Four principles for great teamwork: communicate, collaborate, contribute, coordinate
Or in plan language: talk to each other, work together, be helpful, check things are going ok.
These are my four principles for team work.
Communicate
Communication doesn’t mean one-way information from those in the know, and communication doesn’t happen well when intermediaries (especially software tools) get in between people. Talking to each other is the best way to communicate.
Collaborate
Collaboration means working together to achieve the same goals, not working on different things separately or with different goals. Lots of work gets done in isolation. The best work gets done in collaboration.
Contribute
In some teams, everyone has specific roles and responsibilities. They all know what they do and they only do that. But in better teams, people use the breadth of their knowledge, skills and expertise to contribute, even if it isn’t in their job description. Being helpful makes a big difference in how teams work. Sharing knowledge, offering to chat, making introductions, taking on tasks when someone is busy, it all makes the difference between being a group of individuals and a team.
Coordinate
Coordinate used to mean centralised upfront planning and giving people instructions to follow, make sure they’re doing the right things and staying on track. Now it means looking for signals about what’s happening, what has changed and responding in real time. That’s why checking-in with each other is so important. If one person shifts their focus, maybe it’s a signal they know something the rest of the team don’t. But if everyone notices they can check that they all still have the same understanding of what the team should be focused on.
So, teams can use ticketing systems, have separate goals, stick to their roles, and plan ahead if you want, but they’ll probably do better if they talk to each other, work together, be helpful, and check things are going ok.