To grow and sustain your language community, it is essential to keep everyone in the team motivated. We collected a few motivation boosts and tricks to champion this game. Apply them in a creative way, try out what works for you and your team. And most importantly: Have fun!
Please feel free to share any further best practices with us - Sharing is caring!
Motivation Boost 1- Communication
Why?
Communication is a key element to keep up the motivation - create a connection with your team, ease the workflow and reach the goals that you set for yourself within your language community.
Quick wins
#Establish clear communication channels
Set up a contact list with e-mail addresses of all team members. E-mail addresses can serve as a backup if you cannot reach a team member via Rocketchat or Slack
Clarify the main communication channel (Rocketchat) and the purpose of each individual sub-channel.
#Tailor your communication to the team-members to avoid informaton overload
Long term
#Regular team check ins with every member (by you or the other members of the organizational-team)
Ask each other if any improvements could be made to the team communication team.
In case that a team member does not join the meetings anymore, follow up and check if the person is still interested to be part of the team, needs a break…
See also Point “Team spirit - Sustain the team”.
Motivation Boost 2 - Team spirit
Why?
Establishing a language community is fun but can be rocky road at times. Team spirit is key as you are on this mission together and team members are there to support each other to get even further.
Quick wins
Recruiting new team-members works great via personal relations: Slowly introduce friends/colleagues to Serlo - show your own work, talk about it…
Ask Serlo for support if needed (e.g. Kulla has been a superhero supporter for the Tamil language team).
Prepare a pitch deck or some talking points for individual lang units (e.g. to explain your personal motivation to be part of Serlo).
#Onboarding
Motivate new team members to join the meetings.
Introduce them to the structures and train them how to do certain tasks.
Provide one on one support at the initial stage. Make sure they feel welcomed and regularly check-in with them.
#Meetings
Most important: Have fun. Work is not everything: socialize and pass time together.
Back to communication: Do a check-in and out round.
Make sure everyone knows what to do and no one is lost in meetings.
#Activate intrinsic motivation of the team
Discuss with each team member: Why they want to work for Serlo, what they want to learn and how they want to develop within the project.
Emphasise in your team that you are working together to achieve your vision.
You can use the OKR-method to break down your goals and track your work Showcase and emphasize the impact of a singular author.
#Choose a vision to be proceeded in the language community and break it down to the single most important issues.
Have it clear for yourself why this issue is important to work on and pitch it to other team-members.
Spread the word on social media.
The challenges can be overwhelming: try to focus your work and to address them step by step.
If you already have an idea for a topic, you can kickstart with that and discuss it in your team. Both are great ways to motivate and integrate new team members.
Check on motivation, capabilities and capacity in the team.
#Share the tasks
Delegate small organizational tasks or ask for the teams decisions on organisational questions is a great way to integrate (new) team-members.
Ask regularly if everyone knows what they can do and if someone wants to help/work with/on certain tasks.#Be transparent about capacities and limited resources Prioritise with the team: what could I have the highest impact right now? Be clear and open in the communication concerning your time-capacities (e.g. clarify your vision, time-ressources and set goals accordingly).
#Be transparent about capacities and limited resources
Prioritise with the team: what could I have the highest impact right now?
Be clear and open in the communication concerning your time-capacities (e.g. clarify your vision, time-ressources and set goals accordingly).
Long term
#Sustain the team - Ensure that there is a fixed number of people that regularly join. Regularity is the key when starting a new community.
As over time motivation can trop a bit, here some ideas.
Emphasise the vision of the project regularly and try to better understand what motivates each team member.
Organise team bonding events
Set achievable goals where you see the progress of the work and take some time to admire what you have already done.
Regular check- ins with team and individual team members (especially with new team-members)
#Feedback rounds on work and team spirit
Golden rule: Feedback should be sincere and constructive.
Ensure that everyone gives an update on what they are working, so everyone is on board.
