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Communication Is Crucial Throughout Your Entire Organization

Cody McBride

⁠

Image via

Pexels⁠

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Each department within your business may feel like they are its own separate entity. To a degree, they are. However, each must work together and collaborate in harmony to ensure your operation runs smoothly and efficiently. That’s why

Coda⁠

has put together some helpful tips to get you started on the right path.

Why Is It So Important To Communicate Between Departments?

Interdepartmental communication ensures that leaders and all pertinent employees are fully informed of everything they must know. Further, in most working environments, ensuring that all departments are

in the same loop⁠

reduces uncertainty. For example, when the departments communicate, your technicians and service workers know exactly what to do and

are not wasting time⁠

tracking down someone for instructions.

Common Pain Points

There are many different pain points when it comes to trying to communicate between departments. Some have to do with people. Jealousy, protectiveness, and competitiveness are all issues that must be addressed within each environment. However, some communication issues are practical. One, especially in a remote work environment, is being overly connected. While this might sound counterproductive, make sure that your employees know when they are expected to work and when you want them to focus on themselves. By

having clear boundaries⁠

, GetVOIP asserts that your employees will be more effective during your office hours.

Improving Collaboration with Business Process Management

There’s no one set of tools that works for all businesses. However, all companies can benefit from incorporating RPA and BPM (business process management) processes, which are essentially types of software and strategies that help your business automate. BPM, in particular, can help you optimize workflow and internal operations by analyzing data, systems, and human interactions—

you might consider this⁠

if your business is growing rapidly and starting to become unwieldy. By removing unnecessary steps, your people will have more time to collaborate. A quick tip here is to always monitor your BPM effectiveness so that you can improve as needed.

For simple collaboration, plan to use programs like Google Docs and Slack. These offer features, such as in-document editing and commenting, task management, and one-on-one messaging. Also check out PDF tools—

with a PDF editor online you can⁠

make notes and highlights to help you iterate ideas quickly.

To help take your collaboration to the next level, see how

Coda⁠

can help you consolidate your tools and get everyone on the same page.

Putting Your Heads Together

No matter what type of collaboration processes you put into place, it’s best to get input from every level. Make sure that your managers know to watch out for things like “silos,” which are tight knit groups of individuals that don’t like to work with others. You should also maintain companywide objectives. The Grammarly blog also smartly suggests encouraging interaction between teams and

creating cross-functional teams⁠

Present A Unified Front

One of the greatest benefits of cross-team collaboration is that it makes it much easier to present to lenders or governance entities. When you form a cohesive interoffice network, you instill confidence in these entities. You also have a unique opportunity to showcase everyone’s expertise and offer more fluid presentations. If you’re getting ready to make a presentation, start working together early, identify everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, and decide on a point person within each department to

act as a liaison⁠

in between brainstorming sessions.

You should also do your best to keep the environment positive, as free as possible from criticism, negativity, and blame. That will greatly improve the feeling that people are working together as a team toward a common goal.

Excellent communication is not something that you should let get pushed to the wayside. Your business depends on it, and your employers will be happier when all departments work together on a unified front. From implementing business process management to avoiding toxic exclusivity, the above tips can help you run a more communicative office from department to department.

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