By Bond Collective Staff

An effective team is the gold standard of business in the 21st century. And the foundation of every good team is work productivity. So to forge the best team possible, focus on building, encouraging, and improving productivity in everything you and your team do.

To help you in that regard, we’ve created a list of quick and easy steps for maximizing work productivity in your office environment.

How To Improve Work Productivity

1) Provide A Comfortable Office Space

Providing a comfortable and inspiring space for your team is the chief function of your working environment. Your office design also sets the tone — sophisticated and professional or fun and creative — and communicates your brand to the clients and customers who visit you there.

As much as possible, use these tips to create a comfortable office space and improve your team’s work productivity:

• Offer a variety of seat and desk options

• Use natural light whenever possible

• Incorporate the open-concept office

• Promote collaboration with mobile furniture

• Set up multipurpose workspaces

2) Create Daily Essential Objectives

Keeping your team focused and moving forward is vital for the overall success of your projects. To that end, we suggest conducting a brief meeting (five minutes at the most) first thing in the morning to communicate two or three essential objectives that your team must complete before the end of the day.

This allows you to stoke the fire of productivity when your team is at their most energized and ensure that they get the critical tasks done on time.

3) Encourage A Strong Sense Of Team

To improve your team’s work productivity and keep it high, encourage a strong sense of teamwork in everything you do.

At least once per month, conduct team-building exercises to foster the “we” instead of the “I.” And these team-building exercises don’t have to be long and involved. As little as 15 minutes can go a long way toward forging a strong team and improving work productivity.

Try activities like:

• Dining together

• Brainstorming sessions

• Job swaps

• Murder mystery

• Office Olympics

Give it some thought and we’re sure you’ll come up with more ways to build a strong sense of togetherness in your team.

4) Empower Your Team

Very few things sabotage work productivity like making your team members second-guess themselves. No one wants to worry constantly that the choices they make are wrong. When they do, their task completion slows dramatically and work productivity suffers.

You can avoid this quagmire by empowering your staff to make their own decisions for the good of the team, the project, and the business as a whole.

The best way to do this is to:

1. Respect individual differences

2. Encourage new and unique ideas

3. Trust their instinct

4. Communicate frequently and honestly

5. Promote that same communication from your team members

6. Train your team members for personal and professional growth

When you empower your team in this way, they’ll feel safe, happy, and motivated to do the best job possible.

5) Communicate Your Strategy Well

Your organizational strategy informs everything you do — from your priorities and decision making all the way down to your ability to adapt when faced with adversity.

If you’re working without a corporate, business, and functional strategy, your team won’t have any overarching goals to look toward. They’ll focus on the project at hand, but they won’t have a sense of direction beyond the immediate task. That can negatively affect their work productivity.

Be sure to communicate your organizational strategy to every member of your team so they have a framework on which to base their decisions and actions. For more information on creating the best strategy for your company, check out our article Business Strategy: 7 Straightforward Tips For Building A Winning Business.

6) Work Hard To Motivate Your Team

Motivation is the driving force behind your team’s activities and can mean the difference between a high level of work productivity and a low level of work productivity.

Make it a point to find little (and big) ways to motivate your employees every day. We recommend things like:

• Allowing your employees autonomy

• Defining your expectations

• Celebrating achievements

• Maintaining a positive attitude

• Finding ways to have fun

• Giving your employees growth opportunities

• Leading by example

You can never do too much to motivate your team, so get started right away. Their work productivity will improve, and they will appreciate your efforts.

7) Maintain An Organized Environment

A disorganized and cluttered office seriously affects the work productivity of your team. It also sends a negative message to the customers and clients who visit you there.

If you struggle with maintaining an organized office environment, here are a few simple suggestions for taming the clutter:

• Hire a commercial cleaner

• Hire a professional organizer

• Provide plenty of storage (both personal and professional)

• Go wireless if at all possible

• Invest in shelving and other storage solutions

• Corral and hide power cords

• Keep items on desks to a minimum

For help with that last suggestion, check out our article How To Organize Your Desk For Maximum Productivity.

8) Train Your Team To Be More Optimistic

Large and formidable tasks — like those at the beginning of a project — are overwhelming and can have a demoralizing effect on your team. Instead of pushing and prodding them to get started and make progress, first train your team to be optimistic about the whole process.

One sure way to do this is to break down the big jobs into easily achievable tasks. This will boost your team’s confidence in their ability to complete the steps necessary to move the project forward. That, then, will improve their optimism overall.

As your team completes these smaller sub-tasks, celebrate their successes. Acknowledging progress is a powerful method for keeping optimism high all the way through a long and complicated project.

9) Have Fun

Yes, work is work, but it doesn’t have to be a stressor all the time. If you see your team’s work productivity waning, incorporate a bit of fun into their day and watch productivity soar.

For example, take a break and treat everyone to a coffee at the local café. Go for a walk through the neighborhood. Schedule a work happy hour. Even just five or 10 minutes of fun can reinvigorate your team and inspire them to work hard.

And if your team has a difficult and daunting task ahead of them, don’t be afraid to introduce elements of gameplay into the process. With this strategy, you can turn something as mundane and uninspiring as data entry into a fun activity.

If you’re not sure how to motivate employees by turning a task into a game, use video games as your model. Set up rewards (e.g., badges, trophies, medals) for certain milestones. Hold small ceremonies at the end of the week. Pit two teams against each other in friendly competition.

Even small elements of gameplay like these can transform a difficult job into a fun activity that your employees will look forward to completing.

Productivity Starts With Where You Work

At Bond Collective, we’ve designed our workspaces with your team’s productivity in mind. Each of our shared office environments incorporates inspiring design elements like natural light, open floor plans, vivid colors, and multipurpose workspaces to motivate your team to greatness.

We provide all the tools your team needs to get the job done right the first time, such as:

• Lightning-fast WiFi

• Free black-and-white printing and copying

• Access to conference rooms, private booths, and social areas

• Photo and sound studio (Gowanus only)

• Guest reception and greeting

• Regular on-site cleaning

We even go the extra mile to provide amenities you can’t find anywhere else, like:

• Mail service

• Complimentary beer, coffee, tea, water, and fresh fruit

• Other food and beverages for sale

• Office showers

• Bike storage

• Rooftop lounge area

• Mothers’ rooms

• Pet-friendly environments

• Curated and networking events

So, if you’re looking for a workspace that will increase your team’s work productivity, consider becoming a member of Bond Collective. You can take advantage of our coworking spaces, dedicated desks, and private offices to suit all your business needs.

Visit our gorgeous office spaces in New York (Bushwick, 55 Broadway, 60 Broad, Gowanus, Flatiron) and Philadelphia (Station House) to experience the best that luxury office environments have to offer.

And to learn more about the advantages of coworking spaces for digital nomads, remote workers, and businesses of all kinds, visit BondCollective.com today.