The truth is: if you’re not collaborating, you’re not a team. Collaboration is fundamental to teamwork. Without collaboration, you just have a group of people doing their own thing, not a team working toward a common goal.
According to a study by British health provider Bupa, people who are part of a team are 24% more likely to report that they are happy. Collaborative employees are also 50% more effective when it comes to task completion and fostering greater motivation and engagement. However, over 75% of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional because of a lack of accountability, unclear governance, or ambiguous project goals.
Achieving the level of successful team collaboration that most managers want can sometimes seem daunting. But don’t worry. In this article, I’ll give you ten strategies for promoting team collaboration, creating a stronger work culture, and fostering a more productive workplace.
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1. Highlighting Individuals’ Strengths
Showcasing team members’ strengths encourages a culture of appreciation, engenders empowerment, and consequently, yields high performance. When team member’s highlight and appreciate each others’ abilities, this builds a sense of self-worth and appreciation on the team and improves employee advocacy. The Buffer Open Blog, shown in Figure 1, provides a great example of this.
Figure 1—The Buffer Open Blog
They’ve designed this page as an employee diary that team members can use to share behind-the-scenes information about finances, workplace culture, and business decisions. This makes employees feel seen and that their teammates appreciate their efforts, while making their company’s Web site feel more human.
2. Promoting a Communal Working Environment
Research tells us that, by making an effort to build intentional workplace connections, companies can improve collaboration by 23%. Cross-functional collaboration is one of the most popular ways of promoting a communal working environment. You can facilitate opportunities for cross-functional collaboration by breaking down silos and encouraging interactions between different teams and departments.
As shown in Figure 2, RIVET, a Detroit-based software-as-service (SaaS) company, has cultivated a collaborative culture that thrives on a hybrid work model. By spending three days a week in the office, team members can efficiently debrief, make decisions, and take action.
This approach ensures that teammates share their expertise, which leads to innovative solutions, streamlined processes, and enhanced productivity and fosters a sense of unity and shared purpose among team members and virtual assistants.
3. Encouraging Creativity
Humans tend to get bored by performing repetitive, daily tasks. Therefore, only 34% of employees feel engaged at work. Foster employee engagement to encourage creativity and improve the quality of the work that employees do.
LEGO, which is shown in Figure 3, provides an example. Despite their being in the marketplace for over 80 years, the company has no thoughts of slowing down. Why? Because its employees can freely experiment with new ideas, regardless of whether they work out. LEGO instituted a failure bonus at its Denmark headquarters in 2007, giving employees a small amount of extra money every year that they can use to fund a project—even if it doesn't work out as planned. Take note, managers.
Knowledge sharing is of prime importance to a team. Team members can describe how they’ve worked on past projects and discuss new industry trends and technologies in detail. Whether employees take time for a quick chat over coffee or hold a spontaneous brainstorming session, sharing insights and resources helps them support each other’s growth.
AccumTech, shown in Figure 4, uses collaboration to amplify its strengths and achieve remarkable results in building custom data software. They support collaboration through team standups, knowledge-sharing presentations, and open seating in workspaces. This helps promote transparency, continuous learning, brainstorming, and both planned and spontaneous collaboration.
When leaders demonstrate collaborative behaviors in their work style, as well as their decision-making processes, they set the tone for teamwork across their entire team. Transparency plays a crucial role in leading by example. Leaders must ensure that employees understand the company’s mission, vision, and values, motivating them to align their contributions with the company’s overarching goals.
Take inspiration from LeanTaaS, shown in Figure 5. At LeanTaaS, leadership sets the tone for team collaboration by exemplifying collaborative behaviors in their work style. Cross-departmental projects foster diverse perspectives and ideas, while the use of collaboration tools such as Slack and project-management software facilitates efficient communication and collaboration.
The famous author Haruki Murakami once said, “The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.”
This holds true for organizations and employees. You can foster creativity and out-of-the-box ideas by taking your employees out for lunch, a picnic, or a casual outing. Try engaging in outdoor activities that promote physical well-being and encourage teamwork in a relaxed setting such as hiking, picnics, or sports. These activities let team members connect personally outside their work tasks. The best part of getting out of the office is that taking time away from the office provides opportunities for informal conversations and relationship-building.
Buffer’s retreats over the years (PDF) provide a good example. They also ensure that remote workers can participate fully by streaming sessions, sharing recordings, partaking of retreat goodies, and getting a little budget for meals and treats. If this isn’t the best way to get out of the office, what is?
7. Celebrating and Rewarding Successful Teamwork
One of the fundamentals of managing people well is giving them your honest, sincere appreciation, according to Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Recognition programs are one effective way of doing this. These could include team shout-outs during meetings, employee-of-the-month awards, or acknowledgment in company-wide newsletters. By publicly acknowledging team members’ efforts, you can strengthen teamwork and team spirit and motivate teammates to achieve their common objectives. In addition to recognition, tangible rewards such as monetary bonuses, gift cards, or team outings can further incentivize and reinforce successful teamwork.
Ranked in the Top 5% for Overall Company Culture on Comparably, Squarespace prides itself on being a diverse, inclusive bunch that excels at team collaboration and appreciation. Figure 6 provides an example.
When collaboration becomes ingrained in a company culture, it becomes a guiding principle that pervasively influences the organization’s decision-making, interactions, and behaviors. To foster team collaboration as a value, clearly articulate its importance and integrate it into the company’s mission. Communicate to team members that collaboration is not just a desired behavior but a fundamental aspect of the organization’s operations.
Create an environment in which team members collaborate through cross-functional projects, shared goals, and open communication. To allow teams to exchange ideas, schedule brainstorming and knowledge-sharing sessions and organize group-based tasks.
9. Offering Mentorship Opportunities
An employee-mentorship program strengthens both the company and the employees. This is a means of keeping employees engaged and cultivating their talent. Therefore, the whole enterprise benefits from mentorship.
Google has successfully developed a Career Guru program, which provides a good example of an established mentorship program. At Google, shown in Figure 7, employees partner with advanced-level mentors, who provide guidance in career development and skill optimization. This peer-driven model ensures that individuals get to choose their mentors based on how they’ve plotted their own career paths.
Through this program, Google supports employee development and creates a place where knowledge sharing is valued and encouraged.
10. Being Flexible
To maintain a healthy work-life balance, employees must adapt to circumstances and individual requirements. Having flexibility regarding work times, places, and duties gives employees more control over their schedule and increases their productivity. Moreover, agility enables organizations to better position themselves to source the broadest range of gifted individuals, respond to varying setups and preferences, and promote inclusivity and diversity.
Conclusion
Team collaboration is not just about achieving organizational goals. It’s about creating a work culture in which individuals can thrive and contribute to their organization’s success. Organizations should strive to establish an environment in which collaboration and teamwork are integral to their workforce’s success. Collaborative teams are happy and productive and the quality of their employee experiences and engagement increase.
Sapna specializes in writing data-driven articles and blog posts about business-to-business (B2B) marketing and software as a service (SaaS). She has over five years of experience in writing content and marketing. When she’s not writing, you can find her chitchatting with her sisters or reading books. Read More
