The modern workspace has changed recently, and collaborative working has become increasingly common. It is not surprising that there are a lot of benefits to it in any workspace where it is practised in. In this article, we will discuss what collaborative working is and how it benefits a team.
Collaborative Working
Collaborative work, often known as joint or partnership work, refers to a broad category of interactions between two or more organisations. There is a spectrum of possibilities, from forming an informal network or alliance to working together on a project to merging completely.
Working together can be for a set period or become an ongoing agreement. The common denominator among these choices is that they all involve a transaction of some kind for the benefit of both parties.
Benefits of Collaborative Working
Working together has a lot of positive effects. Here are a few ways that working together will help you and your team:
#1. More new ideas and creativity
When we think of working together, one of the first things that comes to mind is how projects almost always benefit from having more than one point of view. The saying “two heads are better than one” is accurate here.
People can have different ideas about what is needed to do a specific job. These different ideas and personalities create a lively work environment and help people develop new ideas and ways of looking at things.
When you bring together people with different or similar skills, you can always start to grow new thoughts and points of view. With the right direction from management, working together can help solve problems and finish tasks more effectively and efficiently.
#2. Groups help each other get better.
When you assemble a group of people with different areas of expertise, one of two things is likely to happen. The first result is that your teams work in separate groups that don’t talk to each other much.
You want to avoid this because you’ll miss out on one of the most important perks of working with others.
Different skill sets start to come together when a team is well-oiled and working well together. If you encourage your team members to work together, especially on jobs outside of some people’s comfort zones, they will start learning from each other.
This helps build a culture of skill growth so your team will work better together.
Your employees might even end up working on each other’s projects, which keeps the cycle of teamwork and all its benefits going.
#3. Teamwork makes people more interested and productive.
When a group works well together, they will feel more like a family. Even if the people on a well-chosen team are very different, their shared goal will bring them together and help them get along.
If your team joins this way, they may become more interested in their work because they are working toward the same goals.
This higher level of involvement helps to make people more productive. As team members progress with their work, they find that their coworkers and the environment they create support them.
All of this will make each team member more productive and the team as a whole more productive. If you can get your team to work together well, everything else will fall into place.
#4. Teams become more adaptable and quick to change.
For current businesses to do well, project teams need to be able to adapt to changing situations. No matter what business you work in, things are changing in some way right now, so this skill has never been more critical.
This skill is at its best when teams work well together. Some people may think leading a team is more challenging when things change, but that’s not the case if the team is close and works well together.
When something big happens, a well-oiled team can put all hands on deck to help change the project’s direction if it needs to. Team leaders can focus on keeping the ship away from rocks when each team member is working on their part of the project.
This agile project management style is a byproduct of healthy collaboration and should be kept in mind when choosing whether or not to increase collaboration on your project.
#5. Better mental health at work
Collaboration can benefit people’s mental health, which may be one of its most essential perks. Getting along well with their coworkers helps them feel like valuable team members, which is good for their mental health.
This makes a person feel more confident in their work and more likely to ask for help when needed.
A team member who feels essential will also be more interested in their work and more effective than they might have been if they didn’t feel this way. Nowadays, your workers’ mental health should be a crucial part of how you manage them.
But this doesn’t mean you have to watch them. It’s the other way around. When you get your teams to work together and make everyone feel important, your productivity will go through the roof.
#6. The best people want to work together.
Because of everything we’ve discussed, top talent is likelier to join a business that works well with others. The best people in your field know that working together with others has a lot of benefits and possibilities.
This means that people are more likely to want to work for companies that encourage teamwork than those that don’t.
Research shows that the new companies that get the most attention from the media and from people looking to work for them are the ones that are open to working together.
There’s a reason all these weird businesses in remodelled buildings have open-plan offices: they know how helpful it is to work where people can work together. Take a page from their book and show off how well your workplaces work together when you’re hiring.
#7. Project completion speeds up.
We’ve talked about how one of the benefits of working together is that each person can be more productive. This is also true for the team as a whole. If each person in your team works better on their own, the team as a whole will work better, too, because of the atmosphere and relationship they build.
When everyone on a team helps each other and learns from each other in a constant back-and-forth, you’ll find that the environment they build makes people more productive.
Have you ever heard the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”? Well, this is a big deal when working with other people. We all know that two people working alone are slower than two people working together.
But also, if two people work together, they will do a better job than if they work alone. This is because they help each other improve and learn from each other. Even good competition would be in the right place here.
#8. Better retention of staff
When workers get close to their coworkers and the company they work for, they are less likely to want to quit. If you’ve helped a worker grow by working together, you don’t want them to leave either.
You’ve helped them learn the skills they need to benefit your business significantly, so losing them would be wrong. Surprisingly, this also works for getting along with the boss.
Workers are more likely to stay with a company than with personal ties if they feel valued by management. With the help of joint work, you can make your workers feel this way.
When team members feel valued by their team and their boss, they feel even more sure of themselves. If a worker feels valued at work, it would take a pretty good offer for them to want to leave.
#9. Better contact with stakeholders
When a team puts their heads together and gets to know a project, it’s much easier to talk to the people with a stake in it. As a project manager, you must let the people who matter know about success and risks.
If each team member is in charge of a different part of the job, they may be able to give you more information than you could on your own.
With a strong team of experts, you can give your stakeholders more detailed information and direct them to your team if they need more information.
If you need task-specific language in your stakeholder reports, a quick chat with the right team members will ensure you can explain everything in plain English. This keeps the stakeholders from needing clarification on words they need help understanding and helps get the message across more quickly.
Challenges with Collaborative Working
Working together has its ups and downs, just like anything else. Some problems that can come up when people work together are:
Harder to manage
When more people are involved, sometimes from different teams and departments, it can be harder to keep track of everyone. Keeping in touch and reminding each other of the shared goal can help with this problem.
Having less openness
Workflow openness can be much harder to achieve because it may be harder to tell who’s done what, what’s left to do, and if everything is on schedule. This is why it’s crucial to handle projects well.
Problems with talking to each other
If you talk to each other infrequently, openly, and honestly, it could be easier to meet goals quickly. Collaboration makes it even more important to communicate well and often.
Competition that goes too far
On some teams, there may be an unintentional push for competition. Competition can be good in small amounts but harmful if it gets out of hand. Instead, encourage a culture of sharing information and helping each other.
What Makes Good Collaborative Work?
There are a few essential parts to working well with others. Here are some things that help people work well together:
- Open lines of communication: It’s essential to establish open contact lines for talking, making decisions, and asking questions[1]. This ensures that everyone on the team has the information they need and can contribute well. Clear dialogue helps stop misunderstandings and makes things more open and honest.
- A clear understanding of each person’s role: Everyone on the team should know their jobs and what they need to do to do them. This keeps people from doing the same work twice and ensures all jobs are done. Clear roles help the team work more efficiently and take responsibility for their actions.
- Openness: Open means giving out important information without waiting to be asked. Open conversation builds trust among team members and makes it easier for them to work together. When team members think information is being shared freely, they are likelier to share their thoughts and ideas.
- Stick to what you say you’ll do: Good partners are reliable and always do what they will. They keep track of their time well and can be counted on to finish jobs in the agreed-upon amount of time. When you do what you say you’ll do, it builds trust and faith in the team.
- Having empathy: Understanding your coworkers’ problems and work styles and being able to relate to them can help you work together better. Taking the time to learn about team members and their needs can help make the workplace a place where everyone feels welcome and supported. Empathy makes it easier for team members to understand each other and work together.
- Communicating openly and honestly: To work together well, you need to talk to each other openly and honestly. For work to move forward, team members should feel free to ask questions, talk about specific points, and even argue. When people are honest with each other, they can work together to make better answers.
- Diverse and inclusive teams: Putting together teams with different talents, skill levels, and experiences makes working together easier. Different points of view and experiences help the team develop new ideas and be creative. Inclusive teams motivate everyone to take part and contribute.
- Encouraging participation: For collaboration to work, team members must feel safe saying what they think and want to do. When you encourage open communication and active involvement, everyone can share their unique ideas and skills. This makes people feel like they own the process and are a part of it.
How Do You Show Collaborative Work?
The following are some of how a company might encourage its employees to work together while they are on the job:
Changing of employment
Workers with various areas of expertise can learn how to work together more effectively if they rotate through different jobs. The team members converse with one another as they instruct one another on new abilities and learn about the responsibilities of each other’s roles. Additionally, it prevents employees from becoming bored while working and provides opportunities for them to advance professionally.
Discussions in the open
It is in everyone’s best interest to be able to voice their opinions and concerns throughout the meeting; it is not appropriate to delegate this responsibility to a single person. It improves people’s ability to work together and makes them happier since they realise their employer is interested in what they say. It also enables new concepts to enter your consciousness, some of which you may not have previously considered.
Having conversations via video.
Since an increasing number of people are working from the comfort of their homes, video conferencing has emerged as one of the most effective tools for facilitating collaborative efforts in non-standard environments. Even working in various locations, people can exchange ideas and thoughts through this technology. Video conferencing can make it simpler for coworkers to get together, have speedy conversations about work issues, and hang out.
A warm workstation
Workers who practice hot desking need a permanent workspace to call their own. They can sit anywhere and move around frequently throughout the day. People in the same department or team typically sit together in an office setting. However, individuals from various jobs and departments collaborate on ts while using hot desking. Due to this, people will find it much simpler to collaborate and exchange.
Team-building exercises and activities.
Organising activities geared toward fostering cooperation and camaraderie among workers is a critical goal of team-building events. Team building exercises allow participants to interact with one another and discover facts about one another that they might not otherwise share if they were preoccupied with their regular responsibilities. If someone needs assistance with a specific job, they could feel more at ease asking a coworker with whom they have a positive and cordial relationship. This could make the situation easier for everyone involved.
Related: 10 Time Wasters That Are Killing Your Productivity
