Ever since man abandoned his nomadic tendencies and settled ancient civilizations, collaboration has been a part of societal living. Yet even in today’s modern workplace, we still struggle to collaborate effectively. Simply put, collaborating is just people working together to achieve a common goal, so why can it be so confounding?
Some obvious roadblocks to effective collaboration are time and space constraints. As workforces become more widespread, it becomes increasingly difficult to get everyone together for a conference call, let alone in the same room.
A company’s culture and access to technology can play a part as well. Does your company truly value and reward the results of effective collaboration? Do you have the resources to deploy new technologies that support collaboration? Since most CEOs and business owners agree that collaboration contributes to success, it’s worthwhile to find ways to overcome some of these hurdles.
A historical look
Let’s take a page from the history books and learn from man’s advances at various stages of civilization.
During the Stone Age, man developed simple hand tools that remain just as effective today. Similarly, collaboration tools need not be advanced to be beneficial. While gadgets and high tech devices can certainly be helpful, they aren’t essential to the collaborative process. In the right environment, a white board can be just as effective as a wiki.
The Renaissance was marked by a return to classical style and an explosion in exploration. In today’s modern world, it’s easy to ignore the classic beauty of face-to-face communication, but personal relationships essential to successful collaboration thrive on direct contact.
Incredible innovation can result from a spontaneous interaction, so encourage your employees to explore the world beyond their workspace and enliven meeting spaces with interiors and furniture conducive to collaboration.
The Industrial Age saw simple hand tools replaced by power-driven machines. While some man-powered techniques should never be entirely replaced, new innovations can help power a company’s collaboration initiatives.
Online communication tools, like Yammer or Slack, provide a virtual collaborative workspace for teams to discuss projects, set timelines, share files, gather feedback and assemble a collective work product. The payoff is a 24/7 production cycle and fewer problems due to time zone differences or scheduling conflicts.
In our current Digital Age, a significant portion of human interaction has shifted to computers. While face-to-face communication will never be obsolete, when a team can’t assemble in one room virtual meetings can be an attractive alternative. Some web conferencing providers, like Fuze or GoToMeeting, even offer free plans that can work well for smaller teams or smaller budgets.
Whether through informal encounters or highly orchestrated project teams, collaboration has to be effective in order to contribute to your company’s success. Investing resources in the latest collaboration tools can advance your efforts, but modern innovations aren’t essential for collaboration to survive.
The key to effective collaboration is an organizational culture that fosters creativity and cooperation. With such a highly developed culture in place, even the most primitive collaboration techniques can have truly historic results.
John W. Allen is president and COO of G&A Partners of Houston.
