a supplier and the material standards?
• Machine: What is the machine standard, and What technology will be applied in the work process?
• Method: Which working method will bring high efficiency to work?
  
  

Identify the issues that need to be addressed

Controlling collaborative process

To ensure effective interdepartmental collaboration, leaders need to have a method to monitor the entire collaborative process. At the same time, leaders will be responsible for providing optimal methods to ensure smooth collaborative operations. This creates conditions to appropriately adjust the operating apparatus in the enterprise.

This allows managers to determine whether the company's collaborative work progress is on the right track or not. Some contents include stages, personnel, equipment used, etc. In addition, businesses can also receive support from software to closely monitor the collaborative content and avoid errors.

Check the personnel in the company

Clarifying the steps for collaboration

To promote effective collaboration, leaders need to provide detailed information about the steps to do collaborative work. In detail:

• Describe in detail the working process between individuals, teams, and departments.
• Give a specific description of steps in the working process.
• Provide necessary documentation for employees to refer to when there is confusion.

Completing the documentation

Complete documentation is important when employees begin to adopt any new work process. Difficulty understanding terms and definitions should be answered in the accompanying documents. This will help employees understand and apply most effectively to their work reality.

Documentation for the set of procedures

Managers all understand the importance of interdepartmental collaboration. However, utilizing it for effectiveness is not easy. Business leaders can refer to a few ways below to maximize the effectiveness of this process.

Setting a common goal

Employees within a business can confuse collaboration when they lack a clear understanding of the purpose and the work itself. Therefore, business leaders need to provide employees with an overview of the ultimate purpose of the work. This will help teams understand and connect with each other, from which the work between departments will become smoother and more convenient.

Employees share a common goal

Forming a culture of empathy

Understanding and sympathy will motivate individuals and departments to accomplish the goals together. Once departments understand each other's work, it will create a positive environment for employees to interact and support each other to increase productivity and work efficiency.

When employees understand the difficulties and challenges in the work of colleagues, they are willing to help. This will form a friendly and sociable corporate culture, creating connections among departments.

Limiting specialized terms in communication

The use of a common language in communication can create effective interdepartmental collaboration. This prevents confusion caused by misunderstandings. In fact, in many businesses, there is often a situation where employees use the specialized term to communicate.

Using specialized terms can be beneficial for work. However, other departments that are not in the same specialty may feel inconvenient. Therefore, everyone should use a common language to communicate in the business to ensure effective information transmission.

Use common language when communicating among departments

Increasing interdepartmental interaction

Healthy interaction and linkage among departments significantly help smooth cross-departmental collaboration. For instance, managers can regularly organize meetings and discussions so that departments and divisions have the opportunity to exchange work with each other.

Enhancing the interaction between the staff

Creating a smooth flow of information sharing

Synchronous and transparent information is a key factor in the coordination process among individuals and teams. Therefore, businesses should have an optimal plan for maintaining good communication and information sharing within the company. This will help employees exchange and share information quickly, creating opportunities for employees to contribute their ideas and views.

Share information with each other

Building close linkage between leaders and departments

The link between leaders and departments has certain influences on collaboration among team members. For example, to solidify bonding relationships among members, project managers can actively connect with managers of teams and departments.

Creating a comfortable working environment

Psychology affects the sense of creativity and concentration. A comfortable working environment not only helps employees speed up their work but also creates a space to increase solidarity and openness for employees.

The environment affects employee productivity

Organizing team-building programs

These programs can close the relationship among employees. Through these activities, employees have the opportunity to understand and connect. As a result, collaborative work among departments will be carried out quickly, ensuring more efficiency.

Organizing team-building programs to form cohesive relationships among departments

Applying task management software

In the 4.0 technology era, technology applications have become familiar. In particular, many businesses have used task management software to improve management capacity.

A popular management software these days is Viindoo Project. Being a part of Viindoo - the comprehensive business management software system, the software helps businesses conveniently operate on a digital platform. Moreover, the software is offered at a reasonable price, with outstanding localized features, and is suitable for Vietnam businesses.

Viindoo Project provides businesses with an optimal solution for working processes among departments, ensuring smooth progress and minimizing unnecessary errors. Here are some outstanding features of the Viindoo Project:

• Help individuals and teams monitor and stick to the work plan.
• Support work interaction among team members as well as departments.
• Analyze and report work with intuitive views such as Kanban, maps, Gantt diagrams, tables, etc.
• Provide a modern and friendly interface for beginners.

Viindoo Project software

Examples of cross-departmental collaboration

Here are some cross-team process maps to illustrate interdepartmental collaboration that business leaders can refer to:

• Example 1:
  

Sample of interdepartmental collaboration

• Example 2:

Template for interdepartmental collaboration

Viindoo's article has introduced business information on interdepartmental collaboration as well as ways and secrets to building effective cross-departmental collaboration. Hopefully, through this article, your business will have more ideas to foster cross-functional collaboration at work.

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