Collaboration in the workplace

Long before entire businesses were forced to work from home during the pandemic, collaboration in the workplace had become accepted dogma. First mentioned in the 1950s as an alternative method of project management to the traditional, top-down single source of truth management that was dominant at the time, the benefits of collaboration are now well-documented. Collaboration improves the way people work together and problem solve, which ideally leads to more innovation, efficient processes, increased success, and improved communication.

Benefits of collaborative working

• Innovation
• Engagement
• Learning
• Adaptability
• Better communications
• Learning
• Common goals

Innovation

Each team member brings their unique background and expertise to a project, which acts as a force multiplier for ideas by increasing inputs, as well as checks and balances for ideas that can’t be executed or those that are not yet fully formed. While different perspectives can create friction, that same friction can also spark new ideas. More perspectives leads to more ideas.

Engagement

Workplace collaboration helps make people feel more connected to each other and therefore more motivated to work together towards a common goal. A Stanford study found that even the perception of working as a team greatly increases individual performance. Participants in the study who were acting collaboratively committed to their task 64% longer than those acting individually. Simply feeling like you are a part of a team makes you more motivated to give your best and overcome challenges.

Adaptability

Increased collaboration can improve a business’ ability to adapt to change and change. When change is required, as we know it will be, teamwork helps makes smoother transitions. When teams and different departments collaborate effectively, it is easier for everyone to stay on the same page as the business adapts to new realities. Furthermore, teamwork and collaboration are the foundation of the well-known agile methodology, which is when an organisation creates small focused teams that are cross-functional and self-managed to tackle a goal or opportunity. The objective is to decrease oversight and increase employee empowerment to allow those teams to succeed.

Better communications

Improved communications is the cornerstone of collaboration. When team members talk to each other they can better empathise with each other’s problems and understand what everyone needs to do their best job. Members are comfortable sharing their ideas and are more likely to communicate in a clear and direct manner, which reduces projects errors and setbacks. All of this leads to tasks being completed more efficiently and more successful projects.

Learning

And when team members collaborate effectively, they learn from one another. Through the process of working together, the software developer is going to learn what is important to the marketing professional on the team and vice versa – and they will carry that new knowledge into the next project and build on it. The simple act of someone asking you “why” can inspire change and make the work quicker, easier and better.

What’s more, workers want to learn and grow – 59% of millennials say learning opportunities are extremely important to them. 

Common Goals

With a clear goal, each member of the team understands their role and the purpose of their work. Aligning on these goals leads to team-wide support, contributing to all-around skill-sharing and increased productivity.

Adapting to the new normal

Prior to the pandemic, research suggested that in ten years about one-third of workers would work from home in some form. The pandemic compressed it into one year. According to the National Council of Compensation Insurance (US), only six percent of people worked from home and 75% had never worked from home. By May 2021, more than one-third of people were working from home. This massive change in the workplace, along with the need to keep collaboration a priority, created a huge market for collaborative software.

While we are all familiar with video conferencing tools like Zoom and Teams, there is much more software on the market to help teams stay collaborative. The booming market of collaborative software allows for the management and processing of files, documents and other types of data among several users and systems, anytime and anywhere. You can plan and track a project, set deadlines and share calendars and instantly communicate with members at the next desk or those a country away.

On the Elevate collaborative pages we suggest reviews and lists of some of the better known tools that will help your team better collaborate and communicate, including free versions. As with all workplace software, there is no one-size fits all. You will have to do the homework to understand what best fits into your business.

To help the process, here are four questions you may want to answer before choosing a collaboration tool:

• What ways do you usually communicate?
• What types of products do you work on?
• How many people work together at one time?
• Are you looking for one single tool?