As we move to more collaborative work environments, understanding productivity as it applies to groups is becoming more and more critical. By devoting time and energy to understanding how to build more productive teams, we can help shift to a culture of collaboration, innovation, and excellence.
1. Team Expectations
Teamwork is often broken down when there are competing priorities and varying expectations for the group. By bringing together team members who all have varying perspectives, backgrounds, and goals for the future, you have a diversity of thought, but it requires some time and attention to align those and make sure that everyone is heard within the group. Once achieved, it is essential to sit down to set plans and goals in a structured setting with specific timelines that can provide the team with a vision and clear expectations on how to proceed cohesively.
2. Environment for Creativity and Innovation
Setting a tone that all ideas and perspectives are welcome in the group can create a culture that all voices are welcome, regardless of the initiative or employee title. If you begin to notice that particular voices are being shut out, address it early and often, by discouraging negative behavior and encouraging creativity. By creating an environment where people feel they can take risks, you’ll find yourself with an abundance of bold and exciting ideas.
3. Ease of Communication
Teams can often be inundated with too many voices that then drown out others and in the long run become ineffectual. By establishing intentionally structured teams to only the number of staff necessary where everyone can feel they can add to the project and work cohesively together, there can be reasonably sized groups that have ease workflow.
4. Stay On The Same Page
With an abundance of technology at our fingertips, we can often find ourselves with too many technological options. This can increase barriers to cohesive teamwork, as the entire group should use one channel of communication for specific tasks. If there are barriers where some feel more comfortable with one platform than another, offering training, but make sure that everyone stays on the same page to avoid disruptions in the workflow.
5. Accountability and Execution
These productive and cohesive teams may have an abundance of good ideas, however, at the end of the day, they must roll out their ideas and execute them. Regardless of how you choose which idea and avenue to pursue, it is essential to decide on a direction and execute it.
Teams can be wonderful collaborative units, but if they want to be successful will need to be intentional with how they approach teamwork.