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Effective teams nearly always have a team name, whether its Manchester United (football team), Greenpeace (environmental action group), the Rajasthan Royals (cricket team) or even the Beatles (pop band)! Nearly all teams have a logo and a unique style or uniform. A team identity gives individuals a powerful sense of belonging.

Even if the team you run is scattered across several departments of your organization, you can give them a sense of shared identity, such as with a team name, team logo, team motto, team vision and even a team ‘strip’ or uniform. Hold a team meeting and propose the idea: people will probably like it and be happy to choose or vote for things.

• Team name. Keep it short and simple, for example The ‘Hey!’ Team rather than the Global Internal Corporate Communications Team. Go for something descriptive of the team’s role or style, e.g. The Paper Tigers for an archive team. Try to find something different or even unique. Whereas lots of organizations have a Quality Team, why not call it The DRiFTers, standing for Do it Right First Time? Alliterative or punning names are usually successful, e.g. the Rajasthan Royals or Coach and Courses for your training team. Also make sure the name is easy to pronounce and spell in the language your team uses – a good example of a ‘team’ that adopted an easier name identity is the British Royal Family, who changed their surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917.

• Team logo. A logo can be used to add distinction to your workplace, your paperwork and yourselves. You need to keep the logo simple so that it remains recognizable when reduced in size on memos or polo shirts. Ideally have one designed in primary colours so it can be easily replicated if you want to have it embroidered, painted or printed, or just have a black and white logo, so it can easily be photocopied. Often the simplest shapes make the strongest icons – consider, for example, the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

• Team ‘strip’. You can create a team identity with clothing and accessories, such as hats, polo shirts, badges, buttons, umbrellas, document bags, and so on. Items such as these are all relatively cheap, unisex and often more popular and fun than a top-to-toe uniform.

• Team motto. Take time to get the team together and challenge yourselves to come up with a good team motto. By ‘good’ you mean something that everyone will be proud to admit to! Keep it short and informative of the team ethos. Look at famous slogans for inspiration, such as Avis’s “We try Harder”, General Electric’s “Imagination at Work”; Barclays Bank’s “Fluid in Finance”, or the British SAS’s “Who Dares Wins”.

People like to be part of a team with a proper identity, so get them involved in creating that identity.