What's your advice on improving a historically tense relationship between functions?

Improving a historically tense relationship between functions requires a deliberate effort and a willingness to work collaboratively towards a common goal.  The first item that I like to spend time on is understanding the root causes of the tense relationship (which could have stemmed from miscommunication, conflict of goals/objectives, lack of trust etc).  Once there is clarity on the root causes, here are some things I think about in rebuilding the relationship: Have open and honest communicat ...Read More

Stop talking about the past and start solving problems together. The key to transforming historically tense relationships is to create joint objectives that can only be achieved through genuine collaboration, not individual team success. This means designing cross-functional initiatives where: Team performance is explicitly tied to collective outcomes Individual team metrics are secondary to shared goals Project success requires active, meaningful contributions from all functions By forcing inte ...Read More

Before being able to improve anything you need to understand why there is an issue in the first place. Get curious. Understand the context behind the historically tense relationship between the functions. What was at the root of this tension. Most “tension” I have seen is a byproduct of misaligned goals, fuzzy definitions, broken handoffs, and opaque data. RevOps is uniquely positioned to neutralize the emotions and redesign the operating system so both teams can win. Get to shared goals, shared ...Read More

It's important to nip tension across functions quickly and don't let it fester, here are some of my strategies: First, take time to understand the root of the tension. For example, what kind of challenges are they facing, are their goals in conflict with others, are their contributions not valued?  Create a shared vision or shared objectives across functions. Are there even just one or two goals that you can partner together to achieve versus trying to bring dependent teams or stakeholders along ...Read More

If there is a historically tense relationship between functions, you have to do something very different to try to reset the situation. This will be much harder if the respective leaders have been in seat for some time, but whether new or old, it's great you want to take action. I would have a multi-day offsite with the leadership team of both functions. I think it's really important that this happen out of the office and away from the day to day. You won't fix anything in the same environment w ...Read More

I often remind people that some friction between teams is by design. For example, you want GTM thinking about how to grow and scale and you want finance thinking about how to do it efficiently. These are critical checks and balances to have in place. However, that can often lead to tense relationships.  When trying to mend a partnership, I focus on a few things to build trust: Time to reflect and calm down. This is crucial to do before anything. If the relationship is tense, it's likely felt on ...Read More

First of all, I don't believe that tension between functions is a bad thing. Although too much tension is toxic, too little tension leads to complacency. The key is to strike a balance, operating in a state of "healthy tension". In my experience, the most important factor to achieve a state of healthy tension is effective communications. Often, excessive tension emerges as a result of unmet expectations or wrong assumptions. Both can be mitigated through open and honest communication. If expecta ...Read More

I typically defuse tense relationships with clear communication and a little humor. For background: I've inherited historically tense relationships and, in listening to the complaints or assumptions made by the function, identified the issues that require increased communication. These issues are almost always related to actions by my team that increase work for their teams or reduce visibility into areas where their team has oversight. Once those sticking points are identified, I make it a poin ...Read More

From my experience, a historically tense relationship comes from a conflict in the sense that both functions have two irreconcilable points of view or courses of actions as necessary to fulfill their objectives. Each one sees the other's point of view as preventing them from achieving their objectives. I would first advise listing the undesirable effects of such a tense relationship and then drawing a logic tree to find the root cause of this tension and identify the conflict. Several types of t ...Read More