How to Build Influence Across Departments

Research & Sources / Corporate Professional Growth

Imagine a group of islands. Each one has its own people, its own rules and its own way of doing things. Ships travel between them slowly and rarely. Then someone builds bridges. Suddenly people move freely, ideas travel, and the islands start working like one country. Departments in large organisations are often islands. People who build bridges become very valuable.

Why departments become islands

Every department has its own goals, metrics and pressures. Sales wants deals closed fast, finance wants risk controlled, product wants to build things properly, operations wants things stable. Each is right from its own point of view. Without bridges, they compete instead of cooperate.

Donald Sull and colleagues, in a large survey of managers, found that failures in strategy execution often came from poor coordination between units, not from disagreement about the strategy itself.¹

What influence across departments looks like

You can’t order people in other departments to do anything. Influence works through understanding, trust and mutual benefit. Robert Cialdini’s research identified principles that reliably move people, including liking, reciprocity and social proof.²

• Understand their world: their goals, their pressures, their language.
• Help first: offer support before you need something.
• Translate: explain your needs in terms that matter to them.
• Share credit: when something works, make sure their part is seen.

Communication patterns matter

Alex Pentland’s research at MIT measured how teams communicate. He found that patterns of communication, including how much teams explored and connected with other groups, predicted performance better than individual talent.³ People who connect groups bring new information into their own team and help ideas travel.

Beware of overload

Bridge-builders are often the people everyone asks for help. Rob Cross and colleagues found that a small share of people carry a large share of collaborative work, often at the cost of their own performance and energy.⁴ Build bridges on purpose, but don’t become the only bridge. Connect people with each other directly so they don’t need you every time.

What this means for you this week

• Map the three departments you depend on most.
• Have one conversation with someone in each about their biggest current challenge.
• Help one of them with something small, without asking for anything.
• Introduce two people from different teams who should know each other.

Build the bridges. The islands will thank you.

Sources

1. Sull, D., Homkes, R. & Sull, C. (2015). Why Strategy Execution Unravels and What to Do About It. Harvard Business Review, March 2015. hbr.orgSurvey of nearly 8,000 managers in more than 250 companies: execution fails less from poor alignment than from weak coordination, and communication is not the same as understanding.
2. Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Harnessing the Science of Persuasion. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgSix principles of influence: liking, reciprocity, social proof, consistency, authority and scarcity.
3. Pentland, A. (2012). The New Science of Building Great Teams. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgMeasured communication patterns (energy, engagement, exploration) predicted team performance better than individual talent.
4. Cross, R., Rebele, R. & Grant, A. (2016). Collaborative Overload. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgTime spent in collaborative activities has grown strongly; a small share of people carries a large share of the load and risks burnout.