Most app developers work in a team of other developers, designers, and stakeholders involved in the project. Such teams must be cohesive to work effectively and achieve their aims. There are best practices for ensuring cohesiveness in an app development team, or any other team.
This article explores team cohesiveness, how to know if a team is cohesive, and how to improve it in the workplace.
What is Team Cohesiveness?
A cohesive team can work together efficiently to achieve a goal. A cohesive team includes individuals ready and willing to contribute to the team to work well with others on it. Cohesiveness is not natural and is built on interconnectedness, open communications, interpersonal relationships, and trust.
Cohesive teams are more successful because everyone’s efforts are focused on the same thing, and everyone interacts and communicates effectively when working on an app development project.
How Do You Know if a Team is Cohesive?
A cohesive team resolves conflict quickly. Working on the same project as part of a team and working towards the same goals does not mean that conflict does not exist in cohesive teams. Everyone on the team should understand this and work towards resolving conflicts as soon as possible. Doing this allows the team to go back to focusing on the task at hand, avoiding long-running conflicts that can lead the team to fall out.
Everyone who is part of a cohesive team understands everything they do is for the benefit of the whole group. For this reason, they have a strong sense of “we” instead of being individualistic. This sense of working for the whole instead of working for oneself allows the team to work much better together.
Individuals in a cohesive team hold themselves accountable for everything they do. They understand that their performance affects the whole group and can cause projects not to be delivered on time. They also speak up if they think a task is out of their skillset or know they will not meet a deadline or goal.
Lastly, they prioritize the organization instead of being derailed by different points of view or competition. They understand they need to set their differences apart if they are to meet their goals.
How to Improve Team Cohesion
Cohesive teams thrive on open and honest communication. It, therefore, follows that the first step in ensuring team cohesiveness is implementing good communication practices. The development team must have the tools it needs to communicate. These can include remote team software and online messaging platforms.
Good communication encourages everyone to voice any concerns and for the team to resolve issues quickly. It also helps build interpersonal relationships that are crucial for a team to work well together.
Encourage Team-building Communication
While focusing on the team’s goals is crucial, it is equally important to foster the relationships that allow the team to work well. Team-building activities are perfect for this and can also help boost morale and self-esteem while building crucial goals within the team.
Appreciate Team Members
A little appreciation goes a long way to boosting a team’s morale. It also encourages other team members to work hard for the same recognition many people want. There are many ways to show a team or individual that you appreciate their efforts. For example, you can buy bulk Starbucks gift cards for your team because we know most developers are fueled by caffeine.
You can also give self-care packages, cash, promotions, and other incentives that make the team feel appreciated.
Give The Team Clear Goals
Teams work best when they know what they are aiming for. Of course, the goal is to develop an app the client or stakeholder wants, but what are individuals responsible for? Give everyone clear roles and responsibilities so they always know what they should be working on.
Many teams choose a pyramid approach where they structure the goals from the least important to the most important, outlining who is responsible for what. You can also structure them as individual, team, and company goals depending on how the team likes working.
Goal pyramids can also make it much easier to establish individual-level objectives. These objectives are a great way of measuring progress and success as the project continues.
Build Trust
Trust affects how well individuals can work with each other. While ensuring good communication is crucial for building trust, there are other things team leaders can do to foster it further. First, they should be open and honest with their team. No one wants to work under someone hiding something from them.
Second, team leaders should always share ideas, updates, successes, and failures so the team always knows where it stands.
Every project depends on how well the team working on it can work together. Building a cohesive team takes work, but it is worth it, especially after a successful project.
