Many companies swear that they offer amazing collaboration culture and firmly believe that “collaboration drives innovation”. However, once you step into the offices and take a closer look at the work they do, it’s clear to see that it was all talk and no action. It’s completely wrong to neglect teamwork when it creates inspired, energized, productive and flexible workers. So how can you create a healthy collaboration culture in your company and reap the rewards?
Create collaboration opportunities
The only way to have collaboration in your workspace is to actually provide employees with a chance to collaborate on tasks and projects. When people are closed off in their cubicles working on their solo projects, you can’t expect them to build trust and use any collaboration to help each other. On the other hand, if you involve your team in setting business goals, and give them tasks that require teamwork like multi-person projects and cross-functional task forces, as well as set up your office in a way that promotes communication, your employees will have a chance to use their collaborative skills, experiment with different setups and roles and work together to achieve shared goals.
Quit micromanaging
If you want to improve your office culture and boost collaboration, it’s necessary to quit micromanaging. Your employees need the freedom to do things on their own. For instance, you can purposefully make time for teams to review each other’s projects. It’s also crucial to allow seniors to train newer employees and give them skills necessary for office collaboration.
Help your employees
Collaboration happens between all levels of employment, not just between co-workers of the same rank. Managers, consultants, SEOs—everyone in the company should collaborate because everyone fights for the same cause. If you notice one of your employees is struggling at work, at home, mentally, or financially, it’s a great idea to reach out and help. If they struggle with money and a bad credit score, even if you can’t help directly, you can offer advice on credit score inquiry removal and allow them to enjoy a clean slate. When you have employees who trust you and each other and know they can rely on you for help, this will create a true collaboration environment.
Use technology
Thanks to all the new technological advancements, collaboration in the workplace is a much easier task. With tools like instant-message apps, shared drives, cloud-based services, video-conferencing tech, and digital surveys, it’s possible for employees to work together even when they are not desk neighbors. With new tech, it’s possible not only to give teams better opportunities for collaboration, but also to improve productivity, focus, workflow, and communication.
Organize team-building activities
When your team is built from individuals who have trust in each other, you have a stable base for collaboration. Trust bright people together and encourages them to share common goals—this is what helps collaboration the most. To help people in your company become a team, make sure to organize bonding events where they can get to know each other, practice communication and show support. Usually, activities like team building, team retreats, seminars, workplace sporting events, etc. work very well. Once the bond is established, make sure it’s nurtured by allowing people to connect daily at the office break room, lunchroom, etc.
Reward teamwork
Promoting teamwork is not going to work if you don’t reward it. By focusing on individuals working solo, other people will most likely give up on collaboration. So if you want to boost collaboration in your workspace, make it a habit to highlight collaboration and reward it appropriately. Every time a team reaches the goal through teamwork, praise their behavior and give them other tasks to work on. In general, money bonuses, days off, flexible work hours, early leave, or happy hours for the entire team work very well for most people.
Practice what you preach
Ordering your teams to use collaboration tools and teamwork strategies while completely ignoring them in your work is not setting a good example. Also, praising collaboration while tackling every task alone and never asking your team for help is not a good practice. Be open and honest with your workers, allow them to help you, seek their opinions, and don’t hesitate to discuss things with your team. All of these practices will make you a better boss, worker, and colleague.
Smashing employees’ desks together isn’t enough to spark collaboration. However, practicing all the aforementioned strategies will! Use them to your advantage and you’ll end up with focused, productive and unbreakable teams.
