Boost Team Collaboration Across Departments With These 7 Steps

Do you ever feel like your department is stuck on its own island, isolated from the rest of your financial institution? Does every team keep to itself and only collaborate when absolutely necessary? 

The truth is, when departments lack communication and collaboration, your bank or credit union suffers. Too little collaboration leads to arguments, resentment, and a dysfunctional institution. Not exactly something to be proud of.  

It’s easy to feel isolated in your own little department—whether you’re in Marketing, Compliance, Community Relations, Lending, CRA, or anywhere else. You’re the only one who has your back, and you’ve got to watch it closely, right? 

Wrong.

When given the chance, interdepartmental collaboration can be key to hitting goals, getting more done, and growing your financial institution. 

If you aren’t used to working closely with other departments, getting to that point can be challenging. Once there, though, you’ll likely find that you have more internal support, have the resources to get more done, and are more easily able to make and keep goals. You’re also able to provide your expertise to other departments when needed and can make a difference outside your own little office. Win-win! 

But how can you get to this point, especially if your institution is currently a “fend for yourself” kind of place? 

Here are some tips for fostering interdepartmental collaboration that will benefit you, other departments, and your institution. 

1. Get leadership on board

First of all, nothing will change if the higher-ups aren’t on board. 

Depending on the size of your bank or credit union, this may mean working directly with the President of the institution or reaching out to department heads around the company. Explain what you’re trying to accomplish—get more done, amplify growth, foster connections, etc.—and odds are they’ll see the value. 

Be ready for some follow-up questions and have your plan on hand. Building support for a new idea can be daunting, but stay strong and don’t let anyone’s doubts sway you. You know that having more collaboration throughout your institution will be beneficial to all parties, and you just need to convince them of it, too. You’ve got this! 

2. Hold regular cross-department meetings

Yes, we all have a bit of “meeting burnout.” Dozens of meetings throughout the day take you away from your work, and many of those meetings really could have been an email, right? But when it comes to building collaboration throughout your institution, having regular cross-department meetings is crucial, at least at the beginning. 

Initially, these meetings should focus on setting boundaries, creating shared goals (more on that in a minute), and identifying areas for collaboration. Once you’ve settled the basics, it’s time to discuss ongoing projects and find further ways to support one another and foster your new collaborative attitude. 

These meetings don’t have to be long or overly formal, but they’re essential to kick your new initiatives off strong. Regular interaction will help each department understand how their work impacts others—and how to avoid unnecessary obstacles. Once you’ve established a pattern of collaboration, you might consider meeting less frequently or only as needed. Just make sure to keep the wheel spinning and don’t let a department fall off the track. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it!

3. Establish shared goals that contribute to the overall institution

One of the main reasons departments may feel isolated is a lack of shared goals. Without something to unify them, every team ends up working toward its own objectives, which often leads to duplicated efforts and frustrating “collaboration.” Instead of sticking to yourself, set institution-wide goals that every department can contribute to. 

Here are some shared goal ideas that can bring your institution together:

• Increase community involvement by x%

• Improve customer satisfaction scores by x%

• Boost employee volunteer hours by x%

• Grow deposits by x%

• Achieve x% growth in low- to moderate-income lending

While creating these goals, make sure to communicate with each department and ask them to outline how they might contribute to the institution’s success. When each department has a bit of responsibility, they are more likely to take this goal seriously and hit the objective. 

Once the goal is set, regularly update everyone on each department’s progress. This can be done in your recurring cross-department meetings, by email, with a monthly newsletter, or however else works for your team. Don’t let the goal fall to the back of anyone’s mind, and always be looking for ways to bring departments together while achieving your goals. 

By getting every department involved in tracking the same goals, you’ll create a sense of responsibility and camaraderie that’s difficult to replicate elsewhere. 

4. Create cross-department working groups for major projects

Got a big project coming up? Now that you’ve made collaboration “the thing to do,” you don’t have to tackle it alone. Create cross-department working groups that include representatives from all relevant areas of the institution. Each relevant department should have a voice in the planning and execution of major projects, and these working groups are a great way to foster relationships. 

Let’s say your bank or credit union is planning a financial education campaign, and you want to target low- to moderate-income families. Create a working group with a member of each department involved. Marketing will be key for outreach, CRA (if applicable) for aligning with community reinvestment goals, Compliance for ensuring messaging is legally sound, and Community Relations for connecting with local organizations. By forming a dedicated working group, you’ll ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and no crucial detail is overlooked.

5. Leverage technology for seamless collaboration

Interdepartmental collaboration doesn’t have to mean endless meetings or email threads. Honestly, endless meetings are more likely to kill collaboration than they are to help it. 

Instead, use technology to keep everyone on the same page without adding more to their plates. Project management tools like Asana or Trello can help track progress, assign tasks, and ensure deadlines are met. Shared platforms like Google Workspace or Microsoft Teams allow departments to collaborate in real-time on documents, reports, and presentations. 

You can even implement software like Kadince to track community involvement efforts, CRA data, consumer complaints, and marketing compliance approvals. This not only helps centralize data but makes it easily accessible to all departments. Kadince helps reduce miscommunication and saves everyone time. 

To learn how Kadince can help your institution track and manage data while collaborating with other departments, schedule a 30-minute demo.

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6. Celebrate wins together

Success feels even sweeter when you can share it with others. As your institution achieves milestones or completes one of your shared goals, be sure to highlight how different departments contributed to the win. Did a new marketing campaign help boost CRA activity? Did Compliance’s proactive work help prevent issues with a new product launch?

Celebrating these wins across departments not only boosts morale but reinforces the value of collaboration. It shows that when everyone works together, the entire institution thrives.

7. Foster a culture of openness and support

Culture plays a huge role in collaboration. If departments feel they have to guard their knowledge or fight for resources, teamwork will always be an uphill battle. Instead, foster a culture where sharing ideas, offering feedback, and asking for help are encouraged.

Again, this should start at the leadership level. But once begun, fostering a culture of support will become easier and easier. Especially as your whole team starts to see the benefits of collaboration. 

Create open channels of communication and encourage departments to reach out to one another for assistance. When teams feel comfortable working together and starting the conversation, collaboration becomes second nature. Over time, departments will begin to see themselves as part of a larger ecosystem in the institution rather than separate entities competing for attention. 

With collaboration, you can achieve more 

By following the above steps, your institution's departments can go from fending for themselves to working together and achieving goals as a unified team. 

Instead of feeling isolated in your own little department, you can work with amazing people around the institution whom you didn’t previously associate with. 

How does it feel to have more internal support, get more done, and accomplish shared goals that lead to a bigger, better institution?

Probably feels pretty good. 

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