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Agile Approach to Teamwork: Cross-Functional Teams

Barış Erkent // Agile Coach - Allianz Türkiye

Today, due to increasing dependencies and complexity, the way to do efficient business is to look at the cooperation of teams with a new eye and to think about team functions in a cross way.

Now we know what cross-functional teams are and how they work. As we mentioned in our previous articles, cross-functional teams consist of a group of people with different expertise who work together to achieve a common goal. Instead of each team working independently and making separate efforts, they aim to pursue a goal more efficiently, ensuring team productivity in order to provide a competitive advantage.

So where did the need for these teams come from, let's look together…

1. The need for alignment of employees

Companies are moving faster than ever, and competitors are emerging from areas they even never knew existed before. At the same time, a large number of different expectations and risks lead to the need for teams to focus on the same goals. Independent work in different directions no longer has any added value. In the center of HEY, which is the business model that we have adopted as well, lies working as a team.

2. The increasing value of customer experience

Especially in the last 10 years, an increasing understanding of the importance of customer experience is changing traditional brand strategies. If we think today, brands having more than one communication channel for consumers (such as a website, social platforms, customer service, automated processes, online and in-store sales), this really makes a lot of sense. A communication aimed at a wide audience requires compliance with the value propositions that companies will convey. The fact that each function reaches consumers with a different message can ultimately lead to confusion, which will negatively affect the experience.

3. The growth of information technologies

In the past, traditional information technologies were more related to hardware and security-centered issues. Today, information technologies affect almost everything, almost every hour. Cross-functional cooperation between the people who manage this technology and the rest has become indispensable in functional organizations.

Let's give an example of two organizations to these teams that make better decisions with advanced problem solving capabilities, serve a common purpose, share information and are open to change:

Northwestern Mutual Life

The company which serves in the insurance sector has started to change by creating cross-functional teams consisting of members of the finance, investment and actuarial departments. They stood out in user-oriented studies under the focus of customer-centricity. For example, they tried how financial planning tools and data visualizations could be easier and more understandable for customers. They have reached the scale where there are teams that manage the design a lot by having user experience leaders, senior and talented designers. They have defined the design culture and process from end to end, which they continue to work on constantly. They currently have cross-functional teams in almost every aspect of their organization. Despite the global crisis in 2020, Northwestern Mutual Life closed the year with financial results that exceeded the record levels they achieved in 2019.

Nokia

When there is effective teamwork between functions, everyone learns more and each individual understands what the other is doing. This is exactly what Nokia has been doing since its establishment. At the very beginning, they employ those who have experience working with cross-functional teams in recruitment. The managers of Nokia Bell laboratories used the idea of cross-functionality when they brought together scientists and engineers, each with exceptional skills. They have developed a risk-free company culture that sees failure as an important part of growth. Thus, the invention of the vacuum tube appeared, which transformed thousands of industries. Today, managing more than one billion subscribers internationally, their extensive expertise, culture and organizational design make Nokia different from its competitors. Let's end the article with a saying of Aristotle: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

P.S. You can contact us by clicking here to share your experiences and ask questions about the agile working method.
 

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