It has become a best practice of mine over the years to encourage teams to name themselves. I believe the benefits are many even if they are “soft benefits.” I thought I would list a few of them here for your consideration along with a couple of additional best practices I use when naming teams.

The first and most obvious benefit is esprit de corps (a feeling of pride, fellowship and common loyalty shared by the members of a particular group). When a team has a name, they begin to have an identity, and when a team has control over their own identity, they own it. When a team owns their identity, they create ideals to go along with it; they imbue that collective identity with the values they consider most important, more important than any one member of the group. There is then a built in motivational lever to use to pull the team together or correct a direction taken. They start to feel like a team rather than just a collection of individuals and begin to consider everyone’s welfare and the common outcome of the work rather than just their own.

Another benefit of having a team name is that it helps to persist the team. Teams thrive the longer they stay together. They learn to work better together, more effectively utilizing individual strengths and compensating for weaknesses. Having a team name that is independent of the actual work the team does helps create that sense of identity outside of the work and keeps that identity whole when they move on to new and different kinds of work (which they hopefully do to keep things fresh and challenging, to keep growing). It helps the organization think of them as an independent group that can get things done, many things rather than just one or a few kinds of things. 

Having a team name is humanizing. Think of the difference between the name “Data Access Team” and “Team Zizou” (real life examples) one is almost robotic, the other is interesting and engaging and human. Even if you do not know what it means, it catches your attention; it is fun and the team can get behind it. This also helps the team to build a reputation just like a person gains one through hard work so too can a team, and having a short fun name can encourage those outside of the team to be curious about what the team can do, what challenges they have overcome, what have they accomplished, i.e. what is their track record.

A few simple rules I follow when encouraging a team to name themselves:

* No sports names. This can foster rivalries or challenging feelings for those who may not be interested in sports. 

* Short and sweet, one word names are better just because they roll of the tongue easier (even for people outside the team) and it will be easier to find t-shirts or some kind of swag for the team if you choose to.

* Get the team some swag! Design or find t-shirts or hoodies or mugs, something team members can have with your team name on that nobody else has. It won’t cost much and will be worth it to see that the name is being taken seriously. It will establish the name as something real. 

I hope you are convinced that naming teams is a great idea, and even more so, I hope you try it out!

Regards, 

Armistral