To do a good job - we need collaboration both within teams but also cross teams, and with external stakeholders. COVID has changed the way we show up to work and more companies have moved to a hybrid, and sometimes fully remote work model.
Achieving effective collaboration in the workplace is an ongoing process, and is not always easy. Particularly as we begin to return to the office from full WFH, you may find that the departments in your business have become siloed from each other, or an excessive amount of unproductive meetings have become the norm as everyone worked to stay in the know during remote working. Investing in the latest technology and tools is a really easy way to work towards better productivity and levels of collaboration in your team, and should be an essential part of any collaboration strategy.
There are several types of workplace collaboration styles that you may use as part of your business. Most people will use all of these in their work life, and there are levels of overlap to each method of collaboration. Here are some key examples of workplace collaboration types that you probably already use, depending on what project you’re working on or goal you’re heading towards:
Open discussions are a form of collaboration that pulls employees from different seniority levels and departments together to share their thoughts and ideas on how to solve problems or improve things in the organisation. This style of collaboration encourages more junior members of staff to feel valued, and provides an opportunity for creative ideas from all levels of the business. It also helps facilitate discussion and professional relationships between team members who may not traditionally have the chance to cross paths.
This form of collaboration brings together a specific set of employees for a specific goal, such as for senior management to discuss the business’s financial progress, or the Design team coming together for a WIP meeting. This style of collaboration has an emphasis on the right people being involved in relevant meetings, in order to minimise the amount of meetings people are in every day. These meetings are also great for confidential or sensitive information, or to discuss a particularly significant event.
Brainstorming is the process of bringing people together specifically for idea generation and creative solutions. For example, a marketing team might meet for a brainstorm session around a new marketing campaign, or the Culture team might meet to discuss the end-of-year party theme. Brainstorming sessions can be a creative free for all, bringing together ideas and strategy from a wide range of people, giving everyone an equal platform to contribute.
Cross-functional collaboration brings employees from different departments and with different specialties together to work on overlapping projects. This could include collaboration between the HR department and the marketing team to discuss how to best market the company towards the most qualified candidates, or bringing marketing and PR together to discuss a product launch that includes gifting and a launch event. This type of collaboration ensures alignment throughout all teams, highlights each person’s specific skill, and when done well, ensures everyone’s work compliments each other’s for the best final result.
This form of collaboration brings together people with multiple, specific skill sets to achieve one goal. Mixed-skilled teams help employees learn from each other, whilst being able to rely on each other’s strengths to complete projects. A popular example of a mixed-skilled team is your standard marketing department, for example, a marketing team may include a strategist, an analyst, a copywriter, a designer, a project manager, and a leader, all working towards a common end goal together. Another version of a mixed-skill team is combining different sorts of ‘thinkers’, specifically pulling a creative thinker, an analytical thinker, and a strategic thinker together to achieve the best end result on a project.
With hybrid working, many of these forms of collaboration can be done virtually, but virtual collaboration itself is considered its own model of collaboration entirely. Composed of teams that are partly or fully working remotely, this form of collaboration relies on technology and the appropriate telecommunication software to be successful. This form of collaboration requires clear communication and frequent monitoring to continue ensuring that remote workers feel engaged and up to speed with the goals or initiatives of the team.
There has been a significant cultural shift around what ‘collaboration’ means in the last few decades. It has shifted from all relevant parties working adjacent to each other, within the exact confines of their role, to now meaning the ways in which every team or individual can use their skills to strengthen the group and project results by working together well.
This shift is largely due to the rapid transformation of technology. For example, data is now embedded in collaboration tools for anyone to access and understand, and opposed to just sitting with data specialists to understand and action. This sort of technology encourages a deeper understanding of what makes projects tick, and helps every member of staff perform better. For example, using Nura Space workplace management technology, you have access to data analysis and insights about your team's patterns and behaviours, in order to help facilitate better collaboration and improve employee engagement. Collaboration can be fuelled by data at key points in the process with this greater level of transparency.
The other huge pivot for collaboration has been the transition from solely in-office to hybrid and remote working. Teams have had to adjust to not being able to always gather in person to work on projects, and to navigate working together via video chat and written threads. Transparency over who is in the office and when can help teams coordinate to meet whenever works best for them.
Encouraging and supporting collaboration in the workplace is key to building a happy, healthy working culture. With 86% of employees believing that a lack of collaboration in the workplace can lead to workplace failures, it’s important to facilitate productive collaboration. Teams that collaborate well together, allow employees to share their ideas, learn how their colleagues think, work, and operate, which leads them to learn from each other and build upon their strengths. Collaboration is mutually beneficial for both the company and the employees.
Poor workplace collaboration can have a domino effect of issues throughout the business. Here are just some of the problems that can arise from poor collaboration, and how to avoid them.
If people are struggling to collaborate effectively, it may be due to communication difficulties. From little things like emails getting lost in the depths of an inbox, to big problems like misunderstanding the goal of the project, good communication pathways are essential to success.
You can help your staff avoid poor communication by ensuring they are provided with programs and spaces to speak in. Instant messaging programs like on Slack or Teams can help give teams a central point of casual discussions, and regular meetings can keep everyone on the same page.
Lack of efficient collaboration can lead to teams working in circles and redoing work unnecessarily. In a hybrid workplace without a unified working platform, staff may also waste time trying to locate each other in the office.
Providing your team with the resources to organise where and when to meet and collaborate will help alleviate time wasting. Implementing a technology like Nura Space will assist teams to quickly locate each other, or to book meeting rooms or desks together, so no time is wasted wandering around the office trying to find each other.
If your team isn’t working well together, it can throw out deadlines and schedules. Poor collaboration may mean the work is not getting done as quickly as expected, or there may be a confusion as to who tasks sit with due to lack of communication and understanding. This makes project management incredibly difficult, which will add additional strain to project managers, the staff, and potentially the clients or customers.
Regularly touching base, with things such as Stand Ups or Work In Progress meetings ensures everyone can stay on the same page, which leads to easier collaboration. Project planning software where everyone can see the workflow expectations can also assist the team to collaborate effectively.
Lack of collaboration can lead to inefficiencies and deficiencies in the work being produced. Teams that aren’t cohesive will work more slowly, may have disjointed goals and results, and the final product may not be the best work possible.
Providing appropriate spaces for teams to meet and collaborate efficiently can help alleviate this. With Nura Space smart insights, you can ensure to optimise your office for the highest level of productivity and collaboration.
Poor collaboration begins a dangerous cycle of poor communication, leading to low morale. Underperforming teams, or teams who don’t feel connected and able to work together, produce lower quality work, and can become disengaged from their role and the company.
Encouraging staff connection and wellness can help ensure staff morale stays up, and being able to touch base with staff, both in person or remotely with telecommunication programs, will help stop this cycle.
Modern workplaces and new ways of working require strong, specially designed technology to help keep teams cohesive and collaborative. Nura Space offers a variety of organisation, analytical, and wellness features to help you maintain a happy workforce, who are able to successfully collaborate to produce great results.
If you’d like to hear more about how Nura Space can help optimise your office, we’d love to chat with you.
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