Collaboration builds and empowers.
It’s logical that the best employees are the ones most invested in your company. However, finding how to build that sense that your team is not just punching a clock but working together towards a common goal can be tricky. But in many ways, there’s no better way to do this than creating a culture of collaboration.
Collaboration Makes Employees Feel Heard
Not many employees have the confidence to walk into the CEO’s office with an idea. In fact, few have the confidence to bring up an idea to their co-workers. And over time, that can begin to feel stifling, to eat at the investment employees have in their jobs. How many brilliant workers have simply quit and started their own company or joined a competitor out of sheer frustration?
Collaboration gives them a space where they can speak, they can think, and they know they’re being heard. There’s nothing wrong with anonymous surveys or suggestions in a box, but often people come up with their best ideas in a supportive environment surrounded by peers.
Collaboration Forms Connections
How well does your accounting team know your HR department? How about your DevOps team? Does anybody in any department know anybody outside the people they work with? One of the many advantages of collaboration is that it builds connections and encourages people to form friendships. That’s great on a professional level, of course, but also on a personal one. When you can put a face to a name, it makes it easier to reach out and it motivates employees to do more.
Collaboration Catches Problems
One of the oldest jokes about innovation is the one about the genius who builds a better airplane in his garage, and then discovers he can’t get it out the door. And, yet, again and again, we see this issue, and more often than not, it’s not funny. If you’re lucky, this joke happening to you will only cost you money and time. Collaboration allows employees to approach opportunities from all angles, to spot problems, from the systemic to the minor, and fix them before they become challenges.
Employees share more when they work together.
Collaboration Boosts Productivity
Another benefit of collaboration is that it helps employees work smarter, instead of working harder. Part of this is that collaboration, when it’s effective, forces everyone involved to take a breath, step back, and look at opportunities from a broader perspective. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the small details of a challenge, especially when they’re tough nuts to crack. But by leaning back and talking to somebody who views it through a different lens, you can often find creative new solutions.
Collaboration Unites
Most importantly, though, collaboration unites your team. It brings together an enormous group from across the company to talk about ideas and challenges, to form new bonds, and to remember that what they do is more than just sending emails and punching data into formulas. Every now and then we need to be reminded that we’re working for a common goal, that there’s meaning to what we do beyond the paycheck at the end of the week. Collaboration reminds us of that value. To see how you can begin building a culture of collaboration and boost your innovation strategy, join our newsletter!
