Embracing key strategies and tools can help executives and directors ensure their teams work together efficiently, creatively, and effectively to achieve shared goals.
“Unity is strength,” as the saying goes. While project portfolio management may not be the first area that comes to mind, efficient team collaboration is definitely a cornerstone of successful project delivery.
Research shows that 70% of employees find poor collaboration in the workplace is limiting their productivity. This emphasizes the crucial role of cross-team collaboration in ensuring project performance. However, with team members working across departments, locations, and time zones, effective teamwork and collaboration can be challenging.
So, what is the recipe for cross-functional collaboration? How can project leaders streamline collaboration and communication across teams to improve project outcomes? Embracing key strategies and tools can help executives and directors ensure that their teams work together efficiently, creatively, and effectively to achieve shared goals.
The benefits of streamlined team collaboration in the workplace
Streamlined collaboration refers to simplifying and optimizing how teams work together, both internally within departments and cross-functionally, to minimize misalignment and:
- Improve work efficiency: Frictionless communication enables teams to respond to changes, solve problems, and deliver results faster, triggering significant productivity gains. Accordingly, projects move forward without unnecessary delays. In fact, a Forbes study found that employees working in a collaborative environment are 50% more effective at completing tasks.
- Strengthen decision-making: Aligned teams will base their decisions on a comprehensive understanding of the project, reducing the risk of misguided choices. What’s more, streamlined communication provides executive decision-makers with the most relevant and up-to-date information.
- Boost engagement: Empowered teams tend to experience higher job satisfaction, boosting their morale—which ultimately enhances their performance. Working alongside people from different roles and functions also offers a valuable opportunity to accelerate employee upskilling through shared knowledge.
- Accelerate innovation: Cross-functional team collaboration unites diverse perspectives, bringing together workers with unique skills and knowledge. By streamlining communication and enhancing coordination across departments, organizations can break down silos, allowing ideas to flow freely. This open exchange of insights promotes innovation, sparks creativity, and encourages unexpected solutions to challenges, empowering business to remain agile, adapt quickly to changes, and develop new ideas that help maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
These benefits are invaluable for business leaders looking to boost project performance and outcomes. But, like anything of value, achieving these goals requires effort. This is why it's critical to adopt purposeful strategies and collaboration-oriented tools that support cross-department alignment.
Strategies to streamline collaboration across teams
Streamlining cross-department collaboration not only improves efficiency but also strengthens team morale and helps organizations stay competitive in a rapidly changing market. Which raises the question: How can project leaders increase collaboration between teams to unlock its full benefits?
Ensuring transparent communication practices, fostering a collaborative culture, and leveraging the right tools are some of the steps organizations can take to increase workplace collaboration among teams and achieve better project outcomes.
Process: Clearly define roles, responsibilities, and communication protocols
Clarity on roles and responsibilities is essential in any collaborative effort, as it ensures a common understanding of where team members stand and what’s expected of them. Without clearly defined roles, teamwork and cross-team collaboration can become disorganized, leading to confusion and overlaps.
This clarity can be achieved through open communication and discussions, where each individual's role is clarified and mutually agreed upon. To improve information flows and sharing, many businesses have successfully turned to PPM platforms boasting strong communication capabilities. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions can also help ensure everyone stays aligned and understands their contributions to the team goals.
Clear communication protocols also help manage expectations for streamlined business collaboration. Whether in a remote or in-office team environment, defining when and how team members will be available for meetings or updates ensures that everyone remains aligned and increases collaboration among teams. This is all the more important when trying to encourage remote team collaboration, build accurate resource capacity plans, or manage change.
Culture: Promote a collaborative mindset
Encouraging team members to actively listen to one another, respect diverse perspectives, and contribute ideas creates an environment where collaboration thrives. For example, creating opportunities for cross-functional collaboration (like brainstorming sessions) can help break down silos and encourage team members to work together in creative and supportive ways.
It’s also crucial to celebrate collective achievements, not just individual successes, to reinforce the value of teamwork. In the words of Luis Revilla, Chief People Officer at Softtek: “Technical skills are important, but so is understanding interactions between people. At the end of the day, projects are done by humans. We need to appreciate that. We need to work on that.”
Leaders play a critical role in shaping a culture of collaboration. C-suite executives need to lead by example and actively encourage business collaboration across teams. This could involve scheduling regular cross-departmental meetings or setting up informal collaboration sessions to address issues and brainstorm new ideas.
Of course, excessive meetings can take a significant toll on productivity. Organizations can leverage technology to streamline communication and enhance collaboration. As we will see, tools like PPM software allow teams to stay connected, share real-time insights and feedback, and collaborate effectively without the need for constant meetings.
Technology: Leverage robust team collaboration tools
Modern team collaboration tools are essential to streamline communication and collaboration across teams. Collaborative platforms feature a range of cross-team collaboration capabilities–real-time messaging, file sharing, task management, and more–ensuring all team members are on the same page, regardless of their physical location. In fact, using the right team collaboration software can reduce communication bottlenecks and increase performance by 20-30%.
It’s important to note that effective collaboration tools must integrate seamlessly with other systems across the organization to ensure smooth workflows and alignment. For example, integrating PPM and timesheet data with other technologies (and leveraging advanced AI-powered capabilities) eliminates silos, reduces manual data entry, and ensures all teams are working from the same accurate, up-to-date information.
Real-world cross-team collaboration examples
Schwarz Group is one of the largest retail groups in the world. Until 2021, the firm’s divisions were operating in silos, which made cross-functional collaboration nearly impossible. The company needed a single platform to standardize project management across divisions while allowing for flexibility within each unit. With Planisware, they managed to break down silos, setting themselves up for future success.
Global pharmaceutical leader Teva also successfully leveraged Planisware’s collaborative capabilities to streamline and improve its product lifecycle processes, drastically improving efficiency and business agility.
Of course, they aren’t the only ones. Find more examples of the benefits of strategic portfolio management tools for cross-functional collaboration in our customer stories here.
Learn more about the positive impact of streamlined team collaboration
The benefits of team collaboration are undeniable for boosting project performance in any organization. However, collaborative strategies and tools may yield even further benefits in activities and industries where innovation is paramount, such as product delivery and pharma.
Now is a good time to get started on your own journey to improve collaboration. Why not schedule a live demo to discover how a PPM tool can facilitate the process?
