Leverage AI to develop cross-functional knowledge - ChatGPT Tutorial

- Do you ever look at other functions in your organization and wonder, what do they do? It's okay. They probably think the same thing about you. But building cross-functional relationships is critical as a leader. To put it simply, that means understanding what others in your organization do and what their goals are and how you can help each other achieve common goals. Using my example of marketing, what if you want to upgrade the technical systems so you can better-target customers? Well, you're going to need buy-in from it to understand how systems talk to each other. Finance, to pay for it, and procurement to assess the vendors and others. And for almost any project or new task, you rely on leaders of other departments, and they rely on you. Part of getting support is understanding what departments do and showing those departments that you are interested in what they do. How can you do that? Pause, and go to your ChatGPT window, and ask a prompt of, what does a finance department do? If you're in finance, ask about another department. You'll likely see responsibilities that you weren't aware of. So learning and curiosity are the first step. The second step is to build that relationship. Prompt ChatGPT with, how can I integrate these responsibilities into a conversation with a finance leader to build a cross-functional relationship with them? In no time, you'll have talking points for that conversation. But how do you have that conversation, especially if you feel awkward reaching out? AI won't judge you. Ask ChatGPT at prompt of, how can I reach out to set up a meeting on these without sounding awkward? It'll give you an example email to reach out, which you can adjust. And if the response generated is too formal for your voice. Just ask, can you make it less formal? Boom, a more casual email ready for you to edit and send. These prompts will help you start conversations that will develop your knowledge and build relationships. So when you do have cross-functional asks, they can be more friendly and formed and collaborative. So who are you going to reach out to? Take a moment to use the email template generated by ChatGPT to adapt it to your voice and send a note to a cross-functional colleague. You'll be surprised how they respond. People love to share what they know.