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You are here: Home / Collaboration And Convergence / Cross-functional Collaboration Yin-Yang

Cross-functional Collaboration Yin-Yang

February 9, 2015 by Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

iStock_000007195660XSmallCross-functional collaboration yin-yang isn’t a new game for you to play. In today’s global economy, those of you who “get this” will be more productive and competitive.

Cross-functional collaboration yin-yang is your ability to communicate across professional disciplines. It’s a balancing act.

Most of us prefer to fit in and run with the pack; stick with our own kind. We are comfortable communicating and working with folks who have the same type of education, language, clothing style and habits.

You create a culture of exclusivity instead of inclusiveness.

The business goal of cross-functional collaboration yin-yang is to become more comfortable traversing between professional disciplines. For sales folks, that translates into becoming more comfortable reading and interpreting quantitative hard data from source material. For technical and engineering professionals, that translates into becoming more comfortable and accepting of qualitative insights from what you perceive as non-scientific marketing research methods.

The business goal of cross-functional collaboration yin-yang is stabilization of productivity and profitability. When everyone seated around the business table is comfortable and conversant, innovation and process improvement happens.

The business goal of cross-functional collaboration yin-yang is business creation, growth, expansion and sustainability.

That’s why sticking with your own kind and running with their pack may not offer your business a long-term robust and flexible business outcome.

Yes, it’s painful to sit in meetings with the engineering or R&D folks. They speak their own language. They communicate differently than you do. They are exclusive and elitist. They think they are the smartest people in the room. They are.

However, it doesn’t matter how smart you are when everyone else seated at the business table and desperately attempting to engage virtually doesn’t “get it.”

Yes, it’s painful to sit in meetings with the sales and marketing folks, who are posturing and slinging their MBA-school acquired lingo around like confetti. They speak their own language. They communicate differently than you do. They are exclusive and elitist. You know your technical acumen has completely intimidated them.

Power Tip: Avoid Us versus Them mindset. Isn’t it exhausting and repetitive? Collaboration doesn’t result from throwing a bunch of people together in a room. There’s no positive outcome in that model. Set up a glossary of terminology that will be used in the meeting.

The business goal of cross-functional collaboration yin-yang is to develop strategies which will sustain your company. When you and your colleagues facilitate this type of communication, you bring your collaboration into the marketplace and into your customers’ places of business.

Business development is a balancing act: yin-yang. There’s a lot of power in that. Once you all decide to collaborate with each other instead of compete.

Babette N. Ten Haken, President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, is a management consultant and business coach. Babette develops business, technical and engineering professionals of worth. She remodels startups and small-to-medium manufacturing and service companies experiencing difficulty with unpredictable revenue streams.

A recognized Top 50 Marketing & Sales Influencer, Babette’s blog won the 2014 Bronze Medal, Top Sales & Marketing Awards, Top Sales World. Her book on cross-functional communication and collaboration strategies and tools, Do YOU Mean Business?  is available on Amazon.com.

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Filed Under: Collaboration And Convergence, Customer Experience, Success, Loyalty, Retention, Professional Development Tagged With: cross-functional, cross-functional collaboration, cross-functional collaboration yin-yang

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