A multidisciplinary team is the future of successful innovation. By working together with multiple disciplines, you design and develop a stronger product, there is more support, you learn faster and the productivity is higher.

What is our definition of a multidisciplinary team?

A multidisciplinary team is composed of people with different profiles and backgrounds, who have been specifically combined to achieve a specific goal. The team works closely together, has a lot of decision-making power, and thus serves its own group of customers. By merging different profiles, a team can provide more complex advice or come up with a better solution. Merging people with different profiles to tackle problems is not a new phenomenon, but such an approach has grown in popularity over the past decade as issues have become increasingly complex.

The benefits of multidisciplinary teams

1. Innovative power

The positive effects of deploying multidisciplinary teams have been particularly noticeable in the area of innovative strength. Because a challenge or problem is viewed from various angles, a large number of new ideas and possibilities arise. There is a lot of freedom to invent and / or develop new solutions and applications.

2. You provide more value to the customer

Because all team members work together with the customer to achieve the same result, everyone has direct contact with the customer, the team members know what is going on with the customer and it is more clear to find out where value can be added immediately. The thing that drives the customer and makes him happy is clear to everyone, so that you, as a team, can deliver added value faster.

3. Multidisciplinary teams learn faster

When the teams work together intensively, they learn more about other fields that they can apply to their own field. This improves adaptability and both the team and the individual learn and grow faster.

4. Multidisciplinary teams are more result-oriented

When designing a new product, everyone contributes their own expertise, which will improve the design and development of the new product. Because the goals of the customer are transparent to everyone, everyone has the same end goal in mind. In this way, they respond more quickly to the result and ongoing technical developments.

5. It gives employees more energy

Within a multidisciplinary team, the employees are given many responsibilities, which ensures good energy. They are allowed to take up concrete matters in which they achieve quick and visible results. It is based on the trust that teams can come up with solutions to challenges themselves and make decisions about them.

In conclusion

Companies are increasingly dealing with new developments that follow each other in rapid succession. Multidisciplinary teams are deployed to solve these challenges. Collaboration from different backgrounds results in more innovative ideas, faster work towards a result and thus more added value to the customer.

Recommendations

The importance of working in multidisciplinary teams is clear. Nevertheless, such a transition was not made overnight. For many companies, this approach is a bold goal, because it transcends the current, often hierarchical culture. Managers and specialists breakthrough with their team the boundaries of the departments, procedures and fixed agreements. Please observe the following recommendations:

1. Set clear boundaries between teams and tasks; otherwise these limit the effectiveness of a team.
2. Make transparent process agreements to prevent a discussion about a different approach to situations between the different disciplines.
3. Provide a suitable leader within the team who can manage the broad outlines.
4. Start small to get the company used to the new way of working. If this works well, protect that part and expand it.
5. Cut long-term goals into short-term goals, called sprints, that are evaluated every few weeks.

Professionals from all levels of the company are involved in this; from managers and board members to professionals in the field of IT, sales, accountancy and developers. As a result, the team is able to provide a complete picture of all developments in the market, but also to come up with creative solutions. As a result, companies with a multidisciplinary team have a strategic advantage over the competition and can anticipate new developments at an early stage.

Check out how our multidisciplinary team was able to expedite the implementation processes from one month to several days for Cikam. 

Rianne Spelt is the Customer Coordinator at Levarne in which she is the link in customer success. Where other team members focus on IT content, she focuses on the process, planning, and customer satisfaction. Rianne worked in Event Management for years and recently made the switch to IT. Would you like to talk about your customer success? Get in touch with me today!