Defining what Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) does has always been challenging.  

Most people place FP&A in the Office of the CFO, which makes sense, for many of us have certainly played the role of CFO a time or two. But business partners, strategists and advisors are also not necessarily a perfect fit. This categorisation may change as our roles continue to expand to become the central hub of corporate analytics and reporting.

According to a recent survey by the Argyle Forum, 40% of the companies looking to transform their FP&A model stated that increasing collaboration between the finance team and other departments is the most common end goal. Why is that? Is it because when Finance is involved, better decisions are made, costs are controlled, and growth initiatives are enacted? Possibly?  

Below I have provided three common traps and five tips to help you increase collaboration between finance and other parts of your organisation.

3 Common Traps to Avoid When Collaborating Between Finance and Other Departments

1. Being a team of experts is not necessarily good. According to authors Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson in their Harvard Business Review article: Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams, the greater the proportion of experts on a team, the more likely it was to disintegrate. A key way to overcome this trap is to ensure each expert has their area of specialisation and/or focus on the team.
    
2. Can’t we all just disagree on something? Creative abrasion is part of the team process. If everyone agreed on everything, nothing new and creative would be accomplished. Heated, passionate discussion, as long as it is respectful, is not bad; in fact, it should be encouraged. We need more passionate people in organisations. If everyone agrees with everything in your team, you may have a problem.
    
3. Collaborate in moderation. Over-collaboration is just as bad as too little collaboration. With the fast pace of business, many organisations see collaboration as a way to deal with insecurity and transition. Too many collaboration projects between Finance and business units or departments can also have a negative effect on productivity and slow business down, become hard to track and measure ROI. The lack of results will hurt Finance’s credibility with the organisations, which could affect funding down the road.

5 Tips to Increase Collaboration Between Finance And Other Departments

1. Get executive buy-in and have them lead by example. If you have a project management system, they should also use it to communicate with the teams, get status updates and understand the flow of information within the organisation. This may always be one of the hardest to implement as many at the executive level feel too busy to be bothered by this type of leadership, but if you can implement it, it will have the greatest effect.
    
2. Adopt an open communication style. Knowledge is power; people hoard knowledge to increase their stature and control within an organisational hierarchy. This can be both good and bad, depending on the circumstances, but having a culture of open communication where every member can communicate with equality and authority will go a long way in promoting overall project ownership and collaboration.
    
3. Share the tools you have and educate them on what else you can do. If you have cool tools, ensure they know how to use them fully and what else you can do. If you utilise a Corporate Performance Management System that captures data, make sure they understand what it captures and how what they could do with it to help their business. In addition, and more importantly, create a tear sheet of all the other services you may be able to provide them, decision support, benchmarking profit improvement, etc. Instead of leveraging external consultants, many projects can be taken on using internal resources.
    
4. Recognize power users. The power user is your department, business unit or division champion. They can facilitate information flow between two parties that may not always speak the same language and can be the cornerstone of a successful collaborative effort. Treat them well.
    
5. Go beyond online tools and have a face to face contact. Conference calls are OK, and video conferences are better, but nothing beats a face-to-face meeting. In a world of virtual offices, nothing beats meeting people individually. Make it a point to get together at least once or twice a year and break bread, have a team-building exercise, or just hang out. It will go a long way to building collaboration. 

The following article was originally published on FPAexperts.com and has been republished with permission.