As a manager, your team’s coordination means everything to you. Without it, you know you won’t get anything done. But it’s not always that your people work closely. Sometimes they go their own ways. When this happens, you beat your brains out on how you can bring them closer together again. And so you might ask yourself, how can you sustain your teamwork?

The usual employee heads straight to work after you give them directives. They do the work you asked them to do the second you finished your instructions. The problem is, without a two-way discussion of the directive, the employee will most probably not get everything right.

This is a classic tale between a manager and a staff. What can you do to get your staff to talk to you?

Whenever you’re starting a team project, assign tasks in a meeting setup. This strategy is better than just assigning individual tasks separately. In a meeting, you can discuss how Staff A’s assignment is needed to proceed with Staff B’s task so that everyone will see how each other’s work is connected. And by discussing the project before your team, you can make sure that everyone understands the campaign and the objectives before you start the execution.

Encourage everyone to voice out their opinions. Each of your staff has their own fields of expertise. Consult with them when you need a piece of information which they might know. Doing this will motivate your staff to be more participative.

Uphold a policy of information sharing. Make sure every new information is disseminated to all the staff. The purpose of information sharing is to defeat individual performance and promote group communication. Territorial behavior only results in alienation and intimidation.

Eliminate barriers. You can do this by promoting a proactive working environment.