The fuel that keeps an effective team running on all cylinders is clear and timely communication. From the moment a challenge is conceived to the day of delivery on a task, a high-performing team relies on the efficient sharing of information. However, there are certain points in the process when communication can really make or break a team.
Laying out the task: At no point in the process is informed and clear communication more crucial than the first meeting. If you aren’t prepared and don’t have a clear way of outlining the performance challenge, your team will begin the task adrift rather than motoring toward the first buoy. Make sure to do as much of the research and mapping out of the goals as you can before holding your first meeting. Knowing exactly when deliverables are expected, what the roles are, and just what success should look like are vital components to efficiency in collaboration. It’s best to have as much information on paper as you can, but your team members should also be able to picture success in their heads and know what kind of tasks they have to perform to achieve it without having to rack their brains, or refer back to any literature.
When there is overlap: This is an oft-ignored aspect of working as part of a team. Whether you have multiple people working on similar jobs or you have very clearly defined roles, there will nearly always be some degree of overlap. When a team member discovers that they may be working to obtain the same information as another team member, rather than just switch off that task, or continue working separately, it is a great opportunity to face the situation head-on, share the information each has gathered so far and share resources before assigning the completion of the task to one person. To facilitate this kind of teamwork requires your team members to unlearn many of the things they ‘ve learned about the workplace. Specifically that delegation or yielding of a task to another team member is a failing. You can do this by putting this type of behavior forward as valuable, and acknowledging and rewarding team members when they behave in this way.
Progress is slow or stalled: No matter how efficient and successful your team is, there will always be times when one or more members of the team is stuck or lagging in their work. This is a great time to point them to a subject matter expert in order to help them find the ideas or resources that can get them back on track. The problem is creating a good means for those team members to ask for help without feeling like they are failing. One good way to handle this is to check in on members’ progress often from the beginning and reiterate that you’ll be there if they ever need help. Another is to put the subject matter expert front-and-center, by having them share their expertise with the team via a presentation.
