Businesses are faced with a growing need to support their staff and team dynamics. Remote working is on the rise as it offers people the chance to balance their lifestyle. Though, it often comes with the side-effects of isolation, loneliness and disconnection.
Regardless of how well your staff cope with working remotely, it's always challenging to connect with the dots on a screen representing co-workers. This lack of connection generally reduces productivity and job satisfaction. So, how can team dynamics be improved?
In this article, we discuss how building team rituals and actively creating the time for expression improves your team dynamics.
Feeling disconnected within a team can have adverse effects on anyone's mental health and work. Even just being a part of a team with a collective goal provides the purpose needed to feel fulfilled at work. But staff need to feel the impact of working within their group and connecting with others to feel motivated. When employees are satisfied at work, their productivity and work efficiency increases naturally, too.
Additionally, when team dynamics are at their best, they improve creativity, productivity and effectiveness. Organizations rely on teamwork to achieve their goals. Improving team dynamics usually results in better work outcomes, employee satisfaction and an improved bottom line.
Combatting the disconnect within teams takes leadership and proactivity of creating the time and space for connecting team members. It's a powerful and straightforward solution, but it's not always easy to implement. Aim to build time rituals, either within an existing meeting or new meetings, for the team members to share, relate and connect with each other on a personal level.
Let's look at how you can build these team rituals for connecting team members. Dedicate a regular period of time for team connection activities to occur, like at the beginning of your Tuesday meetings, for example. This can prepare your team members and provide a structure to their day or week, improving employee performance.
At ActionCOACH, we start every meeting with a "what I feel like expressing", or WIFLE. A WIFLE is a free and undivided time period for a team member to express whatever is on their mind. Everyone in the meeting has their own uninterrupted WIFLE time. This exercise must be designed as a safe space for free expression, which means a judgement-free and private session. Free expression helps us authentically connect and feel more connected genuinely.
We're all unique, and so the nourishment from relationships that we need differs between people. Not all team members will share in the same way, so allowing them their own time can be ideal for them to express what they want to. Building a team ritual like this has the immediate benefit of your team expressing themselves and listening to others which may reduce the feeling of isolation. However, it also helps your team understand each other better and provides them with talking points to stay connected with each other outside of the meeting.
Another example of a ritual for connecting team members is how we close our meetings with a WHOOSH. at ActionCOACH, A WHOOSH is a physical motion requiring meeting members to place their left hand out and swing their right around to meet the left. It's both a physical and mental gesture to help our team release bodily tension and close the meeting in their mind. For example, for intense or stressful meetings, it can serve as a reminder that it's just a meeting, and they can move forward with their day without it weighing them down.
Some simple extra time at the beginning or end of any virtual session can encourage socialisation between staff. Often, your team may only need the right setting and approval to stay on the call and bond with each other. Extra time can also mirror real-life meetings that enable staff members to catch up with each other at the end while they're in the same room. This is where actively planning, which sounds simple, can pay off over time.
We use the WIFLE and WHOOSH as team connection activities, so our teams feel free to express themselves and cultivate relationships with each other. However, these are just examples, and they may inspire you to come up with your own that match your work culture. The important point is that you build rituals and create the time to improve your team dynamics so they can stay connected and fulfilled.
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