5 Ways to Improve Team Collaboration
Collaboration is a big part of being on a team, and whether it’s in the workplace or somewhere else, being able to work well with others is an important skill to have.
Great collaboration skills improve the work environment overall and help team members build trust in each other (which is ideal for getting projects completed on time!).
Here are five ways to improve collaboration:
1) Have some fun!
Team building games are one of the best ways to improve collaboration among team members. Everyone likes to lighten the mood and bring some fun into their workday, and games can help with that. Workzone has some great game ideas in their blog post here if your team needs ideas on where to start.
Games will energize your team and will hopefully inspire them to communicate in a more informal and open-minded way. Open communication is what you want to make sure team members can effectively work out problems and get work done efficiently.
2) Try collaboration software
Is your team still collaborating using a whiteboard? Or, over a confusing email chain? If you have no way to virtually collaborate, getting in touch and working on something simultaneously can be near impossible.
Luckily, there are many options for collaborating in a digital landscape that make it easy to chat, post ideas, co-edit documents, and so on.
Not sure which software to test out? Try Stormboard! Your team will appreciate having the ability to be able to work from anywhere at any time (and virtual collaboration makes meetings a lot more enjoyable!).
3) Implement a team goal
A team without a common goal is ultimately not a cohesive group. If your team doesn’t have a goal that they are striving towards, they aren’t really connected.
Try implementing a common goal or priority that you want your team to strive for. This way, even when team members are working on their separate tasks and projects, they will at least have that goal in their minds. And when they all join together to work on something, that same goal will still be in mind.
To set a team goal, try starting a mission statement or something similar. A team environment should have one solid focus, despite there being different departments or specialties. A cohesive environment is ideal for collaboration to thrive.
4) Remain open
No one appreciates team members that bring everyone else down and don’t communicate well. For team collaboration to really work, everyone needs to keep an open mind and be encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas.
Team leaders who create an open, welcoming team atmosphere will gain the trust of their team, and in turn, will motivate their team to collaborate in all aspects of their work. Collaboration doesn’t happen without open communication.
5) Keep structure and recognize good work
Each team member has a niche that they are most suited for, so when the expectations for them are clear as to what they need to do, it will help team morale. When every person is utilized and doing what they enjoy, the entire group will work seamlessly together as a unit.
People like having clear objectives when they are working as a team because it gives structure, and structure is good for collaboration. If no one knows what their role is, there is more of a chance for confusion and miscommunication as to who is supposed to work on what — which is bad news if collaboration is the goal.
Keep everyone working within their skill set, and things should go smoothly. In addition, when tasks are done well (either individual tasks or group tasks), teams should be rewarded and recognized for their hard work. Structure and recognition keep teams’ content, and positive collaboration will be a natural result of this.
Improving Collaboration with Stormboard
If you’re committed to improving the way your team collaborates and want to use a digital platform to get that going, Stormboard is the ideal option.
Known as a shared digital sticky note and whiteboard tool, Stormboard will alleviate any collaboration issues you and your team may be facing. To sign up, go to our pricing page and select the option that best suits your goals. Or, if you aren’t quite sure which option will work best for you, try a free trial.
From your Dashboard, start a new Storm (what we call your digital workspace), pick out a template and get started collaborating.
Add team members to your Storms via the “Share” button, and once they have joined, everyone who has access can post, edit, and delete content in real time. Stormboard even has the ability for you to post videos, links, and documents that can be viewed and opened instantly with no extra work involved.
A sample of a basic three section Storm is shown below. Headers can be customized for any of your sections and can be changed at any time during your work process.
To make things even easier, there is no software to download and everything in Stormboard is saved to the cloud, so there is no worrying about losing changes or important info.
Meetings are a huge part of collaboration, so why not try holding meetings using Stormboard? In-person meetings get more engaging with Stormboard, and people who work remotely will easily be able to participate from any location (in real-time!).
Read our blog post about using Stormboard for meetings
Transitioning over to a digital workspace is one of the best ways to take collaboration to the next level. Having the ability for a team to gather their ideas in one accessible place will transform the way they communicate and get work accomplished. Plans can be made, activities can be organized, and work can be executed all with Stormboard.
Get Started
Need a new collaboration tool for your team? Join Stormboard today!
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