How To Motivate And Build A Collaborative Team

 Collaboration is essentially the practice of sharing knowledge and ideas to achieve a common goal. Companies are now embracing it to leverage the experience and maximize resources in a fast-paced business world. 

According to Harvard Business Review, over the past two decades, collaborative work activities have increased by fifty percent or more. That’s great if your group works well together and shares a loyalty to the company. 

What if they don’t? How do you build a collaborative team? Start by focusing on the individuals. A well-run, performing team is comprised of engaged, happy people. And you can create happy employees by encouraging and supporting personal fulfillment.

You may have seen Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a theory of human motivation, in your college psychology course. Every person has five levels of human needs that determine how fulfilled he or she feels. 

How is this relevant to building productive, motivated workgroups? Understanding this hierarchy can help you effectively motivate employees and build a collaborative team.  

In the hierarchy, there are five tiers that progress from basic safety needs to self-actualization. Each level builds on the previous and impacts employees’ overall satisfaction with their workplace.

 Once our basic safety and physiological needs are satisfied, we desire to have purpose, value, and goals. 

Collaborative Team Builders:

Image source - Melissa Miller

a. Purpose:

We all need to get up each morning and feel the work we are doing has purpose and meaning. That personal connection to the organization builds an engaged, loyal team that works harder, helps peers, and considers what is best for the company. 

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