How can you set team goals that encourage collaboration?

As a happy-hour coordinator, I capitalized on tradition and decades-long time-tested bar environment, to emphasize how team play and work fosters deep bonds. After enjoying many car bombs and tequila shots with both the management and the sales team, we went on to secure new business and spread the gospel of happy-hour at a variety industry events. This experience underscores the impact of drinking and leadership accessibility and active involvement in fostering a collaborative and innovative workplace and play place.

Setting collaborative team goals was a transformative experience for me. I learned to set clear, measurable, and achievable goals that aligned with our team’s mission. I ensured that each team member understood their role in achieving these goals. Regular team meetings fostered open communication and collective problem-solving. Celebrating small wins along the way boosted morale and fostered a sense of teamwork. Remember, when the team succeeds, we all succeed. Setting collaborative goals can significantly enhance team performance.

"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." - Jack Welch Setting team goals that foster collaboration starts with defining your purpose and vision. What's the goal? How does it align with your organization's mission and values? Answer these to create a vision that not only motivates your team but also resonates with stakeholders like customers and senior management. A clear, compelling vision is the cornerstone of successful teamwork. Make it visible, weave it into the fabric of what will move the needle, and wave that flag of progress proudly so that everyone knows the score until you achieve victory. Then celebrate! Lather.?? Rinse. ?? Repeat. ??

Goal setting that encourages collaboration can quickly ignite team synergy when you apply a 2 tiered approach with regards to defining the purpose and the vision. Level 1: Purpose pertains to the reason for setting the goal. Vision pertains to what it looks like when the goal is reached. Level 2: Purpose pertains to greater purpose and the highest of values. (Peace, Joy, Freedom, Expansion, Self Actualization, etc.) Vision pertains to taking a forward thinking, big picture view as a visionary.

Forcing collaboration is like trying to be cool. The harder you try, the more ridiculous you look. If a team is not collaborative, it is a systemic issue in your culture. One of my favorite quotes, "Every problem is a leadership problem." If you struggle with collaborative teams, it is most likely toxic leadership. If you really want to establish a culture of collaboration, you have to start there. From there, collaboration must center around a purpose or vision. For me, I think all business energy should be centered around the customer. When teams have access to customers, autonomy to serve customers, and trust from the leadership to solution for customers, collaboration will come naturally.

Identifying roles and responsibilities was key to our team’s collaboration. I ensured that roles were clearly defined, aligned with individual strengths, and understood by all. Regular discussions helped in setting expectations and accountability. I encouraged everyone to respect each other’s roles and collaborate towards common goals. This not only improved efficiency but also fostered a positive team environment. Remember, a well-structured team is a collaborative team.

Having conversations related to interests is crucial. You uncover your team's strengths and can align the goal to the strength and interest. Setting clear expectations is also critical regarding deadlines, forms of communication, etc. The clearer everyone's role and responsibilities are defined, the better the work results will be and the more engaged the teammates will be.

It is hard to be accountable when I don't know for what I am responsible. We often completely miss the core ingredients of R&Rs for employees. It is less about what you want me to do, and is my sandbox to serve customers. We layer red tape on employees trying to control them into a position that values the company. What if we clearly communicated the opportunity, resources and expectations each employee has to enrich the life of customers. Toxic collaboration with rigid roles leads to blame shifting and frustration. A better strategy is giving a team of humans the resources, support and autonomy to solution with absolute clarity in the desired outcome or output. Then simply communicated, you are smart and brilliant people, get it done.

Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals was a turning point for our team. We started by clearly defining our goals, ensuring they were specific and measurable. We made sure the goals were achievable, relevant to our mission, and had a clear timeline. This clarity fostered collaboration as everyone knew what was expected and how their contributions mattered. Regular progress checks kept us on track. Remember, SMART goals lead to smart teams.

FIRST: SMART goals are awesome, but customers could care less about your company's SMART goals unless they get what they want when they want it. When crafting SMART goals, they should orient around the customer, not the company. Orienting SMART goals around customer experience also helps the team responsible for these goals emotionally engage into the work. Who give a sh*t if some director wants more profit so he can receive a larger bonus. But if our team spends time with customers and given the resources and autonomy to solve problems for customers, that is something I can get behind. SECOND: we work all day 5 days a week, are we winning? SMART goals achieved turns monotony into one victory at a time.

Creating a collaborative culture requires more than lip service. At Newswire.com, the COO's open-door policy and routine involvement in the workday made collaborating a part of the role. This approach fostered a culture of collaboration and open communication. As an editor, I capitalized on this environment to pitch the burgeoning blockchain sector. After being discussed with the rest of the leadership, Newswire went on to secure new business and had a presence at key industry events. This experience underscores the impact of leadership accessibility and active involvement in fostering a collaborative and innovative workplace.

One thing I’ve found helpful to create a team culture is to include it within the values of the company. In our company we have internal values called T.A.G. Team First, Ability to add value, and Growth oriented. Team shout outs include the value the team member exhibited which is a great reminder and when we do our quarterly feedback we rate each person on these 3 values, which helps foster a culture focused on collaboration.

Fostering a collaborative culture was a rewarding experience. I promoted open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making. I encouraged everyone to share ideas and feedback without fear of criticism. Celebrating team successes, big or small, boosted morale and reinforced the value of collaboration. I also ensured that everyone felt valued and their contributions recognized. Remember, a collaborative culture is built on trust, respect, and shared goals.

Success of a team goal depends on how much of ownership of the goal is being driven by each of the team member. One of the easiest ways I use for building shared ownership on the goal is to make them participate in setting the goal itself. While it may involve a lot of struggles, disagreements and then later agreements, but in parallel what this process ends up doing after 3 to 4 rounds of setting revised expectations, is that everybody in the team is clear about their goal, how it was set, and what steps are required to achieve it. Hence, setting the collaborative culture. This saves a lot of time later on in driving expectations, reviewing progress, and execution of efforts for achieving the goal.

A game-changer for me in leading a 12 person team was building in collaboration channels and networks that operated without me. Many leaders build a business where they are a bottle-neck and it’s limiting and unsustainable. For me, making sure each team member is able to forge connections up and down the chain that they can rely on before me made collaboration engrained. Also, hosting open office hours where team members could come give and receive help and solving issues there helped me control my time and also helped team members build the muscle of collaborating together versus expecting me, their leader, to solve everything. We got better ideas and could quickly spin up working teams because this was consistent.

This is not a question of "if" but a question of "how" to set team goals for collaboration. In most organizations shared goals are part of performance metrics and reviews. Collaboration is a critical skill to succeed in a global, distributed work environment and drive initiatives across organizational functions. That's why collaboration for team projects is also part of many college classes in management, entrepreneurship, and IT for undergraduates and graduates - to prepare students for today's work environment. For example, in my classes, students get points for successful collaboration and deduction when the team break apart. Students can also reflect on their collaboration and provide peer feedback.

Setting collaborative team goals was a journey of learning and growth. It involved clear communication, understanding individual strengths, and fostering a sense of shared responsibility. Celebrating successes, learning from failures, and maintaining an open, respectful environment were key. Remember, collaboration is not just about achieving goals, but also about growing together as a team. It’s about creating a culture where everyone feels valued and contributes to the team’s success. Keep fostering collaboration. You’re on the right path!

In my experience, hosting team meetings and individual 1:1s creates a more collaborative culture. People need to be provided with space and time where they can feel comfortable speaking up and sharing their ideas and experiences. The more time invested in the relationships, the more collaborative the team will be.

Identify areas of leadership for each individual on your team and give them ownership of those specific initiatives. Even better if you pair people up. Before just making a decision as a leader, bring in your senior leaders to validate the issue and take leadership in resolving it. This requires you to be more a facilitator at times than a director, but this helps people grow in confidence in solutioning and helps you form a plan that is more realistic and has buy in from those impacted. These networks and connections are a big lift to establish in the beginning, but take on lives of their own and deliver value long-term.

I absolutely love SCRUM methodology. I have deployed SCRUM in various industries (not just tech). SCRUM is a system that is designed to create a culture of collaboration. It is magic when fully implemented throughout the entire company.