Unless you’re a complete lone-wolf by choice, chances are that your job requires teamwork and cooperation at one point or another, and you had to learn to navigate among the various activities, requests and dependencies. Humans have discovered early in their history that giving their work a structure and making sure that all parts of the chain are functional leads to considerably better results. Be it hunting a mammoth, building a bridge or programming an app.
There are several ways to ensure effective, smooth and fruitful teamwork. Let’s have a look at the most important ones below, and help you direct your teamwork towards happiness and efficiency!
Communication
Communication is key in any kind of relationship, business included. Formulating clearly and spreading information evenly ensures that everyone always knows what the status of their project is, who is having difficulties and who is free to lend a hand. Always communicate with your team, even if the topic is not a pleasant one. It’s better to open the can of worms early on rather than let it explode all over the place later. Trust me, just imagine the mess!
Empathy
It’s not just about your team. When it comes to teamwork, it happens on a team, office, company but also customer and business partner level. All these people have their own goals, motivations and workflows. Being able to feel and connect with others is not an easy task, nor an automatic one. The gift of empathy is not universal, so if it doesn’t come naturally to you, you can at least make an active effort to open your mind and take into account the circumstances of others, even if you don’t understand them. This will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of each team member, project or blocker.
Accountability
On the other hand, taking ownership of success is an easy task. However, when it comes to issues, mistakes, failures and roadblocks, it’s a different story. But let me tell you this — a company where everyone owns up to all aspects of their responsibilities and is clear and open about them is a company that just works (see “Communication”). Grow a culture of openness and accountability for your projects and workflows and see your projects (and people!) thrive.
Inclusion
Baby won’t sit in the corner. And by baby, I mean anyone who’s got something to say to the project. There are stakeholders and integral decision-makers at play who should all be informed and have a space for expressing their opinions. I know, it can get messy and the opinions can sometimes go way overboard. However, making sure that everyone’s got a say within a project means making sure that everyone feels heard and included, which generally improves the way people feel about their job. And that really goes a long way.
Organization
The “creative mess” is a concept that might actually work in some areas. However, we’re talking about teamwork, and in order to be efficient and clear, good organization is vital. Everything needs to be in place so that you can pick up where you left off, your colleagues and partners know when and what to do and what to expect in the various project phases. There are many ways to keep your workflow organized: you can use a whiteboard, post-its, docs, calendars, time trackers, testing and task managers… But that won’t really make it easier, will it?
If you don’t want to get lost in the noise, there’s an all-embracing solution for you: juno.one. It offers you a complex, integrated and highly flexible project management toolbox that keeps your teamwork structured, clear and organized, therefore more efficient.
Juno.one is an intuitive tool powered by AI and smart filtering, that is applicable to various company sizes and industries (IT, sales, marketing, software development, construction, arts and more). It offers powerful modules such as Issue Management, Timesheet, Service Desk, Monitoring etc.
Visit our website to learn more about juno.one and try it out for free.
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