"Nothing says 'teamwork' like a dozen people from different departments all silently judging each other's slide decks.”
Behold... the cross-functional (XFN) project 🫠
5% of my role as a Marketing Manager at Google was doing marketing. 95% was corralling XFN stakeholders to work together (even when they didn’t want to).
These are the 6 best hacks I picked up.
1. Docs Not Meetings
IMO, kicking-off a project with a meeting as the first step, is a waste of time (people don't say what they really mean). Start it with a kick-off document instead. 👉🏼 Template
2. Make It Real
Start at the future. Creative Lab at Google has a culture of printing stunning visual posters of project ideas and putting them up around the office. Amazon famously writes press releases (including detailed Q+A) for product launches before a line of code gets written.
A mock NY Times article, a viral customer social post, an email from your CEO congratulating everyone on an epic launch. Help everyone visualise success, and their individual gain, first.
3. "How We Work" Sesh
Dedicate a whole session to communicating about how you’re going to communicate. It's called a "How We Work" session. 👉🏼 Ask these 12 questions.
4. Cut The Cake Early
If you have a regular cross-functional team meeting, assign each team a slide (slice) in the running meeting deck (cake) to own. A lead from each team gives a rapid fire update to the group (eg Highlights, Risks, Requests).
😳 Someone speaking unprepared to a blank slide one week, is usually a great motivator to pull their weight and fill it out the next.
5. Shout-Outs
Mel Silva (Google MD) would start her operating group meeting (a complex mix of teams and personalities) with a few minutes of shout-outs. Anyone could take the mic to thank/praise someone on a different team. Instant vibes ✨
6. Finish Meetings Early
Very demure, very mindful.
Without my ducks in a row,
Soph ✌🏼