In the case of companies, no work can be done individually rather any assignment or task has to be completed by a group of people called a team, cross functional team is one such team. Cross functional team in simple words refers to that team where team members are not from the same department rather they are from different departments like one team member will be from the sales department, one from the finance department, one from the marketing department, and so on. In order to get a better understanding about this term, one should look at some of the important characteristics of a cross functional team
Characteristics of Cross Functional Team
Mutual Understanding
The first and foremost feature of the cross functional team is that there should be a mutual understanding between the different team members because when people are from different departments there is bound to be some misunderstanding between the team members due to their association with their respective departments. Hence for example if the finance department guy talks in financial lingo and the marketing department guy talks in marketing lingo then both of them will not be able to understand each other and that is where some sort of mutual understanding comes into the picture.
Ego Conflicts Resolution
Another characteristic of the cross functional team is that due to the presence of people from various departments who already have experience and knowledge in their respective fields there is bound to be ego clashes and the manner and mechanism through which these ego clashes are handled and resolved will be the key to the success of team accomplishing the task or project for which it came into existence.
Shorter Duration
Another feature of the cross functional team is that the duration for which this team comes together is short and once the project or task gets completed all team members will go to their respective departments. In simple words, just like in the case of the marvel cinematic universe all superheroes come together as avengers to fight a common evil and once they win the battle they go to their respective storylines in the same way in case of a cross functional team once the project is completed the team members who come together for the completion of the project will go to their respective storyline which is their respective departments.
New Ideas and Innovation
In the case of the cross functional team since the team members belong to various departments, each member will get to learn new things and techniques from each resulting in the personal growth of team members and also can lead to new ideas or innovative way of doing things thus helping the company in the long term with regards to the process by which the work of the company is carried out.
Dual Responsibility
In the case of a cross functional team, the team members have dual responsibility one is towards the departments from which they came and the other is towards their team for which they are being called upon. In simple words cross functional team members cannot run from the responsibility of their departments just because they are the team members of a cross functional team.
Common Goal
Another important feature of this team is that although team members are from different departments but their goal is common which is nothing but ensuring that project or task for which team came together should be completed efficiently and effectively and personal goals should be kept aside and team members should ensure that all work together to achieve the common goal set by the company for the team.
As one can see from the above that the cross-functional team is quite complex and that is the reason why any company thinking of forming a cross-functional team should keep the above characteristics in mind so that the task or project for which the team was built gets completed quickly and efficiently.