Imagine this: a company-wide project with tight deadlines and ambitious goals.
Team A is working tirelessly on their portion, unaware that Team B is tackling a similar task with slightly different assumptions. Team C, who could provide critical data, isn’t even aware their input is needed.
The result? Conflicting outputs, missed deadlines, and mounting frustration.
This scenario is common in organisations where communication between teams is lacking.
The immediate consequence is often duplication of effort and delays as tasks are redone or reconciled.
But the more profound problems run further.
Decisions made without complete information lead to subpar results, damaging the quality of work and the organisation's reputation.
Meanwhile, tension builds—teams perceive others as uncooperative or unreliable, trust erodes, and morale plummets.
Why does this happen?
At its core, poor communication often stems from teams focusing on their own goals without considering the bigger picture.
Overwhelmed by deadlines, individuals prioritise immediate tasks over collaboration, while unclear roles and responsibilities leave critical information unspoken.
In some cases, competitive dynamics or a lack of transparency in organisational culture can deepen the divide.
Yet fixing this problem is not just important—it’s essential.
Efficient communication ensures teams align their efforts, reducing duplication, errors, and wasted resources.
When teams communicate effectively, the ripple effect is transformative.
Workflows become streamlined. Innovation thrives, and morale soars.
Instead of frustration and finger-pointing, collective energy drives the organisation forward—aligned, efficient, and collaborative.
Fix the communication, and you fix the foundation on which success is built.
This workshop is designed to help you improve inter-team communication.
It’s part of a new bumper pack of workshops we’re releasing to help fix common problems within a single team and between different teams.
Let’s get into it…
Bridging the Gap: Improving Inter-Team Communication
Duration: 90 mins
Objectives
- Identify common communication barriers between the teams.
- Practise active listening and clear articulation.
- Develop actionable strategies to improve communication.
1. Welcome and Icebreaker (10 minutes)
Activity: Cross-Team Introductions
- Ask participants to pair up with someone from another team.
- Each pair takes 2 minutes to introduce their role, primary responsibilities, and one communication challenge they face when working with other teams.
- Purpose: Foster connections and initiate discussion about communication.
2. Identifying Communication Barriers (20 minutes)
Activity: What Gets in the Way?
- In small groups, participants brainstorm barriers to effective communication between teams (e.g., unclear expectations, lack of tools, conflicting priorities).
- Groups share their insights with the larger team, and the facilitator records themes on a flipchart.
- Debrief: Highlight common challenges and emphasise that these are solvable.
3. Building Awareness of Team Needs (25 minutes)
Activity: The Collaboration Canvas
- Each team creates a “Collaboration Canvas” on a large sheet of paper with the following sections:
- What We Do: A brief overview of their team’s role and key objectives.
- What We Need: Information or support they require from other teams to succeed.
- What We Provide: Resources or support they can offer to other teams.
- Teams present their canvases to the group.
- Debrief: Discuss how understanding each team’s needs and offerings can improve communication.
4. Designing Communication Strategies (25 minutes)
Activity: Creating a Communication Plan
- In mixed-team groups, participants design strategies to improve inter-team communication. Encourage them to address:
- Preferred communication channels (e.g., shared tools, regular meetings).
- Frequency and format of updates.
- Escalation paths for urgent issues.
- Groups share their plans, and the facilitator consolidates ideas into a shared "Inter-Team Communication Guide."
- Output: A draft communication guide that all teams can use.
5. Closing and Reflection (10 minutes)
Activity: One Thing I’ll Do
- Each participant shares one action they’ll take to improve communication with other teams (e.g., “I’ll start sending weekly updates to X team”).
- Facilitator Note: Encourage participants to view communication as a shared responsibility.
Materials Needed
- Flipchart or whiteboard.
- Large sheets of paper and markers for the Collaboration Canvas.
- Sticky notes for brainstorming.
Follow-Up
Schedule a follow-up meeting in 4 weeks to evaluate how the communication strategies are working and refine the Inter-Team Communication Guide.
Conclusion
By using this workshop, you’ll reduce the problems created by teams working at cross-purposes or wasting valuable resources on redundant tasks.
Instead, creating and updating the Collaboration Canvas helps you quickly align efforts, improve transparency, and foster collaboration to achieve shared success.
Well, that’s it for today.
I hope you enjoyed it.