Response to Shannon:

A cross-functional team is a team in which the members have different skill sets but are all working towards a common goal (Westland, 2018). Working in Federal Programs for a large school district, we often have cross-functional teams to manage our many grants. One of the challenges I faced was when I was working on the PreK Grant. This grant was a 4-year grant with the option of a 5th year carryover. One of things we did with the grant was to put technology in the classrooms. The teachers had a choice of a laptop or an IPad. We wanted to make sure we passed out the technology the most efficient way, but it was chaotic. Teachers were showing up and not filling out the information correctly and it was an inventory nightmare. Therefore, on the 2nd wave we had the inventory department step in and help us simplify the process. If I could, I would have involved the inventory team when I first ordered the technology so that the technology was tagged and logged properly so that when we were audited, our auditors didn’t have to hunt for who had what type of technology.

Reference:

Westland, J (2018). 6 Tips for Developing Cross Functional Teams. Retrieved from: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/6-tips-developing-cross-functional-teams