Team collaboration in today’s fast-moving workplace is what seems to hold the key to success. It’s more than a buzzword—it’s what is bound to drive high-performing teams toward their targets. But sometimes, effective collaboration is hard to achieve. Often, even the best of teams can be stopped by such factors as miscommunication, working in silos, and a lack of trust.

(Source: Zippia)

Most American workers find collaboration as the most important factor in their career success. According to a workplace survey by Gensler, 48 percent of professional and technical employees, 54 percent of administrative employees, 57 percent of managers and directors, and 66 percent of senior and executive employees registered saying that their jobs were dependent on face-to-face collaboration. 

Unlocking the Power of Team Collaboration

It is the glue that can hold a workplace together. Team spirit is a lot more than what can be suggested by this term alone—that’s a working culture that supports high employee engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity. If you focus on the team spirit aspect, be sure to bring change to your work environment. This builds a sense of unity, and team collaboration benefits among employees.

What is Team Collaboration?

It is essentially what holds together a successful workplace.  It’s a key to having a vibrant work culture and improving employee engagement, satisfaction, and consequently job fulfillment, which eventually widens productivity. With a team spirit at hand, you will be well placed to change the work environment and have employees feel for one another through teamwork and being as one.

(Source: Zippia)

DO YOU KNOW? Those who work in teams at work are more than 50% more productive than others who do tasks individually.

The Significance of Team Collaboration

Team collaboration is essential. It has effects on many aspects of the workplace:

1. Productivity: High team spirit makes the staff more interested and working harder to improve performance and productivity.
2. Employee Satisfaction: A good organizational culture fashioned based on high team spirit makes the staff happier. It makes them feel important and a part of the team that has got their backs.
3. Teamwork and Communication: Teamwork, in essence, brings open communication and respect for each employee. It has made working in groups so much easier than achieving goals.
4. Morale and Retention: High morale of the teams empowers the people to work hard for them with a sense of inspiration between the human resources. This makes the human resources face enhanced morale with less turnover of employees.

An organization, through the creation of strong teamwork, will develop a working environment that creates a sense of belonging for the workers. Increased engagement will boost the possibility of success for the business.

(Source: zippia)

Teamwork and workplace collaboration efforts boost company sales by 27%.                                            

Do You Know? A study at Oxford University recently found that when people are happy and working toward a common goal, collaborative teams show an increase of 13% in productivity.

(Source: Asana)

Proven Ways of Boosting Team Collaboration

A successful business requires collaboration from its teams. Effective companies have created a very good working environment using only tried strategies. Here, members work together in a team as one, communicate effectively, and work towards a common goal.

(Source: Niagara)

“As an organization grows, there is a tendency for communication to bottleneck. At Hope for Haiti, we’ve seen those inefficiencies hurt us: if we can’t run like a well-oiled machine, we’re not serving as many people as we could be—and it’s our responsibility to improve upon that.” —SKYLER BADENOCH, President and CEO, HOPE FOR HAITI

10 Ways to Improve Team Collaboration Skills in the Workplace

Here are 10 Proven Ways to Improve Team Collaboration:

1. Choose leaders who set good examples

• Identify strong-willed leaders with the will to decide but give priority to the team.
• Ensure that these leaders manage and lead their people in the right direction.
• Make every team member empowered, with inspiring leadership for collaboration.

2. Communicate Effectively 

• Get the team members to speak up about any issues in an open and well-communicated manner.
• Encourage sharing of ideas and expressing views without criticizing one another, and the team collaboration activities of listening to one another.
• The working environment should be open and cooperative.

3. Establish a Fair and Clear Rule

• Lay out clear guidelines with respect to how the members are to proceed in undertaking activities of teamwork association with one another.
• Create a model for decision-making and handling disputed cases.
• Improved the alignment of the team for better delivery on the project.

Create a Roadmap on Collaboration that Defines Ground Rule

4. Promote a Community Work Environment

• Build a community; give people the sense of belonging.
• Plan some team building events and other bonding activities.
• Develop more of an inclusive culture and shared experience.

5. Encourage Innovation

• Allow them to work in such an environment that will help them generate new thoughts and perceptions.
• Allow them to generate ideas through brainstorming.
• Original ideas that will promote creativity will be rewarded.

(Source: deloitte)

Global Innovation Lead, Fortune 500 company Of the six European markets, 56 percent of all employees we surveyed work in an environment marked by little collaboration or innovation; the rest work predominantly for teams that are either innovative or collaborative but not both. Only Ten per cent strongly believe that they belong to an organization that enables them to excel in both.

6. Share Knowledge, Insights and Resources

• Information sharing obtains the power of collective experience.
• Knowledge sharing allows the teams to become empowered with their knowledge and a pool of common resources.
• A person with appropriate knowledge and tools shall be contacted.

7. Get Everybody’s Feedback

• Engage all the teams’ members in the process of making decisions.
• Value the ideas of each member and marginal team inputs of.
• Help and make possible an environment of joint decision-making.

8. Eliminate Micromanaging

• Offer support that members can be relatively independent as they go about their work.
• But avoid the temptation of being overly controlling or monitoring, this neglects collaboration.
• Empower teams by means of autonomy and trustworthiness. Thus, their level of engagement will be enhanced.

9. Reward Teamwork and Collaboration

• Identify and appreciate successful collaboration cases.
• Reward and encourage collaborative behaviors.
• Establish collaborative excellence in the team workplace.

10. Invest in Collaboration Tools

• Team setup with proper team collaboration tools that foster effective communication and coordination.
• Any remote working and sharing of files should make good use of the digital platform.
• Staff should be empowered with the very best and most up-to-date, emerging state-of-the-art collaboration technologies. 

As illustrated in a study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, “Psychological safety, shared understanding of team goals, and coordination are key factors explaining how and why effective team collaboration in remote work can occur.” This research proves that trusting relationships, aligned team goals, and efficient coordination are important for the success of remote working teams.

Using these strategies, organizations would have the potential to express cohesive teamwork. They focus on open communication, recognition, team building, employment enhancement, work-life balance, and high performance, working well as a team, and success of the company in general.

“they (employees) are used to using their own choice of hardware and software in their personal lives, and for many, there is frustration that the team collaboration tools they have to use in the workplace feel like 10 steps backwards.”

Inspire Team Collaboration Quotes with AITD Training

By using the strategies from this article, you can boost your team’s collaboration. This leads to a more dynamic, motivated, and united team culture. These strategies need ongoing effort and commitment. Celebrate each small win to keep your team moving towards success.

Basically, what must be done is set up good team collaboration at the bottom line. From open and free-flowing communication to a supportive workplace, appreciation of the hardworking team, set-up activities, and work-life balance facilitation, these all bring along the formation of a unified and respectful team.

Provide constructive feedback, setting clear goals, and lead from the front to build a stronger team.A culture of learning and positivity at work boosts productivity and innovation.

Amity Institute of Training & Development (AITD) offers team collaboration skills training that focused on building inclusion and the capabilities that will better equip workforce teams for respectful disagreement, thereby harnessing multiple perspectives.