Teamwork is critical for a companies success and is becoming even more of a priority now with more and more companies building distributed remote teams.
When your organization works as a team, the sum is greater than the parts; projects get completed easier, ideas flow, and the output gets better.
Creating Teamwork in Your Organization
The keys to successful teamwork are a clear vision, understood processes, and a collaborative and supportive environment.
Leadership is crucial. Ensure that you have a clear vision and that your group understands will keep everyone focused on the right priorities and working well together.
Create procedures for how people can work together. You need to set the tone and model the behavior that you want others to follow.
Keeping the Team Motivated and Engaged
An excellent place to start is to create a safe environment where team members are free to ask for help or admit mistakes if critical. Think about what you can do to foster this kind of environment in your organization.
Your team needs to be clear on what is expected of them. Document decisions and, if needed, followup with an email if to clarify meeting outcomes in your own words. Use Zoom and FaceTime calls and make face-to-face communication a priority. Video calls are vital for one-on-ones and any other review or feedback sessions. Check out our Quarterly One-on-One Meeting Form (with Real Questions) if you need help crafting the process.
Pitfalls
Some people operate better in-person and need some help with remote teamwork. Watch out for this and help them work through and communication struggles they might be having.
An email is a great tool, but emails often lack context, and it is easy to be misunderstood. Take extra care when crafting an email with this in mind.
Remote teamwork exacerbates the problem of different work schedules. You need to track individual schedules and commitments and potentially sync across time zones.
Remote tools are great (here is our stack), but they can also create noise. By now, everyone is familiar with the "Can you hear me? can you hear me?" introductions on video conference calls. Make sure you have a backup communication platform in place. One good solution is to create a shared document, in GSuite or similar, for each meeting. This way, everyone can participate in note-taking and build a team shared understanding of the meeting.
Conclusion
Now that I have got you thinking about teamwork, here are some quotes that you could share to think about some of the benefits of investing time in creating effective teams.
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." – Helen Keller
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." – Michael Jordan
"A core group of guys, all sharing similar goals, can move mountains." - Chris Matakas
"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." - Henry Ford
"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime." – Babe Ruth