No business or service can scale to great heights without collaborative efforts. If you are running a team, it is of paramount importance to have the members collaborate with each other and come up with solutions. When you have a collaborative team, you get solutions to different problems from a wide range of perspectives. You also get better at identifying problems that one person alone would not have done.
Every team is different, and every individual in a team has a personal set of opinions and choices. Social collaboration can bring out the best in each and produce the best overall results. Here are 4 ways the social benefits of collaboration impact your team.
Get more perspectives on a problem
Unless you are operating in a very niche market, you would be serving customers and clients from a wide range of backgrounds. They think differently about the same thing and have different opinions on the same phenomenon. If you cannot accommodate these differences on your end, you will lose out on many clients. That’s where team collaboration comes into play. In a corporate or business setup, teams are made of different people with expertise in different areas. As a result, you also get a better perspective into how a particular product or service would perform.
For example, the same food item would be perceived differently by different team members. Someone conscious about diet and fitness will react very differently to a certain food item than someone who prioritizes taste. By making these two people collaborate with each other, you get an understanding of how people outside your team will perceive this product. You get to see both sides of the coin and make better decisions based on it. That is not possible in a non-collaborative team.
Easier flow of information and ideas
As we said earlier, different team members have different fields of expertise. If you are running a website, you would need to have a bridge between the web developers and the marketers and content providers. When your team has a collaborative environment, creating this connection becomes way easier. Your marketing team already knows what the web development team is up to and can plan campaigns accordingly. Your content providers know all about the marketing campaign and can come up with relevant content. The entire workflow becomes smoother, faster, and better at delivering results.
On the flip side, no business can function well if there is a disconnect between team members or different teams. 86 percent of employees say that lack of communication is the major reason behind project failure. We can take the same example to understand the point better. If your marketing team is not in sync with what the web developers are up to, your campaigns will not be successful in giving visitors a great experience. Similarly, there will be a mismatch between your web design and web content. The only effective solution to these problems is to have your teams and team members collaborate with each other on a regular basis.
Strengthen workspace culture
Office culture, or workspace culture, is a deeply rooted set of ethics, morals, practices, and beliefs that define how an office functions. There has been considerable research about the impact of office culture on employees and their performance. If your office culture is collaborative, you will get a lot more done easily. The employees will also have a shared sense of responsibility and everyone will be dedicated to doing their part right. It works much better than a culture where employees are exploited and the office structure is deeply hierarchical.
Team collaboration is also the ability to be open about shortcomings and failures. At the same time, one person’s limitations are also an opportunity to learn. A collaborative workforce is also more eager to learn and upskill. Ultimately, the benefits of collaboration will reflect in the performance of your teams.
Get a motivated and inspired team
Corporate work structures can often be isolating. One person can be working on a project for years without knowing who else is working on something very similar. With social collaboration, teams and team members can get to know each other better. According to 89% of HR executives, taking employee feedback is a key marker of workplace success. It also sparks a feeling of inspiration to know that a bunch of people are working on the same problem. It also brings out healthy competition among peers, which can otherwise turn toxic. A collaborative team is also more receptive to new knowledge and problems. If you want peak performance and a team of motivated people, team collaboration is the easiest way forward.
Conclusion
Social collaboration is one of the many tools that offices use to improve performance and output. However, it is also a very important cultural practice to have a collaborative environment. The rewards are not only remarkable but also long-lasting.
