How do managers ensure the success of their offices by making sure people work well together?

To some leadership people, this might seem like one of those zen questions that doesn’t really have an answer. However, there are some principles that managers can work by to keep things moving smoothly in a department.

Make Objectives Clear

Sometimes, individual workers are kind of working at cross purposes. They may each have different ideas about how the business is supposed to be run, and what its goals are.

Particularly in “white-collar” administrative or even in light industrial work, there can be real questions about what’s actually being done, about the scope of a project and its individual objectives. Sometimes these need to be hammered out in meetings where the managers and supervisors clearly explain a road map to progress, and get everybody on the same page, to move down the right road together.

A Little Light Team Building

Team building can work to smooth over conflict and personality problems, but it has to be done in a sensitive and subtle way. Too much team building can have the opposite effect, where people just really hate being together. It can make people feel like they are in less control of what they are doing in the workplace.

To do team building in an organic way, get feedback before team building sessions and allow employees to weigh in on what types of activities happen and in what format. Having this kind of consensus makes team building not something that is dreaded, but a meaningful activity that people can enjoy.

Work Things Out on the Floor

Administration in many offices takes a kind of ‘Solomonic’ approach, where someone has to be immediately available to get parties to the table to solve workplace disputes. For instance, if someone perceives someone else as getting in their personal space, messing with their personal belongings, or pushing a religious or political beliefs in their faces, an active manager will get directly involved and get people talking to resolve these issues up front before they get any worse.

Reporting and Group Work

Sometimes, giving employees the task of reporting on workplace objectives actually helps with conflict and other issues. It gives people something to work on jointly. Other kinds of group work can also be effective. You don’t want people to get to the point where they don’t have any time for themselves, but issuing group tasks forces people to put aside their issues and put their noses to the grindstone together.

Want to learn more about what companies are doing to actively manage people?

Keep an eye on our blog at Full Steam Staffing, where we detail what we have seen work for our client businesses. As a top staffing service in the Ontario California area, we are deeply involved in the local business community, helping our client companies to conquer the challenges that come their way.