In 
A surefire route to productivity is a cohesive, well-utilized team. Most of us have felt the benefits of working with a motivated, cooperative team; equally, we’ve been frustrated by the lack of productivity that characterizes an apathetic or alienated group of workers. The following strategies, honed in the field, can go a long way towards getting you the A-team you’re hoping for.
The People
1. Custom-Manage Your Team
“One size fits all” rarely works when it comes to managing diverse personalities. The key is not to bend rules or cut corners for star players, but to learn to elicit the best results from each employee. A CIO should know which team members work best with minimal supervision, as well as who needs to be pushed and/or guided. A bespoke management style will ultimately save you time, although it may require an initial time outlay to familiarize yourself with your workers’ strengths and work styles.
2. Create Decision-Makers
Once you are familiar with your team members’ skills and styles, identify and anoint decision makers. Many tactical issues do not need to escalate to the CIO level. If decisions can be handled in-team, this reduces a project’s decision time cycle. It also increases healthy competition among team members.
3. Identify Change Managers
If you appoint change managers to engage with end users at an early stage, even complex projects can be implemented easily. Change managers should train end users, listen to their challenges and communicate benefits to them. The best approach here is to run a pilot with a limited user group.
The Techniques
4. Teach Skill Prioritization
Multi-tasking is a big productivity killer. Help your team differentiate between mission-critical vs. routine tasks and show them strategies to allocate their resources appropriately.
5. Reward Social Collaboration
The ability to communicate with business users defines the success of any project. Identify experts in different areas to help on a skill-specific basis as need arises. Encourage and drive enterprise social collaboration initiatives. Develop better methods for communication, collaboration, and information sharing within and between departments.
6. Reward Quick Wins
It is useful to set milestones while planning projects. Recognize your team member(s) whenever a milestone is met. Celebrating milestones in small team socials can be a great way to track progress while keeping team members motivated.
7. Invest in Your Best
IT is one of the most dynamic industries on the planet. Invest in your key players: Expand their skill sets and teach them the latest technologies. Ensure they can address these demands: Organizations want their applications available on a smart phone. They want employees to be able to bring their own devices to work (BYOD). SMAC skills (Social, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud) will continue to be in demand for the next couple of years. Keep your team current with today’s technology as a way of helping your bottom line.
The Tools
8. Use a Project Management Tool
Never use email as a project manager tool. Invest in collaborative software to help your team manage documents, chart progress, and track missed or upcoming deadlines. The right tool enables easy sharing and finding: Any team member can tap into it and pull up relevant information immediately.
9. Create a Project-Specific Knowledge Base
Every project has its own challenges, issues, and learning curve. Make it a point to document this information with a project-specific knowledge base. Your team will benefit from an effective ESC tool with a host of features like tags, keywords, and a search engine. Once a problem and its solution are logged, team members can access ESC tool features to mitigate any similar challenges that may arise down the line.
10. Consider Tools to Support End-Users
Even if time prohibits a heavy team focus on end-user support while a project is underway, someone should be appointed as advocate for the end user. In practical terms, this can mean you choose an employee to translate project stages into diagrams for the client. That employee can also create a glossary for end users. It is in your best interest for clients and business users to appreciate the value of your team’s services – therefore, it is imperative to put IT services into terms that business users understand. Crucially, choose someone with people skills as your liaison. A team member who communicates well with non-specialists will represent your firm to the public in a positive light.
The expanding role and responsibilities of IT teams within organizations can make productivity a challenge. By implementing a few or all of the steps above to your management routine, you’ll quickly develop an efficient team, with each team member working towards his or her strengths for maximum productivity – inevitably enhancing your bottom line.
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