Photo from pexels

Originally Posted On: 15 ways to boost team collaboration (clariti.app)

 

Team collaboration is the most important factor that can help businesses to develop and grow quickly. Effective team collaboration has a positive impact on problem solving, decision making, productivity, customer satisfaction and the overall business performance. In order to improve team collaboration among their employees, companies have to look at various parameters like team size, location, number of departments, nature of the team – remote or in-office etc.

Implementing team collaboration with a remote team, which is now becoming the norm, can be bit more challenging as the employees don’t get to meet each other face-to-face. A study revealed that 83% of employees collaborate better with the help of technology. Team collaboration software can help integrate your remote team better.

The success of team collaboration depends on the company’s existing communication, tools and solutions that are used for synchronous and asynchronous communication.

Here are 15 ways to promote team collaboration and improve productivity.

1. Provide access to team collaboration software

There are lot of free team collaboration software available in the market like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Flock, etc. Though these tools bring communication like group chat, audio and video calling in one place, the related communications are not connected. So, conversations from different communication channels remain disconnected though you use a single app. If you want to search for a presentation or a message from your colleague, you need to search multiple channels to get the information wasting time.

How Clariti can help you to improve team collaboration

Clariti is one of the best free apps for team collaboration that not only brings all your emails, chats, online meetings, shared files, social feeds, and tasks in a single app, but also links related conversations in TopicFolder. TopicFolder eliminates the need to search for information as everything is neatly organized without any extra effort. Clariti allows you to put any item such as email, conference chat, social feeds, and To-Do inside TopicFolder. All the subsequent related conversations are automatically stored in that TopicFolder. Few months down the line, when you want to go back and refer to a prior conversation or file, all you have to do is look inside the relevant TopicFolder. In Clariti, no matter what was discussed and when it was discussed, you will be able to see the big picture in one view. This is not possible with other team collaboration apps.

2. Improve communication

Communication plays a crucial role in team collaboration. A Slack survey on team collaboration revealed that easy communication with teammates is the main factor of ‘good collaboration’. Therefore, the success of team collaboration depends on establishing strong communication among team members. Companies and organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5x more likely to retain the best employees.

3. Reduce emails

Though email is part of formal communication, don’t rely on it for team collaboration. Just because people receive hundreds and thousands of them, it is easy to lose an email and the essential data attached to it. Moreover, there are some project ideas that require live interactions and visualizations which cannot be done through emails.

4. Reduce meetings

A Microsoft study has revealed that number of meetings during remote work has gone up significantly. Teams meetings lasted longer — 45 minutes rather than 35 the year before — and people are in more meetings, (with almost two-thirds of those not being scheduled in advance), adding up to 2.5x more time in meetings. Meetings should only be arranged to discuss only important issues and the agenda and duration of the meeting should be planned in advance to save time.

5. Foster creativity

Without motivating your team members to think outside the box, you risk a situation where everyone gets lost in mundane tasks. For the team to be collaborative, you need to foster creativity. Doing so helps mix things up and creates an exciting atmosphere.

6. Allow team members to take the initiative

If you had carefully constituted your team; you are likely to have followers who are willing to take a personal initiative. If a member loves to lead a certain task, you should use the opportunity to show them support.

7. Communicate expectations

It would help if you communicated to your team members the need for collaboration. Make sure that they understand this is the minimum standard for being part of the team. If everyone understands your position on collaboration, it becomes easier to execute different tasks.

8. Clarify the team goals

Your team members need to feel that they are working towards the attainment of something. Jointly create measurable goals and clearly define what a win is. Doing so gives them a sense of purpose, hence unity.

9. Recognize and reward

Lauding individual performances will motivate other members to perform better as well. It is always a nice thing to appreciate the talent and letting your team know that their contribution matters a lot to the company. To inspire your teammates to collaborate better and achieve the next milestone, leaders should recognize and reward their achievements. Research by OfficeTeam shows that 66% of employees and 76% of millennials would quit their jobs if they felt unappreciated.

10. Streamline work processes

Your company processes must be clear and straightforward to ensure team collaboration. You do not want a situation where each team member has his/her way of doing the same task. That would cause miscommunication and disagreements. Streamlining work processes ensures everyone is on the same page.

11. Track team members’ progress

As you encourage your team members to collaborate, each one of them wants to see their efforts pay off. Track the progress of different tasks assigned. In so doing, you can confidently show your team what has been achieved and what’s still pending.

12. Get feedback

Things don’t always work out as you’ve planned them. Thus, you need to have an open-minded perspective and listen to the comments made by your team members. Asking for feedback gives you a chance to see where the problem exists and how best to maneuver it.

13. Honor requests and keep promises

Keeping promises and honoring requests goes a long way in cementing your team. Broken promises are the cracks that start to separate team members. As a team leader, you have a duty the keep your word.

14. Highlight the strengths of your team members

Empowering team members by focusing on the core strengths of each person allows them to work together seamlessly. That allows them to view each other as partners and not competitors.

15. Resolve conflicts

For better team collaboration, leaders should identify potential conflicts between the team members and deal with it accordingly. Handling conflicts at the early stage and resolving them amicably will save the company lot of time and money.

We hope the strategies discussed above will help you to improve decision making process and overall business productivity by improving team collaboration. The best thing leaders can do to improve team collaboration is to make the process of collaborating a great experience. One tool that can help team collaboration is Clariti.

Clariti SaaS Productivity Software

Clariti is one of the best SaaS tools that brings all your emails, chats, calls, shared files, social feeds, and tasks in a single app and links related conversations in TopicFolders. Clariti lets you take full advantage of all the benefits that unified communication software offer. Companies implementing a unified communication software solution like Clariti enjoy the benefits of having all their systems work together, smoothly and securely to enable effective team collaboration.

Companies can increase their productivity by up to 30% by using a good team collaboration software. Using Clariti you can make calls, share screens, brainstorm solutions, collaborate with team members, and more. To equip your team with everything they need to collaborate, start by implementing Clariti. Sign up for Clariti today. It’s easy and free.