And let’s be honest, sometimes it can be a bit of a nightmare.
Part two of our soft skills series looks at the importance of developing positive and healthy teamwork within your organisation.
In any work environment, there’s going to be workplace politics, a clash of personalities, and in some projects simply too many cooks getting involved. No matter how you paint it, the reality is that group dynamics can be hard to master. But the good news is that there is a wide range of things you can do on an individual and organisational level to help teamwork flourish.
Productive team dynamics
Before we look at working through awkward or uncomfortable circumstances, let’s take a look at what a well-fitted and productive team looks like:
- Ideally a small group of 3 – 6 people
- Goal-oriented, with individual missions all heading towards the larger goal at hand
- Team members help each other
- They also hold each other accountable
- Everyone pulls their weight, without pulling rank
5 ways to encourage teamwork and navigate conflict
We know this dream scenario isn’t realistic in every work environment, but there are plenty of things you can do to get teamwork back on track within your own departments and organisation-wide. Here are a few tips from us to encourage positive collaboration and avoid teamwork disasters.
1. Encourage teams to agree on goals for the project
One of the quickest ways teamwork can fall off-track is if you aren’t clear on goals and objectives for the project before the work begins. It can be easy to end up in a situation where everyone had their own agendas heading in different directions. While this is a natural part of working with other people, agreeing on project goals and ideal outcomes before the full project kick off is a great way to keep everyone moving in the same direction.
2. Take time to agree on etiquette and boundaries
When it comes to teamwork projects, there is no one size fits all. We would love to give you a list of policies, boundaries, and etiquette rules that will guarantee great tram dynamics, but everyone has different needs. As such, it’s important to encourage your teams, and coach your leaders, to set their own boundaries within project work. For example, how often you want to have meetings to cover off the specific project, if you would like a project lead or a flat organisational structure, or even how comfortable you are with people bringing laptops, phones, or tablets into meeting spaces.
3. Establish team responsibilities early
Everyone has a specific skillset within their field. One of the best things about team projects is being able to put that specialised knowledge to good use in a varied but valuable way. Perhaps someone is particularly good at making meeting notes or creating spreadsheets; maybe someone is great at public speaking; perhaps a team member has very specialised knowledge about a particular type of stock, product, or service you sell. The key here to is play to everyone’s individual strengths and establish responsibilities early to avoid conflict later down the line.
4. Make meetings meaningful
Communication is absolutely key to any kind of teamwork (and you can find out more about that in part one of our soft skills series) and this communication will often take place in meetings.
However, according to a survey from Harvard Business Review, 71% of senior managers from a wide range of industries said meetings were unproductive or inefficient, and 62% said meetings missed the chance to bring their team(s) closer together.
What can we do to stop this from happening?
- Ensure the meeting is completely necessary
- Encourage independent researched brainstorming and discuss the results at a later date once everyone has their ideas nailed
- Only involve the absolutely necessary people in any meeting
- Consider if what you need to say can be communicated over email or via a memo
- Give everyone in the meeting the chance to get involved and make a contribution
- Set an agenda before a meeting to help keep things on track
- Stick to your chosen timeframe
- Consolidate everything important discussed into organised meeting notes and distribute as needed for later reference
5. Conflict and groupthink
This is ultimately the most difficult aspect of working on projects as a team. There is the possibility of conflict, people speaking over each other, and one person bulldozing an entire meeting or project.
But equally, there is a risk of ‘groupthink’, a concept Crash Course Business describe as psychological tendency to “make subpar decisions because people value harmony more than making the best decision [to] avoid disagreement”. It is key to ensure everyone has a voice, and you may actually get some of the best results if someone with a lot of influence, e.g. a manager or stakeholder isn’t in the room.
Improving teamwork in the workplace
Want to start introducing teamwork training into your organisation? Leave the stale sandwiches and awkward trust falls aside and focus on a sustainable training plan that works for your organisation’s needs.
Written by Claire Moloney Claire is an enthusiastic and meticulous content writer whose passion is to support growth and continual learning for everyone.
