The success of any project depends very largely on the team behind it. Inspired by an article Not just for techies on Inc.com, we have put together 6 tips to help you work better with your teams.

1. Reduce Bottlenecks: Avoid having too many controls, checks and reduce  bottlenecks. Having a lot of checkpoints reduces the time to deliver. Choose team members who can work independently.

2. Clarity: People should have a clear idea of what is expected of them and if it does not happen then what are the consequences to the project as a whole. Convey this clearly so everyone is on the same page.

3. Small morning meetups: Each person needs to know what their responsibilities are so misunderstandings or conflict can be avoided. Spend time with each group head every morning (say for around 5 minutes) and discuss what needs to be accomplished today.

4. Have team building activities: Small social breaks can really help the team to bond, improving interpersonal relations and encouraging open communication. Team building activities can include an outing, team lunch or a informal gathering every Fridays etc.

5. Involve the customer: This can be a great way of giving the team a first hand idea of what the customer wants. Use two-way channels of communications like social networks, blogs to engage with your customers. Get feedback and let them know about upcoming products, features, what you are working on etc.

6. Celebrate team success: This can be a great morale booster. Celebrate every small accomplishment and success.

Fee free to leave a comment if there are other effective teamwork practices that we have left out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.