Helping Your Team to Work Together

Teams are one of the most fundamental building blocks of any organization. Teams are made up of different types of people with varying backgrounds. Depending on the nature of the business and the objectives of the team the members can be very diversified or narrow in backgrounds. All teams will have some conflict. Getting your team to work together is founded on a few principles of vision, respect, and decision-making process.

Vision: The shared goals and vision of the organization that allow people to work together.

Respect: The ability to work with other people in a mutually respectful way.

Decision-making Process: A method of understanding and making decisions that reduces conflict while allowing for adaptability.

Teams are formulated from different perspectives and personality and need some direction. Team leaders can off a vision and purpose for the team so that actions can be weighed as either moving toward those things or away from those things.

Likewise, teams are based on mutual respect. It is difficult to have a strong team if members are bickering, violating each other's boundaries, and self-seeking.

Finally, teams should have a formal mechanism for making decisions so that the loudest voice doesn't win. This mechanism can be a formal charter or it can be a dictatorship with the team lead making all final decisions.