11 Ways to Collaborate More Effectively
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Responsible Parties
Assign roles in writing for all needed research before a collaboration session, as well as the action steps afterward. -
Wide Net
Don't limit your idea pool to solely the collaboration team. Use crowdsourcing and other social media tools to gather additional input. -
Clear Consensus
Get the team to agree upon all key, relevant terms so there are no misinterpretations which will lead to confusion-causing bottlenecks. -
Reverse Course
Determine a desired result, and then work backwards to illustrate the steps needed to get there. -
Solicit Comments
Encourage candid feedback from collaboration partners on their confidence rating of proposed actions. -
User Friendly
Gather user perspectives throughout the planning and execution stages because any outcomes will need to address their needs—the way they need them addressed. -
Current Thinking
Use collaborative IT which ensures that all shared, accessed documents are the most recent versions. -
Ways and Means
Always include complete details about methodologies within documents. -
Transparency
Provide complete transparency for stakeholders throughout the entire project, not after everything is finished. -
Appreciative Gestures
To generate enthusiasm, create a shared, online resource which charts milestone accomplishments as they happen. And duplicate this on a large, public display in the office. -
It's a Team Effort
Encourage rewards which benefit and recognize all team members—not just certain individuals.
We've frequently reported in this space how organizations are seeking greater collaboration among CIOs, other managers and professionals. In fact, an estimated 46 percent of C-level decision-makers plan to increase budgets to acquire better collaborative technology. And two of five business managers are adapting workplace models to become more collaborative. Such efforts are geared to address lingering needs, as nearly 40 percent of employees say there isn't enough collaboration in the workplace, and 43 percent of users feel frustrated and overwhelmed by current collaborative tech tools. Clearly, CIOs must pursue better IT solutions to create an optimal collaborative environment. But they can't forget about the people factor either, as human-focused processes can make or break collaborative team performance. Given this, we've compiled the following qualities of effective collaboration. They were adapted from online resources posted by Gartner and GroupMind Solutions, a collaboration consultancy and IT solutions company. For more about the Gartner best practices, click here. For more about GroupMind's, click here.