18 Expert Tips to Get Your Team to Collaborate Effectively

February 17, 2021 - 7 min read

Ashley Coolman

When any new project begins, success is rarely guaranteed. Collaboration helps improve the quality of work by bringing in extra brainpower, but coordinating efforts between multiple people comes with its own challenges.

These 12 experts weigh in on how to make sure your team is primed for collaboration success:

Initial Project Communication

Communicate the Purpose of Work

“Make absolutely sure that everyone knows the purpose of the direction the team is going in, and the reason that their part in it is critical in achieving that end.”
—Alexander Ruggie, 911 Restoration

Show How Work Aligns with Larger Goals

“Make sure that the team goals are clear. Demonstrate alignment in two ways from those goals: one, to the larger organization or company vision, and two, to each individual and the importance of the role they play."
—Susan L. Lauer, Certified Business Coach Principal, Aspire Consulting

Get Buy-In for the Vision

“Collaboration increases when the goals and objectives are really clear. Also, if the team members are involved with the development of the goals and objectives, the buy-in is even better.”
—Tatsuya Nakagawa, VP Marketing & Strategy, Castagra Products, Inc.

Make Sure Everyone is on the Same Page

"Get your team onto the same page, aiming for the same goal. Sit down with the team and explain your short- and long-term goal, and be open to their suggestions. Discuss how you have planned to hit those goals, and then assign each of them their respective work."
—Anant Mediratta, CEO & Founder, WiseCalvin

Organized Project Roles

Know the Strengths of Your Team

"Knowing the strengths, motivators, and behaviors of the individual team members can help you put together a better team. Knowing the same about each other will enhance their collaboration.”
—Susan L. Lauer, Certified Business Coach Principal, Aspire Consulting

Assign Everyone a Specific Project Role

"Clearly designate who is responsible for each segment of your project. Your staff needs to know exactly who is in charge of what, regarding the project in question. That way, they'll know who to go to for help and who to follow up with as they move towards project completion."
—Andrew Schrage, CEO & Co-owner, Money Crashers

Identify a Project Lead with Strong Leadership Skills

"A clear group leader is necessary. To define the group leader, someone with strong leadership skills will be the best choice for the team. What constitutes leadership skills? The ability to problem solve (outside of situational training received), to listen, to energize, to support, AND at the same time to add their knowledge and expertise to the outcomes of the team."
—Jess Dewell, CEO, Infusion Principle

Ask Your Project Lead to Consistently Gather Feedback

"Designate a project lead who will accept responsibility for the project and seek lots of feedback from other team members. The team lead creates accountability, and the high degree of project feedback creates short, frequent check-ins on how the project is progressing."
—Sam Balter Marketing Manager, Waterfall

Discuss the Flow of Work from Person to Person

"To eliminate bottlenecks, you need to delegate tasks on the front-end. Make it absolutely clear what each person's responsibility is, and then discuss the flow of project from person to person.”
—Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development

Day-to-Day Operations

Implement Scrum Methodology

“I founded a startup financial tech company in 2012 and recently implemented Scrum, which has turned out to be fantastic way to get my team to collaborate.”
—Jonathan Wallentine, AmcoInvestor

Hold Regular Meetings for Problem-Solving

“We meet almost every day where I ask: What do you need to move forward on this project? Where is it stuck? What can we do to get to 'done'?”
—Beth Bridges, Marketing Manager, J - I.T. Outsource

Try Setting Collaboration Hours

"Set hours for specific collaborations times."
—Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development

Use Specific Tools for Specific Functions

“Use specific platforms for specific functions — don't mix them up! Messages via Slack over Email. All documents need to live in our team Dropbox account. All projects and tasks get defined in our project management tool. No rogue activities! Define and post them so others can see progress/status without having to consult you."
—Kenny Jahng, Founder & CEO, Big Click Syndicate LLC

Leave Email for External Communication

"Use a chat system for exchanges and collaboration other than email. Leave email for coordination with customers/clients."
—Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development

Standardize Organization & Naming Conventions

"Standardized file naming conventions. E.g. Date first on all files using YYMMDD format, like 150612 for June 12, 2015, so that files sort nicely in folders; and include a client/project short code in all file names (so it is searchable).”
—Kenny Jahng, Founder & CEO, Big Click Syndicate LLC

Your Team Leadership

Empower Your Entire Team to be Leaders

"Give your team freedom to take initiative and implement new ideas; that will make them feel empowered and they'll perform well."
—Shreyans Jain, Marketing Manager, EduPristine

Don't Micromanage, Allow Them to Make Decisions Together

“It’s like parenting: How do you split the last chocolate cookie? One child cuts, and the other chooses. Managers should see this as a guiding principle in collaboration. Instead of micromanaging, give a general directive and deadline, then let your team divide up the work amongst themselves.”
—Angelique Pivoine, 911 Restoration

Show Appreciation for a Job Well-Done and Invest in your Team, Especially Team Building for Remote Teams

"Recognize the efforts put in by your team and appreciate it, this will make the team members feel good and it will also increase their interest level and productivity. If a team member has spent several hours on fixing issues, motivate him/her by showing gratitude and announcing his/her achievement to the team."
—Shreyans Jain, Marketing Manager, EduPristine

What collaboration advice can you share?

Have you had to coordinate effective team collaboration? Do you work on a team that collaborates well every day? Share your experiences and advice in the comments below!

Ashley Coolman

Ashley is a former Content Marketing Manager of Wrike. She specializes in social media, dry humor, and Oxford commas.

#Team Management #Team Collaboration

Collaboration 5 min read

Top 3 Trends Shaping Project Collaboration

Collaboration remains a hot topic because it still works. In fact our CEO recently wrote a guest post on Inc.com stating that collective wisdom, crowdsourcing, and project collaboration are essential for the growth of a business or movement today — they should be integral parts of every company's DNA in order to survive and thrive. If you look at the factors that enable collaboration to occur on a massive scale, you’ll see three main trends shaping project collaboration and driving the adoption of new tools in many organizations. Let’s take a look at these trends one by one: Trend 1: Remote Work is Rapidly Spreading Today, the fact that I can easily decide to work from home as needed is a huge change for me. Ten years ago, that would’ve been impossible with the companies I was working for and with the technology available to me. But you don't need to look back that far to notice how the times have changed. Wrike recently surveyed over 1,000 employees and discovered that 43% of them currently spend more time working remotely than they did 2-3 years ago. Moreover, 80% of respondents now deal with remote workers on a daily basis, either working with distributed colleagues, or as remote workers themselves. These figures show remote collaboration growing and infiltrating the workplace at an impressive pace. And this growth isn't exclusive to specific industries or organization sizes, either. It's becoming more and more common for every kind of business to have people collaborating across multiple locations. Trend 2: Accidental Project Managers are Multiplying Then there is the rise of the “accidental project manager” — those who must take on a project management role out of necessity. They usually lack any formal certification in PM, or may be new to established PM methodologies and practices. According to our survey on remote collaboration, 70% of accidental project managers have no special training or certificate when they take on the role. Which means, there are entire groups of people tasked with project success who may not have time for formal training. Therefore, they need to do several things quickly to hit the ground running, such as: find educational resources to their increase knowledge, adopt a more collaborative environment in order to learn from colleagues, and find the most efficient tools and technology to support that collaboration. Which brings us to cloud services... Trend 3: Collaboration is Increasingly Done via Cloud Collaboration Tools Remote teams battle challenges that co-located colleagues typically don’t have to worry about. Such challenges include inefficient coordination, reduced visibility into one another’s work, and, as a group, the inability to maintain high velocity. To combat these obstacles, the online services industry — A.K.A. cloud collaboration services — has boomed, allowing teams with remote members to continue working together efficiently. Instead of storing files in network drives that would require VPN access for remote workers, file storage services such as Dropbox or Box can be used securely. In place of lobbing different versions of a Microsoft Word document back and forth through email, Google Drive can be used. Then there are communication tools like Skype and Google Hangouts to facilitate meetings, as well as work management tools like Wrike enterprise collaboration software that help teams delegate tasks and coordinate projects both large and small. Cost-effective technology now exists that enables remote collaboration without breaking the bank. In fact, these tools are often free in their simplest versions, with tiered pricing based on an organization’s needs. Now Build a Better Team Understanding these three growing trends can help you better understand the landscape in which collaboration occurs so you can enhance the way your own organization collaborates. Now it’s your turn. What factors affect how you presently collaborate with your team? Hit the comments and share.

Collaboration 5 min read

How to Convince Your Boss You Need Better Collaboration Tools

You're reached that point where email and spreadsheets just don’t cut it anymore — that point when the lost attachments and noisy communication of email, as well as the need for constant manual updates on spreadsheets, have moved from being useful to being inefficient. You’re convinced that your team would benefit from proper collaboration tools, but how do you convince your boss? You need more than a list of cool features that you can’t live without. You need justification for serious investment, with points that can be presented to higher management and maybe even executives. You need to prepare a case for how your current tools are stealing resources (think: time and money) from your organization’s bottom line, and keeping it from achieving high level business objectives at a faster pace. Here are three benefits to point out to management when you need to convince them that your team needs more efficient collaboration tools: Prove: Email/Spreadsheets aren't Efficient Collaboration Tools If you’re not using a project management software or collaboration tool, then you’re probably coordinating projects via emails, spreadsheets, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings. While each of these are useful, none of them are robust enough to efficiently manage deadlines, complex to-do lists, collaborative feedback, and team member workloads. Action:Craft an argument around how formal collaboration tools can reduce the inefficiency of your current system. You can reference studies on how time is wasted when searching through emails, or when there are too many meetings (see Salary.com's 2014 Wasting Time at Work Survey). Look for stats about how much time workers spend interacting with email (28% of their work week, according to McKinsey Global Institute). Delve into your current struggles with emails that don't provide proper context (which project is this about?), and miscommunications stemming from email threads where multiple people weigh in at the same time, often with conflicting instructions. Cite specific instances when one of your projects broke down due to an email or spreadsheet error. Demonstrate: How Collaboration Tools Make Past Successes Repeatable You’ve run successful campaigns and projects before, sure. But do you still have the data connected to those victories? Do you have baseline information on how long production took for the last product release so you can improve the process this time around? With all your project info in project management software, its ability to record time spent and lessons learned will give your group the ability to document, examine, and duplicate successful programs. Action: Look at the programs your team needs to repeat or find a specific project that was managed using your current system. Research that project's info (e.g. how long production took, how many people worked on it, etc.), and track the amount of time it takes you to generate a report that you can show your boss. Then try to do the same using a free trial of a collaboration tool like Wrike. Track how long it takes. Present the two reports side by side and contrast ease of use, availability of data, and time spent. Real examples provide real support. Evangelize: Advantages of Better Collaboration Tools Finally, discuss the advantages of a collaboration tool: visible task lists help reduce the number of meetings, it’s much more difficult for tasks to fall through the cracks when projects are organized and visible, reports can be more easily generated when all project data is in one system, team members are more accountable for their work when they see their tasks and deadlines in black and white, etc. Think about what a collaboration tool would mean for you and your teamwork. Action: List the benefits that a collaboration tool like Wrike can give your team. Focus on the advantages the software gives your team. You can also read case studies of current customers within your industry who are using the software you’re considering. If their use cases are the same, give these to your boss as proof of how a collaboration tool can help your team. How will you convince your boss you need a better collaboration tool? Share your wisdom and your past experiences in the comments below! Download our free eBook for tips on finding a more efficient tool:Why Managers Need to Break Up with Email and Spreadsheets Related Reads:Top 9 Project Management Tool Features on the SMB Wishlist8 Lessons in Increased Productivity from Wrike CustomersHow I Use Online Collaboration Tools to Run a Marketing Team

Collaboration 5 min read

How to Meet Millennials’ Standards for Collaboration

According to a study by Aon Hewitt, nearly 50% of millennials plan to actively look for a new job in 2015. With 80 million millennials in the U.S. alone, it’s time to start strategizing around how to attract their talent, meet their needs, and keep them engaged. Global research firm Gartner found these interesting facts about the current state of the workplace: Employees are only spending about 40% of their time at their personal workstations Non-group tasks have decreased to about 20% of the working day With larger percentages of this generation joining the workforce every day, the work environment is changing. The millennial generation grew up on collaboration, and they expect that in the workplace. So if you really want to attract and tap into their talent, you’ll need to reconsider your office setup to support collaboration and creative thinking. Removing Cubicles in the Office Traditionally, employees would withdraw to their private space and work as human silos. This is the opposite of what millennials desire; they crave collaboration. And the first step to satisfying that hunger is to say “Rest In Peace” to cubicles. Interior design and research firm Knoll ran a workplace study and discovered some remarkable results after companies moved from cubicles to an open-floor design: Performance increased by an average of 440% There was a 5.5% reduction in business process time and cost When you think about it, walls physically block communication. They separate people, and they prevent teammates from conversing with one another. So why are organizations still keeping them up? Try this out for size: group desks together in pods or line them up in rows so employees are in close contact with each other. Make sure teammates can easily verbally communicate with one another without having to shout or move too far from their desks. Designate Collaboration Spaces for Work Once you’ve said goodbye to the cubicles, the next step is to create spaces that encourage casual collisions and collaboration. According to this survey by IdeaPaint, millennials reported that only 30.8% of their ideation meetings are planned. Here are four solutions that foster both spontaneous and scheduled brainstorming: Open meeting areas: Scatter tables and chairs in various spaces around the office. This allows employees to quickly gather when they need to brainstorm, instead of having to wait for a meeting room to open up. If you hang a whiteboard on a nearby wall, then you’ve got a fully functional meeting space. Break rooms: Idle chitchat around the watercooler isn’t always a time waster. In fact, the majority of watercooler conversations revolve around work. You never know when a brilliant idea will pop up. Genius bar: Meant for eating lunch or teamwork, these long stretches of counter space allow employees to just step right up to the bar and work together. It creates a more centralized space for collaboration where multiple teams can gather in one area. Meeting rooms: You obviously can’t forget to keep rooms that people can schedule for formal meetings. They’re still necessary when you need to discuss a sensitive topic or gather a large party. A Work Environment for the New Way to Work Out of respect for fellow colleagues, collaboration can’t always be done at people’s desks. So to encourage open, unbridled teamwork that appeals to the millennial generation, create these collaborative spaces so people can feel free to brainstorm and let loose their creative ideas. Create a work environment that matches the new way people are working — with spontaneous, open collaboration. Author Bio: Sabrina is a Content Marketing Specialist at TINYpulse, writing about and researching new ways to make employees happier. A Seattle native, she loves her morning (or anytime) coffee, spending her weekends on the mountains, and of course, the famous rain.

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18 Expert Tips to Get Your Team to Collaborate Effectively