Below are a few simple ways that your team can improve their Collaboration whether they work together or in separate offices.

Improve Employee Communication

Firstly, in order for a team to master office collaboration a collective effort needs to be made to also improve Employee communication. This is difficult when it comes to larger companies with various teams that might not work out of the same office or same floor, but making it a point to promote open conversation at all times will make it easier for employees to connect during large projects and even daily tasks. An easy way to do this is through weekly meetings where a team spends an hour communicating openly with one another about their goals and the progress they’ve made on them. This creates a bond and appreciation between employees for the teamwork that goes into maintaining streamlined processes and promotes accountability.

Know Your Goals

It is important for seamless collaboration that everyone within an office has the same goals in mind as they progress through daily processes. This will make it easier to achieve specific results with the assistance of your co-workers as well as with the appropriate management of your superiors. A team without the same goals in mind will only lead to confusion and disorganization as you attempt to complete tasks with different steps and motivation. Everyone should be working toward the same endpoint and taking the accountability of their specific role in helping the company get there.

Use The Right Tools

The digital age has offered businesses all the necessary tools and more to improve seamless collaboration between employees and they should be used to their full potential. Online communication platforms, such as Skype or email, allow employees to stay in contact with one another from anywhere around the world and whenever necessary. There doesn’t even need to be meetings in person because they can be easily done from the comfort of your office behind a computer screen.

When it comes to the storage and sharing of company documents during large projects, virtual data rooms are the best option for maintaining data security while also promoting seamless communication and collaboration all within the platform. There are a plethora of digital options when it comes to staying connected and they shouldn’t be forgotten about within your office setting.

Promote Effective Management

Managers and their management styles have an enormous impact on the way employees work and collaborate within a team. If the team feels threatened by the way their manager approaches certain topics or does not appreciate the feedback, then they will feel less inclined to communicate openly, risking a collective set of goals and procedures. Managers should be held just as responsible for individual tasks as the employees who are doing them because their methods of leading a team can make or break how effectively it works and collaborates as a unit during complex and time-consuming projects.

Foster a Sense of Trust

Employees need to feel like they are capable and trusted by management to do the work they were hired for in order to collaborate with the rest of the team effectively. Not feeling this trust and the sense of interdependence with their co-workers will stunt the progression of projects and daily processes. Everyone on a team should feel like they can rely on one another when necessary and that each individual will work to the best of their abilities to carry their own weight within the company. The collaboration will be much smoother when everyone feels they are in it together rather than working toward their own, separate goals.

Encourage Socialization

The easiest way to improve collaboration within a team is to encourage co-workers to become friends and socialize regularly. While it might not be as easy within a large company with thousands of employees, small start-ups are a great environment to build genuine friendships. This could mean organizing an out-of-work function that brings everyone together for an evening of fun or weekly catered lunches that allow employees to take a break and spend some time with their co-workers to enjoy some good food and connect before getting back to work. Employees should be as connected on a personal level as there are on a professional one in order to facilitate seamless collaboration for effective processes day in and day out.

6 Ways To Master Office Collaboration was originally published in BetaPage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.