“Fly direct”. That is to say, if you have a problem that cuts across teams, figure out who the best person or team is to help you address the problem, and go and speak to them directly. Don’t go through your tech lead or send things up a chain for management to pass back down somewhere else. Go straight to where you think the answer might be, and ask your question (regardless of what job title that person holds, or what the team is responsible for). Don’t take the long way round.
From personal experience it’s very rare that someone will tell you to go away or won’t want to share their knowledge with you. Sure you might get ignored, but that’s a useful signal you might want to listen to about the culture you’re working in (and do something about it). You might even get sent to someone else to help — but you’re one step closer to the answer.
To help with this I would also suggest you default to working in the open (e.g. if you’re flying direct to another person or a team, do it in a public channel). Two reasons:
- You set a great example for your colleagues that it’s good to go directly to a team or a person who can help you solve a problem. You start or carry the culture.
- In the unlikely event you don’t get an answer, you can escalate and remind teams of their commitments to each other
Being able to cut through friction is one of the best skills to build whether you’re in a tech role or not. This is a really effective (and quite easy) place to start.
ps. I’m fairly confident I didn’t come up with “fly direct” myself so if you know who did, or it’s you, please let me know so I can credit you!