Here’s What Effective Collaboration Looks Like

In order to produce the results that your business’ customers demand, it is essential that your team work together. This collaboration comes in several forms, but if one person struggles, it can be a dire development for any project or service delivery. This month we thought it would be useful to outline what effective collaboration looks like and give you some insights into how technology fuels most of your business’ collaborative efforts.

Start With Talent

One of the main issues a lot of organizations have with their collaborative efforts is assigning tasks to people who aren’t fit for them. Oftentimes this happens as a result of heavier-than-usual workloads on people who would normally undertake the tasks, leaving it to untrained and inexperienced people to complete sections of a project or service delivery. Ultimately, it creates efficiency issues, especially when the work has to be redone. When managing a collaborative effort, ensure that your team is made up of people that have the specific skills the task calls for. 

Communication

Of course, communication is a major part of any collaborative effort, not just for access to communication tools that allow for a free exchange of ideas, but also for the checks and balances that make these initiatives successful. In a lot of situations, businesses want to avoid conflict as much as possible, but when workers collaborate, there should be some. After all, collaborative teams are generally made up of people with different perspectives and experiences. A healthy exchange of constructive criticism can bring out the best in a team effort, and can have major impacts on the end result and the revenue generated from it.

Align Your Goals

One of the most important issues surrounding any collaborative endeavor is to have a shared goal. Many businesses get trapped by the belief that all the workers on a collaborative team share the same goals. Typically, they don’t. That’s why you need a clear set of goals to work from and managers that are good at creating manageable and measurable tasks that will reach the team’s goal. 

What Technology Can Help?

There are a lot of different ways you can fuel your collaborative teams with technology, but before you just throw technology at your efforts, you should understand what technology is best for your needs. Here are some options that are readily available that can help your business’ collaborative efforts:

• Collaboration apps - Software that is specifically made for collaboration. These apps are available anywhere on nearly any device and give users the ability to work with a lot of integrated software titles.
• Video conferencing - Being able to have impromptu meetings where you can talk to your team is important with all project coordination.
• Productivity suites - Cloud-based productivity suites give team members the ability to collaborate on specific documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.

k_Street Consulting, LLC technicians can help you get all the technology needed to improve your business’ collaborative productivity. Give us a call and have a conversation today at (202) 640-2737.