Most everything we do in life involves some type of teamwork, from the mother getting her children ready for school while the oldest child prepares the lunches, to the secretary at the fortune 500 company assisting the president prepare his presentation on the benefits of the latest product. While it’s possible to do most of these things alone, the result will most often be less than it would have otherwise. The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.
Being part of a team benefits all the participants in the team. Projects get completed faster, and creativity is higher. I’m sure most have heard the saying that many hands make light work. And it is just as true in our field of web development and design as it is in any other field.
Benefits from working together in a team include increased creativity, more job satisfaction, faster production, better skills, feedback, and team support.
Increased Creativity: All members on a team come to the “computer” with different skills and knowledge. Pooled, these individuals are able to create more ideas, and more ideas result in more creative solutions which leads to better end results. Having more than one person eyeballing a project almost always guarantees a higher level of creativity and a lower level of errors.
Job Satisfaction: Employees are happiest in a job where they have the opportunity to grow as an individual and to improve their abilities. Being part of a team exposes each member to more knowledge and as the team interacts, more energy and enthusiasm is created within the team. This energy and enthusiasm creates a positive impact on motivation and leads each team member and the team to higher levels of success, and increases job satisfaction. Working together to create that dynamite website and getting to experience the client’s appreciation of the end result is definitely a motivator!
Faster Production: It goes without saying that when you have 10 hands working on a project, and that project is organized effectively, more gets done in a shorter time span. The key here is the organization. Otherwise you might have two people duplicating the work.
Better Skills: Each team member comes to the “computer” with different skill sets. One team member might be great at color modeling, while another is a nuts and bolts person and is a great programmer or coder. Some might be better at seeing the immediate needs of the project while others excel at seeing the big picture. Everyone working together creates a well-balanced, higher quality team and by the very nature of teamwork, each team member is made better by experiencing those other skills and having the opportunity to learn from their teammates.
Feedback: With the team evaluating the project, the feedback comes from a variety of perspectives and from those with various talents. This feedback helps the team as a whole to grow and to produce a superior end product.
Team Support: One of the huge benefits of a team is the support. Where one member’s skills might be weak in color theory, another might excel in this area. And if a particular segment of the project begins to lag, again the team support advantage can come to the rescue and bodies can be moved from one aspect of the project to another to bring the project progress back into balance.
And one additional benefit to teamwork that I haven’t yet mentioned is the camaraderie and enjoyment of knowing you have teammates and a support system to help you achieve great things and become a better web designer or developer.
