<![CDATA[Do you know what the difference is between a squad and a team? And there is a big difference because the two are not the same. A team is an involuntary thing that you are entered into as a part of your environment to get a certain task completed. Being in a team does not guarantee that it will perform highly, work towards a common goal or drive a business forward. At its simplest form, it is a collection of singular people put on the same team.  A squad however, is a group of people that have bonded, strive towards a common purpose, and who will work above personal gain for the greater good. Which is why you should concentrate on building squads and not teams. You don’t want just a team; you want a strong team aka a squad.

We appreciate that there are some old school thinkers in the business world that will tell you work isn’t a place to hang out with your best friends, and nor is it an arena for socializing, but in today’s blended world, as the lines between home and work become increasingly blurred and merge together, you can’t afford to not enjoy the work you do, or the people you work with and there’s an opportunity for businesses to capitalize on the new way of working by embracing and celebrating it. To help them do that, we put together some things we’ve learnt over the years from building high performing teams, aka, squads:

CHEMISTRY MATTERS

It isn’t enough to put skilled individuals into a collective and expect it to work. The chemistry and personality types must be right in order to create a common objective. Trust us, we deal in chemistry every day and you can never underestimate how powerful a team of people can be when they like, respect and trust one another. Trust is a huge factor.

SET THE RIGHT FOUNDATIONS

And by foundations we do mean values. Ensure the values of the people in the team are aligned and don’t jar against other members. Common beliefs and goals allows everyone to work towards a common goal. It truly is that simple.

COMMUNICATE

Communication is the thing that will make or break a squad. Open channels of communication allow teams to value each other, add value, dissect problems and stamp out grievances before they snowball out of control. It also makes room for conversation that is not solely work related but is instrumental in creating a tight-knit community. It doesn’t matter what platform this happens on, it could be Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, a group text or emails, but those team conversations need to be happening somewhere. It also allows for a more transparent team.

KEEP IT HONEST

There must be honesty and openness between everyone, or else weak links start creeping in. Create an environment where honesty is valued and everyone is encouraged to speak their mind. At the start this might mean creating and holding those spaces, like a monthly feedback session, until, those conversations become second nature. Allow for healthy tension, constructive discussion, feedback and collaboration. It makes a big difference both in culture and performance.

CELEBRATE

This includes the successes and the failures. Creating noise around the milestones creates real senses of achievements and progress, something every squad, team and tribe needs. These are some of the most pivotal moments that will bond your people tightly together. In addition, bringing the team together when they’ve suffered failures hones the idea that failure is a collective, and not the result of one team member. It means that bringing them together physically keeps everyone talking about it which leads the team to solutions. Failures will undoubtedly happen; it’s how the team works together when they do that will make all the difference.

CREATE SOCIAL SPACES

Schedule in monthly, or bi-weekly, events that the whole team must attend. Don’t always make these after hours, but within office working hours. It sends the message that the social aspect of the team is just as important. And it is. It draws people out of their shell, allows friendships to happen and gives the opportunity for people to know each other a little better. We here at Protis Global do lunches or mini happy hours often. You can also create spaces in your office which enable productive and constructive interactions throughout the workday. Building a squad might seem harder initially than just throwing some people into a team and expecting it to work, but if you lay the right foundations at the start for that squad to flourish and thrive, the things they do will far surpass anything you could have hoped for from any other team in the business. Essentially, squad up!

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