What is Team Coordination? | Importance of Coordination in a Team

Coordination is the essence of every successful organization. So what exactly is coordination? In simple words, it is a mechanism or strategy that enables different entities to work together. Coordination helps with maintaining and improving efficiency while striving for a common goal or target. Hence, team coordination is of utmost importance if a company wants to make it big.

In fact, experts quip, "Ineffective communication and coordination is the primary contributor to project failure one-third of the time, and had a negative impact on project success more than half the time."

This post by StartupTalky gives you an overview on the importance of coordination and also provides some tips to improve the coordination levels in a team.

What is Team Coordination?
Importance of Coordination in Teamwork
Importance of Team Coordination in Project Management
Tips to Improve Coordination Between Team Members

What is Team Coordination?

At times, the situation calls for individuals with differing backgrounds, perspectives, and thought-processes to come together.  It could be to fulfill a goal or an objective that is impossible to achieve single-handedly. How can this be done? Through coordination, i.e., the act of getting people to communicate and collaborate without creating chaos or confusion. Coordination has a major role to play in any successful team-based initiative.

Importance of Coordination in Teamwork

Can a business operate without employees’ cooperation? No. A business entity can be viewed as the concoction of different groups and hierarchies. It's imperative for these groups to work alongside each other in harmony to achieve organizational goals. Hence, coordination becomes a major driver of success and growth.

Coordination is required among members of a team and between teams for the following reasons:

Interlinking of Different Business Operations

Coordination helps in connecting multiple business operations. The organisation members are able to connect business operations together to get the desired output. If there will be no interlinking of such business operations then there will be wastage of resources or maybe a delay in getting results.

Suppose, what will happen if there is no connection between the HR Department and the Marketing Head? If the Marketing Head was looking for immediate results and in the meantime, the HR granted a leave. If HR has already granted leave then why will the employee wait for anything? This will result in the loss of required manpower and can cause delay to get results.

The HR could directly reject the leave if was aware of such a requirement. But due to the absence of coordination, he wasn’t. The lack of coordination caused a delay in getting results.

Each Department Focuses on Its Own Objectives

In a business or an organisation, each person or department has its own objectives to meet. Each of the departments is concerned about its own objectives and goals.

The objective of the organization is met with them while making informed decisions. Sometimes, the goals of the department get diverted from organizational goals. It will be too difficult to identify such incidents because of business complexity. If coordination is not present among both, then it can cause damage to the business goals.

There are times when the objectives of one department cause the loss of others. In this case, also, it will cause damage to the business. The success and failure of one department are linked with the other. So the success of one department at the cost of losses to another will result in failures too.

Socializing and Understanding Among Team Members

There are different personal needs of every individual. Socializing are also the personal needs of every human being. The process of coordination helps in fulfilling such personal needs.

The employees will be able to connect with other teammates. This will create a strong bonding among team. The process of coordination helps in building improved relations among teammates.

Helps in Saving Resources By Avoiding Repeat Activities in Different Departments

There may be several activities which are repeatedly performed in different departments. These activities cannot be identified if there’s a great barrier between the departments.

The repetition of such activities will result in more use of resources. If all the activities are performed in one place, then it will save resources. Suppose two different departments have hired a person for the same task which they require not much often.

These tasks can be performed in one place and will save the extra expense of an employee. But this couldn’t be possible because of a lack of coordination. But if there was any coordination among them then they could have saved such extra expenses.

Avoiding Conflicts Among Employees

Conflicts inside business always end up doing multiple losses. They make the working environment disturbed for all. So they kill their time and also of the team members.  Every conflict results in wastage of time as well as resources. Any arguments/conflicts among the team members will cause damage to business resources.

Conflicts must be avoided to create a healthy working environment among team members. Coordination helps in avoiding conflicts among them. The communication gap or misinformation is easily sorted out with coordination.

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Importance of Team Coordination in Project Management

Project coordination involves managing the day-to-day operations of a project, making sure the resources are aware of deadlines and tasks that they are responsible for managing meeting minutes, and so on.

Coordination helps you better monitor and control each stage of the project to ensure it's progressing according to your prescribed timeline. It helps in Collaborating with your team on the issues you encounter, to manage risks and the validity of tasks to the project's current scope.

Tips to Improve Coordination Between Team Members

Here are some tips to improve coordination between team members:

• Communicate the Purpose of Work.
• Show How Work Aligns with Larger Goals.
• Get Buy-In for the Vision.
• Make Sure Everyone is on the Same Page.
• Know the Strengths of Your Team.
• Assign Everyone a Specific Project Role.
• Identify a Project Lead with Strong Leadership Skills.
• Ask Your Project Lead to Consistently Gather Feedback.

Conclusion

Coordination is one of the most important activities in any business. It is present in every company but some do it right while others don't focus much on it. The best way to ensure good coordination is to create and manage the proper structure of the company while giving the required power to people.

If you have anything else to add, please let us know in the comments.

FAQs

What is team coordination?

Team coordination is a process that involves the use of strategies and patterns of behaviour aimed to integrate actions, knowledge, and goals of interdependent members, in order to achieve common goals.

Why is team coordination important?

Coordination ensures that employees do not engage in cross-purpose work. Team coordination minimizes conflicts, wastages, delays, indifferences and other organizational problems.

How do you bring coordination to a team?

5 Steps To Successful Team Coordination or coordination in a team:

1. Know the Big Picture.
2. Create Well-Defined Roles.
3. Foster Great Communication.
4. Master Your Planning.
5. Don't Overdo It.

What are the key elements of teamwork?

Key elements for a successful team:

• Communication
• Commitment
• Accountability
• Delegation
• Support

Who is responsible for coordination between different teams assigned for project?

Project Manager is responsible for coordination between different teams assigned for project.