Humans tend to excel the most when they can work with other humans. This is as true in an office as it is in any other area of life. That’s one reason why it can be exceptionally beneficial if you go the extra mile to create a collaborative environment at your office. Although collaboration is a fairly buzzy concept with lots of self-proclaimed experts offering their advice, creating a collaborative environment doesn’t have to be complicated.
Give Everyone a Voice
For collaboration to succeed in your company, everyone needs to feel empowered to speak up and offer their input. This requires giving everyone an equal voice, from the newest entry-level employees to the senior managers. While office leaders can have the final say regarding the direction of a particular project, everyone needs to feel as though they have been heard before final decisions are made.
Remove Barriers
Walls and cubicles can put up both physical and mental barriers to collaboration. While you don’t have to move to work in one giant room, it is important to remove as many of these physical barriers as possible. Rather than using traditional methods to separate employees, you can utilize office furniture liquidators to remove old furniture and get new furniture to create defined regions within. This will ensure both improved productivity and successful collaboration. Spaces such as couches with coffee tables can separate an area for more casual conversations from a room with a conference table for more professional conversations.
Individual and Team Collaboration
To enhance the effects of collaboration, it’s important to allow both individuals and teams to work together. Some people may come up with their best ideas when working alone but need other individuals to help them refine those ideas. You may also have employees who function best in a team environment, meaning that you need multiple teams to be able to work together to ensure information is flowing freely to help projects succeed.
Track Progress
The goal behind the collaboration is to create greater success for the company as a whole. If you don’t track specific success metrics, though, you might not notice when improvements happen in light of the changes you’ve implemented. To encourage continued collaboration among your employees, make sure to track the progress and development of individuals, teams, and projects. Also, be sure to celebrate successes so that every employee can understand the importance of collaboration.
Take Concerns Seriously
When people work closely together, there will inevitably be some disagreements. While problems shouldn’t be feared, they do need to be handled properly to avoid derailing the progress of the company as a whole. When someone raises a concern, make sure to take it seriously so that you can investigate it completely until you’re able to solve the issue. This will empower your employees even more because they know that they will be heard even when things don’t go as expected.