Golden Rule 1: Find things people can easily agree as the key focus

This is particularly important when in a large organisation where it can be all too easy to get narrowly focused on the activities of your department without considering the overall purpose of the organisation.  For example, professional accountancy firms exist to serve clients, schools to educate and hospitals to deliver healthcare.  People, no matter what their functional bias can generally get behind and support the overall purpose.

Golden Rule 2: Recognise good team working

It is all too easy to attribute team successes to a leader or particular individuals but in truth most of the results will have been achieved by people working together and bringing their own unique contribution to the challenge.  Make a point of recognising good team working, especially cross functional team working.

Golden Rule 3: Get people understanding each other better

We all tend to look at things through a particular lens which is usually influenced by things like our experiences, training or even professional discipline.  Encourage people to avoid stereotyping and help them to better understand the different ways different people look at the same problem or challenge.

Golden Rule 4: Focus on contribution from all

The fact that people look at things differently is not a drawback but a distinct benefit of team working.  Get people listening more to others contributions so that the best solutions can be arrived at from the range of possibilities.

Golden Rule 5: Don’t expect it to happen overnight

Teams take time to come together, gel, bed down and deliver results.  Don’t expect improving team working to be like a light switch where the time from flicking the switch to having more light is almost immediate.  View it more as a longer term project where small steps are made that eventually lead to big results.

Bottom Line – For just about any organisation, team working is important to success.  So what do you need to start doing to get teams working effectively?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps teams in large organisations to deliver better results.  For more information click here