Strategies for Managing Cross Functional SAP Team

 Strategies for Managing Cross Functional SAP  Team

What Is a Cross-Functional Team?

A cross-functional team is a team in which the members have different skill sets, but are all working towards a common goal. It often includes people from different departments and from all levels of the organization, though it can also include participants from outside the organization

Why cross-functional teams are necessary 

There’s a reason leading tech companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Amazon embrace cross-team collaboration. Bringing together people with a diverse set of experiences, skills, and backgrounds can infuse your projects with creativity and enhanced problem-solving. This cross-functional collaboration can also speed up coordination and collaboration, minimize communication hiccups, and keep projects aligned around shared business goals and objectives. 

 

Example in my present Scenario :

The main departments

Retail Banking

Corporate Banking

Direct Support Department

Branch Operation Team

Risk Department

Indirect Support Team

HR Department

Legal Department

Compliance

Service Excellence Team

Finance

Cross-functional teams often exist in small or startup environments. Because startups usually have a small number of employees, team members might have to perform a variety of tasks in different departments, thereby collaborating with those departments as well. This certainly creates a cross-functional team environment, even if the organization hasn’t acknowledged it yet.

Strategies to Develop Cross Functional Teams

Why develop cross-functional collaboration in your teams? Because team collaboration can help you work more productively and efficiently. Cross-functional collaboration can be a great team building measure and can build a more creative atmosphere. Here are six practical measures you can take to get the most out of your cross-functional team.

 

Assemble the Right Team

There are a set of skills that are required to have an effective cross-functional team. The project will dictate some of these. The work is going to require a range of expertise from the team, and therefore that team must have people on it who have the various skills needed.

Have a Leader

While it’s not a prerequisite to have one person lead a cross-functional team, the benefits outweigh the risks. First and foremost, everyone on the team needs to take responsibility. Find a leader who can give the team accountability and develop self-leaders out of each team member.

A team leader needs to educate, delegate and give autonomy, while following up on their progress. Collaborate with the team, too, by inviting them into the planning process. If you can, get mentors to help shepherd the team and give them direction as needed.

While cross-functional teams are collaborative, there needs to be a leader that is held accountable for the project success. Without that leader, there’s a greater risk of a rudderless ship that never makes it to the dock.

Clearly Defined Goals

Just like any team, if a cross-functional one isn’t given clear objectives they can find themselves going off into directions that lead to a dead end. Therefore, it’s crucial to have goals defined and in place before even assembling the team.

Shared Success

When you have a cross-functional team, you have different team members with different goals. While all those goals should lead to the overall success of the project, that is not always the case. People can focus on their own small aspect of the project and neglect its part in the whole.

Yes, the individuals on the team might not always align with other people on the team, which can lead to conflict, but that’s where the team leader comes in. They must lead the entire group to a shared success. It is, after all, the project and not the tasks that are the measure of success.

Communication

Good communication is the hallmark of any successful project. You need to be able to articulate your needs and they must be heard and understood to move the project forward. The problem with cross-functional teams is that they are often not under the same roof, which makes communications more difficult. Communications need be open and frequent, so what can you do? Office communication tools like Skype, Zoom, Teamviewer,  and can help establish open lines of communication across disparate teams in your company. They can be particularly useful when team members are in different locations.