Collaboration fosters a positive work culture where the employees are encouraged to communicate and work together as a team.
According to PGI, 15% of innovation can be increased due to workplace collaboration. Fortunately, many companies have eradicated the conventional ways of running an organization that allows their employees to sit in isolated cubicles.
Instead, they use different tactics to promote employee collaboration to increase productivity, creativity, and efficiency. Moreover, the best way to facilitate collaboration in an organization is by letting the team members actively participate in the group dynamic.
In this article, we will discuss seven ways a company can promote collaboration among team members.
Here are seven different ways for successful collaboration you can use in your organization.
1. Schedule Brainstorming Sessions
Brainstorming sessions with groups of employees can play an essential part in facilitating collaboration in an organization. It allows them to actively participate in the sessions by sharing different ideas and concepts on various topics.
Moreover, many companies now use tools for brainstorming online to let their employers generate innovative suggestions without any hindrance.
Even if your employees are working remotely, you can encourage them to pitch their ideas through several great brainstorming tools that offer them a more engaging experience. Moreover, if you employ a concept map maker tool, you can come up with clear solutions to some of the problems faced by your organization or employees after a successful brainstorming session.
2. Define Roles
Define the duties and responsibilities of each team member while working on a project to avoid competition and promote collaboration. Moreover, they will work more efficiently when they have a clear understanding of their position.
Furthermore, each team member will learn what it is like to share duties for outcomes in a collaborative environment. With such commitment, a goal turns out to be a crusade—the sense of accomplishment shifts from individual achievement to a group success that builds cohesiveness and confidence.
3. Adopt Open-Door Policy
Communication is the key to collaboration. If you keep yourself caged in your office, sitting away from your employees, it will be impossible for you to ensure a collaborative environment in the organization.
Adopt an open-door policy to let your team members communicate with you freely. As a result, they will feel more comfortable coming to the office and work more efficiently.
Remember, collaboration is not limited to only a few people; it should be adopted by every person working there.
Moreover, visibility plays a vital role in promoting collaboration in the workplace. When employees witness their managers and directors collaborating effectively, they will be motivated to follow this behavior, increasing efficiency.
4. Define Team Goals
Assign specific goals to each team quarterly to understand how they achieve their objectives and how you will evaluate their performance. Moreover, every team member will know what they have to achieve before the deadline. These achievements will enhance their working capabilities as individuals and team members.
Furthermore, discuss the quarterly results with the team openly to celebrate their success while analyzing their weaknesses. This method helps in multiple ways; for example, there will be no confusion among the team members, no one could blame anyone. Moreover, all the team members will collaborate more in the next project.
It is baseless to pinpoint team members’ weaknesses; instead, motivate them by appreciating their strengths. It will help them to work more efficiently than ever before.
Try taking a personality test of each team member to know their strengths and share the results in a group meeting. Moreover, this way, the employees and other team members will learn more about them.
On the other hand, you will know which task to assign to team members according to their strengths. For example, if they work harder in an environment that fosters collaboration, they can be given tasks that highlight this strength.
6. Reward Successful Collaboration
Give rewards to all those employees who have worked well with other team members and completed their goals successfully as a team. Giving prizes for such behavior highlights the company’s priority and will motivate employees to work efficiently with others. You can:
- Send a gift card
- Put their posters in the office
- Throw celebration party
- Send email acknowledging their success
- Give salary bonus
Moreover, this technique will also encourage others to collaborate with others to get rewards and company-wide acknowledgment.
7. Ask For Feedback
To better understand your employees and build meaningful relationships with them, you need to request feedback. You can initially ask for feedback during one-on-one meetings and then request employee feedback during group meetings.
The perfect time to ask for their feedback is during their performance reviews or when you are presented with the perfect opportunity for the potential growth of an employee. This feedback culture will encourage your employees to share their ideas and opinions, enhancing collaboration and paving the way for more healthy company culture.
Some of the most important questions that you can ask your employees include:
- Do you like working with a small or large group?
- Do you like to be taking instructions from other team members?
- What sort of leadership do you want?
- Do you like to interact with other employees?
- How do you handle criticism?
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Conclusion
Creating a collaborative environment is only the first step towards a more successful enterprise. It must be constant and deliberate to succeed.
You can have several notable achievements in your organization. However, by following the various measures outlined here, scheduling brainstorm sessions, defining work roles, adopting an open door policy, defining team goals, respecting team member strengths, tangibly rewarding successful collaboration efforts, and asking for feedback, you can massively boost productivity by getting your employees to work as a collaborative team.
When team members know they have been wholeheartedly accepted as a part of something special, they become more enthusiastic to work together to achieve their goals.
Moreover, team leads and managers are now more interactive with their employees than ever before. They put their heart and soul into bringing out the best from the team members and encourage them to come forward with creative ideas to realize their worth for the organization.
Written by our guest writer Jay T. Ripton
Jay T. Ripton is a freelance business and technology writer out of Scottsdale. He loves to write to inform, educate and provoke minds. Follow him on Twitter @JTRipton
Source by blog.wishpond.com
