There are many reasons why collaboration in the workplace should be nurtured and prioritised. From increase in productivity and efficiency, to better job satisfaction, it arguably the best way for teams and organisations to operate.
All of the companies we have reached out to on this subject have confirmed that they work best when their teams and departments are collaborating and working together. One company that got back to us, an IT support provider London organisations rely on for their support requirements, said that all the tools and infrastructure they used are designed to make collaboration easier.
Benefits of Collaboration
When executed in the right way, collaboration in the workplace has many positive effects for both teams and businesses as a whole.
Innovation–
when teams come together, sharing their knowledge and experience,brainstorming, and fostering an environment of innovation, they can come up with extraordinary solutions to problems. The company we spoke to who provides IT support services in London stated that many of their best ideas have come out of collaborative sessions in the business.
Job Satisfaction–
collaborating helps people come up with great ideas, which keeps them intellectually stimulated. It also ensures that individuals are socialising and bonding with their colleagues; and collaboration helps people discover and highlight their strengths. All of these things (and many others) contribute to greater job satisfaction on an individual level.
Shared Knowledge–
when people with different experiences and skills come together, they can all teach each other new things. What is more, when people have high job satisfaction, they will be enthusiastic about learning new things, and they are more likely to share what they have learned with teammates.
Better Workflows –
when teams collaborate, they learn who is good at what tasks; you begin to discover and understand each person’s skillsets – and through that, work can be allocated based on who will handle the workload most effectively. In this way, workflows become more optimized and efficient.
Ways to Boost Collaboration in the Workplace
Value Collaboration
If you want teams to collaborate successfully, they need to understand the importance and value of collaboration. Make it clear that it is important to you and important to your team. There are plenty of business in which teams are overly competitive and individualist. This results in poor communication, which in turn may lead to poor productivity and inconsistent output. On the other hand, a team that prioritises collaboration will be more in sync, and produce better work.
Establish Channels for Communication
A significant barrier to successful collaboration is when teams aren’t communicating efficiently. This is why establishing channels for communications is important. As well as this, conventions should be established for channels of communication. For example, what information will be conveyed over email? How often will teams hold meetings? When should meetings be held?Will your team use direct messaging? These are all important questions to ask, and establishing a structure for communication makes it less likely that something important will be missed.
Encourage Open Communication
The most successful collaboration comes when people feel confident that they can float ideas to the group and express themselves fully. If an individual in a team is concealing their thoughts or feelings, they could be hiding a great ideas, or miss the opportunity to avoid a mistake that their teammates overlooked. Never underestimate the value of open communication.
Set Goals as a Team
Following on from the previous point, all goals should be set as a team. Goal-setting has many positive benefits – it gives people an incentive to work to, a timeframe, means for measuring their progress and, most importantly, it gives the team a purpose. When everyone is involved in the process of setting goals, they will feel more involved, and have more commitment to those goals.
Outline the Key Values
The best way to ensure everyone is collaborating in the right way is to ensure everyone involved understands the core values of successful collaboration. These values include (but are not limited to) the following:
Clarity –
make sure everyone is clear on goals, priorities, and group consensuses.
Efficiency –
ensure that communications, reporting, and time-management is optimized.
Positivity –
never let a failure demotivate you.
Trust –
ensure every team participant trusts that their ideas and contributions will be valued.
