If you wonder how some people make it big in the industry or reach the stature of CEO and other senior level positions, you will find that their success stories resonate with some common words like team collaboration in a workplace, team management etc. So, the question comes how these are accomplished but first of all what these terms actually mean? Let’s explore the answer and also see some benefits these offers.
Team collaboration in the workplace can be defined as two or more people working together by sharing their ideas and thought the process to accomplish a common goal. It is usually team work taken to a superior level. Team work is often a physical involvement of two or more people to achieve a task. In today’s time of fast changing technology and high-speed internet when file sharing, web-based programs, video conferencing and emails have emerged as essential tools; collaboration has appeared as a more productive way of doing things.
In all, Team collaboration incorporates team work and various other aspects like following:
Brainstorming ideas and thoughts to generate solutions- this brings groups together to provide different perspectives and expertise to solve common problems.
Goal orientation- groups and individuals work towards a common goal and benefit from each other or from the company as a whole.
Equal participation- treating everyone as equals while collaborating can open up communication and encourage ideas from all levels of the department or the company.
Benefits of team collaboration:
Access to skills and strengths of everyone involved
Solve problems and faster innovation
Increase in the work efficiency (Divide and conquer)
Job satisfaction and retention of employees
So, to get started, here are six ways to foster a collaborative environment:
1. Defining roles and responsibilities within a team of employees and empowering every employee as being accountable for client satisfaction.
2. Setting team goals and measuring the results as and when desired.
3. Fostering a creative atmosphere by allowing team members to question and discuss in a non-judgemental scenario.
4. Building cohesion among the members of the team and communicating what each member would be accomplishing every day.
5. Know one another well in order to utilize the skill set and uniform flow of communication
6. Leverage strengths of team members and reward individuals as well as a team regularly.
Hence, we see here that team collaboration is the most important ingredient for reaching greater heights as unless we collaborate, we will not know strengths and weaknesses of each other and will not be able to innovate new solutions.
Article by Sania Shaikh, Product Evangelist at Linkwok
