Today, modern enterprises operate within a rapidly changing environment. Businesses are increasingly opting for cross-functional teams to stay competitive and foster innovation; as much as 83% of "digitally maturing" organizations are now using cross-functional skills, according to Deloitte.
"As technology and business are evolving rapidly, IT professionals must embrace continuous learning around various essential skills,” explains Kathryn Guarini, chief information officer (CIO) at IBM, speaking to ITPro. “Technical skills and expertise are crucial and need to be continually refreshed. At the same time, having a deep understanding of the business helps IT professionals develop, implement, and prioritize meaningful business solutions.
“Other essential skills like communication, collaboration, problem-solving, project management, creativity, and team leadership help drive influence and impact,” she adds.
Examples of cross-functional skills
According to, Guarini, examples of cross-functional skills that IT professionals can benefit from include:
- Developing business architecture knowledge and knowledge of design.
- Embracing agile methodologies to drive value and speed.
- Collaborating with teams across the business, clients, and partners to prioritize investments that optimize business outcomes.
- Having a growth mindset that promotes continuous learning and skill-building.
These then translate to wider team benefits, including:
Higher employee engagement
In cross-functional teams, individuals with different skills and backgrounds work together. They tend to work on various projects that are outside of their usual workload. As a result, employee engagement is higher.
Different perspectives
Teams that are cross-functional have members with different skill sets and areas of expertise. The experience of working together helps broaden perspectives and improves the diversity of teams.
Better communication and collaboration
Working in a cross-functional manner helps team members to communicate proactively, breaking down silos in the company (or some departments). It also aids in promoting a culture of mutual trust and cooperation.
Flexibility and adaptability
Cross-functional teams need to be able to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and fluid business environments. As a result, team members need to have high levels of flexibility and adaptability. They also need to quickly develop a deep understanding of their customer’s preferences and needs.
What if an IT professional doesn’t have cross-functional skills?
With business and technology changing at a rapid rate, those who are unable to develop their skills in a cross-functional way risk falling behind. This means committing to lifelong learning, according to Guarini.
“At IBM, we foster a culture of continuous learning for all our employees,” she explains. “Employees are asked to complete at least 40 hours of learning every year. Last year, employees completed, on average, 86 hours of learning. Our data shows that the most avid learners are more likely to get promoted – but most importantly, they grow the skills and knowledge needed to increase their scope of responsibility and influence."
Tori Paulman, senior director analyst at Gartner, tells ITPro that the sheer volume of new technologies available to businesses creates an environment in which flexible IT professionals can thrive.
"Today’s employees are facing an overwhelming number of applications,” explains Paulman. “The average number of apps an employee uses to do their job is 11, up from an estimate of six in 2019. 36% of employees use between 11-25 apps, and 5% of the workforce uses more than 26 applications just to do their job. This has resulted in amazing opportunities for the workforce to become more digitally dexterous. Still, according to Gartner's 2022 Digital Worker Survey, this has also resulted in many clients reporting digital fatigue and dysfunction.”
How to acquire and develop cross-functional skills
Paulman tells ITPro: “IT leaders and the teams that report to them must start with the employee’s individual human experience at the core, then enable and empower the growth of their digital skills across the four pillars of the digital workplace: collaboration, content, analytics, and process automation.
“Organizations that pursue an intentional leadership of understanding the human experience and empowering digital skills will ultimately reap the benefit of their alignment to our overall organizational culture,” they add.
Guarini points to internal learning resources as being key to this development. “IBM’s internal learning platform offers personalized and relevant courses for employees,” says Guarini. “Additionally, various training and certification programs are available online through virtual classes, boot camps, and self-paced courses. Mentorship, networking, and information sharing also benefit learning and growing skills."
Why cross-functional skills can help future-proof your career
"Digital transformation will only accelerate as we look ahead, and technologies like AI, automation, and hybrid cloud will become even more integral to businesses,” Guarini tells ITPro. “At the same time, cyber security threats, sustainability goals, and regulatory changes pose new challenges. IT professionals must continue to evolve their cross-functional skills to lead in the future."
Guarini adds: “Sustainability is already top of mind for many businesses and will become even more important. Sustainable computing is a key pillar in the IBM CIO’s sustainability strategy. We launched an internal education website for our CIO teams to teach best practices in code language selection and training data selection. We use internal surveys to track awareness and knowledge and promote sustainable computing practices from the ground up.”
Some other emerging trends in the IT sector that will further emphasize the need for cross-functional skills are:
AI / Machine learning integration
As AI and machine learning (ML) become increasingly ubiquitous, IT professionals will need data literacy to work with the massive datasets that train AI models. They'll also need to develop business acumen to develop ethical AI, ensuring models align with strategic goals and don't amplify biases. Bridging this technical/non-technical gap will be essential.
DevOps and agile methodologies
The continued rise of DevOps and agile development principles puts a premium on collaboration between different roles, such as developers, IT operations, and security. IT professionals must develop strong communication skills and the ability to work cross-functionally in these environments.
Cyber security demands
With an increasingly hostile threat landscape, security can no longer be siloed to specific IT roles. All IT professionals will eventually need some fundamental security knowledge to bake in security-by-design principles. The increased emphasis on security will require enhanced collaboration across different teams.
Today's digital economy mandates that IT professionals become more than technical or coding experts. Companies increasingly need IT staff who can successfully bridge gaps between departments, communicate effectively with non-technical staff, and drive innovation by understanding business priorities. IT professionals who take the initiative to develop cross-functional skills will find themselves in high demand.
