Did you know? Building a 30-story skyscraper requires expertise from 54 different specialties and the contributions of up to 750 workers.
The complexity of the project requires continuous and long-term collaboration across dozens of disciplines. If the architects designed the building without considering the other specialties, the result would be a visually unique building, but it might not be practical or safe.
Like building a skyscraper, collaboration on large projects works best when you bring together a team with diverse areas of expertise. On-going and continuous collaboration among disciplines helps to ensure that your project achieves all of its goals when it is completed.
Here are a few questions you can ask at your next team meeting:
- Who are all of the different teams or departments that we collaborate with regularly? What skills do they bring to us?
- How can we be more effective in leveraging the expertise that is available to us outside the team, either in the organization or outside of it?
- When managing large projects how do we ensure that we use the expertise that we have on the team effectively?
- How can we use a diversity of backgrounds and ideas to help us leverage the expertise and experience that is available to us?
Investing 10-15 minutes in a conversation will provide a quick and easy way for teams to work more effectively together.