Strategies to Facilitate Teamwork

1. Clearly define the goals and process.

2. Encourage individuals with particularly exceptional competencies to take on roles in area they have not mastered - while coaching other in their areas of expertise.

3. Identify roles to help move a discussion forward when there are conflicting ideas of how to proceed.  This removes the discussion from the personal point of view to the perspective of a discipline.

4. Define project phases, milestones, and deadlines to help the team to focus.

5. Co-author project documents to encourage discussion of problem areas.

6. Set up interactive tools such as group mailing lists and instant messaging communications.