Collaboration and teamwork are buzzwords you hear a lot about in modern business. Most advances in technology have been made collaboration easier. The challenge is taking that collaboration from something that the executive team talks about, and turning it into something that employees enjoy.
Set Goals As a Team
Collaboration is improved when team members have the same vision. This can be done by using plans, timelines, and structured content. These tools will clearly define current goals and lay out future goals for the team.
It is not enough to set goals. Leaders need to make sure that all the team members understand the goals. They also need to understand the role they play as individuals in accomplishing these goals.
A good way to encourage collaboration and teamwork is to reward team success as opposed to individual accomplishments. When team members feel they are attacking goals as a unit, they are going to work better together as opposed to feeling like one or two people are carrying the burden of the work.
Create an Environment Where Creativity Is Encouraged
If team members feel that their ideas are going to be mocked or they are going to be judged if their ideas do not conform to the norm, teamwork fails. However, teams that can work in a non-judgmental environment where people are not punished for taking risks work better and have more success.
Employees need to feel secure when they take risks. One way to do this is to have events where teams are rewarded for their biggest mistakes. This emphasizes that a team cannot win if the team is afraid to fail.
Create Cohesion
Cohesion does not happen accidentally. It requires the ability to communicate and the communication tools that make workflow easy.
This is especially important now that so many organizations have their employees working remotely. It seems that remote work is going to be the new norm. Virtual team building depends on the team members having the ability to communicate with each other about work matters and during their downtime.
In a physical office space, employees can interact with each other during working hours and then go out and do things together after work. A virtual team with members living in different parts of the world does not have that opportunity.
However, cohesion can be created by scheduling fun virtual events, like virtual escape rooms, that require the team to work together in a relaxed environment to achieve goals. The cohesion built during a virtual escape room passes into the work environment.
Visualize Ideas
Team members should have the opportunity to share their ideas. This means allowing team members to use rough sketches or full-scale visual presentations. Everyone on the team can learn easier if they see something and hear something. Again, virtual communication tools play a role in making this possible.
Break Through Barriers
Especially with virtual teams, there are barriers to communication. The biggest barrier is that you can't just walk over to your coworker's cubicle or office.
Team cohesion is built by using a unified form of communication. If team members use 10 different types of communication, ranging from email to Instant Messenger to phone chats, messages are going to be missed.
That is why it is important for the team to identify a single channel of communication that everyone uses. This way, you don't have a small group of your employees using the newest communication technology that hits the market and other employees who are not even aware it exists.
Don't Forget to Follow Through
Creating good ideas, collaborating, and working as a team means nothing if the good ideas team members have are not followed up on. This will kill an employee's drive to create something new or to present new ideas. Promptly act on approved existing proposals. Choosing the ideas to move forward with gets rid of the bottleneck and gives teams a feeling of success. It encourages them to want to do more moving forward.
