Cooperation is crucial—but not always easy

by Dan Oswald

Webster’s defines cooperate as “to act or work with another or others . . . to associate with another or others for mutual benefit.” It sounds simple enough, but in practice it’s not. Nothing is more important in an organization than interdepartmental cooperation, yet it’s so difficult to achieve. Why is that?

If everyone knows that interdepartmental cooperation is crucial to an organization’s success, why do so many struggle with it? I’m not one to attribute this type of problem (and let’s be clear—the lack of cooperation is a problem) to bad motives. I’m sure in some cases bad motives do contribute, but most of the time, I don’t think that’s what causes individuals to shun cooperating with other departments. I don’t think most people are looking to cause harm or make things more difficult for other departments.

So again I ask, what causes the lack of interdepartmental cooperation? To find the answer, I think you need to look beyond the departments to the individuals in them. The problem isn’t with the departments; the problem is with the people who make them up. Whether it’s the head of the department or those who work in it, the people are at the heart of this problem.

Here are some things I believe contribute to shortcomings in interdepartmental cooperation:

1. Absence of a shared mission and/or vision. People within an organization need to have a shared mission and need to be working toward common goals. For the organization to succeed, everyone must have a common purpose and understand their individual and department’s roles in achieving those goals. Making sure everyone is working toward the same thing can help remove barriers to interdepartmental cooperation.
2. Failure to communicate. It’s like the line from Cool Hand Luke: “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” Lack of communication between departments is a big contributor to our problem. Without adequate communication, there’s a lack of clarity about what each department is doing to achieve the shared goals. Good communication between departments can help everyone understand each department’s role in the organization’s success. And with understanding comes acceptance, and with acceptance, cooperation is much more likely.
3. Lack of clear roles. Often, cooperation between departments breaks down when each group thinks the other is trying to fulfill its roles. How often do two different departments find themselves trying to complete the same task, each group believing it’s responsible for getting the job done? I think it’s pretty common. And whether one group thinks the other is trying to marginalize its contributions or the other believes it can complete the task better, this lack of role clarity creates a competitive and often combative environment—not a cooperative one.
4. Arrogance. How often does cooperation break down because an individual in one department believes he can do another department’s job better than those who are tasked to do it? Instead of supplying the other department with the information, resources, or support they need to do their jobs, he uses them to do the job himself. No bad motive here—just a misguided individual who believes he is more capable of doing the job than those hired to do it.

There probably are countless more reasons cooperation between departments breaks down. But if we all agree that it takes every department within an organization working together to be successful, then you as a manager must focus on what you can do to prevent these lapses in departmental cooperation. And you need to begin by taking stock of your own department.

Begin with these four steps:

1. Make sure everyone in your department understands the overall mission of the organization. What is everyone working to achieve?
2. Ensure that you and the others in your department are openly communicating with the other departments in the company. Open and honest communication helps build trust and break down barriers.
3. If there is any question or confusion about the role of your department and any other group in the company, address it. Meet it head-on, and work it out. If you truly have the best interests of the organization in mind, you will figure it out. It’s not about kingdom building; it’s about results.
4. Don’t allow yourself to believe you can do everyone else’s job better than they can—and don’t accept it in your people, either. It’s easy to be critical of others’ performance, and hindsight is 20/20, but those people were hired to do a job for a reason. Don’t allow arrogance to creep in. No one wants to work with people who believe they can do everyone else’s job better.

Interdepartmental cooperation is critical to your organization’s success. Make sure you’re working every day to strengthen relations with the other departments you interact with. In time you’ll see the payoff.