Do you ever see departments that run great internally but fail to work well with other departments within your organization? When there’s poor interaction between department teams, your operational efficiency suffers and these communication challenges prevent your organization from operating at peak performance.

Here are some of the most common symptoms of poor communication between departmental teams and what you can do to improve operational efficiency:

1. Conflict between leaders that leads to communication breakdowns.

Conflict between department heads can damage communication between the departments. If department heads are not communicating well with one another, it becomes difficult for employees within the departments to communicate effectively.

Using team building exercises to create camaraderie amongst department heads is a proven way to strengthen relationships and improve communication. Getting your department heads to communicate on the same channel will trickle down to the employees within the departments as well.

2. Communication guidelines are not written in black and white.

Many organizations fail to outline the procedures for interdepartmental communication, which leaves interaction between departments up to the employee’s’ discretion. This can create friction between departments and slow down workflows.

As a best practice, have each department within your organization outline the steps that need to be followed for how information should flow between departments. This will literally put your communication guidelines in black-and-white for your employees.

3. Physical separation creates gaps in communication.

Not all of the departments within your organization will be located on the same floor or in the same building. This physical separation has a tendency to lead to communication gaps.

Fortunately, there are a number of cloud-based software solutions focused on improving communication and collaboration between departments and employees, especially for those team members working remotely. With cloud computing, software applications and data are accessed via the internet, enabling all employees within your organization to access this information from one central location. Not only will this help with communication, but it will also boost productivity and lead to higher operational efficiency.

Challenges with communication between various departments within your organization quickly leads to a fractured company culture. Our team at Equal Parts can provide you with the strategy and resources needed to transform your company culture and help you create a highly efficient and effective organization.

Are you ready to help your company reach its fullest potential? Contact us at Equal Parts to learn how we can help you to drive institutional change and improve performance by aligning your organizational culture with your company’s goals.