In today’s fast paced work environment, many employees find themselves working in a variety of teams to complete different projects that could be occurring at the same time. No company has a perfect work environment, and that’s okay! But companies can facilitate team health to ensure teams will work better together, ultimately fostering an environment of productivity and success.
Here are four values that are critical pillars for a healthy team.
Team Cohesion
What is team cohesion and why is it important in teams? Depending on who is on a team, there might be some tension between team members. To build team cohesion each team member must feel empowered, respected, and valued. As the team learns to collaborate, trust, and communicate with each other, it will provide them with a similar sense of belonging and will unite them to complete the project or goal they set out to accomplish. High team cohesion leads to highly functional teams.
When building team cohesion, teams function as one. Making decisions within the group will become easier as each team member is working towards the same goal or completing a similar task. It will also create a dynamic work environment, that will allow team members to feel comfortable sharing ideas in productive brainstorming sessions. Each team member can be honest and share constructive criticism within the team without repercussions or retaliation. When a team is cohesive, it will create a supportive work environment within the company.
Team Satisfaction
In an ideal work environment, team members are satisfied with their work. Individually, employees who are more engaged and driven to complete their work are more likely to produce a greater quality of work and will want to grow within the company. These employees also buy into what the company is doing and support the company’s decisions and beliefs.
To increase team satisfaction, team members must learn to trust and be transparent with each other. One aspect of team satisfaction is that the more trust within a team, there is less of a reason for a boss to request frequent one-on-one updates on the project with individual members of the team or the team as a whole. If there is a lack of trust within the team, communication could decrease and the team could hit a roadblock. For example, if someone does not know how to do something and does not ask for help, it can slow down a project and other team members may assume that they cannot trust a particular teammate with that task in the future.
Cognitive Transactive Memory
Most people within a team exercise transactive memory even if they do not realize it. For example, your company is assisting a local hospital with its digital presence. After a few weeks of working in a team, you observe that Suzie is an expert in creating graphics and Photoshop, Ryan is an expert in website design and coding, and Bob is an expert in video production and editing. Bob goes to Suzie whenever he needs graphics for his video production; Ryan goes to Bob whenever they need videos for the website; and so on.
To best utilize cognitive transactive memory, each person in a team needs to understand the strengths, responsibilities, knowledge, and skill sets of their coworkers and share the work accordingly. Processing this information and drawing on it throughout team projects can increase the effectiveness of your team.
This way, each team member as well as uses each of their strengths to create a greater quality of work. Transactive memory creates exceptional teams when each team member is focusing on a particular skill they excel at and are passionate about.
Emotional Transactive Memory
Another kind of transactive memory that is crucial in creating effective teams is emotional. Beyond the sharing of knowledge, emotional transactive memory describes how a team shares stress. What are your collective team behaviors and responses to pressure, success, and even external factors?
Like understanding coworkers skill and knowledge sets for cognitive transactive memory, emotional transactive memory depends on understanding the emotional needs, abilities, and reactions of coworkers. Stress in and out of the workplace should be safely shareable to allow employees to respond consistently when new emotional obstacles arise. Creating spaces for authentic communication will help deepen emotional connections and understanding among team members.
As each team you are a member of in your workplace varies, how can you determine the health of each team? TourGuide Games created a twelve-question team health quiz that examines your team based on the four pillars mentioned above. After the team health quiz is completed, we will create a plan to improve and how to maintain a positive and healthier team environment within the team. From implementing team cohesion strategies to practicing teamwork behaviors, let’s grow the culture of your team.
TourGuide Games offers collaborative storytelling games strategically planned to foster and grow your team’s culture, along with organizational development consultation and DEI practice. Our sessions are completely unique and can be personalized for your team. Book now or schedule a demo today.
