Reduce interdepartmental conflict
How well your departments work together and serve each other can make or break your organization’s success. Follow these steps to reduce conflicts across departments:
- Poll employees. Create a survey on a site such as SurveyMonkey.com. Ask employees about interdepartmental relations and gauge their concerns and satisfactions. Make the survey anonymous so you receive honest answers.
- Study the results. Sit down with other managers and go over the results. Note major areas of concern.
- Create a plan. Have each manager commit to at least one task that will address employee concerns and improve interdepartmental communication and collaboration.
- Cross-train employees. That will increase their awareness of other people’s duties, making them more understanding and tolerant when inevitable issues pop up.
- Monitor progress. After you have implemented the changes, check back in after several months, and survey employees again to see how things have improved. Continue to make changes and survey employees to ensure that your efforts are working.
— Adapted from “How to Improve Internal Customer Service,” Bonnie Conrad, www.smallbusiness.chron.com.
