How to foster team synergy and improve productivity

Have you ever worked with a group where everything clicked? You’re on the same wavelength, and creativity is flowing so fast that team members can barely keep up. The team builds on each other’s ideas, producing new solutions without stopping to explain. Everyone instinctively gets it. 

This powerful flow state can make you believe in telepathy, but it’s not magic; it’s team synergy. Let’s explore how you can harness it to help your team excel.

What is team synergy?

“Synergy” is one of those buzzwords that gets tossed around so much that it starts to lose meaning. However, the concept has a fascinating history.

At its most basic, the term synergy, from the Latin synergia, itself derived from Ancient Greek’s sunergos, means “to work together” or “to collaborate.” For centuries, the term has cropped up in discourses ranging from philosophy to mathematics before finally appearing in the workplace in the mid-60s. In 1975, the term gained mainstream traction thanks to thinker and inventor Buckminster Fuller. Fuller’s seminal work, Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, uses the term synergy to describe the concept that diverse contributors working on a collective action can produce results with greater impact than the sum value of their individual inputs. 

The modern corporate lexicon employs the term synergy in discussions about the value of combining the strengths of individuals or organizations. However, the concept goes beyond collaboration to describe a heightened team dynamic where creativity and problem-solving thrive. At its heart, effective communication, complementary skills, and trust combine to trigger the development of synergy. 

When a synergistic team directs its energy toward a shared goal, innovation and productivity go through the roof. 

Why is synergy important?

Synergy directly impacts a collaborative group’s effectiveness, productivity, and outcomes. When team members sync, the group riffs off one another’s ideas, using their collective strengths and talents to expand on the original concept. Ultimately, it maximizes the collective’s ability to innovate and problem-solve.

Open communication is a key contributor to synergy. Synergistic teams are receptive to new ideas and provide constructive feedback, improving the quality of their outputs. This supportive workplace environment feeds into a culture of continuous improvement. Team members aren’t afraid of risk, and that makes them readily adaptable.  

But a synergistic team doesn’t just benefit the organization. The supportive culture and improved communication foster team harmony at the individual level. There are fewer conflicts, and the group dynamic drives accountability and encourages growth. Morale is high, improving workplace engagement and reducing turnover.

In a rapidly changing economic environment, a group that can tackle complex issues to generate lucrative breakthroughs holds a unique competitive advantage. Moreover, teams of this caliber are invested in each other and their organizational objectives, making synergy critical to corporate success.

Team synergy vs. teamwork

Teamwork refers to a collaborative effort to attain a shared goal. The group relies on cooperation, communication, and labor coordination to succeed. Although these are all essential factors, synergy requires more.

Remember, synergistic team culture produces outcomes greater than individual contributions. To achieve synergy, team members must work harmoniously, blending their diverse skills and experiences to produce high-caliber results that transcend desired goals and objectives.

Teamwork is indeed the first part of the synergy equation, but the group must also focus beyond cooperation and coordination. In an environment of enhanced transparency and trust, team members readily share ideas and insights, no matter how novel. Their skills are complementary, shoring up weaknesses and optimizing the collective’s strengths and abilities to level up overall contributions.

Achieving team synergy demands that individuals come together and develop a deeper group understanding, shared vision, and a joint commitment to leveraging their unique and diverse perspectives.

Benefits of synergy

Team synergy delivers a wide range of professional and organizational advantages. Benefits vary depending on group composition, but typically, a business experiences the following:

Improved performance

Team synergy generates effective problem-solving by producing a team whose shared strengths compensate for individual weaknesses. A diverse team dynamic also reduces the impact of individual bias on decision-making. Without blindspots, the team makes informed, well-rounded decisions that maximize resource use, minimize redundancy, and reduce waste, leading to greater productivity and performance.

Enhanced adaptation and innovation

Synergy establishes an open-minded team culture that embraces risk, making the group more open to new approaches and adaptable to shifting priorities and circumstances. Combined with a medley of diverse viewpoints, the blend of adaptability, enterprise, and willingness to experiment produces groundbreaking advances and innovations.

Increased job satisfaction

Team members operating within a synergistic environment report higher job satisfaction and engagement. A corporate culture that’s committed to listening to and acting on differing staff perspectives ensures everyone is heard, valued, and supported. Leadership addresses challenges openly and constructively, ensuring solutions benefit and contribute to stronger relationships. As a result, teams become motivated to perform.

Heightened corporate reputation

Workers are attracted to a dynamic, highly motivated team and a supportive corporate culture that fosters belonging and purpose. Employees are emotionally invested in the company, making them reluctant to leave. Top industry talent is eager to join. As a result, the company experiences a competitive edge in the labor market that allows it to minimize costs associated with recruitment, training, and retention.

How to create synergy in a team

A synergistic team doesn’t occur through magic or chance. The dynamic requires strong leadership invested in creating a supportive environment where trust and open-mindedness thrive.

Here are some ways corporate leadership can build team synergy:

1. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

Effective communication skills are critical for high-functioning groups, especially when team members bring diverse perspectives, opinions, and experiences to the table. Everyone should feel comfortable expressing themselves freely. Otherwise, they’ll suppress their individuality to conform, which stifles a synergistic environment.

Start with these strategies to establish effective communication between team members:

• Select channels: Codify when, where, and how team members communicate with each other at group launch – whether by email, messenger, or face-to-face. Ensure everyone acknowledges and agrees to follow these guidelines.

• Focus on specificity: Complex projects and heavy workloads contribute to confusing ambiguity. Encourage team members to be as detailed as possible when communicating. For example, the group could collaborate to establish a definition of “done,” ensuring deliverables are as complete as possible.

• Prioritize inclusivity: To maintain ongoing contribution, leadership should value and honor team members’ input. These actions encourage everyone to speak up, adding their unique viewpoints to problem-solving and innovation efforts. Find ways to accommodate different communication styles, encourage brainstorming, and answer questions at the end of every meeting.

• Offer feedback: Encourage two-way communication by prompting productive feedback among colleagues. Constructive criticism helps clarify vision, promote accountability, and demonstrate that every voice matters, regardless of position.

2. Foster trust and collaboration

Trust and collaboration are modeled from the top down. Here’s how to promote these values in your organization:

• Encourage co-creation: Each team member should contribute comprehensively rather than limiting their input to their narrow range of expertise. Conduct routine brainstorming sessions, invite discussions, and open the door to constructive disagreement as part of the creative process.

• Model the behavior: Lead by example to encourage collaboration. Management can foster inclusivity, respect, and fairness by welcoming questions, feedback, and differences of opinion.

• Promote psychological safety: Sharing one’s authentic self requires a leap of faith. Leadership can ensure team members are comfortable taking that risk by remaining vulnerable, celebrating victories and defeats, and maintaining a lighthearted atmosphere.

• Be curious: Don’t wait for something to go wrong. Seek and act on feedback to improve leadership efforts.

3. Establish clear objectives

A synergistic team requires a sense of purpose to invest emotionally in a project. Leadership can inspire motivation by aligning the team with a shared vision and common goals. Clearly stated objectives improve decision-making, resource allocation, and collaboration. Try these tactics to align your team:

• Illustrate the big picture: Outline the mission, vision, and values that guide organizational strategy. 

• Set SMART goals: Establish goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound to provide a sense of direction.

• Foster ownership: Identify dependencies and relationships between shared goals to promote accountability. No one wants to let their teammates down, so they’re motivated to complete individual tasks that contribute to team outcomes.

4. Perform regular assessments

Individuals may struggle to evaluate their strengths out of humility. However, identifying team members’ talents reinforces self-confidence and provides insights into additional skills the group can leverage. These insights broaden the talent pool and expand roles and responsibilities. They also identify which individuals to lean on when the group faces a unique challenge.

Examples of synergy in the workplace

Synergy is critical to organizational success, but it’s not always recognizable. Here are some common examples of synergistic teams in the workplace:

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) campaigns: Diversity in the workplace has an established track record of helping organizations tap into new perspectives and ideas, boosting innovation, adaptability, and profitability.

• Security hackathons: Common in the tech industry, these events partner developers into collaborative groups who work in short, intense bursts. Teams leverage their unique skills to rapidly identify weaknesses in firewalls and other security protocols. These events help experts evolve protections and respond to advancing cybersecurity threats.

• Design workshops: Multidisciplinary groups gather to solve complex workplace issues using their expertise, empathy, and creativity. By harnessing collective intelligence, team members can readily produce solutions to systemic challenges.

Enhancing team synergy with Tempo

Tempo can provide the clarity and communication you need to build team synergy. Our Strategic Roadmaps application builds visibility into requirements and goals, streamlining your team’s brainstorming, prioritization, and execution of new ideas. The intuitive format helps generate stakeholder support at the conceptualization stage, allowing the team to accelerate development and deploy innovations faster.