CASE STUDY
Cross-Functional Team Building: Business & IT
SITUATION
A Vice President of a Fortune 500 company headquartered in the Midwest asked us to provide a two-day teambuilding workshop for two corporate groups struggling to work together—one in Finance, one in IT. She was worried that a company-critical project was in jeopardy because the business side of the project (Finance) had lost trust with the IT side of the project. Communication was strained, effectiveness was waning, and their problem-solving ability had been compromised. The project was in jeopardy. Stress had pushed members of both groups into disruptive behaviors. Belt-tightening required them to do “more with less.” Working in remote locations across the country further reduced trust and challenged communication.
THE NEED
The VP told us that she needed a way to help the teams manage stress, rebuild trust and re-focus on deliverables. They had to confront honestly the constraints of their professional habits and find a path to succeed.
OUR SOLUTION
Using nationally field-tested best practices, approaches and tools, Davis-Mayo Associates created a custom interactive, hands-on Teaming program for cross-group success, which gave them these capabilities and a clear path to work out barriers to interpersonal and process effectiveness.
RESULT
The two groups found focus and “safe” way to move ahead as a team. They regrouped and made the deliverable (on time and within budget)--and they established sound agreements for their next project together. The Director of the IT team (who attended at the VP’s insistence) emailed us later: “Your sessions were really top notch. I came to the session simply dreading 'just another one of those group things' and was very pleasantly surprised by your approach, style, and pace. You really do offer a top notch product.” Davis-Mayo Associates has been enlisted multiple times since to work with other teams in this company.