Maintaining Productivity as Teams Grow

It’s a classic problem: a team or organization succeeds and adds more people. More people means more relationships, greater specialization, and increased complexity.

The unintended consequences? Mistakes increase, confusion grows, stress compounds, efficiency declines - and productivity plummets.

How do you keep your team productive as it grows? Try these proven strategies for collaborating effectively amidst complexity.

Try agile methodologies

By now, we’ve all at least heard of agile. Let’s say you aren’t a software developer or process geek: how do apply agile methodologies to your team and reap its rewards? There are few better guides than Jeff Sutherland, one of the creators of agile itself and his engaging book, ‘Scrum: the art of doing twice the work in half the time.’ It offers the justification and guidance you’ll need to begin adopting key elements of the scrum methodology.

Choose the right collaboration platform

In today’s increasingly virtual and remote workplace, disciplined process is not enough. Cloud-based collaboration tools play a critical role in fostering and maintaining high levels of team productivity, especially as teams grow. The key is choosing a system that balances detailed execution planning with high level visibility, cross-functional capabilities, and ease of use. At The People Piece, we spent six months testing out numerous productivity tools and landed on ClickUp as the best option for our team. We love the platform and strongly recommend taking a look. (Check out our latest guest blog on the topic). 

Adopt a holistic productivity strategy

While incorporating the right methodologies, work flows and collaboration tools are key to maintaining productivity as teams grow, no effort to boost and maintain productivity amidst complexity can succeed without a comprehensive approach that attends to a wide range of team member needs. From recruiting for culture fit and effective management to employee development and smarter strategies for remote work, this article from Hubstaff outlines 10 tools you can use to ensure you adopt and effectively execute on a holistic productivity strategy.

While team growth can be exciting, it inevitably brings increased complexity. Get ahead of the curve with these strategies, and let us know how it goes.

Congratulations on your growth!