Working well together as a TEAM? What’s your “Teamwork” expectations?
If you are part of a team, you will be familiar with how Teamwork enables you to get things done. But how we view “Great Teamwork”, hugely effects our success.
Since the turn of the year, and no doubt heightened by the fractured nature of remote working, I’ve noticed a need amongst my clients to re-frame what “Great Teamwork” actually looks like. Having team members simply doing tasks and getting through a workload in isolation, is the absolute bare minimum when it comes to describing Teamwork.
If together as a group of individuals everyone does something to help deliver a piece of work, that’s Level 1 Teamwork. If you work together on solving challenges, yes that’s a higher level, but marginally. To deliver consistently at the highest levels truly great teams need a level of Teamwork far beyond these minimum standards. It may be useful at this stage to consider a Team that you regard to be a “Top Performing Team” as a reference point.
Top performing teams need connection, communication and clarity around “Stated Objectives”. Ask yourself this, “Does everyone honestly know where we aim to be in 5/6 years? Do they know what that looks like? Have they got Stated Objectives over the next 12 months? Do they understand the benefits to the Team, to themselves personally and other Stakeholders of achieving them? Do they know the importance of sequencing and the impact on our overall goals (have they committed to identified time-frames), and do they realise the impact their role will have on delivering overall success. Better still, don’t just ask YOURSELF, ask your Team directly. Or are they just getting through their workload is glorious isolation?
Here’s 2 simple videos that beautifully emphasise the importance in setting expectations around Teamwork levels and how achievement feels great in both, yet the outputs are wildly different. If we really want our teams to excel, we need to put some forethought into what level of Teamwork we are aiming for. By identifying clear objectives, identifying the importance of roles & responsibilities in the process and in sequencing the implementation, the difference between good and great could be extraordinary and yet without the correct focus (Focus2Succeed), we may feel good about our “Teamwork”, yet miss opportunities to deliver great outcomes.
Hope you enjoy the videos 😜. Which one closest resembles your team? Does your team’s expected level of Teamwork need some re-framing?
PS If any of this resonates, I can send you a single page guide on “Re-framing Teamwork” that you may find useful. Live Long & Prosper 🙏
