Getting two people with significantly different life experiences, political views, and opinions can be challenging to work on something in the same group and see eye-to-eye. However, if you’re managing a project, selecting the teams and getting people to work together is essential for company success, even if they don’t necessarily agree.
Keeping your employees on track and communicating (especially during a worldwide crisis) will help your company get back to normal in 2022.
Here are some ways to foster teamwork at your workplace, even as a group leader or group member.
Try a Work Game
Many companies create fun group games and activities that can be done in a professional environment to open the conversation up in the workplace and allow team members to learn more about each other. Depending on your goals for the team, the game could be focused on:
- Common strengths and weaknesses in employees
- Time management
- Diversity
- Priorities
- Values
- Problem-solving abilities
The games are often led in a large group setting, and employees who usually don’t interact will meet each other for the first time and have honest conversations. For example, the game may call for solving a problem together in a short time or learning a lesson about each other.
For example, in one work game, members are put into small groups and required to figure out examples of common difficulties people face on a day-to-day basis, including pessimism, fear, procrastination, etc. First, each member identifies examples of these in the game, and then they can also identify these things in their real life.
Sharing struggles and ways to cope with them with other team members forms a stronger bond within the company and allows people to feel heard. For example, if your employees tend to ignore each other or get into arguments, a game like this might help.
Have a Required Diversity or Acceptance Training Course
Diversity and inclusion training courses are essential in any area. Even if you don’t understand it yourself, having someone come in and speak on behalf of a non-profit about diversity is always an excellent idea for helping team members understand each other better.
Even if you don’t know it, team members who fall into a minority category might feel unheard, unseen, or not represented in your company. Diversity training shows them that you see them and won’t tolerate prejudice in the workplace.
Diversity training can also help employees deal with different types of customers. After all, anyone from any walk of life can be a customer. Learning to accept and treat everyone with dignity is one of the basic principles of humanity, and it’s an excellent value to have in your company.
This training increases productivity and teamwork, showing people they can work together, even if they differ.
Give Each Team Member a Role
Some team members may feel unheard or overshadowed. Here’s an example of a group where the team members weren’t treating each other fairly:
Sarah was the only woman in a group of 5 men working on a software development project at her company. Sarah had an excellent idea for the code for the new software and could pinpoint errors in the existing team’s code that one person wrote. However, due to prejudice against women in computer science, her male colleagues ignored her ideas and only talked to the person who wrote the code. Since she didn’t have a determined role, Sarah felt upset, and the team failed the project.
Although sexism isn’t the only example of failing teams, if each member had had an equal role in the group project, they could’ve finished the project with Sarah’s help.
If you’re a manager or group leader, give each person an equal role. In this case, each person could be responsible for 25% of the code, and one person could be responsible for editing the code once it was written. Afterward, all team members could discuss any further changes that needed to be made, giving each other 5 minutes to talk and then passing it on to the next person.
A moderate manager is also essential, as something must be done if prejudice or unfairness arises in the project.
Help the Members See What They DO Have in Common With Each Other
If a group struggles to see eye-to-eye, it’s time to show them what they have in common instead of emphasizing their differences. The majority of the people in the group likely have good intentions. However, humans are naturally defensive of their ideas and identity; if someone feels attacked, they might show their worst side.
Even if your team works remotely, having a day each week where you facilitate a positive question or discussion can help people remember what they have in common. Perhaps they like the same TV shows, or maybe they both have Persian cats at home. People can connect over many different subjects, which is the beauty of humanity!
Don’t Put Vulnerable Team Members in Danger of Prejudice
If you have the power to set up teams within the workplace, don’t put don’t similar people together. For example, setting up a group of only white people may be discriminatory. However, do know the personalities of your workers. If someone in your company has been known to make discriminatory remarks or has a solid political belief that might hurt someone, don’t pair with the only minority in the workplace.
Facilitate Discussions
Finally, as a manager or company, you should be focused on facilitating discussions or electing someone to do so. Groups of people with differing opinions work best when someone monitors the summit and encourages positive change and effort to be made. If you see the conversation turn towards politics or something unprofessional, redirect the group, and remind them of the goal of the exercise or project.
If someone comes to you wanting to be added to a different group due to concerns of prejudice or infighting in the group, it’s a goit’sdea to switch things around. You never want to make someone feel unsafe at the company. Instead, it should make everyone to be comfortable and remember that discrimination in the workplace is illegal.
Conclusion
Teamwork is important in all aspects of work and activities. Now you may know it’s important and always try to understand in deep about teamwork for success.
