Top Tactics and Technology for Optimizing Team Collaboration
Collaboration is key to business success. How
well your team collaborates directly impacts your efficiency, your
productivity, and ultimately, your profitability. This makes optimizing your
collaboration one of the most effective ways to improve your company’s
performance. You can improve your collaboration both by implementing more
effective collaboration strategies and by adopting better technological tools.
Here are some tips on best practices for better collaboration, and on
collaboration tools that can help you maximize your team’s productivity.
Create a Chain of Command
A chain of command is a basic organizational principle that lays a foundation for effective collaboration. A concept borrowed from military use for business deployment, a chain of command defines the decision-making authority and flow of communication within your organization for transmitting instructions and questions. It defines who has authority for making decisions and assigning tasks, who reports to whom, and where workers should go first when they have questions or concerns. This speeds up collaboration by letting team members know exactly where instructions and questions should be directed. It also helps resolve problems more quickly by establishing who has oversight.
To set up your chain of command, start by
drawing up an organizational chart, showing who is in charge of which
department and who works under them. Use this as a guideline to establish who
should report to whom, in general as well as for particular projects.
Communicate clearly to each supervisor and worker how the chain of command is
set up. This lets supervisors know who they are responsible for, while letting
workers know who they should receive instructions from, whom they should ask
questions, and where they should go if they need to speak to someone other than
their immediate supervisor.
Establish Standard
Communications Procedures
To apply your chain of command for enhanced communications efficiency, a best practice is to set up standard operating procedures for your communications processes. Having standard communications procedures helps your team members to know exactly who to speak to and what to do in a particular situation, saving time and avoiding mistakes, duplication of communications, and delays.
Your standard communications procedures
should include instructions on who supervisors should communicate with and who
workers should report to, per your chain of command. It should also include the
format for your communications and other relevant instructions. For instance,
you might have a rule that all emails should have a subject line with a phrase
or numeric code designating the topic under discussion, facilitating easy
filing and retrieval. To maximize the advantage of having standard
communications procedures, set up templates for your most frequent types of
communications, which will save your team time when composing documents or
planning meetings. Your communications procedures and templates should be
documented for easy use and training.
Choose Optimal
Communications Tools
In order to implement your communications
procedures efficiently, you need to select appropriate communications tools.
Traditionally, companies have relied on internal phone systems and email for
communication and collaboration. While these tools do retain value, they have
been superseded by cloud-based versions of themselves, and by other tools
geared toward mobile devices and one-to-many communications.
One of today’s most important new sets of communications tools is team chat services such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and Facebook Workplace. Modeled on social media platforms, these tools allow all team members in a discussion to see the same messages and access the same file versions, in contrast to emails where partners may need to catch up on a conversation or the latest file update. Team chat tools also often integrate with other important communication tools such as VoIP phone services, web conferencing services, and video chat services. VoIP can be a less expensive, cloud-based alternative for companies that rely heavily on internal phone calls. Web conferencing services can be essential for projects that involve collaboration in a digital workspace or collaboration between remote workers who need to share screens. Video chat can be particularly important if you have remote team members who need to be part of the conversation.
Select a Suitable
Collaboration Platform
Ideally, your communications solutions should
integrate with a project management platform to facilitate efficient
collaboration. A project management platform provides an interface for creating
tasks, delegating responsibility, scheduling deadlines, sharing files,
supervising projects, and tracking time. Using a project management platform
lets you automate the process of supervision, saving time, boosting
productivity, and improving efficiency.
Some project management tools come bundled with full communications suites. Others are standalone tools with their own limited native communications features. Most can be integrated with external communications tools. Today’s most popular project management tools include Microsoft Project, Wrike, Altassian JIRA, Basecamp, and Podio. Project management tools can be combined with task automation tools such as Microsoft Flow, Zapier, and IFTTT to create customized automated workflows for increased efficiency when performing frequent tasks. For instance, you can set up a customized command to have an email reminder sent out to project team members as the due date of a project approaches.
Set up Standard Operating
Procedures for Project Management
A project management platform works most
efficiently when combined with standard project management procedures.
Standardizing your project management procedures lets team members know exactly
what steps to take when performing frequent tasks, saving time, and reducing
the amount of unnecessary questions supervisors need to answer.
You can create standard operating procedures
for projects in any area of your business, including bookkeeping, internal
document production, marketing content creation, sales, customer service, and
IT. A good place to start is by reviewing which tasks your staff performs most
frequently and standardizing these. Create step-by-step instructions for each
task, document your instructions, place the instructions in a digital or
physical location accessible to team members, and incorporate your SOP document
into your training procedures. A good way to train new employees in standard
procedures is to have them review your SOP document during their initial
training period and suggest updates based on any changes they observe in your
current procedures that have been implemented since the last update.
Use Analytics to Optimize
Performance
To optimize your project management, you need
to use big data analytics to track your performance. Employing analytics lets
you see how well your team collaboration efforts are faring, where you may be
falling short of goals, and where you need to make improvements to attain your
business objectives. In order to use analytics to track project management, you
need to define project management key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be
measured.
KPIs can measure productivity-related variables, such as how much of a workload your team can handle at one time and how well you’re completing projects on schedule. They can also measure financial variables, such as what return on investment projects are yielding, and how well projects are staying on budget. Some important project management KPIs include average time for a given type of project, individual and team time spent on a particular project, and on-time completion percentage. To put your KPIs to practical use, results should be viewable by supervisors and team members in an easy-to-read dashboard format, which can be set up by integrating your workflow tracking with business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI and Zoho Reports.
Take Steps to Build Team
Engagement
Optimal performance depends on human
management factors as well as strategy and technology. Keeping your team
engaged on projects is essential for maintaining worker motivation. Motivation
is especially important for remote workers, who tend to be less engaged than
on-site workers due to the lack of physical presence.
One way to give all workers a greater sense
of presence to one another is to use tools such as web conferencing and video
chat to host periodic meetings. During meetings, you can discuss how team
members have contributed to the success of the company since the last meeting,
giving them a sense of participation and appreciation. Another method is
encouraging team members to socialize on your company’s intranet or on social
media platforms. For instance, you can create social media accounts for each
team member and encourage them to create discussion groups based on popular
topics such as sports, food, or movies. Periodically inviting team members to
social events such as paid luncheons, company picnics, and sports events can
also help promote a sense of camaraderie. Financial incentives, small gifts,
and company memorabilia such as jackets and mugs are other ways to make workers
feel more connected.
Put It All Together
Clearly defining your chain of command lays a foundation for efficient communication and effective collaboration. Establishing communications standards helps ensure that vital information is routed to the right team members in a way that is easily accessible and actionable. Cutting-edge technology tools such as team chat, VoIP, and video conferencing can help you optimize your communications. Communications tools can integrate with project management platforms for maximum workflow efficiency. Following standard project management procedures will help keep progress on track and on time. Employing analytics will help you make the adjustments you need for optimal team performance. Proactively promoting team engagement will motivate productivity.
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