Your team is struggling to collaborate effectively. How can you help them work together more productively?

It's not uncommon for both new and experienced teams to struggle with articulating their vision or purpose, leading to varying interpretations of roles and priorities. This ambiguity often stems from a lack of clear communication from senior leadership or the team's manager. Good leaders start by ensuring their teams understand the vision of the company and the team's mission that aligns with it. Once this is clear, team members can begin to align on the projects and priorities that best support the company goals. If the company's vision is unclear, that's the place to start.

Improving collaboration within a team is crucial for productivity and achieving common goals. Here are several strategies you can employ to help your team work together more effectively: -Establish Clear Goals and Objectives. -Encourage Open Communication. -Clarify Roles and Responsibilities. -Build Trust and Respect among each other. -Establish Processes and frame work for related to task assignment, review mechanism to avoid duplication of works. -Encourage Collaboration Tools though digitalization. -Facilitate Team-Building Activities. -Resolve Conflicts Constructively. -Lead by Example.

One thing I’ve learnt through my experience is “importance of empowerment to come along with accountability”. Team members should be empowered and given space to perform their defined role as per expectation under the coaching of their leader. Accountability without empowerment will not improve the collaborative environment of a team.

In my experience I find sitting down as a group and calling out the elephant in the room and asking them how to improve communication among everyone. Open communication without fear! Show the possible result and what it means to each of them individually and as a group. Examples of past and examples of future. Team effort to correct the issues. Young groups need more and more how’s where older just need to know what needs to be corrected.

Communication must exist, it is important to follow the rules. Active listening, active expression of opinion within the topic. Discussion is the medicine for good communication. Thank you very much.

In any organisation or work environment there has to be channels of communication, this brings in culture of the organisation and each employee has to feel free to communicate with supervisors or even management of the organisation. There has to be free path for grievance hearing and resolutions . More the open work culture and environment in workplace, results into better work environment and also Happy brand ambassadors get created in the journey. A proper handhold is equally important for the new joiners to get them into the culture of the organisation and effectively communicate.

I think we need to define the structure of culture charter in the organisation I.e. what is our company way of communicating, communication must be aligned with the Vision & Mission statement of the company. For example- the communication must be Responsive than Resistant! The performance feedback system or communication must be very proactive!!

Something that I took with me from my experience at Wilson Learning years ago was our account review meetings. The entire Account Managment team would present their best opportunities to the team and with Senior Leadership in the room and everyone was able to provide their insights and share opinions on what they thought might help. A similar process was used to diagnose losses. What we experienced was a 30% increase in winning new business. I have taken that process and lesson with me everywhere I have gone. The power of multiple hammers working on the same nail couldn't be ignored and everyone bought in the process as their respective wins increased. The want for sales people to win more often, was stronger than rank on the leader board.

Boost team collaboration by setting clear communication norms. Decide on chat frequency, platforms, and tone. Respect these norms to enhance productivity and teamwork.

More than any thing effective communication will make the team to share the knowledge, experience, reach goals, define about the individual responsibility will lead them to collaborate effectively and success. Thank you - CK

Over the years I have seen and understood that creating shared vision for a team always has its own benefits. It helps in the following ways 1. Helps the team to look together in one direction rather than looking at each other 2. Larger Team goals take priority over individual or departmental goals 3. The shared vision becomes a guiding principle for the team to navigate through small challenges which come in the path 4. Accomplishment of the shared team vision can create great camaraderie in the team resulting in to high motivation and team morale. 5. A shared vision also helps to build a culture of operational excellence within the team because everyone is then solution oriented rather than being issue oriented.

Through a Team's life cycle (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning), the journey despite its challenges is such a delight when Purpose driven. Defining the Vision, Goals and milestones in essence structures the conversations about roles, responsibilities, accountabilities. As pointed out by the "Chosen One" (please let's not delve into the debate, focus mate), as Leaders, we "Coach Teams not Individuals", as each person has a part to play towards the achieving our collective dreams. Lets always remember why we are here individually/collectively. Are you playing your part and is there something else you could do?

When everyone understands and aligns with the objective, collaboration becomes more efficient, as each member knows how their individual contributions fit into the larger picture. This fosters cohesion, communication, and teamwork, driving the team towards success. Bottom line,A shared goal and vision are essential for effective team collaboration because they provide a unified purpose and direction for all team members.

Understand your team make up and the people in the various roles including what drives them to succeed and what specifically is acting as a barrier to being a collaborative team member. Shared vision, values and goals are super important however we are also all different humans and if we learn to tailor our approach towards this we get best from each person to make the strongest team. Sometimes it may be as simple as a miscommunication or one person is not feeling included and is resisting. Being defensive is often a contributor to lower levels of collaboration and when we embrace short comings together the magic happens!

A leader is someone who was once a team player, leading a team requires the talent of driving the team towards the same goal in complete synchronisation and harmony. While trying to lead and provide guidance, a leader's role is to spot the defects in his team's personalities and do his best to positively use them to the benefit of the team and work.

Foster an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing insights, successes, and failures. Regular knowledge-sharing sessions can spark innovation and collective growth.

Though members of a team come from different culture and backgrounds fostering collaboration is one of the most important aspects for being a high performing team. Few things that has helped me personally to drive a collaborative environment includes: 1. Aligning all with shared goals and vision 2. Build a culture of trust and mutual respect 3.Keeping things simple and being solution centric. 4. Informal meetings (Offsite travels and dinners)

Quando temos uma equipe que tem conhecimento e habilidades distintas e particulares, o senso de compartilhamento se torna uma ferramenta poderosa para o desenvolvimento de cada colaborador. Uma vez implementada essa prática, teremos trocas muito importantes para a criação de uma equipe de alta performance. Uma equipe heterogênea leva vantagem no mercado e traz para a companhia resultados além do esperado.

This action though ideal is used a bit less frequently. I believe that corporate culture of capability competitiveness is actually the biggest hurdle for this critical initiative. It needs to be promoted across organisations as well as functions.

Yo en algún momento viví un tema de esta índole, y lo que realicé y me funcionó fue: 1. Tener un espacio de apertura donde podamos limar asperezas, si hay temas muy puntuales y profundos, hacerlo solo entre las partes involucradas. 2. Definir las responsabilidades y cruzar el out de una tarea con el in de la siguiente. 3. Comprometer al equipo en comunicarse de forma más permanente y disponer espacio para ello. (que no solo sean temas de trabajo). 4. Evaluar avances una vez a la semana e identificar cuellos de botella para ajustar. 5. Si se sigue presentando el problema de comunicación, buscar cambiar de áreas a las personas implicadas para evaluarlo en un nuevo entorno. En todo caso, esto es de iterar y agregar más pasos sobre la marcha.

Trust is a feeling which can’t be built by one for another. It needs to be built through genuine care and concern of each other among the team members. Only when it is felt through consistent experiences of your own, you would trust someone. Trust, one of the most important elements of a high performing team, needs time and effort of everyone to be built. And it starts from the leader!

In line with building trust and accountability, embodying transparency, honesty, and respect is crucial. Empowering your team to make decisions and take ownership mirrors Sun Tzu's wisdom in 'The Art of War': an army with consistent rewards and punishments is unbeatable. This principle applies to team management by ensuring fairness and clarity in recognizing achievements and addressing challenges. Tools like project management software and practices such as peer reviews or retrospectives support this by facilitating clear communication and accountability. By ensuring everyone feels valued and supported, you reinforce a foundation of trust, making your team resilient and cohesive.

Build a culture of trust where team members feel confident relying on one another. Encourage accountability by recognizing individual contributions and addressing any issues transparently.

Building trust and accountability within your team can make a big difference in how effectively everyone collaborates. Start by clearly defining roles and encourage open, honest conversations where everyone can share ideas and concerns freely. Regular, constructive feedback helps people grow and stay on track. As a leader, showing you're reliable and willing to admit mistakes sets a strong example. Utilizing modern collaboration tools can help keep everyone aligned. By fostering an environment where everyone feels responsible and valued, teamwork and productivity are likely to soar.

- Lembrar que um dia tivemos que aprender a fazer algo e erramos durante algumas realizações até alcançar um patamar de excelência e referência deve nos motivar a delegar tarefas e entender que até algo ser bem feito leva tempo e acompanhando junto com instruções e orientações. Para desenvolver a confiança e responsabilidade dentro da equipe é necessário delegar tarefas e delegar tarefas novas, mesmo que isso envolva acompanhar e orientar durante as etapas de realização de uma tarefa, cada colaborador sente que é importante quando algo novo é colocado sob sua responsabilidade.

Bring diversity and equity to everything you do from recruiting and hiring to outreach and implementation. Make it overt. Make it a part of the very culture in which you operate. This will have a direct and positive improvement in communication. When employees feel they are valued for their unique skills and abilities and also respected for who they are they naturally open up. It's a matter of feeling like work is a safe place.

While building a diverse team is an important first-step, it is not sufficient to unlock the true value. Teams need to go beyond tolerating diversity to celebrating it in all forms. For me, celebrating diversity means encouraging and emphasizing the sharing of perspectives, experiences, and ideas that diverge from the norm or what has come before. One tip for celebrating diversity in this sense is to specifically solicit counter-arguments to the prevailing opinion in meetings. Another tip is to poll members of the team (formally or informally) at critical junctures in an equal way so that the loudest voice is not over-represented.

Diversidade e inclusão são pautas de empresas importantes no mercado e são importantes para a sociedade como um todo. Garantir esse direito trás mais assertividade para o mercado e o varejo tem muita oportunidade de inclusão.

Diversity in the workplace is a meaningful tool because it brings about the approval and inclusion of employees of all backgrounds. It opens doors for everyone to feel included and heard because inclusion acknowledges the individual strengths of each employee and the ideas they bring. Valuing the differences of others is what can bring everyone together because the feeling of being different, that your ideas matter, having a voice, and celebrating your own identity with others as they celebrate theirs is, in my opinion, what most people are searching for in almost anything that they do in and out of the workplace.

A leader must be able to know also the strengths and capabilities of every individual prior to assigning roles and tasks and be able to leverage on it.

I have found JPS ( Joint Planning Session) popularised by Prof Ram Charan the most effective tool for collaboration in teams with superior outcomes. It is the most practical tool too wherein either the operational goal or strategic goal is divided into key activities with scale for outcome measured between 0-10. The key person for each goal is identified and the outcome is reviewed in the team at intervals ( as per governance) and the score on the scale is presented. This far it is similar to any other review. The defining component in JPS is the team leverage wherein the person responsible for a goal can seek specific help and identify the person/s from whom the help is sought and the timeline for it. It is the best team work at play.

Find out who is best on what and delegate task accordingly so that everyone feel special and important and get opportunities to contribute. 2nd, increase team engagement activity.

Create an environment where some learning and bonding can occur. It can be as simple as having coffee or lunch together, to a proper team bonding exercise. This, will help the team learn a bit more about each other and overcome barriers to communication

Team culture is important in establishing norms for any group of employees. The way to establish a team culture is to create norms for behavior and expectations for all the members. Once the team has agreed on the core values, this will establish how they operate, interact and execute with each other. Everyone is aware of the expectations for the group. It’s a good idea to visit core values often and solicit feedback and ideas in order to continue to build up on the culture. When communication breaks down, it’s a good idea to bring the team together, diagnose what challenges are present, and then create a plan and solutions to address any gaps in communication. Without core values and expectations, all you have is a group of individuals.

In my experience every team I have lead that has effectively collaborated and delivered an outcome that either met or exceeded expectations was a team whose relationships between themselves was only as good as what I modeled with each of my team members. You want them to trust, then model trust. You want them to be transparent the model transparency. Hold yourself accountable and they will learn to do the same. Model transparency and they will do the same. Be a leader who cares for your team and they will perform.