Cross-Departmental Misalignment: Tribal Behavior in Business

This week, I want to talk about something very common in SMEs that I call tribal behavior. It happens when different departments in your business start acting like separate teams rather than one company. They work in silos, protect their own territory, and often end up in conflict. If you’ve ever had that feeling that your business is getting stuck even though everyone is “busy,” this might be the reason.

Let’s say you have a few small departments in your business: Sales, Support, Marketing, Developers/Programmers, and the Accounting team. These teams don’t get along, they often clash, and no one really knows what the other team is doing. Everyone feels like they are the ones doing the hard work, and they blame others when things don’t go right.

This week, I want to talk about something very common in SMEs that I call tribal behavior. It happens when different departments in your business start acting like separate teams rather than one company. They work in silos, protect their own territory, and often end up in conflict. If you’ve ever had that feeling that your business is getting stuck even though everyone is “busy,” this might be the reason.

Let’s say you have a few small departments in your business: Sales, Support, Marketing, Developers/Programmers, and the Accounting team. These teams don’t get along, they often clash, and no one really knows what the other team is doing. Everyone feels like they are the ones doing the hard work, and they blame others when things don’t go right.

I remember one of my earliest lessons as a COO. I was working with a team in a different time zone, and one day I woke up at 3 AM and turned on my laptop around 4 AM. I had dozens of messages from the Head of Support and the Head of IT. They were fighting in the management group chat, sending long messages and even insulting each other in front of other department heads.

It was chaotic. I called for a quick meeting and after a tough conversation, I managed to put out the fire temporarily. But what I realized was the bigger problem. These two departments didn’t have clear processes in place. They were stepping on each other’s toes because they didn’t know who was responsible for what. Certain tasks required both teams’ involvement, but there was no agreement or structure in place to decide who should handle which part.

So in the following weeks, one of the things I focused on was clarifying roles and responsibilities for overlapping tasks. That helped reduce the conflict to some extent, but it wasn’t enough. I knew the misalignment wasn’t just between those two teams.

After observing more interactions across departments, I found similar patterns elsewhere. So I came up with a simple idea. Every six months, I asked each department head to create a one-week rotation where their team members would spend time working alongside another department. They would listen, ask questions, understand how other teams work, and see their daily struggles up close.

This small initiative made a huge impact. Teams that used to blame each other started solving problems together. They built relationships. They stopped thinking in terms of “us vs. them.” The company culture improved, and our operational efficiency went up as well.

According to Harvard Business Review, around 75% of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional, failing to meet basic success criteria like delivering on time or staying on budget. One big reason is a lack of shared goals and weak collaboration between departments. Another report from Forbes shows that companies with strong alignment between departments grow revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable than their misaligned competitors.

Remote work makes this even harder. When people are working across time zones, cultures, and screens, there’s less informal interaction and empathy. Miscommunication and assumptions can easily turn into resentment or friction. That’s why it’s even more important for leaders to build systems that bring people together, help them understand each other, and align everyone toward common outcomes.

If your departments don’t work well together and you feel like you’re stuck in a cycle of blame and inefficiency, you’re not alone. Misalignment is a natural part of growth. But if you leave it unchecked, it becomes one of the biggest obstacles to scaling.

If you're facing similar issues and want a customized plan to reduce misalignment and improve team collaboration, let’s connect. I’ll help you overcome this challenge and build a stronger, more united team.

Visit CONSILIUMDYNAMICS.COM for more or drop me an email.