At times when innovation happens at the speed of light, team collaboration is needed more than ever for an organization to thrive. Here are some key strategies for your people to feel and perform with a group mindset:
Know and Communicate Your “Why” Clearly
There’s nothing like a compelling cause to rally around the right people. Simon Sinek, in his popular TED talk, “Start with Why,” discussed extensively this phenomenon where brands with almost cult-like following always put forth a clear and riveting reason of why they do what they do. People who resonate with their “why” will support the cause passionately as if it’s their own personal mission. Want to have passionate people working with you to achieve big goals? Start with why and communicate it clearly.
Recognize Individual Strength
Get to know your key team players. In fact, set aside some time to allow them to know their strengths as well. You can have a roundtable meeting and take the Myers-Brigg test just so you get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’ll be time well spent, as leveraging individual strength rather than browbeating them into working around their weaknesses is more productive for your company and more fulfilling for your people. Additionally, this could open opportunities for individuals with different strengths to work together and build on each other’s ideas.
Create the Right Atmosphere in the Office
To foster a collaborative culture, your office must have the right atmosphere to make this possible. When checking out office spaces in West Palm Beach, the interior must be laid out in such a way where people can freely discuss projects and ideas. Lounges, wide hallways, and public spaces are perfect areas where ideas and opportunities for cooperation flow freely. Just be careful not to take this too far or you may end up doing this at the expense of privacy and productivity.
Encourage Your Staff to Speak Up
When you create an environment where people are free to question, offer insights, and come up with their own ideas without fear of being marginalized, this is a win-win for you and your team. This is the kind of environment where creativity and learning naturally thrive, which is good for your organization. At the same time, your people will also feel like they’re truly a valued part of the team and they’ll perform as such.
Provide Learning Opportunities
Constant learning is the driving force of innovation. This, coupled with the free flow of information in the workplace will have manifold benefits for your company. This is especially true if people within your organization can challenge and sharpen each other in the quest for new knowledge.
Appreciate and Reward Collaborative Behavior
Being the leader of your organization, what you say and do holds much weight. You can leverage this power to cultivate the right environment. Rewarding collaborative behavior, whether in the form of bonuses or words of affirmation, sends the right message to your team and such behavior will be repeated over and over until it becomes a habit.
Establishing a collaborative workplace culture helps you become more equipped to navigate through business challenges more easily. When people are part of a team and working toward a worthy goal that they feel passionately about, they’re more likely to shore up anything necessary to achieve success. In this instance, winning is almost a given.
