Team Unity – Cultivating Productivity on the Field and in the Office

When was the last time your entire organization or department met together before sitting at your desk and going on with your daily work? I’m not talking about those hour long weekly meeting to discuss status on projects or sales reports. I’m talking about a quick and fun, 10-15 minute huddle with your team that sets the stage for each day.

According to a recent Gallup Employee Engagement analysis, when employees don’t feel motivated to participate in the workplace, productivity drops and absenteeism rises. In fact, companies with highly engaged employees showed nearly four times the financial growth rate of companies with lower engagement.

Coming from a sports background and having participated in team sports my whole life, I’ve learned that motivation, unity, morale, communication and feeling loose is key for any team to be successful. I believe you have to be in that mindset every day you step into the office. Every work day should feel like a game day or like you’re going into battle. Everyone on your team should be on the same page and be heading towards the same goal. And yes, every team’s goal may be different depending on what you do, but in the end what really matters is the motivation and mindset of your team while heading towards that common goal.

I remember before every practice or game day we would meet as a team and just goof around, talk strategy, get pumped up… anything to get us motivated and feeling relaxed before we stepped onto the field. This made a huge difference not only in how I performed but how we performed as a team. Being able to form friendships, trust and honest connections with your teammates is critical not only on the ball field, but in the office.

Being in the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) industry, consistently meeting and staying connected with team members becomes imperative to a project’s successful implementation. As Debbie Horton, Project Manager for ImageSource, explains, meeting to discuss the expectations, roles and responsibilities enables each team member to understand the project direction and work harmoniously throughout the course of the project while making misunderstandings much less likely.

Let’s be honest, doing something repetitive, i.e. going to work, can become boring and uninspiring. But a fun, quick meeting with your team before getting to your daily routine can make a big difference in your productivity and keep you and your team motivated throughout the day. In addition, the huddle, or “meeting”, is also an opportunity for your team to map and monitor progress and make any changes to your plan to ensure success.

So I encourage you to try it out – start having daily meetings before work. Make sure to keep them causal, fun, open and make sure everyone is involved. I guarantee you will see a boost in group morale and productivity.

Kevin Huynh
Corporate Communications Manager
ImageSource, Inc.