What Damages Team Cohesion And Can You Avoid It?

The eternal debate surrounding the question ‘what hurts teamwork?’ has challenged millions of businesses worldwide. Every now and then, we as entrepreneurs and business owners, are reminded of how fragile our workplace cohesion can be. Some of the causes of disharmony are plain for all to see. It’s the ones that you don’t see that do the real long-term damage. These are some of the ways teamwork breaks down and strategies to employ that will avoid them. 

Keep to hierarchy

Without a hierarchy in society, we would plunge into chaos. The same goes for your business. In all forms of human life, we need to keep in place a competency hierarchy if we are to achieve the goals we set out to accomplish. The reason for this is simple. If everyone in the office is allowed to do whatever they want, whenever they please, a shared goal is impossible to reach. Sticking to the hierarchical structure during tough moments in a project is the best way to limit chaos. When CEOs change managers or project leaders halfway through a project, the chances of a loss of project control can occur. It’s better to try and help those in leadership positions do better than to change them. A new face will be presented with challenges they are unfamiliar with. So stick to your guns and only change management positions when there’s no other option left.

Personal integrity matters

As the latter half of the previous decade has shown, personal integrity matters to employees, brand image and the industry at large. Therefore, only hire those that pass criminal background checks. If a candidate has a history of criminal behavior, is it really a good idea to put them among your employees? There might be a situation whereby the person you hired has a lewd misconduct history with the law. Someone who suffered an explicit attack might be traumatized by having to work with someone that reminds them of their pain. Therefore, it’s vital that you take seriously, actions that employees and candidates have taken outside of their professions.

The common culprit

There’s no way to avoid being cliche in this instance, because the most common culprit of disharmony among teams, is a lack of communication. Managers should be held to a higher standard than employees. There’s no reason for managers to not convey an important order to all those under his or her command. Some managers rely on relaying their information through a deputy. This doesn’t always work and overlaps their role with a lesser position in the hierarchy. It’s management’s responsibility to maintain a high level of communication, both with and between employees.

Not touching base

Thankfully, we now have a cloud system, which allows employees to access their work and tasks, from anywhere in the world. However, this has led to a rise in teams no longer communicating that much in person. Don’t rely on online communication. Face-to-face verbal and eye contact communication, injects the human element into teams.

You can avoid disharmony among teams, but you have to start from the beginning. Don’t hire employees that have shown recent criminal behavior. Don’t allow communication to slip. Don’t lose your nerve and replace project leaders at the first sign of trouble.