May 25, 2022
Written By: NACM National
Chaos seems to be the norm lately. Nonstop news can feel overwhelming in both your personal and professional life. Just as the pandemic began to wind down, tensions between Russia and Ukraine rose to the point of war.
“The past 18 months have felt like a series of massive disruptions, one after the other, yet some companies have emerged stronger because they were able to use the disruption as an opportunity to innovate,” reads a Deloitte Insight article.
Cross-functional teams are part of the key to turning current and future disasters into innovation, rather than just waiting until the storm passes. “Along with adaptability, a key advantage to cross-functional teams is the enhanced access to resources, such as diverse perspectives, broader skill sets and new ideas,” according to research from Deloitte and MIT Sloan Management Review.
According to their survey, 83% percent of digitally maturing companies reported that they use cross-functional teams, compared with 71% of developing companies on the digital maturity spectrum and 55% of early-stage organizations. “The increasing reliance on cross-functional teams is associated with a decrease in the perception that organizational processes interfere with the organization’s ability to be nimble,” per Deloitte Insight.
Credit departments are no stranger to working with other teams within the organization. According to an NACM eNews poll, most credit departments (78%) add value to their companies by working with cross-functional teams for process improvements.
There is no limit on how often you should work with other departments cross-functionally, said Robin Walters, CCE, ICCE, global credit manager with Keithly-Williams Seeds, Inc (Yuma, AZ) in the February issue of Business Credit magazine. In fact, the more, the better. “You have to walk out your door and into other peoples’ offices and start the conversation,” she explained. “When they hear what I’m saying and it clicks with what they are saying, then we can dovetail our projects and get more momentum going. Then other departments will know moving forward that we are there to collaborate with them and to be a resource and want them as a resource to us as well.”