Strategies to strengthen team spirit: How videos help you do it

Written by Maren Dinges | 17th April 2023
A team meeting in front of a purple background.
The team spirit can have a direct impact on work success. Strong teams that have each other’s backs can move mountains, while disconnect and conflict can seriously damage the workflow of a project. Working together in a strong team creates synergy, a positive working atmosphere and holistically increases efficiency. Strengthening team spirit should therefore be a primary corporate goal. Sustaining a positive dynamic in a team in the current world of work can be a challenge, considering the high propensity of home office jobs, remote teams and cross-departmental project work. Thus, creating good energy in the team does not always work automatically and needs to be supported by staff development measures and strategies. In this article, we will show you how you can improve your team dynamics by implementing some very essential procedures.

4 strategies to strengthen the team spirit

Team collaboration can take different forms. Some teams work together on a long-term basis within a department, while others work together on a cross-departmental and project-related basis over a fixed period of time.

In both cases, each team member pursues a common goal and should ensure the highest level of efficiency throughout the process. However, this only works if everyone pulls together. To achieve this you need to give your team an adequate structure that will support rather than hinder efficiency. This includes open and transparent information and communication channels.
A team of employees putting together a puzzle.

Teamwork makes the dream work: Making the benefits of a strong team spirit visible.

A team is always made up of several individuals who differ in their work tasks as well as in their character. If communication is faulty, this can lead to tension and problems in the workplace where team members no longer share the same goal. As a leader, it is your responsibility to stress to the entire team that each member is working toward the same goal before the project begins. This prevents power imbalances, competitive pressures, and the pushing through of individual opinions.

The key message for the team should be: Being part of the team is an advantage, not an obstacle. The benefits range from an open exchange of information, synergy effects, and increased flexibility to assistance from colleagues. Such benefits can be communicated verbally, but it is even better if you record them in a way that is visible and can be retrieved at any time. An explainer video in our simpleshow video maker is a suitable medium, as it allows you to present all the information in an appealing manner.

We recommend including the actual target as well as the project team in the video. This creates an association with oneself and helps participants to identify with the project, promoting intrinsic motivation.

Clarify responsibilities while promoting agility

Project teams come in a variety of sizes. The more stakeholders work together, the more complex the collaboration becomes. Designating a leading force is important to ensure a smooth process. Leadership directives should be followed. At the same time, the leader serves as a role model and contact person. Still, there should be no hierarchical levels in a team. Communication must always be at eye level and transparent.

It is obvious that team structures should be clear. But they still need to be agile. Team leads should alternate within a project. That way, everyone takes the lead once. For this purpose, milestones in a project or quarters are an ideal way to provide new impulses and a change of perspective.

Strengthen your team spirit through job rotation

A person talking to another person.
Teamwork rises and falls with acceptance. Strengthening the team spirit only works with the necessary respect. Friendly banter and small talk are all well and good, but they do not necessarily reflect acceptance. Communication at eye level does not depend solely on hierarchical levels. Equality has to happen in the mind of each individual. So let’s swap jobs!

Job rotation is a measure within human resources development. It involves changing jobs between team members. This promotes the exchange of knowledge and clarifies the complex activities that colleagues carry out on a daily basis. In addition, job rotation increases flexibility. If someone drops out, the other team members still have the necessary knowledge to continue.

Diversity promotes solution-oriented thinking and innovation

In order to promote efficiency in a team, it can also be beneficial to set up diverse teams. In 2018, a McKinsey study showed that there is a correlation between diversity and business success. It showed that heterogeneous teams perform better than homogeneous teams. Why is that? Diversity promotes innovation, solution orientation and efficiency. Diversity matters!

Cross-level communication: 4 tips for a strengthened team spirit

Are endless feedback loops, lack of agreements and delays in the timeline clouding the mood in your team? Then you are suffering from communication asymmetries. This does not mean that there is no communication. The how is the issue.

Too many agreements, emails and notifications can be just as inefficient as not communicating at all. Teams need to communicate at different levels and, above all, they need to do so clearly and precisely. An open and structured culture of conversation will boost your team’s spirit.

Improve team spirit with off-topic chats and private exchange points.

A video screen showing video call with four employees.
Interpersonal relationships and a shared exchange should be encouraged. This creates trust and gets everyone pulling in the same direction. Yet private conversations shouldn’t disrupt the workflow. Communicate professionally and send funny memes at the same time? Yes, that’s possible! But in different chats, please.

Communication in companies is increasingly purely digital. It is precisely here that misunderstandings can occur and the overview can be lost due to non-transparent communication levels. Communication structures should enable private exchange, but not at the expense of clear communication in the project process. Introduce the different communication channels in an explanatory video. This makes it clear which conversations can take place in which operational channel.

At the same time, you can plan events that bring the team together. After-work drinks, joint billiards evenings, digital game evenings and excursions: these are offers that the HR department should provide to promote team spirit.

Promote an open feedback culture for swift problem solving

Working in a team is not always problem-free. Friction within the team, delays in the project process, and setbacks must be discussed and debated together. Working on problems together builds bonds. An open feedback culture is the basic prerequisite for a transparent and honest exchange.

Fixed feedback appointments can prevent problems or stop them in their tracks. The feedback method Opinion Flash is considered to be particularly effective. It can be carried out at regular intervals. Each team member can give feedback to colleagues for a few seconds and break down problems. For feedback to be received constructively, it requires trust, acceptance and a change of perspective. Team members should be able to empathize with others. Job rotation and other strategies should support this.

Need help communicating feedback constructively? Then why not create an explainer video on feedback and how it can build team spirit. It can serve as an orientation guide and increase acceptance of feedback received. In this way, knowledge can be bundled and used to solve problems.

Strengthen the team spirit with simpleshow video maker

We now know that the efficiency and thus the success of a team depends to a large extent on how it communicates, that everyone is pursuing the same goal, and that everyone meets on equal ground. An efficient workflow needs to be adjusted again and again. Rules and team leads can guide the team.

But you can also create such a workflow in the simpleshow video maker. An orientation video can introduce all people and their roles in the project, show the goals in a beneficial way, break down communication levels, define rules and outline the workflow of the project. That way, everyone is working together toward a common goal. Strengthening team spirit works with a spirit that makes all members burn for the goal.

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