Four Different Ways to Foster a Positive Team Culture (and Why Team Culture Matters So Much)

For any organisation to be successful, it is vital that it actively adopts a positive team culture.

Do not underestimate just how much team culture matters. By embracing a positive team culture at your company, you can break down boundaries between different teams and departments, guide better decision-making, and ensure workflows are improved.

Ultimately, a good team culture ensures your team functions well and the people in the team work together in a positive way.

Now you know the basics of why team culture matters so much, let us explore four different ways in which you can foster a positive team culture in your company.

1. Make it Easier for Employees to Connect and Communicate with One Another

Positive team culture is all about ensuring different people in teams and departments are cohesive.

Therefore, enabling different people to communicate and connect with each other so that they can support one another is a crucial element of a good team culture.

So, you should make it easy for different people and departments to communicate with each other.

You could utilise an intranet where employees can easily get in touch with one another.

You should also consider the layout of the work environment. For instance, you could enhance team communication by using an open cubicle approach and using meeting spaces that are perfect for collaboration.

2. Regularly Hold Team-building Activities

Another great way of bringing different people and teams together is to hold team-building activities on a regular basis.

You can utilise training exercises to identify strengths and weaknesses and also use team-building activities that are fun to help break down boundaries and bring employees together.

When workers spend time together and complete fun exercises that require them to work together to solve problems, the positivity of your company’s team culture is sure to improve.

Get started by checking out these effective team building activities.

3. Encourage Social Recognition

Managers and team leaders can help to foster a positive team culture and motivate individual employees when they provide recognition programs to reward workers with awards or gifts for jobs well done.

But social recognition is just as important, or perhaps even more important, as rewarding employees with items of monetary value.

By acknowledging someone with no money, managers and team leaders can show their employees that they care and appreciate the hard work that the employees have put in.

Social recognition can be as simple as saying “thank you” and “well done” every time an employee accomplishes a task or goes above and beyond the call of duty.

At the end of the day, the more you praise your team and recognise individual contributions, the more the employees will feel valued and be happier in their work. In turn, that fosters a positive team culture.

4. Draft a Values Statement

It can be a good idea to draft a values statement for your company to further improve the team culture.

That means gaining input from your team members to discern what is important to them.

For instance, by holding a meeting or conducting a survey, you can ask your employees what they value, which values should govern the way in which each person in the company interacts with one another, and which values will help to promote team culture building.

The more input you get from every employee and the more you listen to what each team member has to say, the easier it will be to ensure your team culture policies are the best ones for cultivating a positive culture among your team.