How To Make Your Team Collaborate More Effectively
What is collaboration?
Collaboration in the workplace has historically been seen as anytime where more than one staff member must interact or work together with other members to produce a specific outcome. This has traditionally happened using phone, email and in-person meetings, however with the availability of more online tools, both the channels and cadence of collaboration have changed.
Collaboration as a norm has extended beyond the primarily internal teams, to include external stakeholders like clients. In addition, remote working conditions have directly impacted how and when communication and collaboration happen.
In the past, communication and collaboration have been seen primarily as two separate concepts. With communication generally being seen as the exchange of information, where collaboration takes this one step further by advancing the state of a “product”. This perception, however, is antiquated and should no longer be observed.
Why effective team collaboration is important?
Creating an organisational environment that enables teams as well as external stakeholders, like clients, to work collaboratively is fundamental to generating business success. Without effective collaboration, businesses are likely to face challenges like poor communication, a lack of innovation, and inefficient workflows, which all hamper your business’s ability to meet its objectives.
As effective team collaboration plays such a pivotal role in influencing your organisation’s ability to succeed, fostering effective collaboration amongst your workforce must become a top priority. Adding to that, the contemporary world of work has evolved to include workspaces that have transformed from traditional office buildings to co-working spaces; and workforces that comprise freelancers, staff on rotational schedules, and hybrid teams of in-office and remote workers.
To create a work environment that fosters effective team collaboration, your business needs to reflect the developments and demands of the contemporary work world. So, in a world where work dynamics are continuously evolving, how can team collaboration be improved in the workplace?
The features of effective team collaboration
Collaboration cannot be isolated to only internal business stakeholders but should be extended to include clients and other external stakeholders. 3 of the core defining features of collaboration are:
Efficient systems and processes: this entails the use of standardised and automated systems and processes throughout your organisation, so that your team can execute tasks faster and with greater accuracy. Standardised processes provide your team with an established way of working while creating visibility across the organisation and supporting greater productivity.
This can be supported using automated systems that enable communication, delegation, and brainstorming, which are secure, always available, and independent of geography and internet browser platform or source.
Accountability: is supported when organisations employ systems and processes that assign responsibility for the execution of work tasks to your workforce. This enables collaboration by ensuring everyone is clear on who is responsible for what. With a clear understanding of each team member’s responsibilities, your team is able to work cohesively with each individual focused on executing the task assigned to them. Should issues like delays occur, they can easily be identified and addressed.
Communication: is a core element of effective collaboration because it involves informing your team of work expectations, priorities and responsibilities so that they are able to work towards specific and measurable goals. Effective communication enables collaboration by ensuring your team knows what to work on and when to work on it so that any bottlenecks can be addressed timeously.
Consider these key features as part of your organisational culture and implement systems that foster and support seamless collaboration and promote productivity through more effective collaboration.
How can team collaboration be improved in the workplace?
In the contemporary world of work, promoting collaboration in the workplace begins with using software that supports and enables effective team collaboration, such as Caseware Cloud. Due to the evolution of the work world, a lot of collaboration now tends to occur online and remotely. So, for your team to be able to collaborate better, you need a software that enables them to:
- automate work processes
- communicate and collaborate remotely with ease
- monitor and track output and productivity levels to maintain efficiency and productivity
- access a centralised cloud platform for engagement and documentation, that relevant staff are able to access as and when required
Effective team collaboration enables your workforce to work more efficiently and to be more productive. So, incorporate a software tool that supports collaboration, to help your team collaborate effectively and with ease.
Our Caseware Cloud platform supports organisations through a secure, cloud-based platform to achieve effective team collaboration by enabling streamlined, efficient, and centralised management of workflows.