A Culture of Collaboration
Part I of Elin’s Collaboration Culture Techniques
Why is collaboration within a workplace so important?
A company is a collection of employees, teams, and departments that each play a part in creating company success. Often, they will require each others’ help and support; teamwork is a natural element of any organization. This includes:
- Being more productive and setting clear deadlines
- Having clear, streamlined communication between departments
- Sharing knowledge and expertise across the organization
Here are some ideas on building collaborative workspaces:
CREATING COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES
Is your office encouraging collaboration or does it push employees and teams to work in isolation? Is it easy for your employees to socialize with other teams? Are there spaces available for spontaneous discussions or a brainstorm session? Do people know where they can find other teams and who can they speak to about a specific topic?
Rethink your physical office space from the perspective of collaboration culture. Help people work together, easily find each other, create spaces where casual ideas can be discussed (think whiteboards, small meeting nooks, hot desks etc). Diversifying spaces and furniture at work can create flow and ‘collision opportunities’ in the office.
ENCOURAGE CROSS-TEAM COLLABORATION
Cross Team Initiatives
Process improvements are sometimes driven by employee task forces. Ask a group of people to come up with a plan for a better process, but connect people that work in different departments or even countries. Diversity creates unexpected creative results and as a side effect, more people will get to know each other outside of their teams!
Reach Out for New Ideas
Next time you need new ideas — reach out across the company, teams or locations, you never know where you can get a little inspiration. Make a little competition and reward ideas regardless of where they came from.
Streamline Project Management
Help different teams be involved directly with each other, preferably not via a Project Manager who will coordinate communication. Facilitate the work of the design team and the production team, so both understand what others require without a PM communicating back and forth. Where else can you get rid of a ‘middle man’?
TEAM BUILDING…
Outside of Work
Create activities outside of work that can potentially connect employees from different departments and teams based on other interests. It can be a lunch runners’ club, company basketball league, volunteering activity or a subsidized trip to the National Park. Think creatively or even better — let your employees come up with the ideas!
Online (for Remote Teams)
Whether it be online competitions, flashmobs, or online company games, all help employees connect regardless of where they are. Fantasy leagues or virtual competitions that everyone is passionate about can do the trick. If you want to tie into a wellbeing initiative, it can be a walking competition!
