According to Harvard Business Review’s research, a high performing team with talented members will have low collaboration because of their reluctance in sharing knowledge or resources, doing tasks together, and having a casual conversation with colleagues. And the collaboration would be even more difficult today in this remote working scenario. Besides, it is easier to bring a team of diversified team members together when working from the office but it is harder while working from home. According to HBR, team members collaborate with members with whom they can relate to and they hesitate to collaborate with strangers or people who are different from them. Organizations with strict policies would find it really difficult to keep the teams together in this new normal. 

Without collaboration, the productivity and engagement rate will decrease dramatically. As the business conditions are constantly changing, the companies should also come up with policies that will help them adapt and thrive. The company should consider the well-being and the concerns of every employee and formulate collaboration techniques to bring them together without affecting the morals and basic mottos of the company. 

Here are a few collaboration techniques for your team’s success. 

Leaders are Meant to Lead 

Managers should act as coaches and collaborate with the team members through continuous Check-ins and regular one-to-one meetings. They should genuinely listen to the concerns of the employees and take action on them. When employees feel that their voices are heard, they give the productivity twofold and they stay loyal to the company as the management looks after their well-being. If the managers establish a strong connection with their team members, employees will also come forward to discuss their ideas or problems if they have any. Being inflexible can lead to an increase in disengagement and attrition rates.  

The highly skilled employees to look to their leaders in team behavior. If the leader sets the right example, the team members will follow suit, no matter where they work from.

Communicate what is your company up to! 

The employees should be informed of the actions of the company and what is expected out of them. If the workforce is unaware of its goals and contributes to the company, then the work will become monotonous to the employees and soon, the employee turnover will increase. The employees to be engaged should be given a target and the reason behind it.

As a manager, you should conduct regular meetings to discuss the goals and progress of each employee. The team members should discuss with one another the team’s common goal and individual goals. The exchange of ideas and knowledge will further promote collaboration among team members. 

Reward the Employees 

Rewarding the employees and recognizing their efforts are always the best ways to improve employee engagement at your organization. Why not leverage the technique to promote collaboration too? Reward the employees who collaborate well with their peers and is an active team player. The rewards or incentives should be customized as the needs of each employee differ. In this age of virtual meetings or work from anywhere, collaboration is highly significant to maintain the productivity and profitability of the company. Also, teamwork is inevitable to successfully complete the deliverables within the stipulated time. 

Take the Inputs of the Employees 

Employees feel isolated from the rest of the company as they work at a place where they are not able to see their peers in person. It is the manager’s responsibility to show the employees that the company cares for them and cherishes them. One way of doing that is taking the inputs of the employees in setting their goals and also the departments. The employees are the people who interact with the customers every day and they know the market demands better than many top executives. Therefore, considering their suggestions can help the superiors to gain a new perspective and explore the unthinkable. This approach will help the company to consistently innovate, which is the need of the hour and the one reason behind the fall of many popular companies.

Use the Best Collaboration Tools 

With the help of technology, companies have overcome this hardship in the form of pandemic together. Organizations with non-digitized workspace have adopted technology to ensure business continuity but their executives think that only task or project management tool is enough to sustain until the end of these corona days. Project management tools cannot guarantee collaboration, and so the companies should go for communication and collaboration tools like Synergita, Teams, Slack, etc. Performance management and collaboration tools are indispensable to boost teams’ morale and get the best out of employees. Frequent video calls among teams, regular discussions on the team members’ progress or performance, and casual calls are some of the other collaboration techniques for a team’s success. 

Making your team members know one another better can help in respecting the differences and building great teamwork. 

Engage your employees! Build Teamwork! Grab Success!