5 Ways to Increase Team Productivity

By Tom Tate

It’s never an easy feat to accomplish a set of tasks if you don’t have a plan. Chances are you will find yourself struggling to meet a deadline, or having to turn in sub-quality work.

Now imagine this scenario: what if an entire team doesn’t have a plan or a prioritized course of action, or even a solid system for collaboration and communication? Avoid a web of repercussions by developing a system that will allow your team to be successful when working together and individually.

Here are five ways to increase productivity among teams:

1. Be agile.

Agile is a popular project management framework that typically includes the concept of team sprints. Sprinting--a component of being agile--is a designated length of time in which you or your team commit to completing a tangible set of valuable tasks.

The goal is to develop consistent output that can provide real value to customers. When sprinting, the team first evaluates a list of tasks that need to be completed within the sprint, and establishes the duration of the time period. Then, the team commits to the sprint and gets started.

Afterward, a meeting is held to see what was/wasn’t accomplished, what activities need to be put into the next sprint, and how to improve for next time. Sprinting requires the team to move fast, iterate frequently, and use recent data to make decisions which prevents planning for initiatives over long periods of time when market and customer expectations change rapidly.

2. Set and clarify team goals.

It is critical to determine and communicate team goals. This isn’t to be confused with assigning the team a set of tasks. This is about establishing a place that you want your team to be, and bringing awareness of the areas that need to be focused on. This guides the team members' efforts to be coordinated and meaningful as well as certifies that they are prioritizing their areas of work. Everyone needs to be on board with the end goals so that the team can collaborate to achieve them.

3. Stand up to update.

A Stand Up Meeting, or "SUM" for short, is a short daily meeting in which team members announce which tasks were completed the prior workday, and what they will be working on the current day. SUM updates keep everyone aware of who is doing what, and allow the team to keep up with the progress of tasks. These meetings should be very concise--no more than ten minutes--with the goal of removing any impediments or "blockers," and keeping things moving forward. Remember, an email of what has been accomplished cannot always replace face-to-face communication.

4. Run effective meetings.

Meetings should never be scheduled without a purpose and an agenda. Additionally, since time is our most valuable asset, we need to promote consistency and respect for each others’ time by sticking to the time box of each meeting.

Run effective meetings by having a solid agenda and a note taker to capture key takeaways. Both are essential to ensure that the meeting's purpose is served. Action items should be written down to allow team members to leave with a specific plan on how to go forward.

5. Promote personal productivity.

In order to help make the productivity of the team the best it can be, there is a need for the promotion of personal productivity. One of the best ways to engage in personal productivity is through a series of timed boxed work sessions called the Pomodoro Technique.

It’s simple. Set a timer for 25 minutes. Work on one specific thing (or a few specific things, though not at the same time), take a five minute break, then rinse and repeat. After a few Pomodoros, take a longer 10 to 15 minute break. This system promotes the limitation of distractions and allows for the creation of mini goals that you can strive to achieve with a sense of urgency.

Another great way to promote individual productivity is by using a task management system. These systems are effective because they keep every to-do in one centralized place which encourages focus and execution of tasks. Some examples are Jira, Trello, Evernote, and Wunderlist.

All of these productivity measures have the opportunity to facilitate the advancement of your team; however, implementing these suggestions should be gradual and taken with a grain of salt. There should be a focus on what already works, so that it’s only necessary to tweak the areas that are causing the most pain points. The key is to experiment with new methods often and find your team’s rhythm.