A strong sense of collaboration in the workplace is more than just a morale booster for those who consider themselves team players. It’s a driver — or inhibitor — of desired business outcomes. It’s the bare minimum required for doing business in today’s fast-paced corporate landscape — where everyone on the team may be able to fill a conference room or may include participants located remotely around the world.
Defining the term is a good place to start. A recent report from Slack asked more than 7,000 knowledge workers in 17 countries, “What makes for good team collaboration?”
- “I can communicate with my colleagues easily.” (13.9 percent)
- “Responsibilities are clear — who is doing what.” (13.7 percent)
- “I can trust colleagues to do good work.” (12 percent)
- “Everyone agrees on the goal or outcome.” (11.2 percent)
- “I get along well with my colleagues on a personal level.” (11.1 percent)
As we these responses illustrate, collaboration lives near the intersection of communication, productivity, trust, respect and technological infrastructure.
Here are three tips to keep in mind when you’re aiming to build a more collaborative workplace environment.
Set Expectations for Individuals and Teams
If two teammates fail to communicate in a sport like volleyball, they either end up getting in each other’s way — “That was mine!” — or assuming the other person will get the ball — “I thought you had it.” Either way, the team ends up losing the point and possibly their momentum.
Well, it’s entirely possible for teams to “drop the ball” in the workplace too when roles and responsibilities become murky. This is why it’s crucial to define clear expectations for individuals within a team and teams as a whole — written down, stored in an accessible location and maintained over time.
As one expert advises for Entrepreneur, the clearer understanding of their role an employee has, the less likely they are to create unforeseen conflicts by stepping on another’s toes. It’s also important to regularly touch base on collective responsibilities and goals so individuals can view their parts in context with the whole.
Simple actions like making strong introductions during onboarding and explaining how various departments and teams align are also part of hitting the ground running from day one.
Choose Tools and Apps with Collaboration in Mind
The technology made available to a workforce plays a central role in terms of collaboration, too. It’s in every organization’s best interest to facilitate smooth communication and sharing of vital information.
In addition to communal workflow and project management tools, companywide embedded analytics give individuals and teams instant access to dashboards full of metrics and interactive data insights. Ensuring decision-makers are working off the same version of the truth — whether they’re in marketing or merchandising; engineering or HR — goes a long way toward getting everyone on the same page.
Reward Collaborative Behavior and Outcomes
Wanting collaboration to become part of company culture is a start, but rewarding collaborative behavior and outcomes is how leaders make it so. In addition to leading by example, executives and managers should seek out instances of successful teamwork and reward them.
It’s also important to include collaboration as part of regular performance reviews. Provide positive and specific feedback to employees about times they were strong team players, in addition to illuminating opportunities to improve for the future. Take this time to ask employees what the company can do to help them collaborate more, as they likely have valuable feedback on any hurdles they’ve experienced while trying to work with others.
Building a collaborative work environment means working on company culture, optimizing the technology you provide to facilitate communication and setting clear expectations.