How Multi-Disciplinary Teams, Communication and People Can Empower Performance Through Integrated Advancement

As with many large companies and institutions, the organisational structure of the professional services function in universities often follows a set pattern. Marketing sits in one vertical, communications often in another, recruitment at the end of the corridor, finance upstairs...

These structures have evolved as an efficient way to organise staff, line-management and reporting, and manage the needs of the institution, but can this 'siloing' of expertise and perspective be hindering advancement projects?

As you follow the structures up through the hierarchy, there are points where these verticals converge, often at the director or C-level. In order for advancement projects to fulfill their full potential for success, buy-in and active participation of cross-departmental leadership teams is essential to create goals that are shared from the top of the organisational chart down.

A shared set of goals that underpin a common strategy that spans departments can create an environment that allows activities to prosper and the people involved to feel that their work is contributing to that prosperity.

Illustrating integrated advancement with retail

 The importance of this shared strategy can be illustrated with a retail analogy. If we consider two teams - sales and marketing - working in isolation, each tasked with their own set of goals and targets. The role of the marketing team is to make sure that the online store is visible, create awareness among potential customers and drive traffic to the site. Their performance is measured in the number of website visitors, enquiries and shop footfall.

 The job of the sales team is to convert those visitors into customers through managing customer enquiries, building relationships and putting together deal prices that turn enquiries into sales. Their performance is measured by revenue.

 Without a shared strategy, set of goals and buy-in from both teams, this type of relationship may well not achieve its potential. Taken to the extreme, it can be easy for marketing to say that they are driving traffic and sales isn't converting, while sales can say that they're getting the wrong sort of customer through the door. Add to this simple two-team structure a purchasing department that has to make sure that there is the correct inventory and a finance team who need to manage cashflow, and it's easy to see how teams working in isolation may not lead to the best performance.

 Let us now think about this example with an 'integrated advancement' approach. Starting at the leadership level, a shared strategy and set of goals - along with an understanding of each other's responsibilities and challenge can create a culture that is driven by a common goal: to make a project the best it can be. Marketing can learn to understand what type of customer the sales team need; purchasing can understand that it's not always possible to do that big deal due to finance's need to manage cashflow at critical points in the financial year; and sales can learn to adapt their strategies when particular stock items may not be available due to purchasing's need to manage spend.

Integrated advancement from the bottom up

While it is critical that senior leadership teams understand each other's challenges and work together to create a set of common goals, it is equally critical that staff at every level have the opportunity to learn about the responsibilities, workflows and accountabilities of their peers in other departments and that all departments are working from a shared philosophy.

 As fundraisers build relationships with potential donors, the conversations that they are having need to be echoed by the marketing and communications teams. Novel approaches to fundraising - such as crowdfunding - need buy-in from finance teams to ensure the appropriate accounting systems are in place to manage new sources of funding.

In the same way that the software-development world has embraced agile approaches to project management and 9am scrums have become part of the morning routine, regular meetings between staff across all departments - and from one end of the org-chart to the other - can foster a culture of understanding and a commitment to a central goal that can help drive projects forward. 

It can often be challenging to build teams that work across, rather than within, departments. Differences in priorities, approaches and culture can often create initial obstacles. However, with a shared philosophy filtering down from the top, combined with a wide range of skills, experience and perspectives, once these teams move from 'norming' to 'performing', the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts, and the results can often demonstrate that.

 Cairney & Company has the mix of skills, expertise and perspectives to help you create the synergy your institution needs to navigate the challenges, reap the benefits and soar forward.