Integrating departments, functions, and projects

Departments and work projects can come to resemble “stovepipes” in an organization, with minimal communication and little useful cooperation between them. Relationships between departments or functions can deteriorate to the point of becoming destructively competitive with one another. Thus some people have referred to the importance of paying attention to the “white spaces” between the boxes on a standard reporting relationships chart. 
One useful approach to this problem is to design and create cross-functional teams in the organization whose members are held accountable for reaching measurable goals that transcend departmental or divisional boundaries, and require productive, mutually beneficial resolution of conflicts. It is often useful to establish cross-functional teams at or near the top of the organization--devoted, respectively, to leadership/strategy and daily operations issues. Cross-departmental departmental or cross-project teams can be created as needed at various organizational levels to ensure that the work of various groups is appropriately integrated.
GLS has created many successful cross-functional strategic, leadership, and operational teams in different kinds of organizations.