Team cohesion is a critical component of an effective organization. Since every team is composed of members coming from different backgrounds, ensuring cohesion can increase efficiency and productivity as well as create a more inclusive workplace culture.
With cohesion as an organizational goal, you create opportunities for members to understand each other’s strengths, share valuable ideas, and collaborate toward accomplishing specific organizational goals. It won’t take long to build a highly effective team if you are using the right approaches.
1. Set common targets
Individuals perform better if they share a common goal with other members of the team. For the most part, working hand-in-hand allows them to accomplish personal and professional milestones. By setting collective targets, you encourage every member of your team to work, not just for the entire organization, but also for each member’s benefit. You just need to define specific objectives and let each member understand their role in reaching them.
2. Ensure trust and accountability
Nothing can affect team cohesion more than a feeling of mistrust among different members. For this reason, it’s important to establish close communication as the cornerstone of the organization. Without it, you will be keeping team members in the dark. This will make it harder for you to achieve your objectives and eliminate friction within the team. By imposing a sense of accountability and openness, you allow professional respect to thrive and empower each member to contribute.
3. Build a conflict resolution mechanism
Conflicts are unavoidable regardless of how well your team members know each other. Allowing conflicts to “resolve themselves” won’t help your team mature. Worse, it can also indicate a possible failure in leadership. Any dispute or infighting must be resolved immediately before they can do any lasting damage. For this, consider forming a conflict resolution mechanism. This will include a problem-solving session that allows you to address the problem as a group. The process is also a great way to help your team members detect underlying issues before they cause discord.
4. Include diversity, equity, and inclusion program
A cohesive team values each member regardless of race, gender, religion, and other socio-cultural factors. Incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives allows you to tap into the skills and experiences of members who need to be heard. To achieve this, you may want to organize corporate diversity training workshops led by experienced coaches and advocates. Other than that, you should also introduce structural changes to policies that will champion equal pay and professional advancement opportunities.
5. Organize upskilling programs
Knowing how fast technology is changing corporate environments, you need team members to learn new tools that allow for greater collaboration. In this case, you may need to organize workshops and training sessions that can allow each member to perform more efficiently using such tools. They can also pass this knowledge on to other members, especially newly recruited ones.
If you’re aiming to build a more cohesive team that will take your business to the top, apply these tips and make teamwork a part of your plan for success.