Team Collaboration Best Practices
What is team collaboration? What are the best strategies for effective team collaboration? Read on to find out some of the top pointers for fostering a collaborative environment.
1. Articulate Your Company’s Mission
What is your company’s mission? What’s the single, unifying, unique statement that you would have emblazoned on a banner if you all one day took to the streets to promote the work you’re doing?
It can be a tough question -- but it’s one that needs to be understood by every member of the team. Team collaboration means bringing together different skills and experiences. But if everyone understands and agrees what mission they are working towards, it can help simplify the collaboration process. It also provides an insight into the decisions your colleagues are making because you know the guiding principles informing their decisions
A clearly articulated company mission makes people excited about what they’re doing, encourages empathy among team members, and makes everyone feel like they’re in it together. It’s a great first step toward growing a collaborative culture.
2. Lay Out How Collaboration Should Work
Executives shouldn’t simply expect strategies for effective team collaboration to happen as if by magic: they need to foster a collaborative culture. The late Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs worked to ensure that the headquarters of companies he ran were designed in such a way that they would result in serendipitous interactions between different employees.
In a world of distributed teams, that’s not always so easy. But leaders should take on this lesson and make sure that, if collaboration is important to them, they build a company culture that supports it. The biggest lesson you can impart is this: Collaboration shouldn’t feel like a chore, but rather an opportunity. Along with resulting in better finished products, instilling a collaborative culture in your business will also make employees feel valued. Leaders need to make sure that team members feel able to speak out and voice their opinions in a constructive manner.
3. Provide Opportunity for Collaboration
When is it appropriate for team members to chime in on different projects, raising ideas or concerns that could make the end results better? While collaboration shouldn’t be limited to pre-prescribed times, it’s important to set aside dedicated opportunities for teams to communicate.
A morning huddle, for example, will give everyone a chance to discuss what’s going on at that moment. It might be the time to fill everyone in on what they’re working on, solicit opinions, or ask questions.
The huddle is a great chance to get everyone on the same page and amped for the work day ahead. It sets the tempo. If a manager prioritizes the team huddle, it’s a way of showing that they value the team and the kind of results inter-team collaboration can bring to the table. In a physical office, a team huddle can take place in a face-to-face manner by selecting a room for everyone to meet in. In an increasingly digital world, you may have to find ways of doing this remotely. Speaking of which...
4. Invest in the Right Collaboration Tools
It wasn’t long ago that collaboration software didn’t really exist. While you could share files among team members, this wasn’t easy. Frequently the results were way too many slightly different versions of the same file being distributed on the local drives of different team members, triggering confusion as to which the latest version actually was.
Things have come a long way since then. Cloud-based storage and remote access has helped open up new possibilities for collaboratively working on files, allowing for true real-time collaboration as multiple people can access and edit the same document at the same time. Choosing the best collaboration software will depend on the industry you’re in (collaborative CAD programs are going to be a lot more useful if you’re a designer than if you’re an accountant. Check out the list of the best design collaboration tools).
But there are certainly tools that’ll help you regardless of your industry. Our own collaboration-aiding app is Echo, a voice-based messenger for remote teams. Offering both public and private channels, Echo for Mac lets you easily communicate with colleagues via audio recordings, with in-built speech recognition that can also turn these messages into high quality conversational transcripts. It’s a great way to help your team connect and communicate, regardless of where they’re working in the world. (You can check out a rundown of Echo’s innovative feature set here.)
How to Improve Team Collaboration
True collaboration makes everything better. If you’ve built a great team, what better way to maximize their abilities than by getting them to work together? And, if you’re on a team, what better way to lend your expertise and grow your skill set than by getting as involved as you can? By following some of the above strategies for effective team collaboration, you can do exactly that.
Best Strategies for Effective Team Collaboration - FAQs
What is team collaboration?
Everyone working together to lend their skills and expertise to making projects better.
Why is collaboration important in a team?
Multiple brains are better than one. A collaborative culture is more engaging, more rewarding, and creates better end products. What’s not to like?
What strategies do you use for effective team communication and collaboration?
Clear communication, providing opportunities for collaboration, and investing in the right tools for the job are all important.
What are 3 important skills for teamwork and collaboration?
Listening, good organizational skills, strong communication.
How can I be a good team player?
Understand the mission statement. Work to build a rapport with your colleagues and to problem solve in a constructive manner. View fresh ideas and opinions as a constructive part of the project.
