Planning Across Teams
Alignment. Cross-departmental planning. Fighting siloization. Most of us have heard these terms, a recognition that it takes intentional effort to stay connected to achieve a shared purpose. But when it comes down to day-to-day work, teams often set goals in isolation from one another, leaving staff unprepared for and strained by the ways that their time and involvement might actually be needed for work that cuts across departments. Getting and staying on the same page about work that requires cross-department collaboration – especially when change is constant – is easier said than done.
Operations play an essential role in facilitating staff collaboration and trust. Without explicitly-and intentionally-designed systems that keep people communicating across teams, tension and strain can develop between even the most mission-driven and well-intentioned people.
An important element of testing goal feasibility is taking into account not just the team’s capacity, but also the capacity of others in the organization who are needed for direct collaboration on project design and implementation, or are impacted by the outcome of the work such as having to learn a new system or process. The likelihood of success increases when departments intentionally take into account how their work impacts and relies on other departments during the planning process and set goals collaboratively.
Planning across teams not only increases the likelihood of achieving ambitious goals, but it also contributes significantly to staff morale. Whether it's staff being asked to adopt a new workflow when they already feel overwhelmed by their workload, operations teams being surprised by requests to support new programmatic initiatives, or program and fundraising staff being misaligned about funder commitments, lack of communication and planning across teams is a pervasive challenge across nonprofits that can lead to frustration and resentment.
Recently, Structural Integrity partnered with a client to help their operations team finalize goals for their upcoming fiscal year and plan for their implementation. To test feasibility, we helped identify when they will need cross-team collaboration for a goal to be successful, explored the necessity of getting collaborators’ buy-in to a project plan prior to setting the plan’s timeline, and created project planning templates that included decision-making models to explicitly name project roles. This kind of planning helps co-workers across teams understand how their work may be impacted by operations projects, plan accordingly, and not be surprised or resistant when asked to collaborate on changes ultimately meant to strengthen their ability to do their best work. In addition, the team reviewed other departments’ plans to ensure that the operations team goals were reflective of what other teams needed to be successful in the year ahead.
Need help implementing planning practices at your organization? Reach out to us to discuss ways we can support you!
