6 Valuable Ideas for Improving Teamwork
By TRISOFT team
Nowadays, companies are straying further and further away from the old, rigid way of using employees as single individuals, locked in cubicles, attending only to their share of the business process. Companies are striving to determine their staff to work together in achieving common goals, as the modern business world is focusing increasingly more on the idea of “collaboration”.
But how can one make people understand the need to work together and put it into practice?
1. Lead by example
It’s certainly not by talking about it — research has shown that simply putting the idea across, presenting its advantages and holding meetings on the subject will not actually yield any results. The management must lead by example, give incentives to those who accomplish it and actually make the team feel the collaborative culture.
Leaders can take courses on integrating collaboration into the working environment and improving their leadership skills: giving feedback, which is of utmost significance and leads to better overall results; bringing out the best in employees, individually and as part of a wider entity; interrupting work in progress and suggesting ideas for enhancing collaboration.
As managers become more accustomed to the practice, it will begin to feel natural and productive. The importance of this concept is seen in the fact that employees feel heard and appreciated, and they will thus start to generate creative solutions and provide better outcomes.
2. Focus on the team
First of all, managers should focus on the size and composition of a team. How many members should be on a team, so that there will be an easy and direct workflow, clear priorities and tasks, and all the colleagues will feel included?
Jeff Bezos, for example, famously said that the number of members in a team should not exceed the number of people that two pizzas can feed — “the two-pizza rule”. Of course, this can be adapted to the specific configuration and objectives of the company, but the principle of giving everyone a chance to make themselves noticed and appreciated should be followed.
3. Setting goals
Next, the manager should focus on setting team goals, instead of individual targets and bonuses. Teamwork will not happen if everyone is in competition with someone else and is willing to crush their colleagues only to get ahead and prove themselves. Using timelines, charts, plans and a structured content will lead to each member understanding the common goals, as well as their specific part in achieving them.
Thus, rewarding teamwork above individual accomplishment will make everyone understand that they are working toward a joint purpose that they will all reap the benefits for, and it will help members feel they are part of a valued team that shares responsibilities, instead of carrying a disproportionate part of the load. Teamwork divides the tasks and multiplies the success.
4. The same means of communication
All the members of a team should be using the same means of communication, so that nothing will be lost in the process of transferring information from one colleague to the next. If two people are using e-mail to convey important ideas, whereas two others talk by phone, their collective insight may never converge and align. Technology should not create barriers between coworkers, but rather simplify access and allow the team to communicate efficiently and effectively, therefore a single channel should be agreed upon and used. However, this single method must take into consideration the comfort level and training of every member, since it is not productive for a small number of people to use a method or app that others don’t know how to use or aren’t even aware of.
5. Create an open environment for everyone
The general workplace environment should be creative, open and nonjudgmental. Every member should be encouraged and aided in brainstorming ideas, expressing them publicly and presenting the way in which they might enhance the team’s purpose and direction. The team must feel safe to take risks, both individually and as a group, to suggest daring concepts and express their creativity. Colleagues should be stimulated to offer visual presentations and sketches that others can pitch in on, so as to reach the best possible option. And if it turns out to be a failure, instead of punishing the team, the manager should organize an event to celebrate the flop and the fact that they’ve learned something from their mistakes. Thus, employees will feel more confident that they won’t be reprimanded for every little wrong step they take.
6. Follow through on your management ideas
Last but not least, the manager should follow through on his words. It’s no use in telling people to express their ideas and come up with solutions, if he never acts on any of them and instead, always uses his own method or manner of thinking. Nothing will kill the employees’ drive to create new ideas faster than a failure to implement existing proposals.
After competing projects or principles are laid out on the table, the whole team may actually decide which one is the best, through voting and ranking. Thus, the team is responsible for every step of the process, from generating and collecting ideas to deciding which one will be carried out. This shows team members that their ideas matter and provides the motivation for more great ideas to come up.
Be a team!
In conclusion, teamwork, as the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or complete a joint task in the most efficient and effective way, is a concept that will characterize and drive the workforce and business domain from now on.
Companies must align to this principle and enable it, in order to remain competitive on the market and keep happy and loyal employees. As the visionary Henry Ford realized a century ago, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success.”
