Collaboration and Teamwork Skills

COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK SKILLS

Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together to a common purpose to achieve business benefit. Collaboration enables individuals to work together to achieve a defined and common business purpose.

It exists in two forms:

Synchronous, where everyone interacts in real time, as in online meetings, through instant messaging, or via Skype, and

Asynchronous, where the interaction can be time-shifted, as when uploading documents or annotations to shared workspaces, or making contributions to a wiki Shared workspaces are among the most visible entries in the collaboration space.

What is Collaboration?

Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together for a common purpose to achieve business benefit. 

Collaboration enables individuals to work together to achieve a defined and common business purpose. It exists in two forms:

Synchronous, where everyone interacts in real-time, as in online meetings, through instant messaging, or via Skype, and

Asynchronous, where the interaction can be time-shifted, as when uploading documents or annotations to shared workspaces or making contributions to a wiki

Shared workspaces are among the most visible entries in the collaboration space.  Aimed at rolling document and application sharing up with chat and perhaps versioning and other auditing capabilities, they may have more or fewer features and may be available either for license or on a syndicated basis “in the cloud,” as they say. Google Docs is a notable example of the latter, Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Document Room of the former.

Wikis are perhaps best thought of as online encyclopedias or “how-to” manuals. They are applications that let users freely create, edit, and reorganize content using a Web browser.  Perhaps the most visible example of this breed is Wikipedia, and variants exist throughout enterprises of all kinds and sizes.

The plus and the minus of wikis are that more or less anyone can enter anything into the resource – so while they’re a great way to capture and share what people know, they also must be vetted to ensure nothing erroneous gets planted within (intentionally or otherwise). The good news is that, over time, active wikis tend to be of a fairly high quality due to the self-policing nature of an engaged user base.

Collaboration at the conceptual level involves:

Awareness – We become part of a working entity with a shared purpose

Motivation – We drive to gain consensus in problem-solving or development

Self-synchronization – We decide as individuals when things need to happen

Participation – We participate in collaboration and we expect others to participate

Mediation – We negotiate and we collaborate together and find a middle point

Reciprocity – We share and we expect sharing in return through reciprocity

Reflection – We think and we consider alternatives

Engagement – We proactively engage rather than wait and see

Use Collaboration for Better Teamwork

The fact that collaboration is a foundation of better teamwork may not seem provocative, but it’s what goes into collaboration that makes the difference between teams who simply get along and teams who perform at higher level. The essence of collaboration is an activation of differences, ideas, expertise and perspectives. Teamwork in today’s more networked workplace means harnessing differences in a new way, because highly diverse workforces are the new norm.

Individual Contributors or Team Members: If you’re an “individual contributor,” first you can throw out that term…truly you are a team member since nearly all work today requires collaboration. What you can do is:

Be Self-Aware: Know how you’re coming across to those with whom you’re collaborating. Do you tend to put forth big ideas? Harness that, but think through what other aspects your team may need to know, like the reasoning behind your idea or whose help you’ll need to get it done.

Be Open: If you’re in a collaborative work environment, you need to be open to collaboration. Don’t assume that just because you can do something yourself, you should. Think through how others can help you get things done more efficiently or with greater creativity.

Actions Speak Louder than Words: If you make a commitment, keep it. Trust is absolutely critical to building teamwork skills. As the great Stephen M.R. Covey states, “Low trust is the greatest cost in life and organizations.” But know that trust means different things to different people, so when you’re working with a diverse team, actively seek out how people define a high trust environment.

Learning and Development Leaders and Trainers: You are the driving force behind building better teamwork skills and creating stronger organizations. If you’re not stoking effective collaboration, then you aren’t doing your job. As an HR leader or talent management professional you can:

Drive collaboration in new ways: Traditional classroom training is just the start, but the workforce is collaborating more often and more quickly. Therefore, imparting skills in collaboration—communication skills, empathy, innovation—mean doing so via on-demand channels like social, mobile and e-learning.

Make collaboration a competency: Collaboration isn’t just a nice to have or something intangible. Collaboration can be taught and measured, but it starts with conveying the end goals—why do teams need to collaborate? It is the connection into tangible, goal-oriented and business objective driven elements that allow employees to see collaboration as a core part of their job.

Know your employee base: Do you know how cognitively diverse your employees are? Do you have clear ways to ensure employees can really understand where each member of their team(s) are coming from? As talent management professionals, if you know who your individual contributors are—how they work, how they act and think, you can place them into teams with more purpose and utilize the intangibles, like creative tension and differing strengths.

Fundamentals of Collaboration and Teamwork

A Winning Combination: Collaborative Teamwork Equals Teamwork and Collaboration

Teamwork seems like a simple concept to implement in your organization. You discuss tasks that need to be done, who will do them, and you are off and running. However, the reality is that teamwork skills require work. Collaboration is another hot topic today - most people assume that collaboration is simply another way of saying teamwork. But the difference between the two is not just matter of semantics.  

What Are Teamwork and Collaboration?

Teamwork is the joint action of people working toward the same end goal. When people talk about teamwork, they mean more than just completing a task, however: they mean the work that comes from people working together effectively. The strength of a team comes from supporting each other, communicating well, and doing your share. Other characteristics that define a team include similar skills, autonomy, defined roles, defined leadership, and the resources to meet the joint goal. For example, imagine a group of people all pulling a rope

Why Do Workplace Failures Happen?

The demand for a collaborative work product is only increasing, and the amount of time the workforce spends in team-related activities will also continue to increase, according to author Jeanne Meister. Even though it has become crucial to workplace success, however, collaboration is often difficult. 

Some other factors that can tank your team include:

Forcing Collaboration: People can resent forced collaboration when they aren’t given clear evidence as to why the players make sense. Collaborations that come together naturally are often best because everyone understands what everyone else is bringing to the table.

A Bad Team History: If these people had a negative experience working together in the past, it’s best to determine the reason as quickly as possible. Ask the hard questions early on to find out if leadership (or something else) was the issue. Repeating history will not yield a positive outcome. 

Poor Relationships: Even the best-structured groups can suffer if you have two or more team members who do not get along. You can mitigate this problem by limiting their interaction and designing group standards for meetings and communication. Some people will never get along - this is fine if everyone can comport themselves like professionals. If they cannot behave appropriately, perhaps they have no place on your team.

Ineffective Meetings: Meetings without structure can cause your staff to have conversations that spin without purpose. Structure your meetings so that your staff knows the purpose and agenda going in. In addition, you should agree upon the meeting deliverables from the outset (i.e., either before or at the beginning of the meeting). 

Little Transparency or Inadequate Information Sharing: When you have team members whose work depends on that of other team members, they need to share their progress, concerns, and barriers. In order to stimulate this sharing, you need to develop trust among your members. Transparency goes a long way toward accomplishing trust.

No Team Governance Processes: Maintaining structure keeps everyone on the same page. They know what to expect, have standards of communication and behavior, and are able to settle disputes. Setting up structured processes early and with the buy-in of your team helps keep disagreements to a minimum.

Conflicting Styles of Decision Making: People process information differently. Some people process information quickly and are able to respond with an answer right away. Some people need to process away from the group and think slowly through all the options. Styles of decision making can differ significantly and cause eruptions of frustration. 

Behind-the-Scenes Conversations and Processes: Conversations and processes that cut others out erode the trust and confidence of your team. When you communicate outside the agreed-upon group settings or make decisions outside the group processes, it puts your project at risk.

Competition: Competition is the opposite of collaboration. The spirit of competition requires people to withhold information, work ahead of others when they are capable, and actively try to exploit the weakness in their competitors. Competition within a team meant to be collaborative is inappropriate unless structured very carefully. 

Turf Wars: Akin to competition, turf wars often bring about the opposite of the desired effect. One of the main benefits of collaboration is that people (even with vastly different skill sets) can mentor and teach each other their skills. Breaking down barriers, whether they are between departments or individuals, builds everyone’s knowledge base. 

Poor Ownership or Engagement among Team Members: One main tenant of developing a collaborative group is that you develop buy-in from the team. This includes buy-in concerning the process, direction, and expected outcomes. If your team is not engaged, they will not be able to identify problems as they arise and will miss valuable opportunities.

What Is Good Communication?

Communication refers to how people send out and receive messages. This critical skill involves nonverbal cues, including active listening, managing yourself in the moment, and being able to understand yourself and others. Often considered a soft skill, communication is vital because it is the soul of your business. Good communication is at the center of everything successful you do within your company. A good communicator conveys their point in a simple and clear manner, people understand their message, and the work gets done. Good communicators: 

Relate their message to their listener on a personal level

Always provide factual information

Give specific information in a brief manner

Ask questions to ensure understanding

Ask questions for clarification

Listen actively

Look for nonverbal cues

Why Have a Collaborative Relationship?

Collaboration is more than just a buzzword for today’s companies. If you want your company to think as one, regardless of particular staff member’s function, collaboration should be more than just a word. Remember that teamwork includes an ultimate authority who makes decisions and resolves disputes for the team. Collaboration may not have an ultimate authority, but it should have a leader who understands the nature of the work. Collaborations should also have ground rules that the group itself has established. Collaborations push your deliverables to be more innovation and competitive in the marketplace.

You should form a collaborative relationship:

When you cannot use a team or a customer-supplier relationship

To get geographically disparate business units to work with a central team 

When different business units share a sales force or a brand

To increase employee job satisfaction

To allow your employees more flexibility

To develop an interdependent organization

Thus far, we have focused mostly on the benefits collaboration brings to your company. However, there are benefits that collaboration can bring to individuals, as well. These include:

Learning From Others' Experience: Pick up new information while you are completing real work.

Saving Time: You’ll complete projects faster when you have people who already have answers. This phenomenon is called cross-sharing because you build a larger knowledge base.

Creative Disruption: Different mindsets can come up with different solutions to the same problem. This helps you work out the best solution for your company. Teaching About Work and the Work Habits of Others

Dealing with Diverse Jobs Makes Better Leaders: Collaborations can make you a better leader by learning to manage different personality types and how best to motivate everyone as a group. 

Networking: Working in a collaborative team forces you to socialize with people with whom you may not normally interact. Further, you are giving them a bird’s eye view of your work ethic and capabilities. Should future work possibilities emerge, they are well equipped to remember you and your skill set.

Other benefits to you and your company include:

Faster, better, customer-driven decisions

Evolving strategic alliances with other companies 

Increased span of control

Decreased conflict

Opening your company to change

Workforce buy-in for company

Decreased cycle time

Decisions based on principle, not power

Makes your company competitive

Increased productivity equals increased output

Increased return on investment (ROI)

What Do You Do Before Setting Up a Collaboration?

While collaboration can spur multiple benefits for your company, it is not a one-size-fits-all answer to your company’s problems. The success of any collaboration depends on whether your team members are committed to working together, can respect each other’s differences, and have the needed skills. Before you consider a collaboration, whether internal or with other companies, you have to consider a number of factors and ask some questions. First, you should evaluate whether it is necessary. Collaboration for its own sake can waste precious time and resources.

You should ask why collaboration is the best answer. Then, you should ask the following questions:

Can you create the conditions for success?

Is the team full of talkers or doers?

Can you scale the project up if necessary?

Are you collaborating with one company too frequently?

If you are working with an external partner, are they vetting you as well?

What are the other company’s values?

What is the expected return on investment?

Does your proposed team have the necessary experience and skill sets?

Is Collaboration a Skill?

Machines and computers are replacing many jobs that require skilled labor. However, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the hottest jobs not only require skilled labor, but also demand social skills. Many people consider social skills soft skills, and therefore they are not always as valued as more discrete skills like science and math. These soft skills include the ability to cooperate, empathize, and be flexible, all qualities that contribute to relationship-building and collaboration. If a skill is a particular ability to perform a job, then it would follow that the ability to collaborate, which is in high demand, is in fact a skill. 

If collaboration is a skill, then you can hone it. In order to, you must become proficient in a variety of areas:

Communication

Tolerance

Compromise

Authenticity

Teamwork

Consistency

Reliability

How to Improve Team Collaboration Skills

Effective business collaboration does not just bring together a group of folks with disparate information. In other words, it is not just about collecting areas of expertise. An effective business collaboration consists of team members adapting their communication styles to one another so that they can understand each other’s point of view. The blending of these different thinking styles is what makes up the most successful teams — as long as you can manage them effectively. Experts agree that in order to have a successful collaboration, you need to implement intentional leadership. This kind of leadership considers and purposefully implements factors for good collaboration. This includes creating a culture and environment that makes it easy to collaborate.

Some things that you can do to improve this environment include the following:

Flatten out Your Hierarchy: This keeps competition as well as egos in check when your compensation structure does not show huge differences between people. Especially in professions where pay scales are public, groups that collaborate should be on an even playing field.

Model the Behavior You Want to See: If you are driving this team, do not just tell them your expectations. Show them. Model the integrity you want your team to follow, and hold yourself and your team accountable. Take a stand when necessary, and rely on others.  

Educate Your Team: If you’ve chosen well, your team should have all the information it needs. What it may be missing, however, is the business and landscape information you can and should provide. This way, you can give the team problem-solving information outside of its normal expertise. 

Allow Team Leadership Roles to Vary: Leadership in a collaborative team should be based upon the work and the need. Leadership will emerge naturally and shift as the work evolves. 

Stay Curious: You should help your group realize viewpoints outside of its own. This includes the overarching themes and needs of its projects as well as what data it could be missing. 

Show Your Team You Care: Regardless of who you are dealing with, you should proceed in a respectful, caring manner. As a leader, you should be engaged with your people on a personal level. 

Be Able to Say “I Don’t Know”: This simple phrase shows that you are open and human. No one expects you to have all the answers, nor should you. You should be able to rely on your experts to teach and help you guide your project. 

Create the Infrastructure: It is often the processes (and not the people) that wreck projects. Take a hard look at your processes and identify bottlenecks early on. You should also create open channels of communication, whether face-to-face or remote. 

Create Group Problem-Solving: Support your team by bringing them together for open dialogue and sharing. By doing this, you allow them to develop cultural skills and engage in productive problem-solving.

Foster Innovation: Use your collaborative team as a strategic advantage. If you have a diverse group of people with a diverse body of knowledge, you will get creative solutions that can help you innovate.

Invite Healthy Disagreement: You should not be afraid of your team having conflicts or conflicting ideas. Healthy discourse can only benefit your project. Still, you should require professional conduct and respectful communication. 

For more information on getting your team to work better together, see The Essential Guide to Getting Your Team Working Better Together.

How Do You Foster Teamwork?

Companies rely on their teams to get projects done. Whether they are large and diverse or small and specialized, teams can accomplish much more when given the opportunity to collaborate with one another. According to a study conducted by Gratton and Erickson, even though big, diverse teams are becoming increasingly critical, they begin to devolve as they grow. Further, the more expertise the members have, the more difficult it is for them to accomplish results. Finally, the study recommends four main areas to concentrate on to cultivate and maintain strong teams: executive support, solid HR practices, strong leadership, and good team structure. 

Breaking it down, these areas give you the basics of how to build a successful team. The following are evidence-based practices that will help you do it right:

Recruiting: It is critical to field the right team for your projects. Start by understanding the skill profiles of your employees. Just because someone works as an IT Specialist does not mean they do not have experience that could fill one of your other gaps. These profiles should include not only their work experience, but also their personal skills, involvement in other team projects, and any important achievements. During the recruiting process, you need to be upfront with your potential members about the time commitment. This way, they are can assess if they have the bandwidth to take on your project. 

Leader Choice: This should also be high on your priority list (if it is not your highest priority). Look for leaders that have task-oriented management skills, relationship-oriented management skills, and are able to flow between the skills based on the need. They will need to set goals about how the team will cooperate with each other and if necessary or prudent, compete. 

Executive Sponsorship: An executive sponsor often behaves as the senior member or the chair in a project. However, you also need your executive sponsor to act as a support structure for the environment you need to create. This includes helping to invest and cultivate that collaborative work environment. 

Human Resources Practices: Your HR should have their own contribution to making your team building successful. This includes supporting your company in building an informal support community and helping to train soft collaborative skills. 

Development of Collaboration Skills: Don’t underestimate the soft skills that lead to great collaboration. Concentrating on and developing these skills in your teams is as important as having technically skilled participants. These soft skills include being able to resolve conflict productively, negotiating, having and expressing concern for others, and joining in. 

Mentoring and Coaching: Mentoring and coaching should take place from your executive level on down through your company. Mentoring that happens spontaneously, due a culture open to it tends to be more successful. This means that spending time with your employees, focusing on coaching, and helping them build networks should not just be spontaneous, but a regular part of your work.  

Model Collaboration: With an executive team that actively collaborates, you should be able to find opportunities to make those collaborations visible to your employees. Even just filling in for each other shows a willingness to trust and develop relationships. Further, interactions in the open and in front of your employees helps you model what you want to see. 

Cultivate Your Community: This is another opportunity for your HR to practice supporting their teams. By sponsoring and encouraging group events and activities, HR can help to create a community spirit. Further, HR can help join people in networks based on their skills. For example, they can sponsor groups across an organization such as one whose members have skills and want to learn more around a specific topic. 

Develop Something Unique for Your Business: With the goal of developing relationships and networks throughout your company, create a culture that sets itself apart from others, whether it is monthly “get-togethers” at the local pub, a coffee shop, or a place where they can sit and chat with colleagues. How can you break people out of their respective roles for increased collaboration? 

Other ways to foster teamwork include these tips:

First, answer these two questions: Who are we? And why do we exist?

Work to overcome silo mentalities. 

Work to overcome process inconsistencies. 

Develop team shorthand to understand situations and issues.

Run more efficient meetings using agendas and expected outcomes.

Work on strengthening relationships.

Improve communication skills.

Define the working relationships.

Clarify everyone’s responsibilities and accountability.

Provide the team tools that support collaboration.

Operate on agreed-upon principles.

Generate and synthesize new ideas.

Organize the process (charter).

Build trust.

Create transparency.

Unlock creativity.

Set realistic expectations.

Set clear objectives, goals, and expectations (SMART goals).

Promote ownership. 

Lay ground rules.

Deal with change in a positive way.

For more information about assessing your team, see Everything You Need to Know about Team Assessments.

For more tips on team-building activities, see Top Team-Building Experts Recommend the Best Activities to Match Your Team’s Needs.

How Do You Build the Right Teamwork Environment?

Whether you are building a team or collaboration, some environments are more successful than others. (In the context of a team or collaboration environment, we are referring to the social rather than the physical environment. Although, having workspaces designed to facilitate conversations is helpful - for more information on collaborative workspaces, see How to Maximize Team Collaboration in a Workspace.) In order to work well together, teams must:

Have a common purpose and goal

Trust each other

Clarify their roles from the start

Communicate openly and effectively

Appreciate a diversity of ideas

Balance the team focus

Leverage any heritage relationships

Collaboration and Teamwork in an Educational Environment

An educational environment is an excellent opportunity to teach not only technical skills, but also soft skills like collaboration and teamwork. Being in school allows people to try new things, make mistakes, and learn hands-on without fear. Further, you push your students’ higher-level thinking skills by forcing them to think about different points of view. This also develops social skills, positive cultural relations, self-esteem, and self-management skills. 

Some techniques to teach collaboration skills include: 

Put Time Limits on Work Groups: Time limits force your students to think and work quickly. Natural leadership skills will also bubble up.

Institute a “We All Answer” Policy: Make your policy that everyone in a group should offer a suggestion while brainstorming. This helps you avoid having only your stronger students participate.

Institute a “No Bad Ideas” Policy: This puts everything your students come up with - regardless of how outlandish - down on paper and gives it a chance without judgment. This encourages them to think creatively without rejection, which gives them confidence.

Improv: This may seem like an extreme way to teach collaboration. However, improvisational theater forces your students to work together and think together immediately. Many fields outside of theater have used improv extensively as a way to develop people’s ability to communicate and creatively solve problems. Put your students on teams and have them practice on the spot scenes. 

Here are some techniques to teach teamwork skills:

Assign Group Roles for a Task: Each member of the group should have a job, such as leader, timekeeper, on-task manager, or note taker. Each student should do the job assigned during the activity, and then rotate as the activity changes. Afterward, discuss what happened during the activity, and look for what happened to the product when students deviated from their assigned roles.

Give Everyone a Chance to Be a Leader: Some students are natural leaders, and some struggle with leading. Start with small, contained activities, and have each student lead their group or class through an exercise. 

Model the Behavior: Show your students how to play on a team while they are leading by modeling the type of behavior you want to see. 

Highlight the Significance of Every Job: Ensure that every student understands why the role they are assigned is important. Have them tell the class how their role leads to the end product. 

Getting Education in Team-Based Learning

Team-based learning (TBL) is a type of small group learning that is structured to help students learn to work in teams. They prepare their materials outside of class and apply it while in class. This structure grades students as individuals and as a team. It helps them verbalize their thinking within their team and about other teams. TBL is evidence-based, and usually taught in modules. Instructors may use several methods to teach TBL, including those by L. Dee Fink, Michaelsen, and Koles.

How Do You Foster Collaboration?

Today, fostering collaboration is a hot topic in business. Some businesses are looking for answers on how you implement, teach the soft skills, and build a collaborative environment. Others are looking for ways to improve their technology game in order to make collaboration easier. According to technology experts around the web, some current trends in technologically-driven collaboration include using the Internet of Things (IoT), software as a service (SaaS), and your own devices. In this section, our experts will share some of their experiences developing collaborative teams and give tips on the best ways to get your team to collaborate and communicate well. 

 For team collaboration, I recommend the following for managers:

Care: Care about each member of your team. Know their likes and dislikes. Treat them to their favorite bar. Ask them about their family. Know their birthdays and anniversaries. Even more so, value their input, opinions, and ideas. A team will work together more easily when they know the leader and the team care about them. 

Commission: Commission the team members to lead meetings, initiatives, and projects. Make sure everyone has a role they own in the effort. 

Communicate: Does Bob prefer text, while Karen loves calls? Does Joe do well with FB Messenger but slack off on Slack? While having a unified communication system is ideal, it's not realistic — unless you have a system to integrate the different mediums. And, don't just know the communication medium each team member prefers. Know their styles. Bob may be more indirect, while Karen may spout out every idea that comes, and Joe may be a natural skeptic. It's hard to collaborate without first understanding how each team member communicates.

Contrast: When endeavoring in a collaborative effort, contrasting and divergent ideas must be held together. Many innovative breakthroughs happen through lateral thinking and not from intense focus in one area. 

Example from Failure: Before training other teams as a corporate trainer, I led a team of my own. A crisis occurred where I lost half of my aid team at a bus station in a city of 7 million on the way to the airport. Another team member with me lost her plane ticket (a 16 destination non-redeemable paper ticket). Instead of caring for this team member I was annoyed; instead of requesting input and ideas from the rest of the team for solutions. I focused on myself. I tried to find the team and the ticket back where we left them to no avail. I checked the only places in the bus station I thought them to be—not there either. Also, I had no communication mediums—we didn't have a local cell phone to reach the other group. It wasn't until a kind local lady gave me a suggestion to look elsewhere that I broke out of my narrow focus and found the rest of the team. Long story short, after the lady opened my thinking of where the team might be, I took a risk going to the airport one ticket shy of getting the whole team on the plane. Luckily, the risk paid off as the ticket was at the airport in the lost and found! From then on I decided to put the focus off of myself and widen it to the whole team.”

 

The Importance of Collaboration in the Workplace

No successful organization runs successfully without collaboration in the workplace. Collaboration in the workplace involves individuals working together to solve problems across departments, management levels, and functions. This post will explore what workplace collaboration is, the benefits of collaboration in the workplace, and tips to improve collaboration. 

What is workplace collaboration

Collaboration is the act of individuals working together to make unified decisions. When we talk about collaboration in the workplace, this definition extends to team members or colleagues working together and setting processes to make choices that all members agree on for a greater purpose. Collaboration happens in all types of settings whether teams are remote or stationed at headquarters. Ultimately, the goal of workplace collaboration is to maximize the chances of success by administering an open, communicative, and collaborative experience among all members of an organization. 

Why collaboration in the workplace is important

If you think about collaboration in general, the goal is to maximize the success of a business. A group of individuals has more power and impact than a single person. Working in teams enables employees to share knowledge, work more efficiently and effectively. Each member of the team is like another resource or tool that team members can leverage to make better and smarter decisions. In addition, working together in teams promotes healthy employee relationships. Healthy employee relationships lead to better team performance and overall productivity.

Collaboration in the workplace improves:

Optimized workflow processes

Improved employee and team relationships

Maximized productivity

Increased efficiency

Benefits of collaboration in the workplace

Now that we’ve outlined why collaboration in the workplace is important, let’s talk about some of the benefits. What are the outcomes to expect when employees engage in team collaboration? We mentioned the theme of increasing business success. Let’s examine the contributing factors that lead to maximized project success.

Collaboration in the workplace: 

Promotes problem-solving

Generally speaking, when diverse knowledge and skillsets are in the mix, it increases competence and experience. Individuals with different skill sets are able to solve problems more creatively and effectively because they are able to cover blind spots.

Spurs innovation

The diverse expertise and perspectives of your team will foster problem-solving. When people are constantly updated with new information, it continues the momentum and creates a continuous cycle of ideation that can expedite new and creative solutions. 

Connects teams to the bigger picture

Many times the bigger picture gets buried when an individual is focused on a problem. Collaboration in the workplace brings together people with different backgrounds that can be leveraged to identify and see the bigger picture. In addition, it enables employees to make connections between various ideas and departments that break down siloes. This is valuable because it lends a higher purpose to employees. 

Boosts learning and skills-sharing

When you have people working together, there is a tremendous opportunity for individuals to learn from each other. Because collaboration in the workplace requires feedback and viewpoints from various teams and team members, you’re effectively connecting cross-functional teams. Because no two people have the same ideas, knowledge, and experience are transferred between individuals, enabling employees to expand their skills faster. 

Increases employee satisfaction

Collaboration in the workplace helps create an open environment where people feel valued and heard. Employees who are happy positively contribute to a good company culture. In addition, employees who are excited to go to work every day tend to be more accountable and are less likely to leave the company.

 Aligns distributed or remote teams

The workforce is more distributed than ever. Some organizations have multiple offices spread across the globe, some companies employ only remote workers, and some organizations have a hybrid of the latter two. It’s even more critical to promote collaboration and include remote teams so that everyone stays updated, aligned, and connected. What happens is, remote employees start to feel siloed and lonely, which negatively impacts productivity and employee retention.

4 TALENT PRACTICES THAT ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION

The Essential Talent Practices for Productive Collaboration explores the critical touchpoints between effective collaboration and existing, core talent practices (i.e., talent acquisition, onboarding, talent development, performance management, and rewards).

Today, people are spending over half of their day working with others, according to a Steelcase study. Collaboration is conducive to creating better ideas and increasing overall quality of work. In fact, executive leaders are convinced: 93% of them believe it’s essential to successful idea generation.

Despite the positive stance on collaboration, there are corporate barriers affecting not just employees’ work experience, but also output. According to the study, these are:

a. Access to People

b. Access to Information

c. Outdated Technology

d. Distractions

From the layout of an office to the methods of communication, these barriers take many different forms and affect work. For example, the technology in many offices isn’t up-to-date, which limits team members’ ability to visually display their ideas and consequently slows down collaboration. Senior leaders (63%) tend to have access to more advanced tools like smart boards, but given that they use it the least, it doesn’t lead to impressive results. Only 33% of individuals reported having access to the latest technology, and 65% would like to use it.

Top 6 Challenges of a Remote Work And How To Overcome Them

Remote’s work popularity has increased over the last couple years. Many people, especially youth, decided to work remotely. Such work has many benefits. However, it also involves many challenges. Today, we present top 6 of them, which are mainly difficult to meet, and simple ways to overcome them.

Remote Work As a Challenge

Remote work may be demanding and difficult notably in the beginnings. Of course, the advantages and comfort that comes with working from any place are immense. Yet the obstacles which remote workers have to face may cause a lot of problems and lead to the lack of work-life balance. Especially that with the digitization in business and technological progress, the number of people working remotely will increase. In the report by Intuit, it is stated that:

 it is stated that:

contingent workers will constitute over 40% of the workforce by 2020,

“traditional full-time, full-benefit jobs will be harder to find,”

“small business will develop their own collaborative networks of contingent workers, and […] self-employment, personal and micro-business numbers will increase.”

The future of remote work is bright. Thus, even before you decide to become a remote worker, either a freelancer or a self-employed person, it is good to take a look at the main challenges you may have to face. And if you already work in this way, make you sure you don’t make the basic mistakes.

Challenges of a Remote Work And How to Overcome Them

Of course, there are many challenges of a remote work but not all of them are that difficult. Check our list to find out if you’re working in the right way!

#1 Poor Time Management

It seems that working remotely is not problematic when it comes to time management. All that time most people spend at commuting, being stuck in a traffic jam to and from work is precious. And when working from home, we save a lot of it.

When you work from home, you have to take into account all your other duties you may need to perform, such as cleaning, making dinner, or even organizing your workspace. Here are ways in which you may improve your time management:

use time tracking software such as Time Camp;

create to-do lists;

use time mapping technique;

consider finding a workspace for remote workers, or even working in the coffee shop to organize your work better.

Improve your time management with a time tracker.

#2 Technology Issues

Lots of remote workers love technology and make use of it. Moreover, if you want to work remotely, you have to embrace technology. And this applies not only to the equipment, for example, laptop, tablet, or a smartphone, but to different types of tools available for these devices – apps, software, etc. 

#3 Team Communication

One of the most significant challenges in a remote work is communication, either with a boss, manager, or other team members. It is particularly challenging because when working from home (or any other place than the company’s office), you do not have the chance to talk to people during a coffee break or when you need to discuss a task or project. Instead, you sit home alone doing your job.

Here are ways for effective communication:

use special tools for communication, e.g., Skype, Slack, GoToMeeting;

if you’re managing a team, set a date for weekly summary during which you will talk with your team about tasks’ progress, future goals and plans, and any other issues related to work;

also, make use of tools for remote teams, such as HeySpace, which helps to monitor team’s work and progress

don’t be afraid to talk about your problems, ask questions, talk about your expectations – this will help you stay sharp at anything you do

#4 Working Too Much

Even though working remotely means being flexible and working in different hours, at different days, some people tend to spend much more time on work during the day than is needed. Sleep deprivation, the feeling of exhaustion, lack of personal time are just a few of the most common negative effects.

Work overload doesn’t allow to focus on the most important aspects of work and leads to a significant decrease in productivity. In order to prevent it, you can apply the following methods:

here, time tracking can also be helpful. With the use of proper software, you can determine how many hours you spend on work and limit the time to most effective 8 hours during a day.

prioritize your tasks;

organize your day, don’t allow yourself to sit in front of the computer all day. Take breaks and set the alarm clock for when it’s time to finish your work.

#5 Distractions

Distractions are the nightmare of every remote worker. One of the most common distractions is procrastination. But not only. When working from home, you can often find yourself in situations which you not necessarily have to do right now. Cleaning up your apartment, washing dishes, watching your favorite tv series. Because your work is flexible, right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Apply these tips to overcome distractions:

turn off your mobile phone for the time of work;

don’t engage in social media activity;

set blocks of time for every task.

#6 Bad Health Habits

When you work from home, you spend most of the time sitting in front of your computer. And it’s not always good. In a long-term perspective, your health may suffer to a big extent. If you don’t move, you put on weight, your muscles and bones become weak, and your immune system is not that effective in facing off any types of diseases. Plus, sometimes bad sleeping habits are also an issue. Gathering all together, when your health deteriorates, so does your work efficiency.

In order to always stay fresh and healthy, keep a balanced diet, exercise, sleep at least 8 hours at night, and remember to take breaks during your work.

How to Increase Team Collaboration within the Workplace

Organizations are finding it difficult to increase team collaboration across the workplace. The challenge is nudging team members to get to know each other better, have them thrive on each other for success, while increasing the communication within departments and employees.

Collaboration Within the Workplace:

#1: Team Building Games
First, we have team building games and activities. Team building games are one of the best and most fun ways to build new relationships or amend old ones. It could be as simple as playing a favorite team sport like basketball, football, disc golf or even a water sport. Team building activities are an effective way to teach employees how to trust one another’s judgment. These activities can also contribute to more efficient communication, and most importantly can help break the ice.

#2: Streamlining The Process

Breaking down company silos allows employees to reach out with valuable suggestions that will help streamline a company’s processes. This improves team collaboration and, if the proposal is implemented, can make an employee feel like they belong. Encourage brainstorming and ask your team to come up with ideas around streamlining and how to implement them.

#3: Use a Team Collaboration Portal

There isn’t a better way to increase team collaboration than with a team collaboration software platform.

A Team Collaboration software solution can:

Provide a platform to store and share files with coworkers

Allow real-time editing to documents, ensuring every employee has the current version

Grant simplified training to employees through videos and documents

Bring together employees from different departments/locations

Because of the collaboration platform, employees are able to converse on a day-to-day basis about various internal tasks, group activities, policy changes, project challenges, ideas, questions, and more.

#4: Improve Employee Communication

Improving internal employee communication is not something organizations have an assigned budget for. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important aspects of any organization. You could have some of the most talented individuals in the world, but without a cohesive team, an active and harmonious culture cannot be sustained. In order to improve communication, employers must entrust people to share information, challenges, feedback, and anything that will help to make work easier. 

#5: Improving Engagement

Engage employees from day one. Instead of dull PowerPoints and paperwork, start with eagerness and curiosity. Help employees get to know their co-workers by pairing them with a mentor. Familiarize them with a positive culture by creating a perfect first impression.

Another way to improve engagement is by providing the option of working from home. Give employees the freedom to work from a more comfortable environment, remove travel and traffic time, and improve accountability as well. 

#6: Improving Team Collaboration With Interdependence

Lastly, creating a sense of community and synergy in any team is a must for success and interdependence. Employees working as an effective team thrive on each other’s success. An individual or a department cannot single-handedly achieve success within a workplace. Without cooperation, communication, and trust, the most profitable companies will not be able to succeed in the long-run.