How to manage an effective teamwork in 2021

The efficiency and productivity of work, even in extreme conditions, is influenced by the correct organization of the team, as well as the solution of problems in comfortable conditions according to the established algorithm. Not every group of specialists can be called a team. And even more so, only a few companies achieve the title of a friendly, highly professional team.

True teamwork is a productive and well-coordinated implementation of common tasks facing the company, when all members complement each other. This is the very integration of teamwork that all managers want, which allows the team to move in the same direction to solve a single goal successfully.

To properly organize work, keep track of time and optimize work processes, you need to implement convenient applications for teamwork, for example, a simple time tracker Checkiant. Such programs allow you to monitor the work of the team, both inside the office and outside it in the case of remote activities, and monitor the effectiveness of each employee separately and the entire team as a whole.

Content:

1. Successful companies examples

2. 7 best ways to manage team in 2021

3. Types of teamwork

4. Roles in teamwork

Successful companies examples

Now the winners are those companies that have their own unique approaches to establishing a working environment in the team and increasing employee productivity. For example:

at Patagonia, all employees show care and love for nature. In addition, it's allocated one hour during the working day for surfing or 30 minutes for cycling;
Spotify provides psychological assistance to employees if they are experiencing mental difficulties or are depressed;
DHL Express provides incentives and bonuses for employees who take part in charity events.

7 best ways to manage the team in 2021

How can a manager achieve the best result? How can he/she improve the efficiency of team work and unite all the employees into living organism – a team? Every year, there are many new tools, techniques and methods to help managers. In 2020, experts noted the 7 best ways to manage personnel, which will be relevant in 2021. Among them are:

Planning an individual career. Now the classic career ladder is not enough. Despite the fact that the integration of team work implies the activities of employees as a whole, yet each specialist is engaged in a specific type of work according to their job responsibilities, has a certain level of knowledge and skills, their personal aspirations and goals for the next year, or even several years. This is all taken into account by managers, building a personal career ladder for each employee.
Help-management. This is a radically new vision of the workflow as the part of the higher management. Now they don't just form a team work on the project, but in parallel offer assistance to employees. This can be the organization of additional education to obtain the necessary knowledge, informing, attracting new participants to the process, or providing various auxiliary resources.
Consistency. Today, the emphasis in promoting the brand, product or service, as well as in finding new qualified employees, is on improving the usefulness and quality of information about the business structure. In addition, more interactive working methods are used.
A new approach to employee learning. The education of employees is reaching a new level. Now it becomes a target. It's important to focus on specific highly specialized training of subordinates, which will help them achieve certain commercial goals of the company.
Increase flexibility in the organization of team management. This applies to the same educational structure in the company, as well as the work schedule, additional courses, including distance learning and solving personal tasks.
Revision of standards for employees. Attention is now focused on the development of each member of the team, a flexible approach to their work and time tracking. Now the results are recorded in numbers, statistics, adapting to the modern digital world.
Stimulating a creative approach to work. Logic and speed of decision-making, of course, is good. But you also need to apply creativity to complete tasks. Leisure areas, coffee machines and other entertainment and relaxation areas located in the office help with this.

Types of teamwork

In the process of transformation that has overwhelmed the entire modern business, companies have to respond to the challenges of the time even faster, introducing new tools and effective team working methods into the work process. In 2020, we can identify several trends of global scale that have influenced the organization of collective activities and this:

video conferences – a new era begins, which is marked by the implementation of teamwork in an online format. The reason for this is the sky-high intensity and mobility parameters of modern business, which is why even the most detailed planning and high-quality approach to the organization don't allow you to hold all the meetings tete-a-tete. So it happened that in 2020, as analysts from the company MarketWatch found out, applications for teamwork were very popular – more than 62 million downloads of programs for video conferencing and making group calls;
virtual meetings – during the pandemic, when business also switched to a remote format of work, team work programs became particularly popular. One of the most popular applications is Microsoft Teams Rooms, which allows you to create virtual spaces for negotiations and collective discussions;
electronic planners – they are designed to constantly maintain an Omni-channel connection-video, text and audio, during which you can take a screenshot during team work, save records, documents in the cloud, and also fix the end point of the work to continue it at any convenient time of the day. Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted research and found that by the end of spring 2020, up to 38% of all employees of companies in the United States who previously worked in offices, switched to a remote form of work. This has led to a huge increase in the use of voice, text, and video formats. The most popular Android app for team work is Any.Do, as well as for working on projects — TickTick, Todoist and TimeTune.

Roles in teamwork

If consider the opinion of the great lecturer and psychologist Raymond Meredith Belbin, who created the system-standard of doing any business, the most successful companies are those in which the team consists of employees of different behavioral types. He conducted research in which he was able to identify key roles in teamwork. There are 9 of them:

Resource investigator – sociable and enthusiastic, finds original ideas for the team. One of the weak points is changeability in mood, excessive optimism.
Teamworker – defines priority tasks, unites the work of all participants with each other, supports a healthy climate in the team. Can be indecisive.
Co-ordinator – directs employees in the right direction, clarifies tasks, reveals the talents of each participant in the workflow. He is prone to manipulation and shirking from work.
Plant – thinks creatively, finds non-standard ways to solve problems. One of the weak points is absent-mindedness, forgetfulness and ignoring expenses.
Monitor evaluator – really evaluates all options for solving issues. He/she can be overly critical and straightforward.
Specialist – provides the team with useful knowledge. It is characterized by a narrow specialization.
Shaper – motivates the group, sets the right course of movement, knows how to overcome difficulties, charges everyone with positive energy.
Implementer – performs pre-planned work and does it efficiently. But is characterized by slowness and lack of flexibility.
Completer finisher – checks the work for errors, studies its weaknesses and strengths and draws conclusions. Treats his work in good faith. Can be overly restless.

For 2021, the specifics of team work on the distribution of roles are still relevant. And this scheme is also suitable for organizing work in an online format.

When the types of teamwork and the roles of its participants are studied, it remains to consider the most effective programs that help to work in a team.

P.S. In order to achieve the company's goals, you cannot implement outdated and ineffective team work foundations, because the world is changing rapidly, as well as business needs. Today, flexibility is important in everything, including in the approach to team management.

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