Many companies across the country deal with some form of dysfunction when it comes to their team. Just because a group of individuals works for the same organization or even in the same department, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are collaborating as a team. There are many negative side effects to this type of culture including reduced productivity, higher turnover, and lack of commitment. By increasing their employee engagement, and the team’s ability to work together as a cohesive unit, companies can add additional revenue to their bottom line, and grow at a much quicker pace.
How do you encourage teams to work together? There is no universal answer to this question, but here are 5 sure-fire ways to get you to promote teamwork within your office.
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Clarify The Objective
Having a unified goal that everyone on the team can focus on, will help align the team members. Even if people are working on different projects, and have diverse roles they will still collaborate on the greater good of objective. Knowing that you are adding to or perhaps holding back a team goal is a big motivating factor for many. Not wanting to let down the group, people will work together to ensure they achieve the main objective.
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Celebrate Successes Together
When projects are completed or milestones achieved, it is easy to focus on the next task at hand. Take a moment to recognize everyone that contributed to the success of the previous objective. Knowing that their work together has been recognized, will keep team members working together while creating a shared sense of success.
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Socialize Together
When you think about corporate team building events, you may picture a cabin in the woods and white-water rafting. The even doesn’t need to be so elaborate or costly for a team to bond over a shared experience. Just by having the team out of the office environment and spending time together, is a step towards building a stronger team. Escape Rooms are a great team-building event, as it forces your team members to work together to solve multiple obstacles to win the challenge. This also forces the individual team members to interact more than just those in their social circle.
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Don’t Let Problems Fester
Most people spend more time with their colleagues than they do with their families. When people spend that much time together, issues are bound to arise. Being able to solve those issues in a timely manner is important. If not, these small issues can drive a wedge between team members or even two departments. Holding a grudge against a team member or another department is sure to have negative consequences for the organization. Being able to work these issues out early, will encourage collaboration.
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Open Communication
A lot of companies say that they have an open-door policy when it comes to sharing ideas and everyone has the ability to question a direction or the steps needed to get there. But, I’m pretty sure most of us have worked for an organization that says this, but really doesn’t want to hear from the team and when they do, it is quickly forgotten about. Taking the time to truly hear from individual team members and to consider their recommendations creates a building culture where everyone on the team feels responsible and accountable for every step of a project. If the team could have interjected and recommended a different course of action, you eliminate the “I was just doing what I was told” excuse. Team members feel the need to work together and find efficiencies in this type of environment.
No matter how you achieve a collaborative work environment, a team that works hard together wins and loses together. Being able to build off the momentum of a successful project or to bounce back from a not so successful attempt, takes real teamwork.
