4 strategies to scale connection and collaboration on your team

Collaboration is one of the essential elements that can dictate whether a workplace will fail in its initial stages or flourish in the economy and successfully set itself apart from the competition.

This is because if employees collaborate, they can exchange ideas that directly translate to the work produced, resulting in innovation and a positive workplace atmosphere.

This is why the company automatically improves when the right policies and practices have been implemented within the workplace that encourages a collaborative environment.

Collaboration within the workplace can result in work being done more efficiently, and it also nurtures team relationships, improving their ability to support each other in their work.

Let us discuss this in greater detail, understanding the concept of collaboration and how it can lead to the development of connections between fellow employees, and also talking about some of the ways you can create a more collaborative and connecting environment within the workplace.

Collaboration in the Workplace: Explained

Before exploring the different strategies you can apply to the workplace to bolster a collaborative environment that focuses on team effort, let us take a look at this in greater detail, understanding what is meant by teams collaborating within the workplace in much more detail.

For a team to produce the best results, it is essential for them to work together.

Combining staff ideas efficiently to come up with the best results possible, and team collaboration is one of the most effective ways to do so.

This is because if all the members that are in a team discuss their approaches to a problem with one another, it provides different perspectives to approach that issue and come up with the most innovative solution.

This allows them different ways to complete projects by producing the best results while taking the least time possible. This peak efficiency leads to them having the capacity to deal with much more ambitious projects at work.

Two heads are better than one, and this saying works best to explain the effect of a collaborative environment. However, it is important to understand that, even though it might seem similar on the employee level, collaboration can expand on to many different ways as we go up the command chain:

• For people in managerial positions, collaborating with teams provides them with the ability to understand what niche each team member specializes in. This allows the team lead to assign work accordingly for the best possible results, and direct collaboration with each team member results in great direct reports.
• As a member of a team, collaborating means properly communicating with your fellow team, and if done correctly, it helps in working together and being comfortable enough to be able to share your ideas so that you can accomplish team goals together and more efficiently as well.

Essential Strategies for Encouraging a Collaborative Environment within Teams

Even though collaboration between teams is incredibly beneficial for the work produced by the company, it is rare for organizations to build teams within their workplace, keeping team chemistry and their ability to collaborate with each other as their top priority.

That is primarily due to the fact that there are many factors that need to be taken into account when making teams according to their potential to work together.

However, there are certain strategies companies can apply to their workplace to encourage collaboration within their teams that work together more efficiently.

1. Emphasis on the Company’s Culture

Everyone needs a purpose to work, and that applies to the company workforce as well. In their case, the company mission is their main motivation to arrive to work every day.

Defining a vision for the company provides employees the feeling that they are aiming towards a bigger purpose, an agenda that is more profound than money and profits.

Not only that, but the company mission is what brings the workforce within the company to get on the same page, working together towards a common aim.

Because of the way it affects the performance of the employees and the influence it has over the collaborative abilities throughout the company, defining a simple to understand yet incredibly profound and meaningful mission is crucial to the company’s success.

As the business owner, you are the one who needs to work on your employees, providing them with the right motivation to collaborate with each other to create innovative solutions for the growth and development of the business.

Even though it is a known fact that money is a great motivator, it is not the only source of motivation, and employees need to be reminded that they are not just working for their income and for themselves but are working towards a purpose that bigger than them.

This higher purpose will provide them with the passion for always producing the best work possible, and since employees are all going to have a common goal in mind, they will be more encouraged to work together, leading to team collaboration to help achieve the core mission of the company.

2. Highlight Each Member’s Strengths

The main selling point of having a diverse team working on a project is that each member comprising the team would have different backgrounds and skills, which means that there are places where they might need more in.

However, looking at it from a different perspective, this also means that there are specific areas where they will excel, and utilizing them so that they are assigned work according to their strengths will result in them producing work of great quality.

However, other than assigning them work according to their strengths, it is also crucial to highlight and acknowledge them from time to time to promote a collaborative environment within the workplace.

During the phase of creating teams to perform a task within the workplace, it is important to make sure that the team is as diverse as possible so that they comprise members that can bring diverse skill sets to the project and are able to contribute to the task in their own way.

After identifying the strengths of each team member within a team are, it is important to make sure that they keep on working on the niches within the company where they excel, as well as bolstering sections of work where they are struggling so that they improve as a whole while working on what they are particularly good at as well.

3. Communicate to your Employees Your Desire for Collaboration

Communication within the different sectors of the hierarchy is essential to make sure that the entire workforce within the company is always aware of what the big picture is and what they are working towards.

There needs to be proper communication between the business owner and its employees so that they can understand what aspects of work they need to work on. This is why, in order to nurture a work environment that is geared more towards teamwork and employees with different skills collaborating with each other, you need to convey to them your expectations for a collaborative environment.

You need to let your employees know the value of collaborating with their fellow employees from the start so that they understand the importance of working in synergy with the team you are assigned to, integrating this message within the onboarding process to prioritize collaboration from the very beginning.

Other than when onboarding potential employees, you can also include the need for employees that are able to excel in the roles they have been hired to perform as well as being to work together in teams, collaborating and learning from their colleagues as part of the job description, to receive responses from like-minded individuals.

4. Promote Creativity in the Workplace

One of the main selling points for promoting a collaborative team environment is the exchange of different ideas for innovative solutions for the assigned task, and creativity plays a great role in this.

This is why it is essential to make sure that creative solutions are highlighted and acknowledged, and practices are implemented that encourage teams to think out of the box to come up with creative solutions rather than simply achieving the bare minimum.

Holding brainstorming meetings is a great way to open up the perceptions of different employees, enabling them to think more creatively to find an efficient solution to a task.

How this session work is that they create an environment where team members and employees are able to put forth ideas regarding the task they have been assigned, with other members having the opportunity to challenge them if they can spot a flaw in the idea.

Conclusion

Collaboration and connection work hand in hand with each other, with one of them dependent on the other. Due to this, it is important to encourage teamwork within your workplace using some of the ways mentioned above.