07-16-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

21 leaders on making cross-functional collaboration work

Break down silos through shared outcomes and clear ownership.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

BY Fast Company Impact Council

Teamwork makes the dream work. It is cliché, and yet true. But teamwork often involves multiple departments and various roles, each with individual goals and priorities. As a cross-functional collaborative team, it’s important to recognize where everyone is coming from and how those objectives can be reached from a company perspective. Sometimes that means dialing down individual ideas to serve the greater good. That is hard to do and it requires good leadership to corral everyone around that vision.

Vision is important and execution must follow. There is no magic formula to succeeding with cross-functional teams. Instead, it takes a greater understanding of the issues: motivations, metrics, autonomy, support, time, and understanding. We asked our Fast Company Impact Council members about their approach to cross-functional collaboration, and here is what 21 of our members shared.

1. ALIGN ON PROBLEMS, BUILD TRUST

Cross-functional work breaks down when teams optimize for their own metrics instead of a shared outcome. I focus first on aligning around the problem we’re solving, then building trust through consistent, transparent communication. When people understand the larger objective and trust one another, collaboration shifts from coordination to shared ownership. — Ajay Tejasvi, TLEX

2. EMBED COLLABORATION IN THE OPERATING MODEL

Innovation rarely happens in isolation. It happens at the intersection of disciplines, shaping our approach to cross-functional collaboration. Our enterprise innovation incubator operates at those intersections. Instead of a centralized R&D function that hands off ideas at the finish line, we partner with teams to maximize context, align metrics, and establish joint ownership from the start. That’s critical because innovation breaks down when layered onto existing work or isolated in one function. By embedding collaboration into the operating model, we can test ideas faster and give innovations a stronger path to adoption. — Adam L’Italien, Liberty Mutual Insurance

3. VALUE, IMPACT, COMMON GOAL

The best cross-functional teams share three things. Everyone feels valued. Everyone sees their impact. Everyone is galvanized behind a common goal. A leader’s job is to build those conditions. I have watched cross-functional teams that get this right deliver results that exceed the team’s highest expectations. — Manoj Raghunandanan, Insulet

4. INVOLVE KEY STAKEHOLDERS FROM THE START

Cross-functional collaboration is a critical driver of organizational success; no department should operate alone. It’s important to create alignment around shared objectives while ensuring every function understands how its decisions affect the........

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