10 Steps to Improve Team Collaboration & Productivity

Collaboration and productivity go hand in hand. If your team is not working well together, it will be hard to create the results you need to keep your business thriving. The good news is that there are several things you can do as a leader, manager or executive to improve collaboration within your organisation. Here are 10 steps to Improve Team Collaboration & Productivity you can take today:

1. Hire the Right People

Hiring the right people is an important step in improving team collaboration and productivity. If you hire people who are a good cultural fit, they are much more likely to work well with your other employees. It’s easy for them to communicate, share ideas, and get things done when everyone has a similar personality type or communication style.

2. Set Clear Expectations for Communication

Define

Define the problem before starting on a solution. If you have a goal in mind, it’s important to be clear about what it is and why you want to achieve it. It can be complicated for people to get on board with an idea if they don’t know where it’s going or how it will benefit them. Be clear that everyone involved has a good understanding of what needs to happen in order for your strategy to work.

Set Goals

Set goals before you work together–and keep them visible throughout the process. During this stage of collaboration, it’s essential that all stakeholders are aligned around common expectations and understand their roles within the team effort. Or at least know who is going to do what). As teams grow larger and more complex over time, there are often cross-departmental dependencies between various departments or projects within an organisation. If these dependencies aren’t clearly defined upfront during planning stages, then they may become problematic later down the line.

3. Set Clear Expectations for Accountability

Setting clear expectations for accountability is how you can let everyone on your team know what to expect from one another. Here are some tips:

Define what success looks like. Before setting any goals or deadlines, sit down with your team and define what success looks like. Take the time to write out specific outcomes that will show when a successful project. This will allow you to measure against this standard when giving feedback later on, so that everybody understands where they stand at all times (and doesn’t get discouraged).

4. Encourage Collaboration vs. Competition

Collaboration is the key to a successful team. If your employees have a good relationship with each other, they will work together more effectively and efficiently. There are many ways you can encourage your team members to collaborate rather than compete against one another:
Reward collaboration by giving bonuses and raises based on their contributions as part of a team.
Set up regular meetings where everyone can discuss their progress and help one another out if they get stuck on something.
Make sure that there is plenty of space for collaboration in the workplace (i.e., room dividers), so that employees don’t feel cramped or uncomfortable when working together in tight quarters

5. Leverage Technology That Improves Communication and Productivity

Technology is a powerful tool that can help you better communicate and manage your team. Here are some technologies to consider leveraging: Video chat services like Skype or Zoom allow for more efficient communication between team members; it’s easier than having everyone huddle around one computer screen, which makes some people feel uncomfortable.

Project management software, like Trello or Asana, helps you keep track of what each member of your team is doing. So that you can see who has completed their tasks and where they are. This way, you’re not left in the dark wondering whether someone has finished their work or if they need help with something.

Plus, project management software makes it easy to assign new projects by setting due dates and adding new members via drag-and-drop functionality. If a person leaves the project midway through completion (for whatever reason), you can easily reassign them back into their old slot within minutes!

6. Implement a Check-In Process to Monitor Employee Performance

Implementing a check-in process to monitor employee performance is one of the most effective ways to improve team collaboration and productivity. The key is making sure that your check-ins are frequent enough to be useful, but not so frequent that they take up too much time. Your staff members are spread around the world and can’t easily meet in person every day! Phone calls may work better than face-to-face meetings.

For conducting your check-ins, keep them short and focused on specific issues or tasks at hand—not gossip about other coworkers or company policies that aren’t relevant to their jobs. You should also make sure everyone gets equal attention from leadership; don’t spend all of your time talking with one person while others sit idle waiting their turn!

7. Provide Opportunities for Team Building

Team building is a great way to build trust, communication, and teamwork. Team building activities can be fun, educational and help you learn about each other. These activities can give you an opportunity to understand what your team’s strengths are, how well they communicate with each other, and how they deal with conflict.

8. Create an Environment That Allows Employees to Collaborate and Learn

As the manager of your team, it’s up to you to create an environment that allows your employees to collaborate and learn. This can be done by providing opportunities for them to work together on projects and share knowledge and best practices.

Here are some ways that you can do this:

Provide opportunities for employees to collaborate on projects. In a team of 10 people, each person should have at least one project assigned to them. If there are over 10 people in your department, then it might make sense for the departments themselves (or even larger groups within those departments) to form smaller teams. This enables everyone participates in a project-based collaboration.

Encourage employees from different departments or business units within the company to feel comfortable talking openly about their ideas without fear of judgment or ridicule from others around them

9. Encourage Feedback and Feedback Loops

Created an environment where feedback can flow freely and encourage it. Feedback is important for learning and growth. If you’re afraid of giving or receiving feedback. approach every interaction with an open mind and a willingness to learn from each other’s ideas.

Feedback should always be given positively. If someone gives you constructive criticism about how your presentation was sloppy or how your project idea was unoriginal, don’t take it personally! Take steps towards improving yourself by asking yourself. This one may seem obvious, but trust me, feedback needs regularity! Sometimes we get so caught up in our work that we forget to give other people updates on what they’re doing well or poorly in their roles at the company.

It’s extremely important that everyone gets regular feedback on their progress. Otherwise, they won’t know what steps need improvement before those issues become too big to fix later down the line (which leads us right back into mediocrity).

10. Reward Success, Celebrate Achievements, and Provide Recognition Throughout the Year

This is the perfect time to reward employees for their hard work and achievements with something that shows you appreciate the impact they have made on projects. By providing recognition throughout the year, you are sending a message to your team that what they do matters to you. It also sends a message about how seriously you take your employee engagement initiatives and emphasises how much value we place on recognising team members’ contributions and success.

Use these steps to create a more productive and collaborative team.

Hire the right people.
Set clear expectations for communication and accountability.
Encourage collaboration vs. competition as much as possible (this is where tools like Slack can help).
Leverage technology that improves communication and productivity, such as video-conferencing software or a project management tool like Trello or Basecamp

Conclusion

Improve your team’s productivity and collaboration. Start with these 10 basic steps. They help you create a more productive and collaborative environment by improving communication, accountability, teamwork and recognition within your organisation. Read: What are 10 benefits of teamwork in the Workplace?