Leading multidisciplinary Project Teams

Multidisciplinary project teams can lead to more innovative solutions and a better understanding of the project's complexities by providing a wider range of perspectives, skills, and experiences. This is particularly useful for projects that need to take a comprehensive approach and integrate multiple disciplines, such as design, engineering, marketing, and technology. By combining these different skill sets, a team can tackle complex problems more effectively and deliver a more comprehensive solution.

One of the major sources of project complexity is human behavior. It can increase the complexity of a project by introducing factors of subjectivity, different cultural or professional backgrounds or attitudes. This makes project leadership a complex and challenging task that requires a combination of technical and interpersonal skills. This leadership is not tied to the project manager alone, as successful projects feature various team members who demonstrate leadership skills. Not to mention, building these teams requires a wide range of leadership skills to create an effective project environment, which is necessary to allow team members to work together and achieve synergistic effects and the best possible outcome. Creating such an environment involves proper communication, motivation, and taking action when the situation requires it.

This article outlines the key elements of successful multidisciplinary project team leadership. These include building a high-performing team, setting clear goals and expectations, managing conflict and overcoming obstacles, and motivating and engaging team members. The article also discusses the limitations of multidisciplinary project teams. An annotated bibliography is provided for further reading on this topic.

Background

Definition multidisciplinary/cross-functional team

"Cross functional teams are groups of people from various departments in an organization—such as marketing, product development, quality assurance, sales and finance—who work together to achieve a common goal. Oftentimes, cross functional teams are organized to complete a specific project, but they can also be created with a more ongoing purpose."

Functional diversity in the context of cross-functional teams refers to the range of skills, knowledge, and expertise that team members from different functional areas bring to the team. On a cross-functional team, it can be beneficial because it brings together individuals with different perspectives, experiences, and knowledge, which can lead to more innovative and effective solutions. For example, a marketing professional might bring a customer-focused perspective, an engineer might bring technical expertise, and a finance professional might bring financial analysis skills.

Why multidisciplinary teams?

In order for the team to view the full picture, cross functional teams remove the "silos" of a typical organizational structure. Working with individuals who have different perspectives, specialties, and backgrounds allows the team as a whole to solve issues more quickly and accomplish project objectives. Because each department is involved throughout the process rather than a project going from department to department, they can foresee obstacles earlier in the process.

The main reasons for adopting cross-functional teams according to can be grouped under performance increase and process improvement:

• Performance Increase
  • Speed
  • Quality
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Success rate
  • Lower Costs
• Process Improvement
  • Cross-functional interactions
  • Ownership
  • Improved process
  • Motivation and satisfaction
  • Resource use
  • Improve control

By bringing together individuals with different skills and perspectives, cross-functional teams can improve problem-solving efforts, resulting in more efficient and effective outcomes. This, in turn, can increase the speed at which projects are completed, leading to faster delivery times and greater agility. Diverse perspectives and expertise enable a more comprehensive evaluation of options and a more informed decision-making process. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction rates, increased success rates and therefore improve the quality of project outcomes. In addition, facilitating the sharing of knowledge and best practices will result in process improvements in general. Furthermore, cross-functional teams are promoting ownership, and accountability and therefore are leading toward a shared sense of responsibility for project success, resulting in increased motivation and satisfaction among team members. Thus, enabling an improved team morale and a greater commitment to achieving goals.

All those benefits can lead to improved organizational effectiveness and better business outcomes, making cross-functional teams an attractive option for organizations looking to achieve more innovative and significant results.

Challenges working within multidisciplinary teams

This functional diversity leads to three key differences of cross-functional teams when compared with traditional teams: First, their members have competing social identities and loyalties. Most people tend to identify more socially and psychologically with their function and responsibilities than with their organization. This can lead to conflicts between team members, as teams also generate their own identities and loyalties. Second, cross-functional teams are subject to significant pressure and conflict because they are often temporary task teams, which are created to work on a specific project or goal. Finally, these teams often face high-performance expectations, with ambitious goals to reduce time, create knowledge, and improve organizational learning. Overall, cross-functional teams are designed to bring together diverse skills, experiences, and perspectives to achieve a specific goal or project. Traditional teams, on the other hand, are designed to accomplish ongoing tasks or goals within a specific department or functional area.

Overview of some of the main challenges when it comes to work/lead cross-functional teams, referring to

• Functional diversity
• Time allocation diversity
• Multiple reporting relationships
• Implications for team trust

Application

Structuring an approach for successful leadership, referring to and including respective success factors to successful lead an cross-functional team

Building a High-Performance team

To build a high-performing team, several factors need to be considered. First, management plays a critical role in setting the team climate, aiming to create an innovative environment by empowering team members and fostering a sense of urgency with a "priority image" that generates commitment. Human resources are another critical aspect, focusing on increasing commitment, trust, communication and collaboration among team members. The skills and functional diversity within the team, along with the right combination of technical expertise, and interpersonal skills, contribute to the team's effectiveness and process performance. Management should therefore set a stage by assembling a team that possesses these qualities. Enablers, individuals with a vested interest in the project's success, can play an enabling role by raising awareness and overcoming management resistance. Their indirect influence on the project outcome and their moderating effect on the relationship between stage-setting elements and project performance can be invaluable. Finally, respect among team members is essential for open communication and trust, and team leaders can foster this by modeling the desired behavior and using their interpersonal skills.

• Success factors connected to this topic:
  • Human resources
  • Climate
  • Champions
  • Respect/trust

Establishing Clear Goals and Expectations

When managing a cross-functional team, it is essential to set clear goals and expectations to ensure success. Setting well-defined goals provides a common frame of reference that encourages a higher level of cross-functional collaboration. Overarching goals help structure tasks and facilitate collaboration by keeping team members focused on a common outcome. Creating boundaries for the project team prevents constant redefinition of directions and focuses the team's efforts by explicitly stating what to do and what not to do. Ownership, which goes beyond commitment and duty, involves team members tying their identity to the outcome of the project. This sense of ownership can be fostered by establishing a climate, empowering the team, and setting goals. Involving the team in translating goals into specific deliverables is a critical step in cultivating ownership and setting the team up for success. By addressing these factors, cross-functional team management can effectively establish clear goals and expectations, paving the way for successful project outcomes.

• Success factors connected to this topic:
  • Goals
  • Ownership

Managing Conflict and Overcoming Obstacles

• Success factors connected to this topic:
  • Senior management suppoort
  • Team leadership
  • Respect/trust
  • Cooperation

Motivating and Engaging Team members

• Success factors connected to this topic:
  • Empowerment
  • Commitment
  • Champions

Limitations

• Varying definitions: The definition of a "multidisciplinary team" can vary from one organization to another, and this can make it challenging to create a standardized approach to writing about the topic.

• Lack of standardization: There is no single best way to lead a multidisciplinary project team, and different approaches may work better for different organizations or projects. This could make it challenging to create a comprehensive guide to leading these teams.

• Complexity: Leading a multidisciplinary team is a complex process that involves managing a range of different personalities, communication styles, and areas of expertise. This complexity can make it challenging to distill the topic into a concise and easily digestible article.

• Scope: The topic of leading multidisciplinary project teams is broad and covers a range of different subtopics, including team-building, conflict resolution, project management methodologies, and more. It could be challenging to cover all of these subtopics in a single article.

Annotated Bibliography

• Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI). (2021). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ® Guide) – 7th Edition and The Standard for Project Management. Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI)
• Kerzner, H. (2017). Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (12th Edition). John Wiley & Sons
• Edward F. McDonough III. (2000). Investigation of Factors Contributing to the Success of Cross-Functional Teams. Elsevier Science Inc