How can I get my team to work together better?

If two brains are better than one, then the wisdom of many is better still.

It’s easy enough to see where the problems lie. Some managers put too much emphasis on the task and not nearly enough on how something gets delivered. But teams need more guidance than this; indeed without such leadership, team members may well start to argue about priorities, follow their own agendas and even withdraw from, or conflict with each other.

So how do managers and team leaders get their people pulling together? The answer is by developing those skills that help achieve consensus within teams.

The core skill that needs to be developed here is that of facilitation; not facilitation in a loose and general sense, but rather facilitation with the purposeful ambition of harnessing the collective intelligence in the team, in order to get the best decisions made for the business, RapidConsensus™ is a process that can help with this.

How this is achieved sounds simple, but in reality it takes practice and a sure hand. It requires the manager to ensure that they engage the whole team, that they collect all the viewpoints, that they get the team to consider what their options are, and that they then identify what actions need to be taken. The improvement in performance and results that arises from such facilitation can be dramatic. So what are the skills that managers need developed in this process?

In essence such facilitation requires managers to work with the team dynamic – with particular emphasis on harnessing all available insights. There is no set script for the manager to follow here but one essential area for them to focus on, including setting a culture in which people feel that their contribution is valued whatever their status. They will also have to encourage openness and straight speaking, and help people build trust as well as deal with challenge.

The underpinning objective of the approach is for the manager to help the team to identify the future that they want, and this requires getting people to articulate as powerfully as possible where they want to get to. This is important because it builds ownership in the team for the decisions made, essential for both personal motivation and team effectiveness.

So the next time you wonder why your team isn’t performing as well as you had hoped, just consider how you have helped them to reach their decisions.

Structured, group facilitation skills training enables managers and other professionals to draw maximum engagement and performance from others. Effective and fast facilitation of meetings and teams is a skill for managers and leaders. There are several courses and workshops available to help you tackle the real challenges facing your organisation, including RapidConsensus™ , which teaches the process to rapidly mine the collective intelligence of a group; reach consensus on the way forward, ensure ownership and positive action.