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Successful collaboration among teams is crucially important in helping organizations achieve their goals. In their article 'Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams', [1] Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson [2] suggest ways to ensure that the conditions are right for teams to work together efficiently. These top tips can help you to ensure that you create a strong environment for collaboration.
Lead by Example
A leader can demonstrate commitment to collaboration by actively supporting it. By showing interests and being aware of projects in other areas of the business and keeping your staff up-to-date with them, you can make sure that your employees see the business as a whole entity and avoid succumbing to an 'us and them' mentality between different teams.
Create Signature Practices
Gratton and Erickson suggest that by having processes which are unique to your organization but not to individual departments can develop a sense of organizational pride. Employees are aware that what they are doing is unique to the environment they are in. Crucially, it also provides a point of commonality between employees. From small things like having a formal greeting when answering the telephone, to larger things like having a standard induction program for all employees, you can ensure a company uniformity which creates a sense of togetherness while clearly differentiating your organization from competitors.
Develop a Sense of Community
Team leaders will often try to create a sense of community within their individual teams, while senior leaders should try to ensure there is a larger sense of this within the organization as a whole. If the company is imbued with a strong sense of community, employees are often more likely to feel comfortable collaborating with other teams within the organization. Having company-wide updates by email, making each department aware of the goals and achievements of other departments and having event days for the whole organization, such as fundraising events for charity, can be useful in establishing this sense of community.
Create a Shared Space
If your environment allows for employees to work together in a communal, open-plan place you can allow a greater level of visibility amongst different areas of the organization. This can also be useful in helping staff develop relationships with those outwith their immediate team. If this is not possible, try to create a shared space such as a canteen or break room. This will give employees the opportunity to interact socially, which will help when it comes to collaboration and the sharing of ideas.
Invest in Individual Skills
In their study, Gratton and Erickson found that in many organizations, employees wanted to collaborate successfully but lacked the skills necessary to do so. By gearing training towards relationship-building, communication and problem-solving, this will help employees be more able to collaborate successfully with other employees from different areas of the organization.
Break Down Department Walls
Employees can become insular within their own team or department. Encourage them, where possible, to work in other teams/departments and find out the challenges and issues affecting other areas of the organization. This gives employees a much wider understanding of what colleagues in the organization are doing on a daily basis.
Mentor Others and Encourage Them to Do the Same
A straightforward way for a leader to demonstrate their commitment to collaboration is to share their knowledge directly with staff. Being a mentor is a visible way of encouraging employees to give their knowledge freely and regularly to others. This helps create a culture of sharing knowledge and support throughout the organization.
Build on Existing Relationships
When large, complex teams are created to take on projects, it can often take time for employees within them to develop trust and strong lines of communication. Bringing on board employees with existing relationships within the group can help to speed that process up, as those employees can act as icebreakers for the rest of the group.
Define Roles and Responsibilities
Gratton and Erickson observed that groups collaborate more effectively when they are aware of exactly what their individual roles are. In addition, they were more likely to share ideas and work creatively if they were aware of the goals of the team, but had a degree of freedom on how to achieve that goal. Make sure that your team members are briefed and understand exactly what their role is and which responsibilities they have assumed. This will prevent confusion and help avoid potential for conflict among employees.
Select Strong Team Leaders
Teams which are placed together to collaborate quickly benefit from team leaders who can manage both task and relationships. As the task for a collaborative team will often be complex, it is important that the team leader demonstrates that they have the knowledge and skills to help the team complete them. It is also important for team leaders to help facilitate relationship-building and have an awareness of the importance of knowledge-sharing.
Share Knowledge
As well as sharing knowledge as a team, it is important for a leader to demonstrate this quality too. By sharing knowledge on other aspects of the work – such as changing external factors or executive wishes – a leader can help to foster the spirit of communication within the group as a whole. This will also help cement a sense of community amongst the group which can lead to a subsequent growth in trust. These factors will help the group be more collaboratively-minded.
References [1] Lynda Gratton & Tamara J. Erickson, ‘Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams’, Harvard Business Review (November 2007).
[2] Lynda Gratton is Professor of Management Practice at London Business School. Tamara J. Erickson is President of The Concours Institute, the research and education arm of BSG Alliance. She is a McKinsey Award-winning author.
