How to Build a Teamwork Culture

[Fahmi Hasan]

Fostering teamwork is creating a work culture that values collaboration. In a teamwork environment, people understand and believe that thinking, planning, decisions, and actions are better when done cooperatively. People recognize, and even assimilate, the belief that "none of us is as good as all of us." (High Five)

It's hard to find workplaces that exemplify teamwork. In America, our institutions such as schools, our family structures, and our pastimes emphasize winning, being the best, and coming out on top.

Workers are rarely raised in environments that emphasize true teamwork and collaboration.
Organizations are working on valuing diverse people, ideas, backgrounds, and experiences. We have miles to go before valuing teams and teamwork is the norm. But, teamwork is becoming more frequently found with the entry of millennial employees into the workforce.

Create a Culture of Teamwork
To make teamwork happen, these powerful actions must occur.
•   Executive leaders communicate the clear expectation that teamwork and collaboration are expected. No one completely owns a work area or process all by himself. People who own work processes and positions are open and receptive to ideas and input from others on the team.
•   Executives model teamwork in their interaction with each other and the rest of the organization. They maintain teamwork even when things are going wrong and the temptation is to slip back into former team unfriendly behavior.
•   The organization members talk about and identify the value of a teamwork culture. If values are formally written and shared, teamwork is one of the key five or six values.
•   Teamwork is rewarded and recognized. The lone ranger, even if she is an excellent producer, is valued less than the person who achieves results with others in teamwork. Compensation, bonuses, and rewards depend on collaborative practices as much as individual contribution and achievement.
•   Important stories and folklore that people discuss within the company emphasize teamwork. (Remember the year the capsule team reduced the scrap by 20 percent? Remember when the sales team nailed the biggest sale in company history in only one meeting?) People who do well and are promoted within the company are team players.
•   The performance management system places emphasis and value on teamwork. Often 360-degree feedback is integrated within the system.

Tips for Team Building
Do you immediately picture your group off at a resort playing games or hanging from ropes when you think of team building?

Traditionally, many organizations approached team building this way. Then, they wondered why that wonderful sense of teamwork, experienced at the retreat or seminar, failed to impact long-term beliefs and actions back at work.
I'm not averse to retreats, planning sessions, seminars and team building activities—in fact, I lead them—but they have to be part of a larger teamwork effort. You will not build teamwork by retreating as a group for a couple of days each year. Think of team building as something you do every single day.
•   Form teams to solve real work issues and to improve real work processes. Provide training in systematic methods so the team expends its energy on the project, not on figuring out how to work together as a team to approach it.
•   Hold department meetings to review projects and progress, to obtain broad input, and to coordinate shared work processes. If team members are not getting along, examine the work processes they mutually own. The problem is not usually the personalities of the team members. It's the fact that the team members often haven't agreed on how they will deliver a product or a service or the steps required to get something done.
•   Build fun shared occasions into the organization's agenda. Hold potluck lunches; take the team to a sporting event. Sponsor dinners at a local restaurant. Go hiking or to an amusement park. Hold a monthly company meeting. Sponsor sports teams and encourage cheering team fans.
•   Use ice breakers and teamwork exercises at meetings. I worked with an organization that held a weekly staff meeting. Participants took turns bringing a fun ice breaker to the meeting. These activities were limited to ten minutes, but they helped participants laugh together and get to know each other—a small investment in a big-time sense of team.
•   Celebrate team successes publicly. Buy everyone the same t-shirt or hat. Put team member names in a drawing for company merchandise and gift certificates. You are limited in teamwork only by your imagination.

Take care of the hard issues above and do the types of teamwork activities listed here. You'll be amazed at the progress you will make in creating a teamwork culture, a culture that enables individuals to contribute more than they ever thought possible—together.

By: Susan M. Heathfield
Updated December 21, 2016
Source: https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-build-a-teamwork-culture-1918509

[Monirul Islam]

7 ways to create a culture of teamwork in the workplace

Here are 7 ways to enable teamwork in the workplace. Brainstorming is not one of them.

Divide up the work.
Teamwork does not mean everyone does everything together. It requires getting organized and breaking each project down into its component parts. Then sorting out who will do what, according to their expertise, interest, and availability. A good project manager will help with this, but if not just head to the whiteboard as a group.

Ask for help.
Getting work done requires time to focus on your own task, and the option to draw on others when you need it. That's teamwork. So when you need inspiration, expertise or support, ask for it.

Work out loud.
So your team is organized and you're heads-down on your own task. Time to start working out loud. That's critical for your team to stay connected as the project proceeds. Find quick ways to let those around you know what you've discovered, what mini-milestones you just passed, or what problem you're struggling with. Overcome poor internal communications with a regular 'standup' meeting where everyone provides a quick informal update of where they are at can be a game changer here.

Share a prototype.
When you ask teammates for input in an open-ended way, don't expect much. People are busy in the workplace and don't know where to start. Instead share a draft or sketch — a prototype or outline of where you are headed. Don't polish this; your colleagues will be much more comfortable building on, and suggesting alternatives to, things they know you're not overly invested in. That's collaborative teamwork at its best.

Build in a review process.
Review meetings can make a huge difference. They do two things — they bring a particular plan or design or report into clear focus, and they provide an 'open season' when it becomes polite to critique the team's work. Encourage people to take a 'devil's advocate' role and question things from all angles. Doing this at the concept stage will bring the team into detailed alignment and often catch requirements that would otherwise get missed.

Rally to a common goal.
If you want to be a team, you need to share a common goal. What is the grand goal you're striving for? How does achieving the next milestone contribute to that? Where does each teammate's contribution fit in? Knowing your work matters takes teamwork to the next level.

Celebrate together.
Appreciate the work of your teammates. Take time to say 'thanks' for small, specific contributions to the team effort. And when you do achieve a milestone towards your goal, take time to celebrate together.

Source: https://blog.jostle.me/blog/creating-a-culture-of-teamwork-in-the-workplace/