Facilitating Communication on a Cross-Functional Team

Effective communication is crucial when you’re leading a cross-functional team. Here are a few communication vehicles you can use.

A cross-functional team leader has a lot of communication vehicles at their disposal. These need to be used effectively. Here are some of the most common ones and a few suggestions on how you can use them.

Steering committee meetings

There are steering committee meetings. These are the most formal, and usually the least frequent. They involve senior stakeholders from multiple functions. You’ll provide a formal team progress update. You may conduct deep dives into specific areas of concern. Sometimes you’re coming to the steering committee for a major decision. These occur on a monthly, bimonthly, or even quarterly basis, depending on the size of the project.

Team project updates

There are team project updates. These are conducted with the entire cross-functional team. Every team member reviews their progress, shares concerns and needs for assistance, and team decisions are made here. These generally occur biweekly or monthly since they can be big and they’re very involved.

Regular team meetings

There are regular team meetings. Those involve the entire team, but they focus on specific upcoming deliverables or specific issues that need to be resolved. These are usually manage by exception types of meetings. They generally occur every week. Individual or subteam meetings involve a portion of the team. These occur on an as-needed basis. They focus on resolving a particular issue or making decisions that don’t affect the broader team or broader project.

Other communication vehicles

Other communication vehicles you can use to keep the team moving forward are project plans and update emails or calls. Keeping a project plan posted somewhere it’s accessible all the time enables team members and stakeholders to get a quick look at progress. They can see what the upcoming deliverables are. This can be posted either on a bulletin board or shared online. Update emails and calls can be sent to the broader team, or they can be used with specific team members. You can even target specific stakeholders to notify them of progress or issues. Make the update’s purpose clear up front. Is it just an FYI? Do you need a decision made? Is it a request for assistance?

All these means of communicating do take time and effort, but that’s the leader’s job on a cross-functional team. Make sure you invest the time keeping the team informed.

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