As companies grow, there is necessarily a division of functions across various departments. While a start-up might have a handful of employees or even a single person engaged in all aspects of the business—from marketing and operations to accounting and finance—larger organizations tend to engage specialized teams or departments to focus on specific areas.
While this can promote efficiency through specialization, it can also throw up roadblocks to effective communication because employees become siloed and separated from one other. But there are ways to avoid and mitigate the trend toward reduced interdepartmental communication.
An article for SmartBrief offers a number of tips and strategies for doing just that. Here, we look at some key points.
1. Regular Leadership Meetings
One simple way to ensure close coordination and communication between departments is to hold regular leadership meetings between the leaders of those groups and the head of the company.
These meetings help ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to company-wide goals, initiatives, and challenges; where each department fits into those activities; and what each department is doing in support of them. It also provides an opportunity to discuss challenges between departments and clarify understandings and expectations.
2. Cross-Departmental Teams
As noted above, silos—where departments are increasingly focused on internal matters and unaware of, or unconcerned with, the activities and challenges of other departments—are a major source of poor communication within organizations.
Forming cross-departmental teams can help expose staff from different departments to counterparts in other areas and boost collaboration, as well as communication.
3. Social Events
Social events are, in some ways, the casual equivalent of the cross-departmental team. Workplace social events let employees from throughout the organization get to know each other and learn about each other’s roles within the organization. These connections can come in handy down the line when reaching out to other departments.
Interdepartmental communication is crucial for the effective and efficient functioning of any business. Poor communication can lead to disparate goals and expectations and hinder proper coordination on company-wide initiatives. Fortunately, there are a number of simple strategies that can be employed to help promote increased communication and collaboration.