Something to doWorking with others
Understand what another team needs
A habit for understanding your cross-functional collaborators, and strengthening those relationships
Why it’s worth your time
A lot of friction between teams comes from not knowing what the other side needs. When you ask someone what helps or hinders their day, you learn what no process doc will tell you about their timing, their handoffs, and what they're measured on. That makes working together smoother, and it often surfaces small fixes that are good for both teams.
How to build relationships with other teams
You’ll come away with one thing you'll do differently to make their work easier.
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
- Pick someone in another function.
Someone you work with regularly, or someone whose team yours often runs into, even if you haven't worked closely yet.
- Ask for 20 to 30 minutes.
Coffee or a walk if you're in person, a video call if you're remote. Say why, so it doesn't feel like a problem is coming.
To: someone on another teamI'd love to better understand your work so I can be a more thoughtful collaborator. Our teams cross paths a lot on shared work, and I realized I don't know much about what your side of it looks like.
Would you have 20 or 30 minutes in the next couple of weeks? Coffee's on me, or a quick call works too. No agenda, just curious.
Swap the highlighted parts for your thing. Works on Slack, in email, or said out loud. - Come with curiosity, not an agenda.
Ask what their work involves, what a good week looks like, and what success means for their team. Then ask the useful question.
You“What do people on my side do that makes your job easier? And what makes it harder?”Tip: Mostly listen. The goal is to understand, not to defend how your team works.
- Share your side too.
Once you've listened, say what helps you, what success looks like for your team, and how you like to get requests. It works best in both directions.
- Do one thing with what you learned.
Pick one small change: timing a request better, adding context to a handoff, looping them in earlier. Tell them when you've made it.
Good moments for this: every few months, with someone newwhen you start working with a new teamafter a handoff that went badly
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
Keep going with Truest
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Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Much cross-team friction comes from teams being rewarded for different things. Once you know their targets, their behavior usually makes a lot more sense.
What might make this harder
Lead with curiosity and one honest line about wanting things to work better between the teams. Don't relitigate the last problem in the first conversation.
Questions people ask
How do I build relationships with other teams at work?
Spend some one-on-one time with people in other functions, ask what makes their work easier or harder, and act on one thing you learn. Doing this every few months adds up.
What should I ask in a coffee chat with someone from another team?
What their work involves, what success looks like for their team, and what people on your side do that makes their job easier or harder. Then share your side.
How do I improve collaboration between teams?
Start with understanding. Learn what the other team is measured on, how they like to communicate, and where handoffs break down, then fix one small thing together.
Is it weird to ask a coworker for a meeting with no agenda?
Not if you say why. Saying you'd like to understand their work so you can collaborate better gives it a clear, generous purpose.
Why this works, and where it comes from
Most friction between teams isn't about bad intentions. It usually comes from each side not knowing what the other one needs. Your request arrives on the busiest day of their month. Your handoff is missing the one field they always have to chase. Their questions feel like obstacles because you don't know what they're accountable for. Nobody mentions it because it's small, so it stays small and irritating for years.
A conversation built on curiosity tends to change that quickly. When you ask someone what helps or hinders their day, you get the version of their job that isn't written down anywhere: when they're swamped, what they're measured on, what good looks like from their side. Once you know what success looks like for someone, helping them get there becomes the obvious move. And people remember who asked.
This is Truest's version of a familiar idea, the coffee chat, with the coffee optional. The method is the conversation. What makes it work is that you come to learn, not to pitch or fix, and that it runs both ways: once you've listened, tell them what helps you and how you like to work.
It won't resolve a deep conflict between teams, and it isn't meant to. What it does is make the everyday parts easier, and give you a relationship to lean on when something bigger comes up. The small process improvements that come out of these conversations have a way of spreading across teams.
Other simple things to consider
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An exercise written by Truest, based on our experience. Last updated October 23, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.