Tips & Tricks for effective team-work at your workplace !

1. Mission, focus & rules are all good things. Boring, but good.

Forming — Storming — Norming — Performing

While Bruce Tuckman’s group development model is your best friend in building a team that works cohesively, putting in a little extra effort never goes to waste.

A team with clearly defined mission, objective and ground-rules that they consciously establish should always be the first task on the list.

Forming — Storming — Norming — Performing

In the absence of ground rules, natural individual behaviour patterns take over impulsively and can become a cause of concern for the team.

As the team passes through each phase of group development, these ground rules help in identifying specific problems that may be hampering productivity.

2. Training

If Rocky Balboa needed it, you need it too!

To achieve success, each member of the team must know their own roles and responsibilities as well as that of other members.

Division of roles must be based on aptitude and skills.

It is possible that a particular member may have the aptitude but does not possess the skills needed for the task. That’s where training can help.

If Rocky Balboa needed it, you need it too!

Some companies prefer individual training for employees, while other prefer to train them in groups.

During group trainings, teams acquire the same information. They have each other to turn to in case of post-training queries.

This information sharing can also help them in understanding each other’s position within the team and build cohesiveness among the members.

3. Consensus is Golden

Few things are more irritating than having to sit through a poorly managed meeting.

When done right, they are one of the most effective ways to engage employees and manage teams.

One way to do that is to ensure that the team observes ground rules to analyse and resolve conflicts, and that the team constantly evaluates itself for improvement. Members should have a sense of belonging to the team.

Team members should have a habit of making decisions together with mutual consensus and should also support such decisions.

4. Build a culture of ‘Oneness’

A solo act cannot win against a team in a direct competition

Individual contributions lead the team towards a win. But to build a culture of oneness within the team where the individual and the team are an indistinct entity requires an organisational atmosphere where leaders lead by example at every front.

It requires the leaders to be more than just their titles and be seen as real people.

It happens when inspiration to excel comes from action, when they learn from observation, not just words.

A solo act cannot win against a team in a direct competition

When a culture like that is rooted deep within the teams, and the individuals can relate themselves with the team, teamwork will come naturally to every member.

Because of influx of queries about this point, we wrote a whole new post on this. Read it here>>>>>

5. Open Door Policy

It is vital for employees to know that they have an impartial and trustworthy grievance redressal system.

It is always good for the team when leaders ensure that their decisions are fair & offer an opportunity to everyone in the team.

An open door policy with upward feedback mechanism allows them to voice their concerns or constructive criticisms directly to the management.

Frequent and open communication can reduce concerns, allowing better focus on productivity.

6. Build a value system

Building a value system can either be an abstract task or a clear one, nothing in between.

An organisation must be honest with itself. It must understand and integrate its value system

Values are the glue that make everyone in the organisation stick together and work towards a common goal.

7. Technology + Human touch = A mixture that works.

Effective communication is the cornerstone of teamwork, and technology is the enabler for that.

Technology enables us to collaborate with colleagues in different parts of the world in real-time, reducing the time and expense incidental to teamwork.

Simplify your work-life from complicated stuff to mundane things through better design and smarter technology.

Btw, this point is central to our vision at Gridle.io : Simplify your work-life from complicated stuff to mundane things through better design and smarter technology.

8. Encourage taking risks!

Risk management and autonomy helps in building trust within a team and eases leadership.

The team must create and facilitate an environment where members are at ease with taking logical and appropriate risks

Discuss scenarios with them and the acceptable risks that they can take.

Make sure that they are not punished for failures on small risks that do not affect your business.

9. Rewards go a long way

Acknowledging teamwork and rewarding it becomes a motivating factor.

Include teamwork as an assessment parameter in the annual review and link rewards and appraisals with the employee’s contributions to the team.

Acknowledging teamwork and rewarding it becomes a motivating factor the rest of the employees to engage and participate voluntarily.

10. Monotonous meetings kill !

Try a Q&A in the meeting to overcome monotonicity

Engage the team in a meeting. It is one of the few times where you have the entire team’s attention and inputs to your disposal. Use them wisely.

Also, it can be good to laud and appreciate the good performers in an effort to bring oneness, give recognition for work done and to evoke the wish to get more done.

11. Get them a new Hobby at Work

Help your team members engage in their creative pursuits.

Besides letting the team grow as individuals, it also gets across the message that the organization is interested in them too.

Getting them a new hobby can make them engage in a friendly environment which can give rise to a healthy workspace.

Research shows that relaxation and a relaxed atmosphere at work are likely to increase the productivity and good-will at work.

“Coming together is a beginning; staying together is progress; working together is success.”

If you liked what we’ve written, there is a slightly higher chance you’ll also like what we’ve built! Check us out at :

Gridle.io