When entering the conversation around building successful teams, there are a number of things we need to ask ourselves. Is our workforce a cohesive one? Do we have a common destination? Are we successful in our mission? Our workforce is the bedrock of the success of our enterprise, be it public or private.

Henry Ford once said: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” That is an oversimplification, but the message is on point. A group of people does not make a team and a team of people does not mean a cohesive workforce. This takes time and effort. So how do we craft a cohesive workforce?

Establish a shared goal

Determining the mission of your workforce will enable you to start the journey from “group of people” to cohesive team. We start building that connectedness by helping each team member be part of that journey, claiming ownership of the process and positively influencing each other. Objectives should be broken into small achievable bites. The end goal should be aspirational, made up of many accomplishments along the way.

Communication

Successful teams communicate. They communicate with each other, communicate with their organisation and communicate with their customers. Setting standards for how this happens with buy-in from the team is essential in presenting a unified approach. Ensuring communication channels are constructed to benefit the team will allow them to more effectively achieve the mission. Move the conversation from “I” to “we” and promote that connectedness at the most basic level.

Recognise the positive and confront the negative

As a team we are capable of engaging in activities that have positive and negative outcomes. Recognising the positive and selectively celebrating to ensure that ongoing recognition retains its potency helps reinforce these desirables with the team. This helps the journey to the common goal established with the mission. Identifying the negatives that will arise can bring your workforce together to find agreed upon solutions and best practice. If you’ve started the cohesive workforce journey, negatives should ultimately be seen as constructive as they can promote positive change when your team is working together.

Make everyone part of your success

Building your team into a cohesive workforce will count for very little if other areas of your organisation are siloed and unresponsive to your holistic approach. Any journey that you take needs to have buy-in from the organisation. Cohesive workforces avoid the “us/them” trap by having a wholly inclusive mindset.

Connections need to be fostered and grown to ensure that what is best for the customer works well for the organisation. Identify break points in the customer’s journey and work with all teams to ensure that friction is removed. Remember, we are all customers of and to someone and your team’s success is the organisation’s success.

This journey from team to cohesive workforce is a living process. It will change, based on the changing dynamic of your team. It will change based on the changing nature of your customers. It will change based on the evolving method of service delivery. The destination though, will always remain the same.

Damien Robinson is speaking at the Sydney event Enhancing public sector customer service in April