When was the last time you stopped to think about one of the most important relationships in your life? One that consumes a huge portion of your time, energy, and has a huge impact on your future? That’s right, we’re talking about the one you have with your team at work.
With long to-do lists and non-stop meetings, you might not have enough time in any given day to stop and really think about your co-workers. In fact, the whole point is to get the job done.
But what if we told you that thinking about how your team members relate to each other would make all the difference to your bottom line?
As we’ve discovered in a recent survey, professionalism isn’t a patch to cover up a team’s underlying emotional connections. In fact, there are a number of assumptions about teamwork out there that might be getting in the way of better performing teams.
The Survey Says…
We set out to explore what teamwork in modern offices is all about, in partnership with join.me and HipChat.
After surveying over 1,000 knowledge workers across the United States, we discovered team truths we weren’t expecting.
For example, people feel twice the emotional reward when given recognition as an individual rather than as a team. Additionally, Millennials love working in teams, but they’re not so keen on texting with colleagues. Furthermore, it’s still the case that (gasp) phone calls are used more between colleagues than video meetings or chat apps.
Here are some more notable truths we uncovered:
- Teamwork may or may not inspire co-workers: One-third of surveyed professionals prefer to work on a team, one-third prefer to go solo, one-third are fine either way!
- Remote work doesn’t hinder teamwork: 32% of professionals we surveyed work remotely at least once a week, and the vast majority (83%) said it had little-to-no negative impact on their teamwork.
- But communication is the biggest team improvement wish: Over 20% of respondents would like to communicate with their team members more often, and an additional 20% would like to communicate more efficiently in meetings.
Are any of these insights making you look differently at how your team works?
Perspective starts with knowledge, so we’ve collected the most valuable data and key lessons from the survey in one office-friendly presentation.
Take a look, share with your team, and discuss what you think about these eight biggest teamwork myths of the modern office:
Collaborate For Extra Credit
We partnered with two other collaborative companies on this initiative to help teams explore better ways to work together. The tool tips in the above presentation outline ways you can use project collaboration (Trello), chat communication (HipChat), and video connections (join.me) to create a teamwork structure that works regardless of time, location, or device.
Check out these additional ideas on how to build a collaborative toolset for your team:
- End Office Email (For Real) With This HipChat and Trello Tutorial
- See Your Team Have More Productive Meetings With join.me And Trello
If we’ve learned anything, it’s this oh-so-golden rule: Keep your team connected in a positive, well-balanced way in order to keep your work, and work relationships, at their best.
