Working across departments: how to make the handover clear.

A handover works when the information is complete, someone takes it on explicitly and the deadline is agreed with the person carrying the work forward.

A clear handover between departments means four things settled in advance: what information passes on, who takes it, how they confirm they have accepted it, and by when.

An illustrative example: the order

An order comes in through sales and reaches operations, then logistics. At each step someone takes on the work and commits to a deadline. Complete information and an agreed deadline give the teams a common basis for following the order.

A realistic deadline is set together with the person taking over, taking into account what they already have in progress. A deadline set without checking capacity may require replanning.

What a handover contains

When data is missing, the request goes back with a list of what is missing rather than sitting in a queue. For situations outside the usual pattern, the owner and the stand-in are agreed internally, by type of decision; many exceptions are resolved at the level of the teams involved.

The pilot, on a single handover

Start with a single step — for example from sales to operations — in the channel the company already uses. A shared message template can be the starting point of the pilot. Assess the need for a tool once you have clarified the structure of the handover.

Practical also for teams that do not work in the same place: colleagues in the office and those at work sites use the same structure, even if the message arrives through different channels.

The handover template

Eight lines, used as the structure of the message.

The request, clearly stated.

The context relevant to carrying it out.

The data needed, listed.

The accepted result.

The owner taking over and the stand-in.

The agreed deadline.

The confirmation of the handover.

What is missing and to whom it is escalated.

The same structure, used by all departments, makes handovers comparable with each other.

What you measure

Three things help improve the process: how often a request comes back for missing data, how long a request waits between departments, and how often a piece of work is redone. They are tracked by type of request, so they show where time is lost.

The measurements concern the process, not the people. The useful conclusion is which step of the handover gets clarified, who does it and by when.

The practical step

Choose a single handover and write the template for it, together with both teams. If the discussion touches on how managers work, see the training programmes; for teams in different locations, see the work-sites situation.

Let’s clarify the responsibilities.

We look at a concrete handover and establish together what passes on.

Let’s clarify the responsibilities →