Collaboration In The Workplace

Lately, it has become widely known what the term collaboration encompasses. What is little less known is how to achieve quality collaboration and take the most out of it in the workplace.

How to collaborate? In order for a need for collaboration to exist, there has to be some shared interest in a project or work among the teammates or co-workers. There also has to exist some kind of structure, hierarchy or division among the co-workers. When you have all of the conditions defined, you must know the deadline of the project you are working on. Everyone involved should understand every step of the collaboration process, as well as the final goal, which must be clearly stated.

Proper task division should be done so that everyone can give their best in their own field of expertise. Furthermore, everyone within one group or a team should participate in discussions and give their own points of view. In relation to the proper task division, groups should be also organized and chosen according to the purpose of the work that is being in progress.

At this point, the collaborative environment you have established will need a system where feedback is provided and each member responsible and accountable for their role.

Where is collaboration in the workplace applicable? It is applicable in a network environment and it can be of utmost importance to the creative process where others can either pull you down or inspire you. Communication with the co-workers is possible through video chats, text messages and the work you have uploaded on your collaborative software.

What collaboration in the workplace does for you? It enables virtual contact with other employees, where co-workers elaborate ideas, develop projects, finish them and make decisions. An important feature of collaboration in the workplace is getting advice from somebody more experienced in a specific field. In addition, it enhances getting information from a fellow co-worker who is working on something completely different than you are, but something that is maybe crucial for your part of the job.

By being a part of a collaborative platform, your workplace is not only the building where your office is. On the contrary, the cloud platform or collaborative platform is a kind of a virtual workplace where you meet and collaborate with colleagues from other countries.

Another important feature of collaborative platforms is project management. Easy, clear and simple, communication is enabled, where everyone in a team knows their role, position and responsibility at every single stage of the project. Collaboration in the workplace is based on communication. Depending on how good the communication is, the collaboration process will be as much effective. In order to improve communication, you can use different communication tools; whether that is a video chat, voice chat or a simple text message.

As far as success is concerned, collaboration in the workplace is successful when the tools used ease, enable and enhance communication, making document sharing and storing safe, fast and reliable. Also, what has proven to be priceless and beneficial is using the same source for information access which means that everyone included have up-to-date information and documents.

Possible problems. You must be aware that you will run into some obstacles from time to time. These happen in teams when different teams have different priorities. Order and balance need to be established in all of the project stages so that collaboration can be functional.

Communication should always be open and effective. Miscommunication happens, and it is easy to create hard feelings. For this very reason we should take responsibility for the things we say, double check the things we hear and work on resolving possible misunderstandings, and not just that, but to resolve them quickly, efficiently and accurately.

Remember always that everybody comes from different family, education and professional backgrounds. Learn one from another, respect one another, evaluate new ideas based on their use and applicability; try not to be subjective, and above all respect other people’s time. By taking into account the above mentioned things while using collaborative software, you are destined to succeed in your collaborative environment.