The Essence of Collaboration
Every successful project is like a cake. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, flavors, and of course a brilliant craftsman and a good dose of heat!
Before the ingredients become something we can savor, they collaborate.
In the same way, when a project is defined, and tasks are assigned to groups of people with different skills and experiences to achieve the set goals, collaboration is required.
The most important thing in team project collaboration is that all team members have a clear vision of the project from the very beginning and understand the individual roles they need to perform.
As the common saying goes, there is no “I” in Team. To achieve great results in business, collaboration is critical.
Smart managers know how to prioritize team project collaboration because without this, very little can be achieved. No project ever succeeds with a lone ranger. While a project might be the idea of an individual, it certainly won’t succeed if it remains with just that individual. Creative collaboration is a must.
A Lack of Collaboration Causes Project Failure
Despite being the key to successful project management, collaboration is also a great source of frustration for many project managers owing to the composition of different people. About a third of projects have hit the rocks because of inadequate collaboration.
Improving team collaboration is a very important step in project success. That’s why we have put together six easy steps to achieve better team collaboration for greater accomplishments.
But first, here’s a quick look at some of the advantages of excellent team collaboration.
Benefits of Collaboration
- Employees thrive better in an atmosphere of teamwork. Workers themselves rate teamwork and collaboration as very important
- Studies show that improving collaboration directly affects productivity positively
- Effective collaboration can help organizations to accomplish goals and objectives a lot faster
- Better collaboration improves interaction among project team members
- Provides a rich pool of ideas that leaders, remote teams, and other project team members can draw from
Six Ways To Improve Team Project Collaboration
1. Have a Clear Focus and Follow it
Whether it’s a team working on a project for the short-term or a team in a company for the long haul, having a clearly defined goal is the best thing you can do for your team as a manager and to improve workflow and efficiency.
Nothing helps a team better than being laser-focused on an assignment. Those who are not motivated to continue on that path can easily excuse themselves.
When the leader knows the direction and follows it, the team would have little problems having the same goals. Team collaboration is very easy when everyone on the team knows and fully understands the goal.
2. Prioritize Improving Communication at Work
If a team is going to succeed, members must not have any fears communicating with one another. There should be no barriers – physical or imagined.
Managers should encourage team members to socialize and create an atmosphere that makes it easy to relax and unwind.
This should not leave the team leader behind. It’s not a religious group, where there is usually a division between clergy and laity. It’s a workplace. The leader should not be viewed separately from other workers, as any kind of division is a breeding ground for a crisis.
3. Leave No One Behind
If it’s truly a project team, every member should matter. There can be no primary or secondary members. All members make one team, not two, not three.
Every member must be carried along so that the goals can be achieved together. If there’s a team member who shouldn’t know anything, it means you have someone on the team who really shouldn’t be there.
You need to be transparent, even to a fault. Except for sensitive information that needs to be kept confidential, you should be open to all team members in every way possible.
4. Implement a Credible Reward System
Credible is the watchword. To encourage the team to deliver their best every time, you need to create a system that rewards bravery, innovation, and camaraderie. Actions that enhance better teamwork should also be rewarded and encouraged.
Knowing that good deeds could fetch rewards motivate members to put in their best. If you follow the other steps listed above, you should have no problem with some healthy competition.
However, if your reward system isn’t credible and transparent, some members would not be encouraged to give their best.
5. Listen. Listen. Listen.
As the project team leader or project owner, you may assume it is normal to dish out the orders to your project team. However, as the project owner, you should listen more and do so actively.
Nothing encourages a person to speak more than the assurance of a listening ear. Never be tired of listening to advice, comments, and suggestions about the project plan or about task management. Even if you won’t take the advice, listen to it and be courteous in explaining why such opinions may not be useful at that time.
Listening would open you up to all the resources you can tap from your team members and encourages cross team collaboration.
6. Reduce Meetings (Yes, you read that right!)
Reduce, not eliminate.
However, a project team should work like a well-oiled machine. When all the parts are functional, they can go on working continuously.
While there should be a need for occasional appraisals, having meetings too frequently can harm teamwork.
Moreover, most of the things that are discussed in meetings can be easily done through a special collaborative tool. With several online team collaboration software programs or project collaboration software, you can easily track work progress and communicate with members of the team. Examples include ProofHub and Kissflow.
Meetings should be reduced to the barest minimum as long as the team can easily communicate and tasks can be assigned using specialized platforms and the right project collaboration tool.
Conclusion
It’s one thing to have a goal. It is another to have a team that can successfully deliver the goal. At the heart of the entire system is teamwork and collaborative project management. Following the suggestions in this post is a great step towards building effective collaboration within your project team, especially when you are working on a more complex project.
As long as you have a motivated team and are happy, you can be sure of greater efficiency, greater productivity, and certainly greater accomplishments and project success when it comes to your collaborative project.
