How the Organization Works

How to Improve Cross-Functional Collaboration

Your Teams Are Good. So Why Is Working Together So Hard?

When functions struggle to collaborate, adding more meetings rarely solves the underlying problem.

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The symptoms

Teams work toward different priorities.
Handoffs create delays.
Problems move from one function to another.
Meetings increase but coordination doesn't improve.
People protect their own objectives.
Customers experience the gaps between teams.

Questions to ask yourself

Where does work cross organizational boundaries?
What happens at those boundaries?
Who owns the outcome across functions?
What incentives create competing priorities?
Which decisions require collaboration but have no clear owner?

Why traditional responses may not be enough

More meetings, collaboration tools and team-building can improve communication.

But collaboration is shaped by how work, decisions and accountability are designed.

How the organization can get in the way

Different goals, metrics, authorities and information flows can make collaboration difficult even when everyone has good intentions.

What we've seen in the field

During the last 30 years, helping entrepreneurs, SME leaders, managers and directors of larger enterprises, in Europe, Asia and America, Arturo Uscategui Restrepo has seen organizations with strong strategies, talented people and significant investments still struggle to turn change into results.

The point is that cross-functional problems are often not people problems.

They are organizational design problems expressed through people.

Our approach

We look at how the organization creates value across boundaries and identify the constraint that matters most.

Your first step: the free capsule

SEE → FOCUS → LAUNCH

SEE what's shaping your ability to deliver results. Assess the 5 forces that shape your ability to deliver results and make your organization more capable than it was before you started.

Focus the challenge.

Launch the next 90 days.

Ready to make working together easier?

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