Shared a cubicle wall with a guy from finance for 3 weeks - totally flipped my view on cross-team work

I sat next to a senior analyst named Marcus over in the San Jose office. He showed me how their team tracks client churn data and I realized my marketing reports have been missing half the story. Watching him explain it on a whiteboard with actual numbers made it click. The guy even gave me a template to pull the same data myself. Has anyone else gotten a big win just by physically sitting near someone from a different department?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sam17d ago

Maybe set a recurring 15 minute check-in with Marcus every two weeks before he forgets you exist. Those templates get buried in inboxes fast unless you actually use them together a couple times. Also grab his direct line or Slack handle while you're at it - once you're back at your own desk, the hallway conversations stop and you'll need a way to ask questions when the data looks off. Nothing kills a good cross-team win like sitting on a half-finished spreadsheet for a month.

ryan_ellis17d ago

3 weeks is a pretty short window to declare a total mindset shift. I've seen those cross-team collaborations fizzle out fast once people go back to their normal desks and forget to share updates. Marcus sounds like a good guy for showing you the template, but I'd wait at least a quarter before calling it a permanent win.