How to encourage collaboration in your organisation
Our last blog was about how to break down those pesky silos that bed themselves into our workplaces. This time we’re looking beyond that, at how to get your people working together better. In other words, how to encourage collaboration.
First up, if you’re not sure why you should put effort into this, here’s a quick round up of the benefits.
Collaboration has been shown to increase:
Innovation: People tend to come up with better ideas in a team than they do alone. This Deloitte article: Digital collaboration – delivering innovation, productivity and happiness is a great read!
Productivity: Teams who collaborate well streamline their ways of working, processes become more efficient and individual work becomes more focussed when there’s no ambiguity about who’s supposed to be doing what. Studies have shown that companies that promoted collaborative working were 5 times more likely to be high-performing.
Engagement: Not only is collaborating a bonding experience, people feel valued when they’re a part of something bigger and if the individual strengths and talents they bring to the team are brought out, even better. Post-covid particularly, digital collaboration has also helped improve workplace loneliness.
The problem with good collaboration, however, is that it requires a culture of cooperation and two-way communication to work. And this is perhaps why it can be so hard to increase collaboration in some organisations – because a culture of feedback and listening isn’t there. Information is delivered to employees one way, with limited interaction and little opportunity for them to say what they think back. But the importance of building opportunities for genuine two-way communication can’t be overestimated – and it’s why it features so heavily in our tops tips for encouraging collaboration:
Establish open channels of communication. You need to have safe places where people can share ideas and provide feedback. There are lots of options here and you’ll want to bear in mind your work environment, employees’ time commitment, availability and access to technology. Here are a few suggestions:
‘Ask me anything’ town halls: These are good for large organisations and allow leadership to show they care about encouraging feedback in an authentic way.
The morning huddle: Leaders can share critical information about the priorities for the day but also invite questions or concerns. It can save a lot of back-and-forth throughout the day.
A virtual coffee morning: If you’ve got lots of remote or home workers this can work well as it allows leaders to check in on their people and gives employees a chance to share concerns or perspectives.
Surveys: Canvassing opinions with a specific purpose in mind, for example focusing on a problem you want to solve, tends to give you the best return on your investment. Once you’ve got the feedback however, make sure you share both the results and the proposed solutions, so people know their concerns are being acted upon.
Put in a suggestions box: As with a survey, don’t just take the feedback and do nothing – it screams hollow gestures. To take it a step further, you could ask members of the team to come up with ways to implement what’s been suggested.
Invest in online collaboration software: Many places have some form of this already and collaborating in a single, shared tool can be one of the easiest ways to encourage team working. Whether you already have things like Google Workspace for file sharing or Slack for team comms, evaluate what you’ve got and what you need based on what your employees say would help them collaborate.
2. Provide training and resources to equip employees with the skills they need for effective collaboration. You’ve got your tools and channels, now you just need to make sure people know how and when to use them. Using feedback from your team, create guidelines about when and how they should be using these channels to communicate and collaborate. Remember, if collaboration in your organisation hasn’t been a thing prior to this, it won’t be effortless at first. It will take time to bed in.
3. Lead by example and highlight the role of leaders in fostering a culture of collaboration. Top tips for leaders include:
Be visible and communicate frequently.
Check on how team members are doing personally. Yes, that does mean asking about their lives outside work. Showing interest makes team members feel valued and encourages them to engage with you.
Listen with empathy. Be sensitive to employee needs and offer help or guidance whenever possible.
Show appreciation for your team. Celebrate the successes, say thank you and be specific in your praise. It will motivate others to behave the same way.
4. Encourage feedback. Make sure leaders respond quickly to ideas and questions – it shows employee input is valued. You could always assign someone to respond to all employee concerns and ideas. And, as we’ve said before, be sure to let all employees know how their colleagues’ suggestions or ideas are being implemented.
In the spirit of collaboration – and because we’re aware we have just given you all this advice in a very one-way fashion – we would love to know what you think about our tips. If any of your feedback gets us doing things in a different way, we’ll be sure to let you know we’ve taken your comments on board!
