Need to build more devised IT Teams? Pursue these three Strategies

One common challenge of any organization is how to build an effective IT team. You often hear about instilling the importance of teamwork or collaboration toward a common goal. On paper, it’s as simple as implementing the workflow, assigning team leaders, and deploying tasks.

But this is easier said than done. However, it’s not impossible, either.

What Are Devised Teams and Why They are Important

Devised teams are the collaboration between individuals and groups, which will then share their knowledge, expertise, skills, and ideas as they pursue a common goal. With the onset of technology, creating devised teams has never been easier with a myriad of IT team collaboration tools available in the market today.

Successful workplaces have one thing in common—the workers have the freedom to voice their opinions and they feel like they are part of something bigger other than themselves. This is hard to achieve because you are dealing with individuals with different backgrounds and personalities. Changing their mindset from pursuing a personal agenda to adopting a herd mentality is the main challenge for any organization.

Benefits of Creating Devised Teams

Adopting Teamwork strategies will result in several advantages for your organization. Among the benefits include:

• Improved communication – Because they are working toward a common goal, they would be encouraged to open the line of communication as they brainstorm for new ideas or resolve issues that crop up.
• Accelerate project timeline – Decision-making and problem-solving activities are done by committee. You exploit each individual’s talents and skills IT project management implementation.
• More engaged employees — Since employees can see that their contributions are valued, they become more engaged. They become more aware that they are a part of a larger group.

3 Strategies for Devised IT Teams

There are many ways to create successful teams so it’s impossible to cover them all.

1. Build trust – Identifying a leader is crucial to building trust. Look at the failed teams over the years and one of the common threads is the lack of trust. When the team members trust their leader and their colleagues, they are more likely to ignore their self-interest for the good of the whole. Also, in implementing teamwork strategies, project managers should also be cognizant of the fact that each individual responds to a different stimulus. Knowing your own personnel is key toward building trust.

2. Make sure the communication lines are open — IT team collaboration tools will help ensure the lines of communications between the project manager and team members are always open. You have various tools, for instance, like the Facebook Messenger app or the Gmail chat so small issues don’t escalate further.

3. Ensure everybody knows the stakes – People are more likely to get behind a cause they believe in. It’s now up to the leader to present a compelling reason for them to subjugate their personal interests to ensure the team goals are met. If the leader is passionate and fully believes what he’s saying, he can then inspire the team to get behind him.

How to Develop Collaborative Culture Within the Workplace

The team goals should be clear at the outset. In this way, you can set expectations for each individual in the context of the team. In disjointed organizations, it’s easy to develop a “me against them” mentality. In that environment, the individual will advance self-interest at the expense of the group.

You can still harness the “me against them” mentality but in a larger milieu. It’s your organization vs. Your competitors. For that, you need every team member to be on board.

First, however, is to know your personnel. In fact, it’s not uncommon for large organizations to have an applicant take a personality or a psychological test. This decision is not arbitrary. In fact, it will help the HR establish the main personality of the workers so it would be easier to find them a place within the organization.

Answering the question of how to build an effective IT team would be much easier if you highlight the strengths of each worker rather than focus on their weaknesses. Natural leaders, for instance, may gravitate toward assuming the harder tasks. While this would be easier for the project leader, it will stunt the growth of the team because other members are not given the opportunity to test themselves against pressure.

Conclusion

The one misconception about devised teams is that they hold back the worker’s individual as he or she becomes part of the collective. But in successful organizations, the opposite actually occurs. Once the individuals are aware of their tasks and what is expected of them within the context of the team, they actually have more freedom to express their individuality. This proves that devised teams don’t subsume personal creativity in favor of the collective in IT project management implementation.