The need to unite teams has been amplified over the past several years and requires leaders to think outside the box.
Leaders have been tasked with finding ways to connect their employees, create purpose, and keep people engaged, often in distributed or remote settings.
Creating unity in the workplace, especially during periods of uncertainty, is critical to an organization’s growth and stability.
Here’s an overview of how leaders can create unity in the workplace.
What Does Team Unity Mean?
Workplace unity goes beyond simply having a shared set of goals. It’s about cultivating a shared vision where everyone feels connected to a common purpose, working towards that vision in a trusting and inclusive environment.
When a team is properly united, employees can maximize strengths and bring out the best in each team member.
This requires:
- Open communication
- Clarity of vision and goals
- Team alignment and effective collaboration
- Transparency and accountability
- Psychological safety
- Respect of differences
Building team unity is challenging for any team, but it becomes even more complex for virtual and distributed teams where distance can create barriers to connection and collaboration.
Where in-person teams can often enjoy community-building events, 1:1 in-person meetings, and large group outings,
According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), remote workers often feel siloed, which can result in emotional strain and burnout.
Unity for remote workers is possible but requires deliberate and consistent effort, strategic use of technology, and active engagement from leaders.
Team Unity and Conflict
It’s important to note that team unity doesn’t mean there isn’t any conflict.
Team unity is about how employees work through conflict and disagreements. It pertains to a shared goal and vision, not an environment where the team agrees entirely.
- Diversity of thought: When team members feel safe to express their thoughts and that their opinions are valued, their sense of inclusion improves, bolstering team unity.
- Problem-solving: Teams that engage in productive disagreements are able to identify and solve problems more effectively than teams that fall into the trap of groupthink.
- Improved communication: When team members engage in open communication, expressing differing opinions respectfully, their overall ability to communicate effectively improves.
It’s important to note that the benefits of disagreements to team unity are only realized if they’re productive.
According to HBR, the most influential factor in determining whether a disagreement has a positive or negative outcome is the participants’ willingness to learn from one another.
This means that active listening and open-mindedness are both key to successful conflicts that don’t disrupt team unity.
Why Is Team Unity Important?
Working in a professional environment where team members and employees support one another leads to a boost in productivity and job satisfaction.
Employees will be happier in their given careers and will have an easier time trusting each other.
Here are three key benefits of team unity.
1. Increased Productivity
When teams are united, they’re able to collaborate more effectively.
This is important because research shows that approximately 70% of employees believe poor collaboration is decreasing their productivity.
This is why, according to HBR, a high-performing team relies on a culture of shared values.
Enhancing team unity allows goals to be more attainable and optimizes performance, improving job satisfaction and increasing productivity.
2. Morale Boost
When individuals work together and trust one another, it allows them to feel safe and comfortable in the workplace.
This can provide a significant morale boost to the company as employees are happier in their jobs.
When people appreciate their jobs and the people they work with, they’ll stay with the company longer.
3. Creative Development
As individuals work together in an environment where they feel supported by their co-workers, they have an easier time coming up with new ideas.
Creative thinking is vital to organizational success since people need to rely on each other to brainstorm new ideas.
Having different points of view allows a company to become successful as you can see product development ideas from different angles.
How to Build Team Unity in the Workplace
Team unity in the workplace can be challenging to establish. Here are some of the most effective methods that you should try.
1. Facilitate Social Events and Opportunities to Connect
Spending time together as a team can bolster team unity by allowing for team bonding. That’s because personal conversations help team members identify shared interests, fostering deeper liking and authentic connections.
According to HBR, building social capital is crucial to success, especially for hybrid, remote, or distributed teams.
For this reason, it’s important to provide opportunities for team members to connect unrelated to work. This gives them the freedom to build camaraderie and establish workplace friendships, which is vital not only for unity but also for retention.
Research from McKinsey shows that two of the most common reasons employees choose to leave their jobs are a lack of belonging (51%) and a desire to work with people who care about and trust one another (46%).
By enjoying social events together, your team will be able to foster a strong bond that carries over into the workplace. You’ll also be able to create a great dynamic that cultivates a healthy and positive environment.
2. Cultivate Open Communication and Psychological Safety
Employees must be able to talk to each other in an open environment where they can share ideas and feel respected.
This is why psychological safety is one of the most important components of team unity. The ability to take interpersonal risks without fear of punishment or humiliation is key to creating the kind of environment where teams thrive.
According to research compiled by the World Economic Forum, psychologically safe teams are more likely to:
- Learn: Encouraging open questions, admitting mistakes, and seeking help from others allows for continuous learning.
- Contribute: Unified teams with psychological safety understand that they’re all pursuing the same goal, so they feel more comfortable speaking up with ideas or suggestions.
- Challenge: Diversity of thought is key to successful team performance, so it’s important to encourage team members to voice concerns and engage in productive disagreements.
- Feel included: Psychologically safe teams have a stronger sense of belonging, and are more likely to feel valued and involved.
In addition to helping unite a team, psychological safety and open communication help reduce turnover. The Boston Consulting Group found that psychologically safe employees have only a 3% risk of leaving their team.
3. Be Strategic With Technology
Leaders today rely on virtual platforms such as Slack, Teams, and Zoom to foster connection—especially when employees work from home.
Using these platforms strategically is important to ensuring ease of connection and information gathering.
For example, Entrepreneur recommends that leaders effectively organize their channels into different categories to reduce complications of asking and answering relevant questions.
These channels can include overarching topics, such as marketing or finance, but also individual projects and even fun topics such as memes or “water cooler conversations.”
A quick way to divide staff in today’s remote climate is to deny them the tools to do their jobs effectively.
It’s also important to be aware of when technology becomes an obstacle to unity and productivity.
- Video fatigue: While video conferencing is often a great way to encourage connection while remote, employees may need a day where they’re off-camera.
- Technology exhaustion: Excessive use of technology can result in “technostress,” reducing employee well-being.
- Unnecessary friction: When employees have to navigate through excessive platforms to accomplish their tasks, it’s likely to disrupt productivity and result in frustration.
It’s important to optimize your technology platforms based on your company’s needs to ensure you’re not using more than you need to.
How Teamraderie Can Help Achieve Unity in the Workplace
Unified organizations are successful organizations. If you’re looking for even more ways to promote and foster unity within your team, check out Teamraderie!
Teamraderie offers high-quality, research-based, and interactive team experiences that build connections.
These live, virtual workshops are led by experts such as Olympians, authors, Harvard and Stanford professors, and more.
Our team will take care of all the logistics—all you have to do is choose an experience, pick a day to do it, and invite your team.
Click here to check out Teamraderie’s extensive list of team experiences.
