Objectives Use what you have learned about managing across functions to improve your own work situation Directions Complete the following steps: 1. Identify a situation that you are currently in at school, at work, or in some other formal organization that has cross-functional elements to it. 2. Analyze the situation in terms of the key guidelines for managing cross-functionally as presented in this section. Find specific ways in which the situation is being managed well, as well as problems. When you identify a problem, try to determine its specific source(s). That is, don't just say "Meetings do not accomplish anything." Try to determine the cause of the problem: Are goals unclear? Are the wrong people attending the meeting? Was an agenda distributed in advance? As you work on your analysis, keep in mind the importance of providing evidence to support your claims about problems and making connections to theory to support any recommendations you might make. 3. Once you are confident that you have identified the root causes of the problem, write a memo suggesting how the operations of the cross-functional team could be improved.

Reflection Managing cross-functional teams is complicated by the fact that there are often political, as well as practical, reasons why certain individuals are on the team. Because being left off a team may be considered a slight, cross-functional teams sometimes balloon into large groups. Novices who attempt to reduce the group to a more efficient size, however, may end up making the situation worse rather than better.