Organising a team can be challenging. Whether you’re trying to re-energise a stagnant group or create an entirely new department, getting it right is essential for success. Regardless of your team’s size or intended function, there are a few universal rules for making it as effective as possible. Read on for guidance on getting your team organised and keeping them that way.
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6 Steps for Organising Your Team
Follow these steps to get your team organised and on track for success.
1) Define the team’s goals
Before you organise your team, you need to know what you’re organising them for. What is the desired goal of this team? Ask yourself what you want the team to deliver, and build from that point. A well-defined objective will set your team on the right track from the very beginning.
2) Establish roles & responsibilities
Examine your team and determine where their strengths lie. Who is good at what? Based on this, you can then assign roles and responsibilities to each member according to their skill set and experience. If roles are assigned appropriately, you’ll end up with an A-team perfectly equipped to manage the workload.
3) Create a team structure that works for you
After defining roles, you need to create a team structure capable of delivering on the team’s goal. Ask yourself who should be leading on various areas of the project, and who should be managing who. A strong and solidified team structure will not only help you feel organised, but your team will also know who to go to with specific questions or issues.
4) Centralise your resources
Avoid having a messy resource base. If your resources aren’t organised, then consider using strategic resourcing software, which helps identify gaps in your resource pool, so you can proactively plan to fill them. This will make sure that everyone can access your resources, and changes can be made by those who need to make them.
5) Standardise methods of working
Your team should be unified in their ways of working. Across the team, tools and software for certain tasks should be well-defined, and never deviated from. For example, if you agree to send files as PDFs, then any instances of Word documents being sent should be avoided. This will ensure that everyone is holding their work to the same standard, and undergoing the same level of quality control.
6) Develop a communications charter
There is no hard and fast rule for communications and meetings. Your team can meet as often or as little as you feel is needed. What is important is that the meetings you do have are all productive and worth your time. Define exactly what scheduled meetings will take place and with whom, and trial-run different meeting styles to really find your rhythm.
Learn more about meeting styles and best practices here – Top 10 Tips For Managing Meetings Effectively
How to Maintain Productivity
Once you’ve established the foundations of your team, it’s up to you to keep the productivity going. If you’ve completed the above steps correctly, in a way that specifically benefits your team and it’s goals, the next steps should come easily to you. Here are 5 ways to maintain the productivity of your team.
1) Organise regular check-ins
In order to make sure everyone stays happy and on the right path, you’ll need some face time with them. Organise regular one-to-ones with your team to understand how they’re getting on, and what help you can give them. Take the time to hear their concerns or issues, and offer help and guidance. A team will only stay productive so long as they stay motivated, and it’s your job to maintain that.
2) Ensure everyone has the help they need
Each team member should be consulted as to what help they require to do their job properly. If you’ve established yourself as an approachable manager, they should have no trouble telling you what they need. Whether it’s more capacity on a particular project or a specific piece of research that needs to be conducted, it’s up to you to empower your team.
Read more about what makes an effective manager here – What Makes a Good Project Manager?
3) Maintain momentum, but avoid burnout
In order to keep your team motivated, you have to maintain the momentum and energy of the project. However, there is a fine line between momentum and burnout, and too much pressure will reduce productivity and general happiness at work.
A key way of doing this is by maintaining a steady stream of tasks, not so much as to overwhelm your team, but enough to keep them busy. Roadblocks are the enemy of momentum, so try and anticipate where they may appear.
(The Kanban Methodology may be an ideal solution for this!)
4) Encourage a good work-life balance
Nobody can be their best at work without a good work-life balance. If your team feel like work is consuming too much of their time and energy, motivation levels will drop, and productivity will plummet.
Some good methods of improving work-life balance are by instating hybrid working, or ensuring that nobody is working overtime or taking the stresses of work home with them. Encourage openness from your team in your one-to-ones, and do what you can to alleviate their worries.
Learn more about how hybrid working can benefit you here: What is Hybrid Working: A Complete Guide
5) Foster collaboration among the team
Above all other methods of ensuring productivity, none have so many benefits as collaborative working. Encouraging your team to work together boosts morale, shares the workload, improves productivity and helps everyone improve their skills. Read our article on the Benefits of Collaborative Working to learn more.
Summary
Hopefully, this guide has helped you determine the steps you need to take to get your team organised. So to round up, here’s what we recommend for organising your team:
- Define the team’s goals
- Establish roles & responsibilities
- Create a team structure that works for you
- Centralise your resources
- Standardise methods of working
- Develop a communications charter
Then, to keep your team productive and on track to achieve their goals, we recommend that you:
- Organise regular check-ins
- Ensure everyone has the help they need
- Maintain momentum, but avoid burnout
- Encourage a good work-life balance
- Foster collaboration among the team
Use Verto To Quickly And Easily Organise Your Team
Getting all this organised can feel like a mammoth task, but Verto helps standardise project delivery, and comes with a host of solutions for organisations like project planning, risk management, and automated reporting. Verto’s tools also help to improve your capabilities in areas such as stakeholder management and collaboration, with our website being a rich source of resources to get you started on any aspect of the platform.
To see Verto in action get in touch with our team to learn more about how we can help you and your teams stay organised and productive during project delivery.