Despite the need for it, vast confusion still exists about improving cooperation between departments. Part two talks about improving cross-functional teamwork in the entire company. Based on experience, the amount of expertise required for a group to be effective depends on the purpose of the group. If the purpose is to make incremental, small scale change, weight the group with experts. A clear charter and purpose To me, the most frustrating experience is to be on a team without a clear direction or purpose.
People meander and waffle around and after a few overly-long meetings, members stop showing up.
Team members, their management and any other stakeholders should agree on the this charter before the team starts on its task. The right connections Not only should members have some political pull themselves, but have access to bigger movers and shakers. These connections would especially include the higher ups from the functional departments the members represent. Cross-functional teams, however, probably have to decide what results they expect to achieve. And what they want to achieve may have no current measure of success.