Leading multidisciplinary Project Teams

Multidisciplinary project teams can lead to more innovative solutions and a better understanding of a project's complexities by providing a wider range of perspectives, skills, and experiences. This is especially helpful for projects that need to adopt a broad approach and incorporate numerous disciplines, like design, engineering, marketing, and technology. These diverse capabilities can better address challenging issues within the context of project, program, and portfolio management and result in a more comprehensive solution and increased team member satisfaction.

Human behavior is one of the major sources for a rising project complexity, this is due to introducing factors like subjectivity, different cultural and professional backgrounds, or attitudes. Therefore, leading a project team is becoming a challenging task, which requires a combination of technical and interpersonal skills. This leadership is not limited to a designated assigned project leader, since successful project teams feature several team members who demonstrate various leadership capabilities. Nevertheless, the challenge posed with building these teams is significant. To achieve the best possible project outcome it is crucial to create the necessary project environment, enabling all team members working together and maximize their performance. To create such an environment proper communication, motivation, and taking action when the situation calls for it, is needed.

This article outlines the key elements of successful multidisciplinary project team leadership that can be applied to project, program, and portfolio management. These include building a high-performing team, setting clear goals and expectations, managing conflict and overcoming obstacles, and motivating and engaging team members. Followed by a quick look at one of the pioneering companies in leveraging cross-functional teams and then discussing the limitations of this articles content. Further, an annotated bibliography is provided for additional reading on the topic.

Big Idea/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, which can be seen in the following table.

Reasons for adopting cross-functional teams

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

Challenges often arise when working with cross-functional teams because of the inherent functional diversity among team members. The fundamental differences between individuals from different functional areas, such as personality, culture, language, jargon, organizational responsibilities, and reward systems, can create barriers to effective team processes. This diversity can lead to conflicts in priorities and goals, as different departments have different goals and interests. Other challenges associated with cross-functional teams include time allocation diversity, where team members devote different amounts of time to the project, and multiple reporting relationships, which can lead to role ambiguity and overload. The different value systems within a cross-functional team can also hinder the development of trust, making it difficult to achieve high performance potential. Leaders must recognize these challenges and develop strategies to create a climate of trust, promote effective team processes, and ultimately achieve successful performance within cross-functional teams.

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The earlier mentioned 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. </ref>

The collaborative environment fostered by Apple's functional structure allowed team members to freely share knowledge and ideas, which is essential for effective cross-functional teamwork. By giving experts the opportunity to lead and mentor others in their areas of expertise, Apple ensured that team members were motivated and engaged, further enhancing the performance of cross-functional teams. Apple has successfully integrated cross-functional teams within every part of its organization to create breakthrough products such as the iPhone.

Limitations

There are limitations to every discussion of leading interdisciplinary project teams. One of these restrictions is that different organizations may have different definitions of what beholds a "multidisciplinary team," making it difficult to standardize the approach to this subject. Therefore, it may be more practical to use a different strategy for various businesses or projects, making it challenging to develop a comprehensive manual that covers all possibilities. The mentioned success factors are also not only limited to teams with a cross-functional background, several of them are also applicable to general team leadership regardless the team composition. It can be challenging to manage a range of personalities, communication styles, and areas of expertise, and condensing the subject into one condensed article may is not detailed enough for every possible situation. A wide range of topics, including team development, conflict resolution, and project management approaches, are included in the leadership of interdisciplinary project teams. As a result, giving a thorough review that addresses every facet of this complex subject can be to some extent not practicable. The unique circumstances should be considered to further dive into additional resources as needed.

Annotated Bibliography

To dive further into the methods and topics regarding the leadership of multidisciplinary teams, the following references are highly recommended:

• 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) - This guide from the Project Management Institute provides comprehensive coverage of project management best practices, standards, and frameworks. It includes methodologies, tools, and techniques for effective project management, making it a valuable resource for understanding the principles and practices of leading multidisciplinary project teams.

• Kerzner, H. (2017). Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (12th Edition). John Wiley & Sons - Kerzner's Project Management textbook provides a practical approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. It covers a wide range of topics, including cross-functional team management, and provides insight into the challenges and opportunities associated with leading multidisciplinary teams in various project environments.

• Edward F. McDonough III. (2000). Investigation of Factors Contributing to the Success of Cross-Functional Teams. Elsevier Science Inc - The article by McDonough examines the factors that contribute to the success of cross-functional teams, focusing on elements such as collaboration, ownership, and commitment. The study provides valuable insights into the role of these factors in the effectiveness of multidisciplinary project teams and offers a deeper understanding of the dynamics at play in successful team management.

• Holland.S, Gaston.K, Gomes.J. (2000). Critical success factors for cross-functional teamwork in new product development. International Journal of Management Reviews. Blackwell Publishers - The article examines the critical success factors for cross-functional teamwork in new product development. The authors provide a detailed analysis of the elements that contribute to effective team management, such as communication, collaboration, and trust, and highlight the importance of these factors in the successful execution of multidisciplinary projects.

• Christine Organ, Cassie Bottorf, 2022, What Are Cross-Functional Teams? Everything you need to know, https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/cross-functional-teams/ - Forbes Advisor is a trusted online source of expert advice and information on a wide range of topics, including finance, investing, business, and technology. It is an extension of Forbes, a well-established media company with a long history of producing reliable, high-quality content. Forbes Advisor features articles written by industry experts and professionals to ensure that the information provided is accurate, up-to-date, and useful.

• Joel M. Podolny, Morten T. Hansen. (2020). How Apple Is Organized for Innovation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-apple-is-organized-for-innovation - Harvard Business Review (HBR) is a highly credible source of information on business, management, and leadership. Published by Harvard Business Publishing, a subsidiary of Harvard University, HBR features articles written by academics, business leaders, and management experts. The content is well-researched, evidence-based, and often includes insights from cutting-edge research and real-world case studies.

Further, the following wiki articles are recommended for more in-depth information about related methods and topics connected with leading multidisciplinary teams:

• Effective Communication in Project Management by Alessandro Palmerini, http://wiki.doing-projects.org/index.php/Effective_Communication_in_Project_Management
• How to successfully go through the Five Stages of Team Development by Natacha Leduc, http://wiki.doing-projects.org/index.php/How_to_successfully_go_through_the_Five_Stages_of_Team_Development
• Leadership vs. management, http://wiki.doing-projects.org/index.php/Leadership_vs._management
• SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) by Nicolai Mossing Madsen, http://wiki.doing-projects.org/index.php/SMART_Goals_(Specific,_Measurable,_Attainable,_Relevant,_Time-bound)
• Dealing with conflict in project management by Sebastian Graff Daugaard, http://wiki.doing-projects.org/index.php/Dealing_with_conflict_in_project_management