Team connection is important. However, connection isn’t stagnant. It’s marked by natural ebbs and flows due to changing calendars and accompanying demands. Vacation schedules, flexible summer hours, parental leave, and shifting work locations can disrupt team rhythms. This is normal and manageable. With the right habits and tools, association team connection can stay strong no matter the season.
Cement Trust
Trust is foundational. Strong association team connection starts with trust. You can’t build a connected team without it, and that trust must hold regardless of where team members are located.
One way to do this is to proactively stay updated on each other’s context. Why? Humans tend to fill in gaps in information. If you don’t understand people’s context, you’ll likely make unfair negative attributions about what they are (or are not) doing. This becomes especially problematic when we don’t see each other as much. Shared knowledge is the cornerstone of effective collaboration. It provides a frame of reference that allows the group to interpret situations and decisions correctly, helps them understand one another better, and greatly increases efficiency.
So how do we stay updated? Ask about what is going on day-to-day (e.g. how was graduation? Have you booked any restaurants for your upcoming trip? When is your grandbaby due?) Open up and be curious. Make it about more than just work, because your team members are more than just the work they do (see “Develop Connection Habits” below for more tips). Gaining this personal knowledge humanizes our colleagues, leading us to trust them more and feel more similar.
Share Calendars
Ahead of a heavy travel season (e.g. summer, spring break, end of the year, member meetings, annual event), map out who will be out of office and when. Include partial weeks, reduced-hour arrangements, parental leave, and any planned remote periods. Share it with the full team. Seeing the whole picture reduces guessing which in turn reduces resentment.
This is especially important in associations where teams are lean. One person’s vacation can create meaningful gaps. Advanced knowledge allows careful planning and coverage preventing last-minute scrambling.
Lean on Asynch Tools
Our modern workplaces incorporate technologies that allow us to work asynchronously. Tools like Slack, Teams, and Asana among others are built to help teams stay connected regardless of time and place. Use a brief weekly async check-in (a shared doc, Slack thread, or project management tool—not a meeting) so everyone can note what they’re working on, what they need, and where they need help. Project information, collaboration, idea sharing, and even personal updates can continue regardless of location.
Realigning prioritization is the key to making asynch tools work for your team and not create more work. If summer hours mean slower responses, say so explicitly. A short note in your email signature or Slack status removes the ambiguity.
Develop Association Team Connection Habits
The goal: stay connected. Build on your communication foundation but don’t make it extra work. Some tips to try:
- Friendly competition. Nothing gets teams motivated and talking like a little competition. Whether you’re competing in a StepBet, Wordle, or filling out brackets, you’ll learn about each other no matter where you are.
- Open the floor. Reserve the first 10 minutes of team-wide meetings for open discussion. Provide an opportunity for your team to converse about whatever aspects of work or daily life they choose, such as office politics, family, or personal events. This helps people develop a more complete picture of each other.
- Record video or audio updates. People can watch on their own time. But seeing a face and/or hearing tone a voice on a project update builds more trust than long documents.
- Recent listens. Share the song you keep playing or the playlist keeping you motivated during a tedious task.
- #TravelLog. Update your team on your travels. Create a #travel channel where your team can share trip pics, itineraries, recommendations, and updates.
- Summer read recommendations. Share a beach read, an interesting podcast episode.
- Trivia Tuesday. Have someone (or a bot) posts an anonymous fun fact about a team member each week that the others must guess.
Connection Takes Intention
Association team connection, in every season, requires intentionality to keep trust and collaboration alive. The good news: you don’t need a major overhaul to strengthen your association team connection. Small, consistent practices: shared calendars, async check-ins, a little friendly competition go a long way toward keeping your team engaged and your organization running smoothly.
If your association needs support building the systems and strategies that sustain a high-performing, connected team, Achurch Consulting is here to help. Contact us to get started.