Collaboration is an essential process in every company, whether that be tackling projects with coworkers in your department or with people in other areas of the organization. Working effectively on a team has a number of challenges, and this can be even more complex if you are working with people that you don't normally interact with.

Even though it can be difficult to execute interdepartmental projects as a unified team, these situations can actually be the most rewarding. This sort of teamwork often leads to greater individual and group commitment from your peers, stronger communication between diverse teams, and long-term positive change that you'll see reflected throughout your company. Here are five tips to bridge silos and find success in tackling interdepartmental projects.

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Conflict within a team is inevitable, but it doesn’t always have to be debilitating. In fact, handling conflict constructively can actually strengthen a team, fostering development and trust.

When problems arise, it's easy for people to display some less than desirable behaviors. As unpleasant as they may be, they are a natural reaction to dealing with stress. When trying to recognize conflict in the workplace, it is helpful to be aware of some of the most common stress behaviors. These include: 1) becoming uncomfortable and withdrawing from the situation, 2) rapidly trying to come up with a solution to fix the problem, even if it is not in the best interest of the team, 3) finding someone to blame. If these types of behaviors are left unchecked within a team for too long, it could eventually become damaging to productivity. 

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Trust is a must when it comes to team development. Without it, teams are apt to lack innovation, creative thinking, collaboration, and productivity. With it, team members feel safe and comfortable enough to open up and take the risks that can lead to exceptional results.

You can build trust within your team with these six top strategies. As you'll see, this blog post has a theme of leading by example—something that we aim for here at Birkman.

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