HOW TO IMPROVE TEAM EFFICIENCY: SHARING INFORMATION OUTSIDE A TEAM
No person is an island. Two-way information links between a team, the rest of an organization, and its external support are vital for efficiency. Remember that collaboration and cooperation are hindered by the absence of open communication.
Communication From Inside
The natural tendency of teams is for the innate strength – their togetherness – to become a weakness: they may become clannish, keeping themselves and their information to themselves. Where work can be carried out in isolation, this may not matter, but most teams depend to some extent on other departments and functions within the organization, for example, for backup, such as computer support, or when needing specialist help in, say production or engineering.
Maintaining Contact
Keep a list of key people in other departments and outside of the organization, making sure that everybody who needs to know particular information is included. Update and refine this list constantly, as different people and skills will be required to support a team at different stages of its life. Use memos, faxes, letters, email, video links, social media, or “groupware” – software that ranges from electronic mail to complete networking systems – to enable members of the team to stay in touch with each other and with the support system.
Avoiding Duplication
Duplication of roles is a crucial problem in large organizations. For example, two projects, each instigated by different departments for different reasons, may well overlap. To prevent this waste of resources, calculate a brief covering your team’s function to all relevant people. The overlap will soon be discovered if information is circulating properly. In some cases, it may be possible for the separate projects to benefit by uniting their efforts, or it may be constructive to combine results when both teams have completed their work.
Cascading Information
One popular method of passing information down the line is the cascade, in which a chief executive briefs an executive committee, who briefs divisional heads, and so on. The more layers there are, the greater the danger that the cascading message can be distorted. Even without a factual distortion, comprehension and perception may differ from original intention, and this can confuse a team’s aims and its efficiency. To prevent this, hold large meeting rather than many small ones, and then, if necessary, feed an agreed summary back upwards.
Confidentiality
A truly efficient team should have no professional secrets between its members, and should keep confidential only those matter that members agree are in the best interests of the project. Before deciding what is confidential, ask “Who else needs to know this?”, and “Would openness be damaging?” If the answers are everybody and no, then feel free to circulate the information. However, if there is a real need for secrecy, ensure that it is maintained absolutely.
TIPS
- Arrange social contacts with other parts of the organization
- Find out which technology can keep you in touch with sponsors
- Keep a record of contacts with valuable people you meet outside the team or office.
- Award team roles carefully so they do not overlap.
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