It was painful to watch. The client I was providing coaching to was trying to lead a cross-functional meeting. She wasn’t having much success, and her experience isn’t that unusual. In similar situations, most companies struggle with “my function first” mentality from teammates. And it wrecks productivity. In fact, more than 90 percent of executives cite a lack of collaboration for their workplace failures.

At the first break in the meeting, I took my client aside and asked her, “Do you want to rock the world your teammates are functioning in right now?”

She looked at me with desperate eyes. “Sure. At this point I’ve got nothing to lose.”

I suggested to her that she ask a specific question—the same one I’ve equipped leaders with who are eager to see team members become more collaborative. And quickly.

“Ask each of them to tell you the role they have on this team,” I said.

My client looked at me as if I was asking her to embarrass herself in front of the team. “I already know what they do,” she answered.

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