6 Ways to Foster Collaboration in Your Workplace

Whether it's the ancient wonders of the world or our own generations' breakthrough innovations, human collaboration has invariably been a key ingredient for success. But you don't have to be wrestling with the greatest problems of our generation to reap the benefits of teamwork. Business organizations with goals and challenges at every level are often most poised for success when their leaders encourage and enable cultures of collaboration.

Creating a work environment that  fosters collaboration empowers employees to innovate, improve productivity, learn from each other, and develop a positive work environment--qualities that drive greater client experiences and improve employee retention. 

To help you build an organization that avails itself to the benefits of employee collaboration, here are six ideas to get you started:

1. Communicate that collaboration is welcome.

Establishing your core values and making collaboration one of of them is a great way to create an environment where employees feel encouraged to collaborate with one and other. This can be shared on your website, discussed during the interview process, and reinforced during company town halls.  A portion of a town hall could be dedicated to highlighting how through collaboration a team met or exceeded a company goal. This public recognition reinforces your commitment to collaboration and encourages others to do so as well.

Your team leaders also play an importation role in encouraging collaboration, as they set the expectation for their team. During meetings with your leaders, ask them how they are encouraging collaboration on their team and make this a topic of conversation during performance reviews.   

2. Set team goals.

At least once a quarter, set goals for your team and meet to think up ways to achieve these outcomes. You want your team to feel like they have ownership and a chance to help meet company objectives.  

You might even want to discuss the role each employee can take in driving momentum so you can get to the finish line. Giving each worker a purpose and tasks that link to a larger goal can make it clear what team members need to do and who they need to work with. 

3. Foster a creative atmosphere.

One of the best strategies for effective collaboration is to create a positive environment where workers across all departments and levels of experience are heard and encouraged to think outside the box. You can nurture a creative atmosphere in by:

• Using workplace-collaboration tools, including online chat and content-management systems, to encourage brainstorming. 
• Ask lots of questions to encourage your teams to think of new solutions. For example, you could ask, “If there were no limits, what else could this look like?” 
• Reward and praise workers who contribute and who take risks with creativity, even if their solutions don’t always work out. This encourages others to share their ideas.
• Create a whiteboard in a central spot in your workplace. At the top, write down an issue or challenge you’re trying to solve in your company and encourage everyone to jot down their ideas.
• Make sure your workplace encourages creativity with bright colors, open spaces that enhance teamwork, and spots where workers can meet and socialize.  

4. Include employees, rather than exclude.

No one wants to exclude a team member, but it does happen. Ideally, include as many people as possible on large decision-making projects and have weekly or even daily huddles or meetings to go over company-wide or department issues. That way, everyone can weigh in.  

It’s also important to communicate workflows, so employees can offer their insights without duplicating work. For example, you can set up online visual task boards showing each project your team is working on, the next steps needed, and what has already been completed.  

Collaboration empowers employees to innovate, improve productivity, learn from each other, and create a positive work environment.

5. Get to know one another.

Knowing how to improve collaboration in the workplace means understanding how and why teamwork happens. A big part of it is trust.  

Your teams are more likely to share ideas and work together when they feel comfortable and have had a chance to build rapport. If you have a team of employees of different ages, backgrounds, and beliefs, team-building exercises are a great way to make everyone feel more at ease with one another.  

Give workers a chance to get to know each other, find common ground, and even build friendships. And they can be fun! Here are few exercises to try: 

• Play games together. Whether it’s jigsaw puzzles, video games, or word challenges, playing together brings out the competitive spirit. Ask each member of the team to recommend a game for you to play together and consider a weekly or monthly game challenge.   
• Compliment each other. Ask employees to write a compliment to each member of the team. Read the compliments to each person out loud. This exercise makes everyone feel appreciated.  
• Host a show and tell. Ask one team member to share something with the team once a week. This could be something they’re interested in, something they collect, or a hobby. A show and tell lets your employees get to know each other and find common interests.  

6. Leverage individual team member strengths.

Every person has their own strengths and perspectives that can be used to their advantage. Empowering people to lean into their strengths means everyone on your team is bringing their best to work and your organization benefits from their skills.  

The first step is to identify everyone’s individual strength. There are a few ways to do this: 

• Ask employees what they love most and what they think their strengths are. 
• Ask managers and colleagues to share what they have seen every employee excel at. 
• Use assessment tools such as CliftonStrengths from Gallup or Everything DiSC from Wiley. 

Once you have a sense of everyone’s abilities, give workers more responsibility based on their strengths. If one employee is great at planning, for example, have them work on the logistics of a project. If another is good at rapid-fire thinking, engage them in brainstorming and have someone more analytical review the ideas. This way, everyone is working together based on what they do best.  

The Bottom Line on How to Foster Collaboration in the Workplace 

In an ideal world, colleagues would get to know each other and form collaborative working relationships naturally. In reality, it doesn’t always happen this way, especially in today’s workplaces, where remote working and busyness can isolate workers.  

Creating terrific teamwork is possible, though, and these six practices can help you create a workplace where collaboration can blossom. 

A version of this article was originally published November 30, 2012.

Photo: Getty Images