Teamwork Makes Teams Work
I watch far too much football. Having missed the beautiful game for so long earlier in 2020 now I don’t seem willing to pass up any opportunities. Every match I watch very quickly gets me thinking about teamwork.
Effective teamwork defines the success or failure of an organisation. How an organisation thrives (or not) depends hugely on how well people work together.
As a Red Devil I'm frustrated by the current (surely temporary and ephemeral) dominance of teams like Liverpool and Manchester City. At the same time I can't help but be impressed by them.
Those two clubs in particular seem to have all the many different elements of their teams working so perfectly together.
In both these clubs there are many different pieces of the jigsaw that have been identified, assembled and enhanced. Each individual player bringing their own unique and very different characteristics to the team. Together their teamwork makes the team work.
"A tomato should always remember that a salad is much more than the sum of its parts." - I can't remember who said this but it's a great quote.
All Together Now
I'll be writing more about successful teamwork in future posts but I wanted to throw some ideas out there to get you thinking. So here are my top ten tips for tip top teamwork.
They're in no particular order although I do think some of these are more important than others. Whether they're important or not to you depends on which you're already doing or how much impact it will have in your area of work. A tip that would have no influence on anyone in your team might be a real game changer for you. And vice versa.
Ten Top Teamwork Tips
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Appreciate the differences. This can be hard but recognise that the people who annoy you might be great at doing the things that you don't want to do. They might be good detail people, or good at asking for resources or getting things started.
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Help those quiet people by asking them questions. Ask them for their views. By encouraging them to participate you might find that they're really deep thinkers and have great ideas but are just a bit shy.
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Tip 2 links directly to being a great listener. When you ask people about themselves make sure you really listen to what they say. Don't talk about yourself at all, unless they ask you. Then offer just enough and move the focus back to them.
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Trust people. Trust them more than you feel comfortable with and give them the initial benefit of the doubt if they get things a bit wrong. Teamwork is about believing in each other.
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Eat with members of the team more than you might normally do. It's so easy to tuck yourself away and get on with important work during lunch but there are important moments of bonding that occur over food. Even if it's just a sandwich and a bag of hoola hoops!
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Scrutinise. Make sure there's someone in the team who explicitly looks for problems. Not just to complain about things, but who is there to scrutinise and identify faults. It's good if you know who it is and that it's their role to do this.
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Open up. Reveal a bit more about yourself than you normally would. This is a slow burner. As you open up others will open up to you in return and you'll get new information. Opening up develops trust, loyalty, understanding and empathy - all vital aspects for successful teamwork.
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Be brave. Ask for feedback. Ensure you don't take it too personally but really take it on board and address what you hear.
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Following on from idea 8 is to take the opportunity to consider your weaknesses. Oh, sorry, I mean areas for development. If you've identified a weakness make sure that if you can't improve enough in this area that you've got someone in the team to balance things out.
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Try new roles. I don't mean job title, just how you go about things - your stylistic role. You'll know whether you're always the critic, the organizer, the cheerleader, the carer etc. Whatever it is you normally do, try to mix it up a bit. Deliberately use your second or third preferred team role rather than always your top one.
So these are my top ten tips for teams. I hope there's at least one new idea in there that will help you to develop and improve your team.
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