Teamwork Course
00:01 Andrew Carnegie once said, teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives.
00:11 It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results, an organization's ability to succeed, hinges on teamwork, the ability of your people to act together, augment and accommodate each other.
00:24 Strengths, weaknesses, and specialties is vital to the accomplishment of your mission. They must have a shared vision, shared focus and a mutual trust, but how do you get your team to the point where they're able to embody these ideals?
00:40 How do you truly leverage the power of teamwork in the workplace? In this course, we're going to show you exactly how to do that.
01:28 86% of employers identified lack of collaboration or any efficient communication as the top cause of workplace failures. 97% of them also believed that a lack of team alignment adversely affects the outcome of a task or project.
01:47 54% of employees say that a strong sense of community at work helps them stay at a company longer. Based on those statistics, it seems like teamwork is an increasingly important area for businesses to focus on this training is going to consist of a series of critical discussion points.
02:07 These are designed to cover this broad topic as thoroughly as possible to encourage growth in these vital areas and to facilitate a real and fruitful discussion within your organization.
02:17 How about how you can each improve on this essential characteristic, both at work and in your personal lives. In general, some of these will be pretty lengthy and some will be relatively straightforward and brief at the very end of this roadmap comes the most important final step discussion time, do
02:38 not skip this.
02:39 This is the most important part of this training. When you finish this course, you need to spend at least an hour or so.
02:47 Going over the questions we supply at the end as a group, whoever's the head honcho in the group should designate a facilitator whose responsibility it is that each question is covered.
02:57 And that everyone time permitting is able to have their say, make sure all contributions are valued, all suggestions considered and all opinions respected.
03:08 So let's move into the first discussion point, clarify vision and goals. Your team should understand the purpose of the work they're doing unless they understand how their work contributes to the entire organization.
03:22 Tasks and responsibilities can feel arbitrary or even directionless. The organization's vision for a project should be clearly communicated to the team so that they better understand the way you make decisions.
03:35 Make sure that your team also knows about the goals that they should be hitting.
03:39 And when set clearly defined and measurable goals within a specific timeframe to ensure that everyone's on the same page, this will make it easier for them to visualize where they stand relative to the designated benchmarks, communicate urgency.
03:58 One of the biggest sources of workplace conflicts are misunderstandings about which tasks are most. Time-sensitive make sure that your team know which tasks are due.
04:07 When if there are urgent tasks that need to be attended to immediately make sure that everyone knows about them at the same time, learn to distinguish urgencies that are best left for another day and emergencies where your team members should drop everything else and work on solving the issue.
04:25 This will help you avoid doing so much. Short-sighted reactive work to the detriment of your key goals, distribute tasks, evenly teamwork doesn't mean you do one task together.
04:39 Rather teamwork involves breaking down a project into several attainable tasks.
04:44 These tasks should then be divided among your team members. According to the following factors priority, choose the person who can do the task as soon as possible without getting bogged down by other routine tasks, skillset find someone who can ensure high quality outcomes for the job because of their
05:03 skills and expertise availability. Pick the team member who has ample time and schedule to complete the work development. If you want a particular team member to upgrade their skills and increase their knowledge, give them tasks where they'll have to step up and learn interest.
05:22 If someone is really interested about a specific task or responsibility, let them take it on. Since their passion can motivate them to Excel.
05:34 Define roles, clearly outline the roles of each member for every project. Everyone should be aware of the overall goals of the project, but must also have their individual set of goals and tasks.
05:47 When everyone knows what they're supposed to do, they won't have to worry about stepping on someone else's toes. When there is ambiguity regarding roles, your team won't be able to work together.
05:59 Furthermore, the confusion can lead to resentment, make sure there is proper documentation for the roles assigned, which should be accessible for your entire team.
06:09 If there's any question regarding obligations, your team can easily check this and avoid an escalation of conflict divide roles based on individual strengths, take a look at the skills of every single one of your team members and make sure that each one of them is placed where they can offer the most
06:28 value, identify their strengths and surround them with other people who can amplify and improve those strengths, dividing roles and allocating tasks based on individual strengths.
06:39 Isn't just about having the best person for the job, but also creating an environment of success and achievement. When someone knows that they're good at their job, they'll feel valued and happy.
06:50 This kind of positive energy will also radiate with the rest of the group, share to do lists, to do lists, create order, and remind your team, which tasks they need to prioritize.
07:04 Instead of writing daily to-do lists on sticky notes, use a task management tool where a task lists can be shared with the rest of the team.
07:12 These apps and tools allow you to see pending and completed tasks so that everyone is up to date with the progress of a project share to do lists.
07:21 Also allow your team to have structure to their day. Feel a sense of accomplishment when they're able to tick off an item on their list and manage their time, better organized team processes, more than just having clear goals and roles, you should also have definite team processes in place.
07:40 Your team should know what steps they should be following. When working on projects, mitigating setbacks, communicating with each other and providing feedback well-defined team processes enable them to spend more time working and less time figuring out logistics consider adopting.
07:57 One of the popular project management methodologies listed below agile is best suited for teams that need to increase productivity. It is specifically designed to provide teams with a definite measurable structure that encourages continuous development team collaboration and recognition.
08:15 Scrum is often used for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. It fosters collaboration, accountability, and repetitive progress. Kanban helps build self-managing and collaborative teams.
08:29 It aims to identify bottlenecks, which are setbacks that can reduce the efficiency of a chain of processes and deliver high quality results.
08:37 The lean methodology aims to reduce waste or inefficiencies in order to create more value for clients and customers. The waterfall methodology is a traditional linear and sequential approach where progress moves in only one direction.
08:53 It is ideal for projects and industries where structure is crucial for stringent and expensive stages or processes. The six Sigma approach aims to enhance quality management by identifying what's causing errors, and then removing it from the equation, establish rules, rules, help ensure that things work
09:14 properly and effectively schedule a meeting where you can set the rules together as a team so that everyone can have a say in determining what will improve their productivity and efficiency deciding together will help them communicate, build trust, and feel like their voices are being heard.
09:30 Team rules are designed to provide everyone with a direction by making them work uniformly. Just make sure that rules don't hinder their individual growth.
09:40 You shouldn't make rules so strict that it becomes difficult for an employee to work comfortably and independently improve meetings. A shared team calendar will help with making sure that everyone shows up on time for your meetings.
09:57 However, if you don't run your meetings efficiently, you're still going to lose a lot of time. After all spending an hour with 10 people, here are some ways to ensure that meetings boost team performance and productivity invite only the team members that need to be involved as much as possible.
10:14 Send out meeting materials a day in advance so that everyone knows what they're supposed to do or prepare for. Make sure that you have a goal oriented agenda of the topics to be discussed and ensure that every meeting ends with definite resolutions set a time limit to discuss each issue.
10:32 When the time's up, move on to the next issue immediately, this will ensure that everyone contributes only their most relevant and important ideas.
10:41 Try non-traditional meeting formats, such as walking or standing meetings to keep the attendees engaged and also ensure brevity build commitment.
10:53 Make sure that every member of the team has a strong sense of commitment to the group.
10:57 They should feel that their contributions will significantly impact the team's decisions and actions. Here are some tips to help make your team members feel more connected to their work and the team play up to their strengths, make sure that each team member feels that they are bringing their best skills
11:14 and ideas to the work they do. When they know that they can be their best selves at work, they'll feel more committed to what they do.
11:23 Make sure that each one of them feels that their work is valuable to the team and the organization. Their role should help advance their career opportunities and attract positive attention to their capabilities.
11:35 Make sure that they are excited and challenged by the opportunities that you send their way, find tasks that are outside of their comfort zone and encourage them to step up and show the team what more they can bring to the table.
11:49 Constantly improve the team should be able to constantly itself and find ways to enhance its practices, processes, and interactions, spearhead, regular discussions, where the team can discuss any issues that may be hindering their growth and development as individuals and as a group foster open, any
12:11 efficient communication, everyone in the team should be able to openly communicate with both their superiors and their peers. They must have the opportunity to talk about their ideas and any challenges that may be hindering their progress.
12:26 Take advantage of technology and create a virtual space where your team members can communicate, share ideas, brainstorm together, ask and receive feedback and collaborate on tasks.
12:38 Always keep in mind that good communication is the core of great teamwork.
12:44 Build a feedback process. Feedback helps improve teamwork since it helps members identify where they're doing a great job and where they need some work.
12:54 Although it's important to give constructive criticism regularly, make sure that your focus is on positive feedback. It's a powerful tool to encourage a happy workplace and ensure that everyone feels valuable on top of providing feedback to the team as a whole organize individual assessment meetings
13:12 for each one in your team, you can easily boost morale by providing timely feedback about the team's overall success and their individual contributions to that success, solicit feedback.
13:27 It's crucial for the feedback process to be a two-way street. You should always be open to feedback from your team.
13:34 When you create an environment where your employees can openly share their ideas, comments, and criticisms, you promote trust and facilitate growth.
13:43 After all, when employees can easily provide feedback about the organization's policies and processes, you can quickly make adjustments to ensure that you are doing things efficiently and effectively.
13:57 Use a suggestion box. If you are worried about any team member being too shy to offer up their ideas and concerns, you might want to create a platform for anonymous feedback, a virtual or physical suggestion box is an ideal tool for this maintaining anonymity to generate new ideas offers this thing to
14:16 advantages. For instance, brainstorming sessions may sometimes only produce contributions from people who are naturally outgoing or talkative, have as many feedback channels as possible to ensure the continuous flow of good ideas recognize and reward.
14:35 When teamwork is considered as important as results, people will work actively to improve their skills. And don't put the spotlight on people who may be performing well, but are also working in isolation instead attach rewards and praise to successful outcomes that are when the team works well together
14:54 . Some examples, our company or team wide emails in person recognition, tokens of appreciation, extra vacation days, bonuses and promotions.
15:04 And don't wait too long to recognize or reward your team for their good performance. Since the delay can breed resentment or a lack of confidence, encourage brainstorming.
15:18 When you're working on a program, schedule a brainstorming session, at least weekly or bimonthly brainstorming sessions present the perfect opportunity for your team to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions.
15:32 Welcome all ideas. Even the seemingly crazy ones. When you listen to all the ideas that they put forward, you create a culture where people feel comfortable sharing and talking at the same time.
15:44 You also empower them to be more confident, think creatively and develop a sense of ownership.
15:53 Create clear timelines. Your team should have a clear picture of the schedule. Make sure that the schedule includes small milestones and individual goals so that they won't feel too pressured.
16:05 Create a review routine to make sure that no one is falling behind. Nevertheless, don't hound them too much provide support and tools for those individuals who are falling behind for instance, have a buddy system.
16:19 So when some team members are done with their tasks, they can provide assistance to those who are finding it difficult to complete theirs, have ongoing training.
16:32 One way to boost your team's energy and morale is to ensure that they feel accomplished and valuable. You can do this by ensuring that each team member gets the chance to develop and improve their skills through ongoing training designed or sponsored by the management development courses and training
16:49 sessions will boost your team's knowledge and improve their performance. Remember that training doesn't have to be limited to technical skills.
16:57 You can also schedule training courses for social or leadership skills as well as other aptitudes that will make them more effective in the workplace.
17:08 Unlock creativity, no matter how technical your industry may be. Creativity and innovation are always welcome. Creativity, fuels solutions for complex problems and meeting the needs of customers and clients.
17:22 Your team is composed of creative people with a diverse range of experience and knowledge tapping into this resource will help you get the most out of collaboration, encourage your team members to share their ideas and opinions, ban negative comments, such as what a stupid idea from the entire office
17:42 . When you have brainstorming sessions, judgment should be left at the door nurturing environment that welcomes new and fresh ideas implement the buddy system.
17:56 Try a buddy system where you pair new employees with those who have been in the company for a year or more, the veterans will help the newbies with the onboarding process and answer questions regarding the work, the people and the company.
18:09 They'll also help them with learning and embracing the company culture, a buddy system won't just help new hires learn the ropes.
18:16 It will also help forge bonds that will last beyond the onboarding period. Most buddy pairs will learn each other's work styles intimately and become more effective collaborators later on improve the workspace.
18:31 Your office space should be conducive for the growth of teamwork. You'll have to find ways to change the physical workspace so that it actively supports collaboration.
18:41 Some examples are the following aloe K project. Then conference rooms that have remote conferencing tools, which your team can use when collaborating create spaces that encourage impromptu huddles for productive discussions and provide accessibility to other team members, make sure that you also have
19:00 space for people to work alone and finish their tasks in peace. The job may gets on more quickly as a team, but individuals should still be able to use their personal time to focus and work.
19:11 Peacefully studies have found that open plan layouts for offices can help level hierarchies in the office and promote more collaboration within the team.
19:21 Consider the benefits of implementing hot desks, shared spaces, flexible spaces, or huddle areas to boost flexibility and collaboration have a centralized space.
19:37 Make sure that all the projects and tasks that your team is working on is under one roof, a centralized space where you can manage the workload will help prevent things from getting messy and mixed up.
19:48 This is also crucial. If you have team members that are located in different offices or who work remotely, a project management software platform or app will make it easier for your team to see all the relevant project data, determine which tasks are assigned to whom any updates on their progress and
20:06 how much work still needs to be done.
20:11 Set healthy boundaries. Although it's ideal to have a collaborative and harmonious work environment, it's still crucial to set healthy boundaries.
20:20 For instance, anyone in your team should be free to refuse talking about their personal lives. They shouldn't be pressured into joining late night activities with their colleagues.
20:29 If they believe that it will interfere with their productivity at work, teach your team the importance of respecting each other's limitations and boundaries at the same time, encourage them to communicate about their limits to the rest of the team.
20:43 Very clearly, if any boundaries are violated, let know that they are free to speak up and reinforce these limits in the moment, take breaks together.
20:57 According to research teams that take breaks together, demonstrate a higher level of productivity and getting together in an informal setting, encourages communication and bonding between the team.
21:09 Try to round up your team every week to grab a coffee together.
21:12 You can also buy some sweets for the morning huddle. Try having a walking team meeting. Nothing brings people closer and boosts their willingness to work together than stepping away from work to enjoy a good old break post company functions.
21:30 A great way to help your team bond is to host social events or company functions, no matter how big or small you want it to be.
21:37 This is a great way to boost morale and comradery among the members. Some examples are the following post, an award ceremony host a potluck where everyone can bring in their favorite dish by your team launch and dine in house.
21:51 Or you can check out a restaurant in the area, have some happy hour drinks after business hours to get to know each other better and improve team rapport, whole team building activities, formal team building activities have their benefits.
22:08 They ensure participation and promote team spirit, trust and support for each other.
22:14 Remember however that forcing people to participate in compulsory team building activities can be detrimental to teamwork. You want to avoid resentment from festering.
22:24 So don't impose these activities like a ruthless dictator instead encourage organic and informal team building activities. These are done in low pressure settings where your team can get to know each other better and form bonds that will extend to the office exercise together.
22:44 If you have gym facilities in the building, or if there's one located near the office, consider scheduling simple exercises and workouts, at least once a month with your team exercise, won't just improve your team's health.
22:56 It will also help boost their morale and team spirit arrange for yoga, stretching or light cardio sessions for the team.
23:03 Since these are easy and simple exercises that anyone can participate in star team traditions, traditions bring people together and instill a sense of solidarity and camaraderie.
23:18 If you want to encourage a unified culture in your team star traditions that everyone can understand or participate in some examples are the following, a running inside joke, incentives or celebrations for achievements and successes.
23:33 And you will retreats into tropical destinations, bringing snacks or homemade food on a specific day of the week.
23:43 Schedule an annual summit, consider holding an annual summit where everyone can have their say in improving company mission and goals.
23:51 This will also give everyone the chance to take a step back from the daily stress of work and participate in some fun activities with the rest of the team and annual summit will encourage teamwork and collaboration because it brings the entire organization together to remember what they are all working
24:08 for, hold sessions or workshops, where groups from different departments can get together to brainstorm on one topic, mediate disputes. You should have a process in place to immediately address and resolve issues that arise among team members.
24:27 When team members understand how they remedy their problems without any negative effects, they'll be more empowered to solve their issues productively and efficiently.
24:36 Keep in mind that when conflicts are not resolved quickly, they can damage internal relations, create divisions within the group and cause a breakdown of communication in time.
24:47 They'll slow work down and adversely affect the organization's overall output, prioritize diversity. Most employers, typically group employees with certain things in common, such as their background skills or personality.
25:03 Sometimes this can be unconscious, especially because some pairings just seem to make more sense. In most cases, homogeneous teams work because it is easier for them to get along and work with each other.
25:15 However, diverse groups often lead to a more productive collaboration. Diverse teams allow their members to think creatively and come up with solutions from different perspectives, promote diversity in your team and challenge yourself to mix up groupings with every new project or opportunity for collaboration
25:34 , challenge the status quo and get your employees out of their comfort zones.
25:41 Have an open door policy. One of the biggest problems that employees face is finding a way to communicate with their bosses and managers.
25:50 They may not feel comfortable with approaching the higher ups directly as a result. Their work may suffer and important points and ideas may never get brought up.
26:00 Open-door policies are meant to encourage your team members to offer suggestions and ideas or seek advice and counsel. When they're facing some roadblocks with their work, having an open door policy at your office creates an environment of mutual respect and trust where your team can feel comfortable
26:17 bringing their issues to your attention at any time.
26:23 Use collaboration tools, make sure that your team has the necessary resources to communicate with each other effectively and efficiently. Here are some examples of collaboration tools that facilitate a more efficient working environment, comfortable workspaces, which the team can use to discuss their
26:42 tasks or brainstorm. If the team needs to communicate with other departments in different locations, you should have remote working tools, such as video conferencing use an online collaboration and communication portal to get things organized and improve access to each other.
26:59 Use project management apps that automatically remind each team member about their tasks, deadlines, and priorities promote autonomy. You should empower your team to understand the project and organization goals and act autonomously to accomplish these goals, put the decision and control in their hands
27:21 . Instead of micromanaging them. Remember that micromanagement shows your lack of trust in their skills and cripples your team's ability to manage their own work.
27:31 Here are some great tips to help encourage your team to be more autonomous at work, ask for their input and act on their feedback.
27:39 Let the team set their deadlines and only check in. If you have a valid reason to be concerned, let them set their own schedule.
27:47 Especially with deliverables, ask for their ideas. When designing team and organizational processes offer them plenty of opportunities to step up more and develop new skills, encourage transparency, make sure that everyone can see what everyone else is doing.
28:06 It's more difficult for team members to lend a hand to their colleagues when they don't know what they're doing or which part they're having difficulties with transparency with work responsibilities, make it easier for any team member to help out when needed or collaborate for certain tasks, encourage
28:23 your team to part ways with personal spreadsheets or notepads for tracking their work. Instead, ask them to use a shared spreadsheet or task management tool where tasks are easily visible to everyone else.
28:35 This would also allow you to see what they're currently working on, how much of their time each task consumes their output and which tasks are pending.
28:47 Allow work, flexibility, teamwork thrives in a setting where every team member feels like they're trusted to do their work skillfully and effectively recent studies point out growing evidence that more employees prefer working outside of the traditional office hours.
29:03 Being able to work whenever it is most convenient improves work-life balance as well as their productivity, allowing your team to be more flexible with their working hours, demonstrates your trust in their capabilities.
29:15 Just make sure that you have a way to track the work they put in and a process to evaluate their performance.
29:22 If you're unsure, whether it is the right choice for the organization, consider testing it out for a month. We're giving your team members one day in the week when they could work remotely, don't rely on overtime.
29:37 Most of the time teams that don't know what everyone else is working on. We'll keep on working until everything in their task list for the day gets cleared out.
29:46 In many cases, this will lead to overtime. The problem with over-reliance on overtime is that it becomes everyone's go-to solution in any situation that goes slightly out of the norm.
29:58 Instead of depending too much on overtime, get a clearer picture of how each member is spending their time. This doesn't mean policing their time.
30:06 Rather it involves establishing how much work your team is doing, how much time each task takes and redistributing work when necessary plan together, teamwork begins when your team fully supports your vision and goals.
30:23 If the first time they hear about our plan is when they're getting a list of assignments from you. It's easy for them to have misgivings about what the end goal is really meant to accomplish, start sharing and collaborating.
30:35 From the moment you start planning, ask them to weigh in on your ideas and express any misgivings. They may have let them have their say about the projects they work on.
30:45 Instead of applying your decisions. Unilaterally, this simple step at the beginning of each year or quarter will help them be more excited about the upcoming work, hire together.
30:58 Consider making the onboarding process, a team responsibility. If you are planning to add someone new to the team, to help out with the workload, he listed your team's opinions and ideas before you make the final decision.
31:11 This is important. Not just because your team will feel that their opinions are valued and respected, but also because adding even just one new person can significantly impact the overall dynamics of your team.
31:23 It's beneficial to have your team have their say on who will be the best fit for them.
31:32 Constantly challenged the team and growth and development doesn't need to be restricted to the specific industry you are in. You can also challenge your team with problems that are not related to certain projects or tasks, but would improve their ability to work together and build better problem solving
31:48 skills. Some good examples are solving giant puzzles or murder mysteries. These small problems would require the team to communicate, collaborate, and have fun during the Workday.
32:00 It's a chance for them to experiment with various solutions and work together as a team track and measure. Remember that you can improve something that can't be measured.
32:12 Keep your eye on the metrics to ensure that your team is performing the way you want them to constantly check and assess any changes in sales, income, productivity, and even staff retention rates.
32:25 If you're seeing bad numbers, then maybe it's time to bring in some much needed improvements, use tactics that would help enhance communication and collaboration.
32:35 Otherwise, if the trend is mostly positive scale, your efforts, practice participative leadership, give everyone in the team a chance to lead.
32:49 This would give everyone the opportunity to actively contribute in being directly responsible for the team. Successful outcomes and projects. Here are some roles that you can give a member of your team every now and then leading meetings, listing down decisions and commitments and reminding those who
33:05 made them assigning tasks, holding other team members accountable, providing direction for the team, eliminate access. Employees can get bogged down by small repetitive tasks that take up a lot of their time.
33:23 These tasks can adversely impact teamwork, especially if they're only being done by one or a few members of the team, find ways to automate these tasks so that they can spend more time on bigger and more important tasks at the very least try to distribute tasks like these evenly so that it's not just
33:41 one member of your team taking care of all these tedious tasks, minimize the importance of rank.
33:49 Let each team member no matter their position or seniority in the team. Take part in the decision-making process. Doing this will make them feel integral to the team success and will do wonders for their morale.
34:02 Instead of focusing on rank and giving all the crucial responsibilities to those who have a higher rank or have been there longer take advantage of the entire group's talents.
34:11 Keep the balance of work equal and the distribution of roles dependent on each one's strengths and skills spot red flags watch out for red flags of poor or failing group dynamics.
34:27 If your team is unable to work together cohesively, it could prevent the organization from achieving its goals and individual employees from reaching their true potential.
34:37 Here are some of the top warning signs that there has been a breakdown in teamwork. Frequent unanimous decisions can be a sign of free riding bullying or group think, consider finding new ways for the team to discuss their ideas and opinions.
34:52 If you consistently get results that are different from what is expected or planned, it may show that people are having trouble communicating with each other or understanding what is required of them.
35:04 When people frequently blame each other for mistakes, it's a sign that they don't trust each other, cultivate trust by encouraging them to spend more time with other people outside of their usual crowd work.
35:16 Duplication shows that employees are unsure about what other members of the team are responsible for use more transparent project management or task assignment tools to prevent this and ensure that everyone knows what they should be working on over reliance on indirect communication can also be a problem
35:34 . Emails and texts are a convenient way to, but when you are in the same office, direct face-to-face communication is ideal.
35:46 And now it's discussion time. The most important part of this training whoever's the lead honcho in the group should designate a facilitator whose responsibility it is that each of the questions you see on your screen is covered.
35:58 And that everyone time permitting is able to have their say, make sure all contributions are valued. All suggestions considered and all opinions respected.