Teamwork is the Heart and Soul of All Effective Organisations
Elon Musk gets all the credit today for transforming the electric vehicle industry from obscurity to prominence. But the truth is that he relied on teamwork – the ideas and skills of engineers and software developers at Tesla – to catapult the company to fame and fortune.
Are you among those that admire Musk’s teamwork contributions to making the world a better place? If yes, bear in mind that you can also achieve this level of success when you learn how to improve teamwork in the workplace in a creative way.
Turning a group of employees into an efficient team is not an easy feat, as research experts believe that the level of teamwork you need in your workplace today is quite different from the one envisioned by top business leaders before the COVID-19 outbreak. This belief is arguably valid as the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a massive shift in working practices.
People no longer work full-time in the office as they did three or more years ago, as shown by the results of a global survey of executives and knowledge experts. Today, many knowledgeable employees work remotely and have the freedom and flexibility to work in any location across the globe.
As a manager, you need to act fast NOW and learn how to improve teamwork in the workplace as global survey data show that remote work and hybrid work is here to stay.
The good news is that I’ve done all the homework for you, reviewing the teamwork literature and compiling all the tips you need to boost teamwork in the face of the present COVID-19 crisis. This means you don’t need to check Google or Google Scholar to find research articles on how to improve teamwork in the workplace.
Aim of This Blog Post
The purpose of this write-up is to arm business leaders like you with the best strategies for enhancing teamwork in your working environment. After reading this article, you will know:
- Why teamwork fails
- How poor teamwork impacts businesses
- How to improve teamwork in the workplace in a creative way: five tips
1. Why Teamwork Fails
Not sure why the team spirit of your workers has eroded? Several reasons could explain why your teams are currently underperforming. They are as follows:
Reason 1: Lack of Trust
Trust is the most important ingredient required to boost teamwork in the workplace. When your employees are suspicious of their co-workers’ motives, they will be cautious of what they say and be reluctant to learn from one another. Rather than collaborating to achieve remarkable results for the organization, they are likely going to channel their time and energy toward sabotaging each other’s efforts. This could be the reason why the teamwork performance of your organisation has declined in recent years.
Besides, your employees will not work as a team if they don’t trust you, the manager. Wondering why your employees distrust you? Trust is a two-way street. Perhaps they don’t trust you because you mistreat them and penalize them when they make the slightest mistakes. Remember, trust begets trust: Your workers will not trust you if you don’t trust them in the first place.
Reason 2: Lack of Leadership
Teamwork fails when there is an absence of leadership. Workers want a leader that is accountable, transparent, impartial, charismatic, empathetic, humble, competent and goal-driven. They also desire a leader that can communicate team goals, set expectations, delegate tasks, and keep everyone motivated. If your workers cannot find these qualities in their leaders, they will be resistant to change and discouraged to work together as a team.
What’s more, your employees will not work as a team if their leaders indulge in hypocrisy. The moment workers realize that the person leading the organization is not adhering to the ethical standards which they claim to espouse, they start to retrace their steps and engage in acts that comprise teamwork.
Reason 3: Lack of Communication
People in the workplace come from diverse backgrounds. Some workers are theists, liberals, and feminists, while some are Blacks, Whites, Latinos, or Indians. The glue that binds these people together is effective communication.
There is a difference between communicating and talking. Just because you are talking to your workers does mean you are communicating with them. If you are communicating effectively with your employees, the message you are passing across to them is clear, concise, concrete, correct, complete, courteous and coherent. Bear in mind that you are not communicating with your staff when you expect them to “read between the lines” and make assumptions to understand your message.
When last did you talk to your workers with love and care? Once or twice a week is not enough. It would help if you interacted with them in a friendly manner at all times. The more you communicate with your employees the way you talk to your loved ones, the more they will open up and provide tips to improve teamwork in the workplace.
Reason 4: Lack of Proper Training
Businesses worldwide now use collaboration software applications to share content online, manage projects online, and organize video conferences with multiple attendees. With Zoom, Slack, Asana, Microsoft 365, and Trello, creating a cohesive and collaborative atmosphere is much easier. However, if your employees are using the wrong tools to collaborate or are not proficient in using these collaboration tools, they may not be able to boost their teamwork performance.
Reason 5: Lack of Incentives
Incentives are to workers what fuel is to cars. Rewards propel employees to work smarter and think better. By not rewarding your workers, you are indirectly telling them you don’t appreciate their additional efforts. Lack of incentive programs will make your workers stop working as a team. This is because they have the mindset that they will be paid the same remuneration whether their teamwork skills improve or not.
Reason 6: Lack of Accountability and Transparency
Highly effective teams hold themselves accountable for the decisions and commitments made. They are transparent about everything they do, from organizing a meeting, making a decision to spending project funds. If there are barriers that stifle accountability and transparency in the workplace, your workers will not improve teamwork efficiency.
Reason 7: Lack of Defined Goals (Click on the image for a larger version)
Let’s face it. No high-performing teams can succeed in the workplace without having defined goals. If your workers are not sure of the goals you want them to achieve, they cannot collaborate seamlessly to meet your needs. They will also not be able to work as a team so long as there is no fixed deadline for the assignments you ask them to accomplish. Goal-driven tasks have five attributes: They are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. If the goals given to team members lack these attributes, their collaborative efforts will be futile.
Reason 8: Lack of Team Chemistry
If one person in a team complains about another team member, then the problem is likely between the two people. In such a situation, you can remove the two persons from the group to allow the team to function effectively. However, when all the team members start using harsh words to criticize one another, this shows that there is no team chemistry.
Fixing a team that lacks chemistry is quite difficult. This is because the more you allow team members to continue to work together, the more they are likely to open up old wounds of disputes and their productivity will get worse day after day. So, you are better off dissolving the team and allowing employees to work in groups they are comfortable with.
Related reading: For even more useful content on team building, check out our ultimate guide on Team Building Skills.
2. How Poor Teamwork Impacts Businesses
You are not alone if you are wondering what the problems of poor teamwork are. Poor teamwork performance has many negative effects on your business. It destroys the morale of your employees, making them doubt their skills and capabilities. Missed opportunities, conflicts, and misunderstandings often arise when your workers are not collaborating as a team. These problems may force some of your workers to change their department or resign from the company altogether.
A high employee turnover is not good for your business. This is because finding and retaining highly skilled employees is not only difficult and time-consuming but also expensive. Research shows that companies will spend at least 20% of an employee’s annual salary, replacing a worker. To avoid this expensive cost, it is pertinent that you master how to improve teamwork in the workplace.
3. How to Improve Teamwork in the Workplace in a Creative Way: Five Tips
Now that you understand the causes of poor teamwork as well as the problems of poor teamwork, it’s time to get familiar with ten innovative tips to improve team spirit in the workplace.
Tip 1: Encourage Team Exercise and Sports Activities
Allowing your workers to exercise together helps strengthen teamwork. Educate your team members about the benefits of exercise to their health and encourage them to use the same gym for workouts. As they are engaging in team-building exercises like tug-of-war, don’t wake the dragon, and human knot, they will start to rub minds together and get to know each other much better as a team.
You can also strengthen teamwork by allowing your employees to participate in sports activities like football, volleyball, basketball, and hockey. Set aside two hours per week for this and make sure everyone participates one way or the other in the sports activities.
Tip 2: Organise Team Social Outings
Of course, not every team member will be a fan of exercise and sports activities. Another fantastic idea to enhance team spirit is to organize social outings. Take them to a fascinating restaurant/bar on a Friday night. Encourage workers to eat together in groups from the same plate.
While eating and drinking there, they can play card games like poker, Jaipur, exploding kittens, rummy, uno, and patience. These games will challenge their brains and force them to communicate and work together as a team.
Tip 3: Set Competitive Fun Challenges
Giving your team members a fun task to accomplish every week will strengthen their bonds of unity. For instance, you can organize an ultimate search contest. Break out employees into three groups and tell them to search for a hidden treasure in an isolated area. Of course, you will need to give them clues that will aid their search process. Any group that finds the treasure will emerge as the winner.
If you don’t like that challenge, here is another one to explore. You can tell all workers in a group to write on a piece of paper any challenging group activities they would like the team to achieve in two or three days. After they have penned down their ideas, fold the papers and put them together in a small box.
Make sure the papers are thoroughly mixed before asking one of the workers to select one of the papers. Then, allow the workers to carry out the task written on the paper selected.
It is pertinent that you allow your workers to carry out the fun task so long as the activity is not illegal and injurious to their health. By providing them feedback, they will learn from their mistakes and learn how to work together as a team.
Tip 4: Allow Teams to Choose Their Leaders
Teamwork only works when teams have 100% confidence in their leaders. While you can choose who should join a team, you should allow team members to select their leader using a voting system. Anyone that gets the majority of the votes should emerge as the team leader.
Setting a leadership term limit is important, too. Doing this will make the team leader less complacent. It will also give team members the opportunity to enhance their teamwork skills and become future team leaders.
Tip 5: Reward Teams for Their Contributions
All teams want to be recognized for their hard work. Rewarding team members is not only about giving them bonuses or cash gifts. There are many creative ways to reward employees. If you have a low budget, a simple “thank you” in front of a large crowd can do wonders.
How about offering your team time-off, free lunch, or free vacation for their efforts? They will love this! Feature top teams on the company’s blog or newsletter will go a long way to boosting team spirit in your workplace.
By giving teams an award for their great contributions, they will be encouraged to improve their teamwork skills. The award doesn’t need to be as lucrative as the Grammy Award, Nobel Prize or Academy Award. What matters is the intention behind the award – that the company recognizes teams’ excellent performance.
Final Thoughts on How to Improve Teamwork
Ever wonder why some companies are successful, while others are not? It all boils down to teamwork. Teamwork enables a group of employees to work towards a common goal. It ensures that the combined performance of workers is greater than the sum of each worker’s performance. People who work in an effective team feel valued and confident in their skills.
Don’t just read the five tips on how to improve teamwork in the workplace in a creative way. Make sure you implement them and wait for 2-3 weeks to see the results for yourself. And if have other ideas of how to improve teamwork in the workplace in a creative way, feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
