To help you with your team organisation, we've put together a little mini-guide to give you an understanding of the most important elements. Because we know: Organising a team is no easy task. In addition to strategic planning, a team lead must also keep an eye on and promote things such as team structure, day-to-day teamwork and team culture. But first things first.
Why is team organisation so important?
Imagine your team is a racing car. Without fine-tuning, clear role allocation and strategy, this racing car may drive, but it will never cross the finish line first. Clever team organisation ensures that everyone knows which component they represent in the racing car, what their responsibilities are and how they fit together with the component next to them.
The result? A more efficient workflow, less stress and a happier team overall.
What are common problems with team organisation?
As already mentioned, organising a team is no easy task. But there are also ways in which a team can work together better and achieve its goals. However, team leads need to actively work on this. Because otherwise it can look like this:
- In the team, it is difficult to find a common direction that everyone is moving towards. It feels a bit like not everyone is pulling in the same direction.
- The team is not sufficiently harmonised with each other, which leads to unnecessary redundancies.
- There is a lack of communication within the team. This often results in blind spots and the team's capacity is totally overloaded.
- This leads to frustration, the team is demotivated and the bottom line is that collaboration tends to be inefficient.
What does a well-organised team need?
A solid team organisation combines the following building blocks: Team structure, team collaboration and team culture. Each of these building blocks consists of several disciplines that team leads should master:
🎯 Goal setting
Goals are the key. They give everyone in the team a clear direction and ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Without clear (measurable) goals, not only your team but also, in case of doubt, customers are left in the dark.
But be careful here: setting a strategic direction that team members can use as a guide is one thing. Creating a detailed to-do list to be worked through on the way to the goal is another. To ensure that team leads do not find themselves micromanaging and can utilise the full creative and innovative potential of their team, the following applies: answer the "where", but not the "how". In this way, team leads can increase the sense of purpose in their teams - one of the main factors for work happiness.
👤 Roles & ownership
Every team member must know their role and responsibilities. This creates clarity and security and boosts the fun that everyone has in the process.
While roles tend to be generic and can apply to several people, ownership is individualised. Over time, both models can also merge into one. At awork, we take a big approach to the topic of ownership and have created a template for it.
💬 Communication & feedback
Good communication is the glue that holds teams together. Open and honest conversations and regular feedback help to avoid misunderstandings, support each other and improve together.
The important thing is that there must be clear rules for both. For good communication in a team, the communication channels and how you use them as a team must be crystal clear to everyone. The same applies to feedback. A topic that is already tainted with so many negative prejudices needs a clear framework within the company.
📊 Capacity planning
Properly deployed resources make the difference in any collaboration. Excellent planning ensures that nobody is overloaded and the team can work efficiently and happily.
Because "too much work" and "too many secondary tasks" are among the top 5 stress factors at work! This is according to our Work-Happiness-Report, our annual study on happiness at work in Germany. That's why well thought-out and, above all, realistic capacity planning is super important. This includes setting radical priorities, planning housekeeping tasks and including holidays and a lump sum for sick days. This makes spontaneous changes less stressful for everyone.
💜 Team culture
Every team wants it, but only a few really have it: a strong team culture. How you build and develop it is a crucial part of team organisation.
Because contrary to the assumption that team culture "just happens on its own", you actually have to do a lot to create a team culture. From shared values based on a common mission to regular team activities, there is a whole range of things you can do to develop a team and corporate culture. Important: There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so it is important to identify what your team needs.
Team organisation in deep dive: free online course
We go into all these disciplines of team organisation in more detail and with real everyday tips in our free online course: The aworkademy! With short videos on each topic, we clearly show how we implement many of the above-mentioned things at awork and combine the whole thing with best practices.
The 10-day free online course is for you if you…
- Want to improve your team organisation but aren't sure how. Find out what levers you need to pull to get the best out of your team.
- Want to set clear, measurable goals but don't know how best to go about it. Find out which strategies help you set and communicate clear goals to get your team on board.
- Want to optimise your capacity planning but need guidance on how to go about it. Learn what it takes to avoid overload and increase productivity at the same time.
- Want to develop a safe feedback culture but aren't sure where to start. Use our tips to introduce constructive feedback and create a team culture where everyone feels valued.
- Want to improve the culture and teamwork in your team but don't know where to start. Learn about ways to promote team culture, supported by study results on work happiness in Germany, which you can use to take work happiness in your team to a new level.
Sign up for the free online course and organise your team to the top
For 10 days, you will automatically receive a new email directly to your inbox every day with the video episode of the day, giving you a great introduction to team organisation - completely free of charge.
Are you ready to become a team organisation pro?
Then register for the aworkademy now for free and get started! 🚀
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