What are 3 important Skills for Teamwork and Collaboration?

No organization can make it big in the industry just by having employees who can individually excel at their job roles.
That’s because an organization makes it big in the industry when these individual employees, who excel at their jobs, have the skillset that makes sure that teamwork and collaboration are in check!

Why teamwork and collaboration are important?

Did you know?

According to Forbes, employees sticking together, working as a team and collaborating work increases project time by 64% as compared to individual projects, but at the same time, reports maximum engagement with higher success rates!

Each and every corporate organization today has employees differing in their backgrounds in terms of age, gender, experiences, skills, culture, etc. which brings about differences in the working style of the employee.

At the same time, your company is always fighting a battle, which you are aspiring to win.

To win these battles, it is of utmost importance that the employees share the common goal of winning the battle and together come forward as warriors. Your company wins when your employees come together and complement each other of their strengths and weaknesses and bring about shared efforts together contributing to the best of the company’s potential.

That’s exactly why teamwork and collaboration are important aspects for the success of your business.

What are some of the reasons for team collaboration breakdowns?

Despite proper instructions, often times companies are unable to reach their maximum potential because of workplace collaboration breakdowns.

There are often challenges of cross functional collaboration which are overlooked because it seems like a minor issue but it lowers the value of the complete collaborative work.

Some of the reasons why workforce collaboration does not end in the best results is due to the following reasons:

Lack of Alignment within the team is one of the major reasons for a failure of a collaborative task.

Ineffective medium and means of communication within the team players is another serious issue while delivering a project.

Employees face the hurdle of conflicting working patterns amongst their peers, which not necessarily complements their working pattern and thereby results in poor delivery.

One of the reasons for a bad collaborative task is the poor governance for ensuring a smooth work process. Companies lack the system to review and monitor the workflow within the team and thereby creates inefficiencies and lowers the will to work in the best form possible.

A bad collaborative task is also a product of a situation wherein the decision makers of the project consistently fail to seek the opinion of their peers in the group.

Each and every member in a team always has something to bring to the table which should openly be appreciated and should be given into consideration. All these issues stated above are a result of majorly three problems: Ineffective Communication, Lack of Appreciation of Diversity and New Ideas and a negative outlook to changes in the working cycle.

It is essential to work constructively towards a common goal. To build a positive collaborative environment, it is of utmost importance that the 3 root causes of disruption are taken care of.

Without further ado, let’s dive right into the 3 most important skills for improving Teamwork and Collaboration.

Table of Contents

3 most important skills for teamwork and collaboration

While there is no hard and fast rule for better teamwork and collaboration results, there is still room for improvement in the root causes of these problems.

1. Ensuring Strategic Communication within the team

Communication is the key to all problems. Communication is the pillar for a better and effective execution strategy. A team that has all the issues resolved through communication is the one that can easily and effectively move on to the next stage.

It is the bedrock upon which a lot of factors are dependent. A teamwork is a framework that requires fulfillment of certain aspects. Let’s have a look as to what strategic communication really is:

Leaders should effectively communicate the plans, define roles and the strategy with their team members to keep a clear process. Not just that, it is important to clarify all the roles with their team members to plan action with them. Defining purposes and roles for each team player is the first step towards a great delivery of a collaborative task.

Meetings should be scheduled with a better communication structure because meetings with no purpose only give way to conversations within the team members later that spin without a purpose. A communication structure, wherein all the team members are brought together to brainstorm and present their ideas forward. It should be followed by a doubt session wherein everyone can clear their misunderstandings and doubts.

Conduct training programs for the team to come out of their shell and learn to communicate freely with their peers. Open conversations makes the team members feel that they are respected, positively pushed to contribute and that they have a say which is heard and an opinion that is valued in the organization.

Maintain transparency in the system and communicate through each stage. It is of utmost importance that each and every member is updated on the progress of the collaborative task. That way, each member can clear their barriers and concerns, if they have any. This builds trust within the team and gives a positive push to the members.

Maintain a system for logging in important communication. One of the ways the collaborative work can be streamlined is by bringing in a logging system which feeds in the data (important information). This fosters communication within the team and eliminates unnecessary conflicts amongst the team mates when there’s not enough clarity on the important subject matters.

Communication seems simple but it is quite complex when it comes down to collaborating work and efforts. It is quite tough to learn how to communicate within a team but results are worth it, if it’s done the right way.

Therefore, take a step towards ensuring better communication for working constructively with the members of your team to produce better and efficient results.

Let’s look at another important skill for Teamwork and Collaboration!

2. Accepting the Diversity and Unlocking Creativity

The importance that teamwork holds can not be underestimated.

Teamwork allows for the work to be split into chunks of efficient tasks undertaken by different members, specializing in different aspects of completing the project.

This calls for productivity, specialization, innovation and improved efficiency in the completion of the assigned collaborative project.

Therefore, another important skill that is needed to ensure proper teamwork and collaboration is by accepting the diversity within the team members in terms of cultural difference and experience difference too.

Acknowledge and appreciate the diversity of ideas coming from different team members from differing backgrounds. Assess and evaluate how much of a difference it can make and implement ideas that bring about a positive change. This encourages the team members to be vocal and to eliminate hesitation to come up with creative innovations.

Schedule Brainstorming sessions and provide the team members the incentive to come up with great ideas. Encourage the team to come up with ideas and implement strategies in a way they could not have done alone.

3. Maintaining a Positive Outlook to Change

Collaborating individual’s efforts together to achieve a goal often calls for changes. Changes are a constant part of teamwork.

Change is something that is not comforting in nature and is not welcomed by all. Everyone prefers to be working in a way that comforts them and aligns with their working pattern.

It stresses people out and this feeling is amplified when it is faced together by everyone working in a team.

However, Teamwork requires a positive outlook to Change. As when people work together in a team , they often face differences: Differences in terms of backgrounds, working patterns, thinking process, etc.

Learn to embrace changes. The best way to overcome these overwhelming feelings due to these differences that bring about changes is by embracing it in the best possible manner by having a positive attitude towards it. It’s important to coach employees to see changes in the positive light to make use of collaborative effort in the maximum potential.

A positive outlook is contagious. Make maximum efforts to ensure that your team is highly motivated and energised at all times to bring the best collaborative efforts to the table.

Great companies are a product of great teams. Just imagine the heights your business can reach through the collaborative efforts of your team members.

Some great tools for Improving Teamwork and Collaboration

In this modern era, wherein each and every process is being automated and all the manual tasks are being overtaken by softwares, there are tools that ease teamwork and Collaboration for great returns.

The daily task management for large organizations is becoming a difficult task and calls for some tools for their rescue.

Below is a list of a few great tools that help improve Teamwork and Collaboration for businesses:

1. Orgzit

Orgzit is a multi purpose software that helps SMBs run their businesses faster and better with custom made team collaboration and business process management apps.

It helps accelerate your business better by streamlining and automating your business operational processes, and brings in a system that improves teamwork and collaboration within the organization.

2. Asana

Asana is just another tool to keep your team in the organization well coordinated at all times. This tool comes in handy while the teams are working remotely.

It helps organize better, schedules and prioritizes tasks, records and tracks the progress in the operational cycle and helps you provide features that facilitate better communication.

3. Trello

Trello is considered as an effective tool to improve teamwork and collaboration by helping the team organize themselves better and prioritize the tasks.

Trello uses different approaches such as Kanban, which ultimately helps categorize tasks according to their statuses and helps attain operational efficiency.

How to find the tool that maximizes your teamwork and collaboration output?

It is not an easy task to choose the best project management Applications or tools that helps you improve your teamwork. There are steps to go about choosing just the right one for you. Listed below are the steps that you need to take to ensure that the one you choose fits your needs:

Step1. Map out your current operational process. Analyze deeply and find out minor details such as loopholes, the time needed for each activity, etc.
Step2. Prepare a blueprint based on your analysis. It should include what inefficiencies the team currently has and what parts you want to work on and what you aim to achieve.
Step3. Pick the best Vendor and Assign a dedicated team. Weigh out your possible vendor options in the market by evaluating the tools and choose the best one that fits your needs. Once done, dedicate a team heading the implementation of the tool just right.
Step4. Dummy Run the System with your dedicated team to focus on any rough patches within the system and ensure proper check before rolling it out.
Step5. Implement the system with a calculated operating procedure. Focus on the regular training of your personnel from time to time for running it smoothly.

Voila!

You have reached this stage where you are ready to skyrocket your revenues by making the most of your team’s collaborative efforts.

Conclusion

As and when you start adopting the skills mentioned above in your operational process, you will move one step ahead in your overall organizational journey. It will reflect in the company, within the teams, and in your profit as well.

Adopting these skills is not as easy as it seems but is the foundation of a healthy workforce that paves the way for success.

Teamwork and Collaboration are your means to creating an empire that you would not have imagined to build solely.
We would love to hear about how you manage your teams and focus on teamwork and collaboration and your thoughts on our blog in the comment section below.