3 Ways to Get a Divided Team to Work Together

If only I could get my team to work together!  

If you’re a manager, you’ve probably had this thought at different times throughout your career. While the importance of teamwork isn’t lost on most leaders and organizations, understanding how to motivate a group of people to work together is challenging.   

How to Get A Divided Team to Work Together  

Discord, infighting, and a lack of unity ravage way too many organizations, causing teams to undermine their own success. Consequently, teamwork in the workplace can be rare. For this reason, it is considered a formidable competitive advantage for those that can achieve it. If you’re a leader working with a divided team, what should you do? 

Here are three ideas that are sure to help:    

#1 Start with a Specific and Clear Purpose 

Too often, the primary goal of a team is either vague or unclear. When individuals aren’t sure what the team’s priorities or objectives are, they often fill in the blanks with their own ideas. When this happens, it results in individual team members championing causes that compete and conflict with one another.  

For example, let’s say a COO is intent on improving the quality of services being provided at his company. To improve quality, he feels strongly that he should hire four new customer support representatives. The CFO, on the other hand, is focused on eliminating costs. She feels strongly that no new positions should be created throughout the organization.  

Without a specific purpose, how will this team decide how to move forward while strengthening unity? With a clear purpose, the leadership team will be able to discuss their different opinions with the same end goal in mind.    

“What decision will best help us achieve our purpose?” is a great question that leaders can ask to remove egos from the equation, diffuse unproductive arguments, and foster collaboration. This simple question can serve as a reminder to everyone they are all on the same team.          

Leaders who rally their team around a specific and clear purpose inspire trust and create greater alignment. Thus, a critical step to improve teamwork is to make the purpose of the group specific and explicitly clear.    

#2 Define Your Values 

Disagreements and challenges become easier to resolve when people share values. Leaders should clearly articulate what values are essential to the team and why they matter so much in order to improve teamwork.  

It is also important everyone has a clear understanding of what their shared values mean. Using vague words like “excellence” or “respect” alone isn’t helpful to teamwork, because everyone may interpret them differently. For this reason, values must be specific and well-defined. 

For example, if a shared value is “excellence”, you could define it as “doing your personal best every day and helping others to do the same.” Having this simple definition provides clarity and leaves little room for what excellence means to the team.    

When values are known and upheld, it leads to stronger relationships and more productive behavior. Values also help team members decipher what may and may not be important to a discussion, problem, or decision.     

Finally, when a group of people agrees to uphold specific values, they are more likely to feel connected and a part of the group, even when working through differences of opinions. Thus, having a set of well-defined values that are known and lived in an organization generates teamwork and camaraderie.   

#3 Outline a Vision 

People want to know where they are going and how they can contribute to moving the company toward its destination. Yet too many leaders and organizations either mistakenly keep their vision to themselves or don’t have one at all. 

Imagine for a moment that you invite a group of your friends to go on a hike. You believe it’s obvious that the hike’s destination is the top of the mountain, so you never mention it to your friends. Soon you discover that the friend who showed up wearing shorts is heading towards the lake while another who brought her camera is frequently stopping to take pictures and relax in the shade. Finally, the last friend who admitted he didn’t eat lunch before the hike has turned around entirely and is heading back to where you started.    

Without a vision, people are more likely to make decisions based on their own self-interests rather than on what is best for the team. This can cause division and workplace politics.   

Instead, leaders should make it clear where the team is headed and what is the ultimate destination. When everyone is on the same page and knows where the company is going, it will unite the team and build cohesion. 

The Cause of Division 

At the center of most disharmony in the workplace is a lack of organizational clarity around the purpose, values, and vision of the company. The best way to establish clarity around each of these critical items is through repetition. Leaders who find different ways to communicate their purpose, values, and vision will establish the clarity needed to build a cohesive team.    

While ambiguity and confusion lead to a lack of teamwork in the workplace, clarity builds it. Clarity of purpose, values, and vision bring a team closer together and invites collaboration. Then, when hard times come, which they always do, the team will have a solid foundation to stand on that binds them together.     

Using a proven method, The Center for Company Culture has helped many companies develop and communicate a shared purpose, values, and vision. Organizational clarity around these three items is critical to developing unity in teams and a strong company culture. If you’d like help, please email [email protected] or visit our website, TheCenterforCompanyCulture.com.