“Alone we travel fast, together we travel far.” African proverb
It is true that we accomplish more when we work together. Associating ourselves with people whose experience and skills are different and complementary to our own allows us to advance faster and further. Hence, the importance of teamwork.
According to cnrtl.fr, a team is a group of people united to accomplish a project together. Each member of the team works together to achieve the same objective. They share common values and a common vision, they put together their experience, their skills and their knowhow, and they are driven by the same desire for success.
However, it is not enough to put together a few individuals to build a team. A link has to be created, a team spirit that unites everyone in order for them to want to work together and complete the project.
Discover 6 tips to facilitate teamwork.
1. Clearly defined objectives.
Everything starts there. When you bring a team together, it is because you have a project, a mission to carry out. To be certain that your team steers your project towards success, you must be sure that all team members know the objective(s) that need to be achieved, each member’s role and responsibilities and the expected results.
Check that everyone has understood what is expected of them, what objectives there are to fulfil and make sure that everyone is trying to achieve them.
2. The importance of communication.
Communication is the key to effective teamwork. Without communication, each team member advances on their own and chaos can quickly hinder the project. It is therefore impossible to know which tasks have already been done, those which are in progress and those that are left to be done. How do you know if a task is late, if a team member has a problem, or if they need help to finish on time?
Communication allows the improvement of your team’s efficiency. Each member knows the progress of each task and the evolution of the project in real time, which massively facilitates work. It is also by communicating daily that we correct small operating errors and work more effectively together.
Another important point is that each team member must be able to express themselves freely and share their ideas. By promoting exchanges at the heart of the team, you develop your members’ creativity and the ability to innovate. Problems are resolved more quickly thanks to solutions found together.
3. Encouraging trust, mutual aid, and honesty
“Trust is the invisible cement that leads a team to victory” Bud Wilkinson – American footballer
For a team to collaborate in the most efficient way, the members must create mutual trust, respect each other, and help each other out. For this, it is important to define basic rules that favour politeness and good manners. Each employee must be respected and treated equally, and tasks must be distributed fairly in order to avoid a feeling of injustice and the emergence of tensions.
Each member must own their responsibilities and their errors and problems must be discussed together in order to quickly find a solution. Encourage as well mutual aid between team members. Finally, conflicts and tensions must be dealt with immediately to avoid a bad atmosphere developing and ruining the team’s productivity.
4. Strong cohesion within the team
To keep your team running smoothly, you must develop your team spirit. To this, team members must get to know each other and develop a strong sense of belonging. When they get along well, team members communicate more easily and appreciate each other’s work. They will be more motivated, they will want to better themselves and will not hesitate to make more effort to succeed.
To create this team cohesion, organise regular times for the the whole team to meet in a friendly atmosphere. In the office, organise regular team lunches. Also allow times for relaxation outside of the workplace where everyone can enjoy themselves away from the responsibilities and restrictions imposed by the workplace. These facilitates communication and allow everyone to forge bonds between themselves.
Cooking workshops or wine tatsings, sporting activities, escape rooms etc., the list is endless. Encourage your team members to put themselves forward. They will enjoy participating more if they are in charge of organising the activities.
5. Good teamwork tools.
Nowadays, thanks to the huge growth of the Internet and digital transformation, a variety of tools have come about to facilitate teamwork. Amongst these tools, project management software has become vital, bringing together a set of features that have become essential for organizing teamwork, facilitating collaboration, and promoting communication.
For example, Wimi the collaborative platform makes it possible to centralize all the data of a project, thus offering a global vision of its progress. In just a few clicks, you can share your documents with your colleagues as well as with your customers, partners and suppliers. Thanks to the shared agenda, you know the availability of your employees, the various deadlines and key events of the project. Finally, with the various integrated communication tools (instant messaging, audio and video calls, screen sharing, etc.), you can easily communicate with all the people concerned by the project and you save precious time.
Aujourd’hui, grâce à l’essor d’Internet et la transformation numérique, une multitude d’outils sont apparus pour faciliter la collaboration des équipes. Parmi eux, le logiciel de gestion de projet est devenu incontournable. Complet, il regroupe un ensemble de fonctionnalités devenues indispensables pour organiser le travail en équipe, faciliter la collaboration et favoriser la communication.
6. Celebrate everything you achieve.
There is nothing better to unite and motivate a team than to celebrate every success, no matter how small. Celebrate the skills of your employees, be grateful for the efforts made and thank each person for their involvement in the project. Don’t wait until the project is over for a drink. Celebrate the passing of each milestone to encourage the team to keep up the momentum.
Conclusion :
A successful team is a team whose members are focused on the goal that needs to be achieved, communicate constantly, respect and trust each other, feel involved in the team and in the project, and use collaborative tools.
Now you know how to facilitate collaboration within your team. It’s your turn !
