You may know that we are currently working closely with a Gift Trade publication called Gift Focus Magazine where we have regular features on our current and upcoming products and campaigns.
One thing I am doing is to write an Answer to the Questions that are posed to the magazine in the area of Human Resource topics. 
 
You can see more about Gift Focus on their website and you can also download their latest magazine by clicking here. 
 
Our most recent Answer is here ...
 
Q:  What quick steps can I take to improve the way our team of staff operate together? 

A:  Building a successful team takes many interventions but one effective and quick step is to hold a short meeting spending 30 minutes or so drawing up some team ‘ground rules’.
Ask everyone to share their ideas on the ‘rules’ that they think you should collectively have on how everyone in the team needs to behave and work together. Rules is a bit of a strong word but this process can help to draw out what people suggest in terms of how you work together / sell more / learn / deliver better service, etc, depending on what the issues are, or the focus is, for you and your team.
Start your meeting by putting up a large piece of paper on the wall and then use it to capture everyone’s suggestions for the rules that will help your team be more effective and achieve whatever it is you are trying to achieve. Remember that at this stage neither you, nor the team, need to agree to these early ideas, so do capture them all.
When everyone has finished, hold a team discussion on which ‘rules’ you all think are the right ones for you all to agree to stick to when you work together. Gain commitment from everyone.
Write up the agreed list and use this at appropriate occasions to review your progress. You can even use them on a day to day basis to rate your team out of 10 against the rules and to identify any improvements or training needs.
Working as a team is all about having a common focus, sharing feedback and improving together – and this simple ‘ground rules’ process can significantly help you. 
Good luck!