Do you know how to keep your teams integrated? This is a very relevant topic because companies that are able to achieve this increase their overall team productivity. Depending on the size of the company, this challenge becomes even greater.
This is because large organizations have different sectors, many activities, and, consequently, a large number of data being sent and received every day. It can be very challenging to supply all teams with information and the necessary tools to carry out the activities, keeping everyone on the same page. In this post we will talk about the importance of keeping teams integrated, what are the advantages of having a good communication process, and also show you how some technologies can help to solve this problem.
Why is it Important to Keep Teams Integrated?
Maintaining team integration is a major challenge for organizations. It is very common to find companies that work in functional silos, with serious communication problems and low performance, whose root cause is the lack of integration. Understanding the need to break through functional silos and make access to information and workflows, happen in an integrated manner and provides several benefits. Among them are:
- Improves Organizational Work Environment: People will get to know each other better, which tends to improve the company’s work environment, as they will have more contact and greater confidence among their peers. The benefits are numerous such as happiness at work, improved performance, better well-being, less stress, etc.
- Greater Productivity: When the team has a good relationship, there is a positive correlation of increased productivity. When the coexistence is good, efforts are directed towards the achievement of organizational objectives. In addition, teams tend to collaborate more, which improves the overall performance of the entire team.
- Retaining Talents: With the improvement of the organizational work environment, employees tend to be more satisfied with the company and with co-workers. A good relationship is one of the main factors that contribute to employee retention because good working relationships bring loyalty. Furthermore, when the team is motivated, they are unlikely to be dissatisfied.
- Interpersonal Competence Development: With integrated teams, company employees tend to develop interpersonal competencies, that is, relationships with other people.
What are the Advantages of Good Communication?
One of the main characteristics that make companies able to maintain integrated teams is the establishment of good communication. It is worth mentioning, however, that communication is not just talking; it is a two-way street, also involving listening skills (includes active listening itself, empathy, reflection skills, the perception of others, etc.). With good communication, you can resolve several conflicts and improve the interaction between teams. In addition, we highlight other advantages:
- The employee is aware of the issues that may affect his life and also in relation to changes in the company. This way, he will not be surprised by any unexpected news and, with that, he tends to be more secure in the exercise of his duties.
- Another positive aspect is the transfer of communication. With that, people will know exactly what their role in the team will be and, consequently, they tend to produce better.
- Communication also functions as an internal marketing strategy. You will be able to transmit the company’s values, activities, and products to employees.
How to Keep Teams Integrated?
We have previously highlighted the importance of keeping the team integrated. In addition, we talked about communication, which is one of the main strategies in this context. However, there are other tactics that will help you keep the entire team integrated. Among them are:
- Promote Training: Through training, employees will be better prepared to perform their duties and will know how to perform tasks, which improves productivity.
- Corporate Events: The events stimulate the relationship between employees. They can be done in person or, in Covid-19 times, online, through Microsoft Teams, to celebrate holidays or achievements.
- Corporate Well-being: Investing in the employee’s quality of life is an excellent approach. In this context, the incentive to practice physical exercises, a good diet, and work gymnastics helps to prevent accidents. In addition, professionals tend to be more motivated and willing.
How do Technologies Help Keep Teams Integrated?
In the last few months, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the world, the working and collaboration environment in companies has been totally transformed. There was an acceleration in the adoption of remote work and the home office became the new normal, further increasing the challenge of integrating teams.
According to Gartner, several companies started to accelerate their Digital Workplace plans, investing in technologies that enable the creation of a digital workspace that allows the performance of activities, in a collaborative way, regardless of where the employees are. There are several solutions that fit the concept of Digital Workplace that are very useful for maintaining integrated teams.
In this article, we’ll cover Microsoft Teams, the new foundation to the Microsoft workspace. Microsoft Teams is a conversation-based Office 365 tool. It is possible to connect people, conversations, and content in an environment that provides interaction, collaboration, and increased productivity to the entire team. The main pillars of Microsoft Teams are:
- Conversation between teams through a modern experience, with persistent chats, public and private, as well as chained conversations to increase everyone’s involvement. In addition, the solution allows voice and video conversations to be carried out, individually or in groups.
- Team workspace with all the tools available in Office 365, such as Excel, Word, SharePoint, Power BI, and others integrated, allowing the team to have all the information and tools they need to work, being able to build content collectively without losing the sense of context.
- Customization. Considering that all teams are unique, Microsoft Teams allows you to personalize the workspace, providing quick access to the most relevant services and documents for each team, making the environment more productive. In addition, it is possible to add applications developed by third parties to the environment, expanding the capabilities of the solution to meet the specific work needs of the teams.
Another way to keep teams integrated is to get people to share a common goal or purpose. Innovate, solve operational problems, improve the quality of services or generate a social impact. Whatever the challenge, Teams Ideas IDEATION is a great tool and can go a long way towards integrating people in an environment of collaboration and effective participation in the search for solutions.
IDEATION is an ideation solution where you can create a challenge and share it with the whole team, suppliers, and even customers, in search of new ideas for solving any problem. It creates a space for creativity and innovation that amplifies people’s voices and participation, creating the ideal environment for team integration. Teams Ideas IDEATION is a web platform and also functions as an application in Microsoft Teams. Meet now, it’s free!
