Having a workforce that performs much smarter faster and more productively is one of the greatest advantages every company strives to achieve.

Working across time zones, cultivating innovation and at the same time trying to attract the best talent to your business, requires implementing collaborative technology deep into every business process and encouraging the collaborative behaviour. That way you ensure organisational goals are reflected all the way from management to entry-level staff.

Introducing Collaborative Culture

Simply put, collaboration is when team members influence the strengths of one another while working to achieve goals essential to the company’s growth. As collaboration takes place, so does mutual learning, which leads to increased probability that each employee’s performance will progress towards the better. It all results in the company becoming more functionally and financially successful. However, collaboration is one of those “easier said than done” things and requires the right lineup of leaders, strategies and tools appropriate for one organization.

According to Fierce, Inc. Report, 86% of employees believe that the lack of collaboration within a team directly impacts the lack of workplace success.

The Lack of Collaborative Skills

One of the problems most leaders seem to cope with is puzzling out how to get their team members to collaborate more. Often times, what today’s technology has to offer (project management and collaboration platforms) is considered to be the solution to avoid department fragmentation and slipping into business uncertainty. However, if team members aren’t used to carrying out work in a collaborative way, they won’t know what to do with a new project collaboration platform.  If your team lacks collaborative behaviors and skills, even millions worth investment will have no effect.

Employees who are used to performing independently will use these tools independently, which is directly opposed to the principles of collaboration. So forth before purchasing new technology, consider investing in practicing collaborative skills and incorporate them into the structure of your company’s workplace processes and culture first.

The Process of Implementing New Tools

Although collaboration tools pledge to improve your team’s productivity, oftentimes they end up generating more issues. Implementing a new collaboration tool should be considered as a journey.  Here are key steps that can help you along this process:

  • Start by defining the top collaboration needs of your organization and then look for tools that meet as many of them as possible.
  • When deciding upon collaboration platform, make sure it also meets enterprise security standards or otherwise you may fail to track and manage who can share information with whom and who has access to what, exposing your organization to risk.
  • In order to shape collaborative behaviours that drive results and promote the new culture, your c-suite needs to lead by example and participate in the use of new tools.
  • Offer training and technical support. Your company could struggle with age group differences during the process of adoption – while millennials may intuitively understand the tool, baby boomers may lack the motivation to take time and master it. The more intuitive the tool, the less training it requires and the greater benefits it delivers for the organization.
  • When introducing a new tool to your workplace, consider the average employee number of apps per month and make sure that you’re not just “adding to the noise” but rather offering something of value. That way you ensure your employees won’t experience app fatigue.

A Well-designed Implementation Plan

Besides helping employees talk more about their work, they also help them create new ways to do that work. They also promote better brainstorming and keep the creative process from running out.

When you create an environment that inspires innovation and creative solutions, it can repay tremendously. With teams being more connected your company can improve its services and products and move ahead of competitors.

Collaborative culture, backed by proper collaborative tools can bring out the best in your teams as they work together and  successfully reach organization’s goals.