3 areas to introduce and maintain collaboration in your workplace
This week I look at how to 3 areas to introduce and maintain collaboration in your workplace.
This article starts with an important distinction between collaboration and cooperation, the two key ways of interacting in a workplace. It is worth reading in full, however the following are the 2 key points I’d like to take away.
Co-operation – all parties in the organisation are working alongside one another for the success of the company, which is the ultimate goal.
Collaboration – a group of people working collectively towards a shared goal.
So, how do you get started with collaboration and what does it take to succeed at it?
1. People
Almost without saying, to succeed with collaboration, the power lies in the collective ability of the group.
Building the team – complimentary skill sets are crucial to building your teams around the individual strengths of the team members. Whether you’re building a new team or re-shaping an existing team there are tools such as Myers Briggs and DISC to help identify the way different people engage and perform.
Connecting – This can be more challenging especially with family commitments and other out of work activities. The highest performing teams I have seen incorporate time outside of work together. This could simply be a fortnightly dinner or a regular offsite. This does get more challenging with personal and professional time. That said, connecting on a personal level during business hours is a very good start to understand what makes different members thrive.
Real example – As an introvert, I engage differently to an extrovert. In a large setting, I prefer to listen and observe and do my best thinking away from that environment. I’m a deep thinker and thrive on solving complex business problems with collaborative technology. The most successful teams I have been part of with customers and continue to be involved with, have been designed with that in mind up front.
In those forums with other parties who are more extroverted, the best facilitators have been able to control the exchange of information to extract value from all in the room or on the call. An example of how this has worked has been to have the participants send over a short summary ahead of the meeting, which has been reviewed by the facilitator and unpacked accordingly during the meeting.
2. Culture
Foster creativity through ideas
A recent Harvard Business Review and Google Cloud survey found that 89% of global executives say that for a business to be successful, they need new ideas from everyone, regardless of company stature.
To achieve this involves having a culture that provides for this less than polished, open environment.
By rewarding innovation and encouraging out of the box thinking that challenges conventional wisdom, this will provide your business with a wealth of ideas. This way of thinking helps all staff feel they have an opportunity to shape the direction of the company and more importantly, valued by the company for their inputs.
To build on this, consider secondments or temporary assignments to other teams in your business. The opportunity to understand and appreciate the skills involved in delivering a successful outcome coupled with the impacts of their own work beyond the desk.
3. Technology
Today teams can be geographically dispersed and collaborate successfully through the use of great technology. Availability and affordability are at an all-time high meaning much easier access to start realising the benefits.
Software – Products such as Trello with their Kanban boards provide for easy visualisation of work across teams. Kanban is the Japanese principle of visualizing workflows and is explained further here. There are other examples of industry leading software that facilitate collaboration with workflow automation tools becoming increasingly popular.
Communication – Multiple ways of communicating are now available that mean someone could be at the next desk or in another time zone. Reducing email with tools such as Slack or video conferencing with tools such as Zoom.
Equipment – Products such as electronic whiteboards and smart TV’s for ease of transcribing have elevated collaboration. With touch screens allowing for contributions from multiple locations, breaking down boundaries has never been easier.
Takeaway Tip
Collaboration in your organisation can start today with a tactical but strategically scalable solution, the Intelligent Operations Platform (IOP) from Dusk Mobile. The IOP is an industry leading collaborative work management platform. It connects your staff on any device, any time and in any location. Integrate your favourite products quickly and easily for real time collaboration amongst your teams.
Automating work functions and delivering a connected experience has never been easier and achieving productivity improvements can start tomorrow.
Avoid solutions that increase support overheads on your IT department to maintain them, or (worse still) embed a dependency on the provider to deliver ongoing additional professional services to continue servicing your evolving needs’.
So how do you get started? Speak to the team at Dusk about our experience in delivering our collaborative work management SaaS solution to your business. Using bite size deliverables and incremental change, your business can transform progressively. Clean, secure integration with a polished user interface to design and build your baseline quickly.
This leads to improved productivity and visibility for your workforce. Connect to your existing systems to create an all of customer view that can be shared between all authorised parties.
If you’d like to find out more on visibility, consistent messaging, workflows, automation with project management and easy integration for your teams or business, get in touch today with our friendly team.
Any questions: Our community is here to help in the Support & Updates area!
References
Improve Teamwork in the Workplace
Examples of Teamwork Collaboration in the Workplace
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