Collaboration…what does this word really mean? Well collaboration is in simple terms to share ideas and work together. There are several ways to collaborate with your teams and several mediums in which to communicate this. Let’s take a look:

The Collaborative Space

Guess what? There is some science behind the more modern craze of having bean bags in offices…this was not just a nice perk added by the general manager (just in case some of you thought so…) it has been proven to increase creativity and give you a variety of work environment…sometimes that is where people have their staff meeting…yeah we’ve all heard about stand up meetings etc. and we aren’t knocking that…however, if this is where creativity stems and you can have a coffee break meet up on the bean bags in the office…why not? Specific collaborative areas with white boards and bright walls that inspire great ideas from your team can be made quickly and without too much ado. Also, good reminder, do not forget to include your team in what they would like to see in your huddle rooms! Your team’s input is going to be crucial to seeing results, they will respond if they feel like they are being listened to and included. Always ask your team for office renovation ideas for their collaborative space so they have investment in it themselves.

The Collaborative Apps and Communication Mediums

We are bombarded with apps and app options on many of the websites we visit on a daily basis. However there are some very useful apps that can help you be more efficient with your team…and we are going to discuss some of those right now and maybe you can pick one for communication with your team.
Popular apps for the communications between teams are:

• Mangoapps
• Yammer
• Slack

So the reasoning behind using apps as your communication source is simply because it is easy and cost effective for collaboration. Also employees can filter messages so they know which ones are important and relative to the company. There are many studies out now that show that emails can be somewhat a drag on productivity. There are also other options for getting information to a team for input like Dropbox and WeTransfer for bigger document sends. Think about streamlining your processes to make it better and more efficient for your employees.

How to Make Collaboration Successful

So to wrap it up, what are the ways you can make collaboration successful?
You want to make sure that you have a combination of the right office design and team collaboration in your workspace to make it work. You want a cohesive team that will get your work done efficiently and you want to make it easy for them to work on projects, be creative in their thinking and have a place to join and collaborate and engage with the team.