Majority of active businesses have more than one individual working towards a common goal. These individuals often come from a diverse background, possess different set of capabilities and have different means or approaches to achieve a given task. Therefore, it is of high priority that these individuals come together and work in cohesion so that the desired results can be achieved easily and cherished by each one of them.

The importance of working together and sharing labor can well be understood from practical day-to-day scenarios, such as individuals sharing family responsibilities, football players assuming their assigned roles on playground, or a group of schoolchildren moving hand in hand while crossing a busy road.

These three scenarios make an interesting case study for applying principles of teamwork in a business environment. While the first scenario points towards the importance of employees proactively sharing a group task, the second scenario highlights the significance of each employee utilizing their individual capabilities to reduce the team load. The third and the most interesting scenario serves as a perfect example for the trust and faith that each employee needs to have on other team members while working together in a common pursuit.

Effective teamwork brings the concept of “sharing best practice” to the fore. Considering that each individual in a team has a different role to play, and need not necessarily be acquainted with overall activity at hand, “team play” ensures that each team member shares his/her knowledge or experience on a given task to other team members, thus driving a well-informed, knowledgeable and a practical approach towards finishing the group task.

Having a capable team is every organization’s dream, but bringing different individuals together on a common platform and ensuring that they work in tandem demands more than just sourcing skills for an organization. Good leadership, effective communication, team building activities and personal ethics are the factors that can drive teamwork in an organization. The role of a team leader in setting goals for the team, assigning right tasks to right individuals, ensuring equal distribution of workload, and having development and backup plans for each team member, helps instill team spirit and avoid team conflicts. Effective communication has always been vital for interaction between team members.

Communicating individual perceptions, ideas, goals, or plans of action in a clear and precise manner is critical for ensuring that team members are on a common platform. The role of team building activities, such as team outings, team huddles, participation in sports etc., cannot be underestimated, as they provide an opportunity for team members to know more about each other, which eventually improves workplace relations. Above all, personal ethics and the individual interest in working with a group are basic necessities for teamwork, considering that all the above efforts would only be successful, if the individual is open towards working in a group.