Collaborative Work: Mistakes to Avoid

Collaborative work has become one of the key methods teams use to ensure their projects’ success. Working together is not always easy, however, given that each team member perceives and understands information in their own unique way. How can you adapt the company’s communication to encourage strong collective performance? And finally, what project monitoring tools can be used to boost team collaboration?

Collaborative Work: The Role of Management

Keep Your Team Members Informed

To perform collectively, a team needs to move in the same direction toward a common goal. This is where the manager’s role is crucial. Managers are responsible for the internal communication within their teams and provide the strategic information the teams need to perform their work well. This transparency leads to immediate effects:

• team members feel engaged in their projects, which motivates them even more
• management anticipates employees’ reactions to changes and new information and can prevent misunderstandings and rumors.

To maintain transparency, managers should exchange information with their teams as frequently as possible. By setting up a regular team meeting you promote real-time information sharing about ongoing projects. These meetings can be held in a relaxed atmosphere, for example around a breakfast table! Or, if your team works remotely or in different locations, they can be short, well-managed conference calls that make good use of everyone’s time.

It is a good idea to create teams that combine senior and junior employees. The less experienced employees sometimes feel more comfortable asking another team member for help than their manager. The manager should always be available, but internal mentorship can strengthen teams and individuals.

Use this table to manage the projects of your team

Ensure the clarity of the information you share

The effectiveness of collaborative work depends on the alignment of all team members. Employees and managers should be proactive about ensuring that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the information they share. Managers must reformulate the guidelines and adapt their communication to the needs of their team members.

> With RowShare’s collaborative tables, you can communicate with your team more easily and increase the efficiency of your team’s collaborative work!

Choose a customized collaborative tool

What are the benefits of a collaborative tool?

Collaborative tools facilitate communication within your company. Every team member could potentially be given access to the same document, maintaining consistent communication and a centralized source of truth where changes can be tracked and discussions about content can be transparent to everyone. However, if a particular tool feels too complex to implement and use, it’s better not to choose it.

Are you running different projects at the same time? Do you have a fast-growing team that is dispersed across multiple sites or working remotely? Does information circulate poorly within your company as a result? You may find collaborative tools helpful! They will allow you to:

1.     Track all your projects at the same time

2.     Adapt tools to your real needs

3.     Grant different access rights to your employees (read only, edit)

4.     Work effectively as a team, communicating asynchronously, saving time when checking on certain tasks, sharing information in a centralized place, etc.

All these actions encourage collaborative work, helping you engage effectively with your team to achieve collective and sustainable performance.

The advantages of RowShare shared tables

RowShare collaborative tables have a familiar format and are easy to use, encouraging their adoption by your team for information sharing. Whatever your company’s field or your managers’ professions, RowShare tables easily adapt to the needs of your business. RowShare gives you the power to grant access rights row by row and duplicate the tables as many times as necessary, so the same document can be shared with employees at every level without compromising confidential information.

Do not delay getting the right collaborative tool for yourself and your team!