A collaborative, cohesive office makes for a more creative, involved, and happy team. Here are a few easy ways to foster that sense of creativity within your employees and ensure your office is working at full capacity:
Create a clear and compelling cause.
When team members have something they care about and believe, they will be more determined to help the company accomplish this goal at large. It gives them a reason to want to be involved and naturally creates a passion within them to do so. To collaborate effectively, this vision and mission must be clear to all team members. Along with that, make sure there are methods along the way to measure your progress and ensure you are moving along the right path. Transparency and honesty if these goals are not being reached will garner more respect than trying to cover them up.
Define roles and responsibilities.
Each team member needs to know his or her position and the duties that come with that position. Each member plays an important role, and to accomplish their goal, they must come together and tie these tasks together. As such, this goal turns an individual achievement into a bonded group exercise that raises morale and camaraderie.
Use team strengths.
Everyone is good at something! Find out what these strengths are and utilize them. This way, each person is completing a task that they can and will do well, boosting morale, and also informs other teams who an excellent resource is if they have a question about a particular topic.
Practice inclusivity and communication.
Include teammates when making decisions, because it shows you value their input and the work they are doing. It encourages open lines of communication which the team can only benefit from. Having a short team meeting once a week will keep everyone aware of their teammate’s goals rather than two members completing the same task without realizing it. This also extends to encouraging team members to spend time together regularly, both at work and outside, to develop more personal relationships.
Be accountable.
This one is relatively self-explanatory but extremely important. Keeping your word by doing what you say you are going to do creates a stable relationship and shows that you are a team player and value your co-workers’ time. No one wants a co-worker who barely shows up to meetings and doesn’t complete their assignments – it makes you look lazy and like you don’t care about your work or the team’s work. Being accountable contributes to your team’s success. Don’t be the one to let them down.