The essential tools to federate a team in a company

Team management tools provide valuable assistance to the manager in their work. One of their most sensitive missions is to maintain motivation. For the sustainability of the company’s activities, the manager must also be able to guarantee the sharing of common values and to arouse in each employee the desire to devote themselves to achieving the defined objectives. Used wisely, the management tools presented below help you optimize your ability to unite a team. They also work to improve the quality of internal communication between superiors and employees and the quality of interactions within the team. They improve the level of efficiency in project execution and ensure better results.

How to federate a team: tools to better interact with employees on a daily basis

Quality internal communication is one of the keys to uniting a team and getting the best out of it. Team cohesion tells you that the group is willing to move in the same direction. These tools serve to strengthen it.

1. A map of the actors

A map of the actors can take the form of a simple table, a marker, a pie chart, etc. This tool visually describes the social dynamics that take place in the team. It provides an overview of each member’s role. Based on this overview, you can easily identify the collaborators on whom you can rely (allies), those who must be pushed to action (wait-and-see), those who must be convinced (skeptics) and those whose antagonistic acts (hostiles) must be blocked.

2. A spontaneous barometer of the level of engagement

The engagement level barometer provides information on the involvement of each team member. A perfect complement to the map of actors, it is decisive in uniting the work team at first, before guiding it towards common values and leading it towards the achievement of collective objectives. To get a barometer of the level of engagement, you just have to carry out a mini-survey, via any channel. The survey should include one or two questions (no more), relating to the pleasure of working and the well-being of each person (to be expressed by a score). The average score lets you know if the team members are motivated and engaged enough.

3. Trade according to the principle of 5, 10, 15, 30

To unite your teams and create a stronger motivation in everyone, then a better cohesion overall, you must make everyone feel important. The method of 5, 10, 15, 30 recommends giving a certain amount of time to each employee. Ideally, the manager should discuss with everyone at least 5 minutes a day, 10 minutes a week, 15 minutes a month and 30 minutes a quarter. Each exchange, formal or informal, contributes to creating a healthier collaborative environment and improves the image of the company in the eyes of employees.

4. The problem tree

The problem tree is a team management tool that strengthens collaboration, with everyone learning to solicit and trust each other. It is especially relevant when the team is working on a one-time project. In the company, the problem tree is used to conduct participatory analysis of a problem. It starts from a central problem (the trunk), whose causes (roots) and consequences (upper branches and branches) are identified as secondary problems. Solutions can then be proposed gradually, until the problems raised are fully resolved. The problem tree is used to strengthen team cohesion. In some situations, it is even used to avoid bore-out to your employees, each feeling useful by participating in the resolution of everyone’s problems.

5. The snapshot of the team atmosphere

Quality of life at work partially depends on the importance given to individual concerns. To federate your teams, consider creating a “mood” space on a bulletin board. In this space, each employee spontaneously expresses their state of mind through a single word, a sticker with a human face or a color. This snapshot of the moods that must coexist and collaborate every day allows both the manager and the members of the group, to have perspective in the interactions, to think about organizing a team building to energize the atmosphere or to motivate the troops with a company evening, etc. In the absence of knowing the state of mind of employees in this way, it is also possible to go to a trusted platform of employee reviews, to read the resentments of employees.

Employee opinions, a lever to better federate its teams

Published via independent platforms, employee reviews allow companies to build confidence in future candidates. They get an idea of the atmosphere that reigns in their potential future work environment. On a trusted platform of employee reviews, the employer also obtains elements to understand the experience of their employees. It is then easy for them to readjust their management methods, so that their team is united and efficient. Discover our specific solution!

Strengthen your ability to federate a team with tools at the service of performance

It is important for a manager to continuously work on their ability to federate a team, in order to create the conditions favorable to excellent results. We present some team management tools that impact the technical parameters of your activity.

6. The dashboard

The dashboard allows various uses, and serves as a must among the business management tools used to federate a team. It brings together in one place indicators to be analyzed to anticipate changes and make decisions. The dashboard can also present a list of the components of a department of the company, a project, etc., with the possibility of monitoring the status of each one on a daily basis and having real-time reports.

The manager uses it to refine their human resources management strategies, in particular to succeed in his recruitment campaign and monitor the productivity of each employee. The dashboard is also used to monitor the progress of a project, the tasks entrusted to team members, etc.

7. Visual tracking of activities

Visual monitoring or visual management is built with a whiteboard, a flipchart page, kraft paper, etc. On this support, which is visible to all, categories must be created corresponding to the possible statuses for each task: assigned or unassigned, in progress, late, in control, completed, etc. Each task listed under a category is associated with the execution time, the initials or first name of the manager, the degree of importance, if any, etc.

Formulate the categories according to the requirements you have established to unite your team. To effectively address the specific issues of your team, involve members in the design of this visual tracking space. Visual management is perfect for federating your group and making it a self-organized team.

8. Quick points in stand-up mode

During the execution of a project, it is essential not to let blockages or failures accumulate. The quick points, held in about ten minutes and usually standing, offer both the opportunity to know where each member is or to do a brief brainstorming on possible difficulties. Their frequency depends on the size and duration of the project (2 times a day on a short project, 1 time per week on a project of several months, etc.). From one stand-up point to another, the progress made and the expectations for the continuation of the project are summarized. In a process of mobilizing all skills for long-term projects, this group management tool is one of those that limit the impact of turnover in companies. Thanks to it, newcomers quickly and easily absorb the situation.

9. Histogram of priorities

The choice of priorities is one of the golden rules of management, both in project management and team management. To unite your team, get the whole group to define priorities by mutual agreement. List the available options (tasks to be performed, objectives to be achieved, etc.), then invite each employee to assign a limited number of points to the options they consider to be priorities, or to check a box next to a single option that they consider to be a priority above all, etc.

10. A periodic retrospective review

To weld a team, nothing beats a regular retrospection. The whole team challenges itself, so that each member is freed from the burden they might feel after making mistakes. In addition to influencing the cohesion of the group, retrospective reviews give an overall vision of the strengths on which to rely for the future and the weak points to improve.

Effective team management using online collaborative tools

Quality collaborative work is the purpose of the strategies put in place to federate a team and enhance cohesion. For projects carried out remotely or integrating digitized information elements, some collaborative tools will be of great help.

11. Asana

Asana is a comprehensive task management tool. On each project, it provides a dedicated space through which messages can be sent. This tool also includes features to track the execution rate of the entire project. In a single space, the manager has what is necessary for the monitoring of each project.

12. Yammer

If you want to have a better ability to unite your teams, it is essential that you know how to break down the “barriers” between you and your employees. Yammer, the social network derived from the Microsoft Office 365 suite, provides a virtual environment where the exchange of ideas and information is facilitated for all team members at all levels.

13. Slack

In your role as a team leader, Slack is a collaborative tool that will serve you well if you need to oversee many projects simultaneously. Operating on a single string principle associated with each project, Slack simplifies file and message exchanges related to current tasks.

14. Jira

The work of a harmonious self-organized team is best achieved when projects are accurately supervised. Managers who are adept at the agile method will find Jira the almost perfect tool. With Jira, launch several types of projects depending on the management methodology you want to adopt. Workflow features (to observe the progress of the workflow), task assignment to each member and reporting are also available.

15. Monday

The Monday collaboration tool is suitable for managing multiple teams, with workflow automation and decomposition into daily tasks that help refine processes. The leader can rely on this versatile dashboard to federate all their teams and control the performance of each.