Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about cross-functional teams and you might be wondering why we're drawing some random football players all playing football. Well actually a football team is a cross-functional team. Here's another example of a cross-functional team. So this cross-functional team is called a squad and it's got everybody on it that we need to get something from A to B, whether that's a product, a service or a problem. Traditionally companies would work within functions or have functional teams and actually some companies still work in this quite traditional way. So we'd have specialities in functions for example software engineers, designers, testers, business analysts, all in their own separate functions, not part of a cross-functional team and actually this can cause quite a few problems. Let's take a look at what we're talking about. Here's what would happen if football teams were functional. Here is a functional football team. Let's start with strikers. So if a football team was functional all strikers would work together all year round. They would be a specialist function. They'd be great at taking powerful shots, aiming at a goal and excellent striking specialists. Next up let's have a look at a football team that's functional. Look at the goalkeepers. Again, all together specialists working all year round. They'd be brilliant at saving shots, amazing at shooting long shots as well. And again, really good, excellent goalkeeping specialists. And then defence. Same thing again, all training together, all with the same skills. Yep that's right, they'd be amazing at tackling, clearing the ball, no problem. They would create a team of, excellent defence specialists. Now, imagine it's the World Cup. Yep, England have been asked to get a team together because it's the big World Cup championships. Okay, so let's pull a team together. Well, the problem is all our team have been working in their specialist areas. So actually, they don't really know how to work together as a team. Can you imagine if we went into a World Cup and picked our players from specialist areas and they never actually worked together as a team before? Can you imagine the results we'd get? Probably worse than the ones we do now, if that's possible. Keeping teams in functional silos stops these awesome things from happening. Learning to effectively communicate with people outside your specialism. Spurring innovative ideas. Understanding how other members on your team like to work. Building team spirit. Building trust and psychological safety within the team you're actually playing with. Building a collaborative environment or a collaborative culture. Picking up skills from other areas outside your specialism. So, in a nutshell, cross-functional teams are more productive. It's proven that cross-functional teams are happier and more productive. And a football team is an excellent example of how cross-functional teams work. Lots of specialists from different areas, all put together into one team, all concentrating and all focused on one common goal. Winning a football game or winning the World Cup. But cross-functional teams don't just apply to football teams. They apply more now than ever to your organisations too. So, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to keep your functional silos of specialists? Or are you going to create some more cross-functional teams within your organisation and really reap the benefits and rewards that cross-functional teams can bring to a company in today's age?