Take Time To Connect

It is so important for teams to take time to connect with each other and get to know one another. You don't need to be best friends or share your deepest, darkest secrets but there does need to be some element of connection that goes beyond just a name or face to help a group of individuals become a team. This is true of both co-located and dispersed teams.

When co-located this tends to happen more naturally as you say hello when you come in, ask how someones weekend went or discuss the football or cricket at the coffee station.

When teams are dispersed you need to make time for these connection conversations to happen. For some teams this could be making time at the start of collaborative sessions to just say hello and checkin with their team mates on how their day is going, for others they may have more dedicated team session every week where they talk about anything other than work - favourite holiday/sport/city or do a fun activity or your team might find another way to connect.

I know we can all be really busy and this may seem like a waste of time or worse, forced fun, but this is a valuable investment with a clear return when done well. As a team you need to decide what will work best in your context and isn't something done to you but that you own and evolve. This investment in building the team to be a great team means they will be more likely to help each other, share learnings and deliver awesome products as a team that are greater than the sum of the individual contributions.

So what's the picture of the cows about? Well this was me taking time to connect with the cows I walk or drive past every day.