Breaking Down Teamwork Barriers – A Letter From REB’s President

It should come as no surprise to you that communication within a team is vitally important to its performance and success. Communication within a team enhances collaboration and reinforces positive workplace culture and work environment. Effective communication reduces conflict and helps the team stay aligned to accomplish its goals.

But how do you work through those teamwork barriers to have effective communication?

To establish an open channel of communication within your team, feedback, or two-way communication, should be implemented and encouraged. Often, those of us in a leadership position tend to give feedback to our employees but forget to allow them the opportunity to present their comments, ideas or concerns. Two-way communication helps generate mutual respect within your team and helps employees feel more valued in their roles.

It’s important for a company to promote collaboration through team-building activities to help boost relationships and overall company culture.

At REB, we make sure to incorporate team-building activities both within and across departments throughout the year. Some of these include “get to know each other” activities, such as trivia with questions based on everyone’s life outside of work. We’ve found that activities such as these help everyone see each other outside of day-to-day work, which has helped build and strengthen relationships. Another example of these activities is simply to have a “thank you” lunch for those within a department or departments that worked as a team to achieve a specific goal.

– Lori L. Palmer, President, REB Storage Systems International