Finding ways to collaborate is very useful because it allows your business to use everyone’s talents to the max. Everyone is able to offer something unique, so this is something that your business should use to its advantage.
When people start to work together better, their talents and abilities will start to complement each other. This is just what your business needs when it is looking to grow and develop in a positive direction.
There are so many things you can do to develop new forms of collaboration within your company. To get the approach right, you will need to open up the business and offer new opportunities to people.
It’s all about removing the barriers and restrictions that are holding people back. Here are some of the steps you can take to find new ways to collaborate in your place of work.
Encourage disagreements
First of all, you should become a little less afraid of disagreements. In the collaboration process, there are always going to be times when people disagree. In fact, this is one of the key components of collaboration.
When there is a dull consensus, collaboration becomes worthless. But when there are competing ideas fighting for attention, a real debate can take place. And that’s often what is needed to give your business a kickstart.
As long as these disagreements are handled in the proper and correct way, there is no reason to view this as a negative thing at all. In fact, your business could reap the rewards.
Connect people with technology
People need to be hooked up and connected if you want them to collaborate adequately. These days, all offices rely on information technology and modern communications to get their work done. So, you can’t expect your employees to collaborate properly unless they are properly connected with one another.
That’s the way it should be, at least. Many top IT consulting firms can help you with changing the way in which your people communicate and collaborate. So, if you think that your current IT setup is not quite up to scratch, it might be time to take action and make changes. When information and ideas can be shared more readily, everyone will benefit.
Start the change from the top
All the changes you make in your business with regards to collaboration should start at the very top. You can’t expect other people to change the way in which they work if you’re not prepared to change too.
All successful changes are passed down from the top, and then they can be spread throughout the business. That’s the way it should work, so don’t distance yourself from the changes you want to make.
You can make yourself more open to collaboration by making sure that your office door is always open. By this, I mean that you should allow people to come to you and discuss issues whenever they feel the need to.
Don’t ignore anyone’s voice
You shouldn’t allow loud and confident voices dominate when you are trying to organise your workforce. When that happens, you will find that people get drowned out. Just because some people are less confident when putting ideas forward, that doesn’t mean they’re not capable.
So, provide space for the quieter and less confident employees to talk and have their voices heard. It can be difficult to achieve this, but if you’re going to do it, you will have to be involved in the collaboration process. Leaving everyone to get on with it will make it possible for hierarchies to develop, and that’s not necessarily what you want.
Break the ice to get started
If your employees have been working individually and shut off from one another, they might not know each other. This is one barrier that you will have to overcome if you are going to be successful in making your workforce more collaborative.
So, you should create some ice-breaking situations for everyone to take part in. When you do this, you can be sure that everyone knows one another and is able to collaborate in a more natural way.
There are many different ice-breakers that you could use. For a start, it might be a good idea to have a group meeting where everyone has the chance to get to know a bit about everyone else.
Make sure there is a method to the madness
There should always be some kind of method to the madness. Things can get pretty hectic and out of control when you have a lot of people putting forward their ideas. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.
Yes, it’s important that everyone is putting forward ideas and discussing them. But it doesn’t have to mean there are no clear processes in place to deal with these ideas.
Good ideas are only ever useful when they can be controlled and enacted in some way. So, set up a method for the collaboration process. Having some kind of solid structure in place will be helpful for everyone.
Become a better listener
One of the things that you can do as the person in charge of the company is listen better. When you become a better listener, you will be in a much better position to oversee collaboration. You need to be able to listen to ideas that come your way and not dismiss them before considering them.
You never know what your business can achieve by being more open and communicative. It will only work if you are open to things that people want to say to you, however. Take the time to listen to every idea, concern or contribution that an employee sends your way. If you can do that, it won’t be long before your business is doing much better.
Put mutual respect at the heart of the company
There are all kinds of problems that can arise when your employees start to collaborate more closely. Sometimes, when people are disagreeing, tempers can become frayed. You don’t want this to become a problem for your business because that’s not what collaboration is all about.
So, how can you stop this from happening? The answer is to put mutual respect at the heart of the company and the collaboration process. Try to emphasise how important it is that everyone works together in a grown-up and professional way.
It’s the only way to ensure that your employees go about collaboration in the right kind of way. Collaboration doesn’t work when the office becomes bitter and fractured.
Set collective goals rather than individual goals
Rather than setting individual goals for each of your employees, why not set collective goals? When you do this, you can be sure that your employees will work together to achieve their goals. They will need to be working as one cohesive unit in order to meet targets, and that’s exactly what you want.
When you set individual goals, people are more likely to think of themselves rather than the group as a whole. And that’s not the kind of attitude you want to encourage among your employees.
So, make it clear to your employees what their collective goals are and how outcomes will be measured. If you can do that, people will start working collectively.
Collaborate with organisations and people outside the business
It’s always a good idea to widen the scope of your collaboration efforts. It doesn’t have to be all about what happens inside your office. You can always branch out and find new ways to collaborate with people who operate outside of the business.
There are all kinds of people, charities and other businesses that you can link up with. For example, collaborating with a charity can give your business a big PR boost, and that’s always a good thing.
On top of that, you could build links to other businesses. When you do this, it can benefit both businesses because each will be exposed to new people and new opportunities. Opening your business up to the wider world is always a positive step, so make sure you take it.
Recognise movements in the right direction
Changing the most fundamental ways in which your employees work presents some challenges. Any kind of change takes time to be successful. You are not going to be able to find real success overnight because that’s not how this all works.
Instead, you should remain patient and look for the positives. And whenever you spot a negative, highlight it in a constructive way. What’s most important of all is to make sure that you recognise and praise any movements in the right direction.
People always appreciate having their hard work recognised and appreciated. So, make sure you don’t ignore the good things your employees do. It’s all about reinforcing positive steps and actions, so don’t forget about this.
Use all the helpful advice above to make real changes to how the people in your business work together. Better collaboration leads to a better business, so what are you waiting for?