12 Easy Ways to Improve Workplace Teamwork

By: Damon Leiataua

Being part of a great team at work is a great feeling. You know that feeling? When your team is ‘in the zone’? It’s a sweet set of emotions – excited, challenged, safe, successful. You’re excited to get out of bed in the morning and energized throughout the day. For me – My team at Albertsons was an extension of me. So, the better the team was – the better the overall work was essentially driving the overall result of what was being worked on.

If you know that feeling, hold onto it.

The fact of the matter is a lot of workforces suffer from poor communication, lack of trust, and low engagement—all of which can create a compromised work environment and erode the chances of success in the workplace. I have had my share of this at Albertsons. Quick and rapid changes of the guard creates communication gaps if managers are not on top of what is happening.

But people still want teamwork. And 3 out of 4 employers consider teamwork very important. It can just be a bit tricky sometimes. On one hand, they don’t want to be working in silos, but if teamwork isn’t happening naturally, most people are stumped by the challenge of generate it.

If nurturing a healthy team culture is important to your workplace, here are 12 teamwork “conditions” to consider:

1. The role of leaders

It starts at the top. If you don’t already have good teamwork at the grassroots level, then it’s time for the leadership team to, well, lead. By example. They’re the ones that the rest of your company looks to for guidance, so they should be establishing teamwork as the norm. Their behavior will trickle down through the company to leaders at each level of the company, then to all members of the teams. Eventually the whole organization will come to accept and expect this mode of working.

“It is really amazing how much an organization sucks up the behaviors of the leader,” said Nick Tolley CEO of Harris + Hoole, when speaking about the culture and values within his company.

“I didn’t quite appreciate this until I started my own business in 2015. You can very easily see this when you are having a bit of an issue and you are a little bit downbeat. It is infectious. Very, very infectious.”

2. Communicate, every day, every way

Good communication is at the heart of great teamwork. Great teams communicate well and often, their members are happy to share ideas, brainstorm together, ask for feedback, and be challenged for growth.

This doesn’t mean team members always agree, but they’re able to communicate through their differences to settle on a solution and continue moving forwards as a team.

So, how to enable good communication?

• Be clear: Set the tone for communication among the team. When is it acceptable to close your office door? Is it okay to contact someone after hours? How often should the whole team get together? This outline will help to keep everyone on the same page and communication flowing.
• Listen: Communication is as much about listening as it is about speaking. Make sure you’re listening to fellow team members and considering their thoughts before offering your own solutions and input.
• Method: There are so many ways to reach each other in the modern age. Try to use the most suitable tool to communicate for your specific needs, whether that’s email, a chat tool, phone call, or face to face.
• Touch base: Encourage informal meetings, information sharing, and huddles between team members. People shouldn’t have to wait for a weekly catch-up meeting to get together. Collaborative team members are comfortable communicating as and when they need to. At Albertsons, we had huddles all the time to create and cultivate a positive environment
• Collaboration tools: These enable workers to connect across the world, or across the office, in a group or one-to-one conversation. They also make progress on group projects at the times that are best served by utilizing the best tools.

3. Exercise together

I’m not talking about aerobics here – don’t make your team complete a set of jumping jacks at your next meeting. I’m referring to team building exercises. These don’t have to be groan-inducing company retreats, they can be short and sweet tasks that take less than 10 minutes (and it may even be better that way). I have been a part of many group exercises and the shorter quiz activities were effective for me and the group.

Before deciding on a team building exercise, it’s important to assess what specific challenges your team is facing. For example, does your team need to become more familiar with each other, or do they need to recover from a conflict? You may pick different exercises for each of these situations.  

The frequency of your team building exercises should also be considered. Team building exercises are like physical exercise – if you do it often, the benefits are more long-lasting. You can’t summit Everest if you train twice a year. Teamwork is similar. If you want to achieve your teamwork goals, find a way to work the exercises into your weekly/monthly contact with your team.

4. Establish team rules

“Rules?” I hear you thinking, “that doesn’t sound fun at all.” Think again. Rules don’t have to be a dampener, but they do have to exist to keep everyone aligned.

Rules are everywhere – on the sports field, in daily interactions – and they exist to keep everyone safe and on the same page. How can we move forward together if we don’t know where we stand? Rules will safeguard the success and productivity of a team.

Establishing rules early is best but be willing to consider changing them if they’re hindering rather than helping the team. You can write them down or just chat about them openly. Either way, you should be clear on why they exist and ask for contributions/feedback from everyone. 

Some examples:

• When we meet, we’re all present (no cell phones or laptops).
• We’ll be open about our frustrations.
• We listen with intent, rather than waiting for our turn to talk.

5. Clarify purpose

If a team doesn’t understand the purpose of their work, their attention and enthusiasm can dwindle. Be clear about why you’re doing what you’re doing – it’s the key to motivation.

So, find the “why” – the purpose – for your current project or final goal, and why you’re taking each of the steps that lead you there. Not only will this keep everyone motivated and aligned, it’s a great way to review your process and ensure you’re taking the best steps to get to where you need to be.

6. Recognize and reward

Recognized employees are satisfied employees, according to this recent survey. And satisfied employees do better at work. If you want a happier, stronger team, recognition is key – and this doesn’t refer to a monetary reward. For me, my recent manager was really engaged with recognizing and rewarding. I believe part of my success was due to his ability to recognize and reward.

Here are some of the ways employees want to be recognized and rewarded:

• Company or team-wide emails recognizing individuals/teams
• In-person recognition and thanks
• Promotions
• Bonuses

7. Office space

How constructive is your workspace for the growth of teamwork? Research from Herman Miller shows that the physical workspace needs to evolve to support collaboration.

“Project rooms that teams can use for months, conference rooms equipped with the latest remote conferencing tools, and areas of benching, where people can do heads-down work but also easily confer with each other support the various needs people have when collaborating.”

The needs of your teams should be reflected in your workspace. Look around your office and consider what could be done to encourage impromptu huddles for productive conversation, accessibility to knowledge experts, and semi-permanent spaces for group projects.

8. Take a break

Team building doesn’t have to happen while you’re actively working. In fact, it’s proven that taking breaks together can result in a higher level of productivity and help reevaluate goals as needed.

One week, you could round up the team and grab a coffee together, or pick up some sweet treats for your team on the way to work and gather for a morning chat. Getting together in a less formal setting will encourage better communication, sharing, and bonding between team members. At Albertsons, we used to take a ‘walking break’ by taking a lap or two around the office. Sunlight seemed to always change my frame of mind as well.

9. Focus on strengths

Focusing on the weaknesses of your team members can seriously affect engagement and consequently lower the team’s productivity. According to Gallup research, employees who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs.

Everyone is different – we have different strengths, passions, and weaknesses. One of the cornerstones of a good team leader is focusing on individuals’ strengths and bringing together a team of people that has a combined skillset to get the job done. If everyone contributes by bringing a strong skill to the team, their weaknesses should not be dwelt on.  

10. Show gratitude

How much gratitude do you show?

It’s quite surprising then, to discover that people actually want to be thanked. Many people would feel better about themselves if their boss were more grateful and would work harder. Gratitude is proven to lead to an increased sense of self-worth and trust within the workplace. Our Division President always referred to gratitude during specific conversations including our monthly office meeting.

So, next steps? Start saying those magical words! Be thankful for the big and the small things that your colleagues bring to the table each day. (Don’t go overboard though. It’s important that your thanks are genuine and timely. Think quality, not quantity.)

11. Accept differences

The difference is all in your approach.

Problems arise when differences of opinion aren’t dealt with correctly – when people feel unheard, bullied, or disregarded. If you want to keep your team together (and stay sane) consider a few of these handy tips.

• Remember the importance of balance
• Embrace disagreements
• Appreciate the differences

12. Celebrate

Right on! You’ve reached a major milestone/final deadline/end of the week; it’s time to celebrate! Celebrating your success as a team will bring people closer together, encourage conversation, and boost happiness. 

Like recognition and gratitude, celebrations don’t have to be big, but they should be frequent. By doing this, you’re weaving them into your team’s culture and the benefits will become lasting and more impactful. You’re also reminding people that your goals are achievable and worth striving for, which will keep motivation high.

Here are some ideas:

• Have a casual Friday meeting: Chat about the small successes of the week. Use a post it board to capture the success and get everyone involved.
• Have a small token mascot: A magic eight ball, a racers ‘themed’ helmet – that gets passed to the team member who was most successful or helpful in the past month. Have every team member contribute to this decision through an anonymous vote. At Safeway, the department Regional Director with the best sales ID (for the week) would get the ‘Monster’ themed racing helmet to celebrate a MONSTER SALES WEEK!

So, there you have it – 12 ways to improve teamwork in your organization. Try applying a few of these ‘conditions’ in your organization, find out which ones serve you best, and reap the benefits of stronger teamwork!