TDReady Pilot Practice

Back to Dashboard

Practice: Collaboration & Leadership

🧠 Strong TD professionals lead through influence, not just authority. This capability emphasizes trust-building, teamwork, inclusive leadership, and guiding others toward shared goals.

Case Management Questions

Question 1 of 3

Score: 0

Scenario

You are a TD professional supporting a fast-growing technology firm experiencing frequent cross-functional friction. Product, marketing, and operations teams often experience misalignment in communication, timelines, and responsibilities. The COO has asked you to lead a collaboration initiative aimed at addressing dysfunction, increasing accountability, and enhancing leadership impact.

Step 1 What should the TD professional do first? (Select all that apply)
Select all that apply.

Answer Key & Rationales

Scenario

You are a TD professional supporting a fast-growing technology firm experiencing frequent cross-functional friction. Product, marketing, and operations teams often experience misalignment in communication, timelines, and responsibilities. The COO has asked you to lead a collaboration initiative aimed at addressing dysfunction, increasing accountability, and enhancing leadership impact.

Step 1
Step 1 What should the TD professional do first? (Select all that apply)

Interview department heads to understand pain points and collaboration gaps.

Correct. Interviews uncover root issues and help tailor interventions.

Create a job aid outlining roles and responsibilities without further input.

Incorrect. Designing materials without input risks misalignment and exclusion.

Hold a joint team-building activity to break down silos.

Incorrect. Team-building is helpful later but not sufficient as a first step.

Launch a team survey focused on collaboration challenges and trust levels.

Correct. A survey gathers broader perspective and highlights key collaboration gaps.

Designate a rotating cross-functional leadership council to meet weekly.

Correct. A rotating leadership council builds shared responsibility and cross-functional understanding.

Step 2
Step 2 Interviews and survey results reveal breakdowns in communication clarity and accountability. Team members report confusion about who owns decisions and often feel excluded from planning phases. What should the TD professional do next? (Select all that apply)

Facilitate a leadership workshop focused on collaborative decision-making.

Correct. Workshops build shared language and collaboration skills.

Develop shared workflows and visual process maps across departments.

Correct. Process maps clarify ownership and promote shared understanding.

Limit planning participation to senior leaders to streamline decision-making.

Incorrect. Excluding others reinforces silos and top-down decision making.

Introduce shared KPIs to reinforce cross-functional accountability.

Correct. Shared KPIs foster alignment and accountability.

Provide individual feedback to employees about emotional intelligence gaps.

Incorrect. Individual feedback should be part of a broader plan, not a standalone solution here.

Step 3
Step 3 Following the workshop and implementation of new tools, collaboration improves in most teams. However, tension remains between marketing and product over shifting project timelines and last-minute changes. How should the TD professional respond? (Select all that apply)

Convene a conflict resolution session focused on shared values and expectations.

Correct. Conflict resolution grounded in values supports long-term collaboration.

Create a public dashboard tracking inter-team commitments and timelines.

Correct. Dashboards improve transparency and accountability.

Assign a senior mediator to resolve disputes without team input.

Incorrect. Top-down mediation without team input may cause resentment.

Pause collaboration efforts until new project management software is in place.

Incorrect. Delaying progress for tools misses immediate relationship opportunities.

Encourage both teams to create a joint playbook of communication norms.

Correct. Co-creating communication norms empowers teams and reduces misalignment.