Cross-Functional Teams And Their Extraordinary Benefits
AUG 25, 2022 by KIARA MILLER
The contemporary world is evolving but the one thing that remains constant is the efficiency of working together. Effective teamwork has always been the secret mantra for every successful organization.
The traditional organizational structures of forming teams based on their capabilities and departments are changing and cross-functional teams are making their space in almost every industry.
In fact, 71% of the organizations that are at the maturity spectrum and 55% who are at the early developmental stage use cross-functional teams. Many big companies such as Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Facebook are some popular companies that leverage the benefits of cross-functional collaborations.
Now the question arises, what exactly are the benefits of cross-functional teams that are able to convince big companies to adopt the trend? But first things first, we need to get on the same page regarding the definition of cross-functional teams.
Definition of Cross-functional teams
Cross-team collaborations or cross-functional teams refer to when an organization brings up the employees from different departments or prospects to attain a common goal.
For example, there are different departments in an organization such as marketing, product development, sales, and research. When brilliant minds from all these departments are brought together to form the ultimate dream team, this is called a cross-functional team.
Now that we are clear on the definition of cross-functional teams, let’s dive right into the blog and discover some of the tremendous benefits of cross-functional teams.
5 Exceptional Benefits of Cross-Functional Teams
- Enhanced collaboration and engagement
Breaking the traditional silos of an organization’s working structure, cross-functional teams encourage collaboration. This effective collaboration further contributes to enhancing employee engagement in a workplace.
When employees from diverse teams are brought together, it builds trust among them. This trust encourages employees to openly communicate which results in better collaboration among teams. As per statistics, people with high trust teams are 50% more productive and are 29% more satisfied. This can result in better outcomes and more efficient performances.
Along with this, employees often fail to understand and value the efforts of other departments to make the business operations smoother. With cross-functional teams, employees can experience and see the contributions of other departments, and this leads to values and respecting others’ efforts.
This also leads to healthy working relationships among teams which enhances the overall efficiency and operations of the team and can benefit the growth of the company.
- Greater scope for innovation
It is an undeniable fact that innovation is the only competitive advantage that can assist companies in sustaining the competitive world. Through cross-functional teams, you are not only bringing people together, but you are also bringing different experiences, expertise, and opinions together.
These opinions from different mindsets will assist in bringing up innovative and creative ideas that can contribute to making positive transformations for the growth of the company. When different ideas from creative minds are pooled together, it can assist businesses in gaining a competitive advantage over all their competitors.
- Collective insights
As discussed above, in cross-functional teams, creative minds bring experience along. These experiences assist in extracting some solid insights that can promote better decision-making.
For example, your employee from the sales department might have more solid insights that can help in the decision-making process of the product development department. Although they are two separate departments, collective insights from both can support each other in coming up with a better idea that will allow for stronger resource management, which will benefit the organization overall.
When all the opinions and perspectives are presented together and crossed verified, it can drive the decision-making process more efficiently. It can also result in clarifying all the dimensions of the ideas and weaknesses that can backfire and impact the company’s growth negatively.
- Optimized task performance
Creating a cross-functional team gives you a broad opportunity to bring out your top performers and create your dream team to achieve the most productive results. Hierarchy in organizations often takes up more time than required.
The complexity of taking everybody on board by following the hierarchy is eliminated by the formation of cross-functional teams. This will not only save your time but will also optimize your task performance because you will be able to do more in less time.
In cross-functional teams, the members will be able to communicate better with each other. Enhanced communication will assist in resolving conflicts and differences more efficiently.
Rather than passing tasks from one department to another, cross-functional teams can work together, which reduce the task completion lifecycle. With everybody working together, it will also optimize the overall performance and efficiency of your company and most likely will be the key factor in meeting your organization’s SMART objectives.
- Identification of true leaders
Another great benefit of creating cross-functional teams is that it can help organizations in identifying future leaders. Undoubtedly, every organization needs future leaders to take up crucial responsibilities like project management, C-suite responsibilities, and more.
The implementation of cross-functional teams can encourage your hidden gems to come forward and take the responsibility of handling the rest of the team more effectively. It will allow companies to identify the true leaders that can be delegated more responsibility in the future. And who knows, these hidden gems can be your future leaders that can take your company to that next level.
Together, the above-given benefits are a clear indicator that cross-functional teams can bring real transformations in your working structures that will only give you the benefits. Hence, it is essential for you to understand the advantages cross-functional teams will bring so that you can start creating your own cross-functional teams today.
"Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life." Wayne Dyer's thoughts are well suited to Kiara Miller. She has been working as a content marketing professional at 'The Speakingnerd’. Her passion for writing is also visible in the innovative joys of material she provides to her readers.
