In today’s world, there’s not much you can do as an individual that you cannot do better as team. In various spheres of life, team spirit is important, and being a part of the right kind of team empowers you. This is especially true in the corporate framework, where group cohesion plays a mighty role in determining the success or failure of a team. In this article, you’ll learn about what group cohesion is and why it is important. You’ll also get to explore some ideas for improving group cohesion in the workplace.
What Is Group Cohesion?
Also known as group cohesiveness, group cohesion is the bond that pulls the people in particular group together, and keeps them from separating from that group. It arises when the people in a particular group are linked together by common goals, purposes, or ideals. Typically, group cohesion has the following three important features.
Interpersonal Attraction
Group cohesiveness results in the members of the group wanting to interact with one another. They enjoy this kind of interaction instead of merely enduring it, and actually seek it out.
Group Pride
Group cohesion gives the members of a group a certain pride in belonging to the team. They believe that being part of the group adds value to them, just as they add value to the group.
Commitment to the Group’s Work
Above all, a cohesive group encourages the members to stay committed to the group’s overall objective, and inspires them to place their own goals below the goals of the group.
Why Is It Important?
Group cohesion is important because it comes with a number of benefits, as we’ll see here.
Higher Levels of Motivation
Motivation is what keeps an individual going. In a healthy team with strong forces of group cohesion, each member uplifts and encourages the others. This naturally results in the group staying motivated without the need for any external influences.
Improved Productivity
Group cohesion results in lower stress levels for the members. This in turn translates to lower rates of absenteeism and more consistent productivity for the group and for the individuals. Thus the goals of the group are achieved faster and more effectively.
Better Satisfaction
Group cohesiveness is also important because it results in better work satisfaction for the individuals involved. Nobody feels left out because everybody has something to contribute to the group. As a result, everyone is satisfied and does better work that they normally would.
Savings in Time and Costs
Group cohesion helps to save time and costs in more ways than one. A well-constituted group enjoys improved productivity, as we’ve seen before. This helps the group accomplish their objectives in a much shorter timeframe and for much less cost than otherwise.
Increased Efficiency
Since each individual’s performance improves when there’s a choesive group in play, it means that the overall efficiency of the group increases along with the rise in the individual’s effectiveness. As a result, the group fares better in all that they do.
How to Improve Group Cohesion
Improving group cohesion can seem like a challenge, especially in a group of diverse people. However, with a few tips to guide you, you’ll find that the task gets easier. Here are some ideas that can help improve cohesion in a group.
Select Your Team Correctly
Selecting the members of your team with care plays a major role in determining the levels of group cohesion. Members of a group could be chosen from your company’s existing pool of employees, or recruited from outside the company. In either case, it is necessary to make sure that they can work well together. It doesn’t make sense to pair people who don’t get along with one another, because that is only going to increase tension within the group and decrease the overall productivity. Also, if there’s a candidate who possess excellent technical skills, but lacks the ability to collaborate with other members of a team, then they may not be a good fit in a group.
Establish a Common Objective
Once you’ve picked out the members and formed the group, you’ll need to give them a common goal or objective to work toward. To ensure that there’s cohesion, you need to clearly explain the objectives of the team or the project to the members. Deciding upon a goal gives the workers a clarity of thought, and allows them to employ their individual skills in the best possible manner in an endeavor to achieve the common objective. In the absence of a common goal, there could be a lot of confusion about the application of their various skills, leading to internal conflicts within the group. This is ultimately going to minimize the group cohesion and interfere with the task at hand.
Develop the Practice of Teamwork
Teamwork is often identified as an important aspect of achieving group cohesion in a unit. However, it can be a challenge to translate the idea into action, because working together as a team is a skill that is built over time. To help your group work better together, develop and practice teambuilding exercises that promote a sense of oneness and camaraderie. These activities should be performed before you get your team to work on an actual project, because it gives you an idea of how individual members react and respond to various stimuli in a group. It can also help you identify the positive skills and the negative traits of each person in the team.
Encourage Diversity
In an effort to improve cohesion, many employers and managers make the mistake of teaming up people with similar skills or qualifications. Now, this may appear to encourage cohesion initially. In the long run, however, it could prove to be disruptive for the team’s common objective. Instead, bring together people with diverse skills and varying experiences. This way, everyone brings something valuable to the table, and each person learns something from everyone on the team. A diverse group can rely on the skills of all the people involved, thus helping the team tackle a wide variety of issues successfully. It is for this reason that the most successful teams often include people from diverse backgrounds.
Make Feedback a Two-Way Street
Feedback often gets a bad rap and is viewed as a negative element. The truth couldn’t be further, because the right kind of feedback helps the team and all the individuals in it grow. So, at each milestone along the project, give your team feedback on their performance. The feedback offered should be for each individual, and for the team as a whole. Make sure that your feedback is constructive, but remember to include the areas that can be improved upon. Also, encourage your team to offer their own feedback about their performance as a group. This helps them introspect and identify the problematic areas, and it also makes them feel like their opinion is valued.
Keep the Channels of Communication Open
Communication is an important factor that plays a major role in promoting group cohesion. As a manager, you should keep the channels of communication between yourself and the team open. Also, encourage the members of the group to communicate with one another regularly, as this allows for a healthy exchange of ideas. Effective communication of the goals, the objectives, the strategies, and the steps involved in a process also helps to avoid confusion at a later stage. So, to facilitate better communication between the members of the team and to encourage group cohesion, try various methods like setting up email lists, chat boxes, and brainstorming sessions.
Volunteer Together
Volunteering at a non-profit organization can give the employees a chance to bond outside the workplace. This helps them cultivate a relationship without the stresses of the job pressing down upon them. It also allows the team members to understand the dynamics of how their colleagues work, and to comprehend the skills and work ethics of the others in their team. This brings them closer and fosters group cohesion in a non-threating and less competitive space. It also adds a positive dimension to the team’s working mechanisms. When the bonds cultivated during activities like volunteering are transmuted into the workplace, it becomes easier for the members of a group to function better together.
Make Time to Celebrate
This is the final step in building and strengthening the group cohesion and team spirit. While may not be possible to celebrate every minor success, you should certainly take a break and cool off after each major project is done and dusted successfully. It could be a simple celebration like a team lunch or drinks after work, or something grander like a team outing or a group vacation to someplace nice. The importance of making time to celebrate the successes of a team is often overlooked by employers and managers. It may seem like a trivial thing, but it can substantially impact how the group cohesion built during the project continues to grow after it’s done.
Conclusion
Developing a unified team with strong group cohesion may be a challenge in some situations. However, when done successfully, the benefits are worth the efforts. It helps everyone grow individually and as a team.
