How to improve team collaboration: 7 effective ways

Efficient team collaboration is closely linked to the success of a company. Your business can achieve great things when its people dedicate their time and energy and feel comfortable working together. One study on team collaboration found that by acknowledging quality work and group achievements, they were able to increase company profits by 29%. 

Building team collaboration, however, isn’t easy. What’s even more difficult is nurturing a healthy flow of communication and fostering cross-team collaboration. Now more than ever people are working remotely, so there’s less face-to-face contact which leads to a greater distance between teams. 

There are many ways to spark healthy communication habits in the workplace and inspire cross-team collaboration, even with remote teams. Here are 7 effective ways you can improve team collaboration.

Click to jump ahead:
#1 Promote a reason for team collaboration
#2 Set an example
#3 Use team collaboration tools
#4 Streamline complex processes
#5 Team-building games
#6 Implement a team-based reward system
#7 Improve internal communication

#1 Promote a reason for team collaboration

Healthy team collaboration doesn’t just happen overnight, nor can you simply ask people to collaborate more. For employees to start reaching out and communicating more with each other, they need a good reason. 

Consider the challenges team collaboration can solve. Ask yourself, how team collaboration will improve each employee’s performance and how it will impact the business as a whole. 

This is where good goal-setting comes in handy. Everyone on your team should share a goal that focuses their work, and that goal contributes to the company-wide objectives that unite your organization and guide your business strategy as a whole.  To encourage more cross-team collaboration, use your company and team goals as reasons to work together. Once people recognize and notice how their work contributes to a greater goal, they’ll feel more inspired to work harder and collaborate with others to reach these goals. 

To communicate company objectives, create a space where teams can set their goals and present results for other teams to see. You can also share common objectives in a dashboard or presentation like in the example below. Play around with the different ways of communicating to see what inspires and motivates your workforce.

#2 Set an example

It’s easier said than done. Even if teams understand why they should collaborate, they might be reluctant to do so. Show them how it’s done.  Top management should lead by setting an example of what good collaboration looks like.

Be open about the goals that you’re setting and why. Keep your employees informed about what you’re doing to achieve your goals. Make sure you’re sharing wins and learnings along the way. Executives need to take an active role in modeling healthy communication to inspire employees to do the same. When your employees are communicating and collaborating, your business can achieve great results. In the end, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

#3 Use team collaboration tools

Now more than ever people are working from home, and with that trend comes a more flexible approach to project management. As we spend more time online, we need digital tools that assist us in everyday activities like working on projects, setting up meetings, and measuring success. Team collaboration tools are vital for keeping employees engaged in the digital space. 

There are plenty of team collaboration tools that you can use to keep everyone on track with tasks and promote efficient communication flow. Here are a few examples:

1. Slack

Slack is a messaging platform that allows you to send files and messages, create channels as communication spaces, and more. 

2. Asana

Asana is a work management platform that helps you create, assign, and organize tasks. It’s a practical platform for creating and following through on to-do lists.

3. Trello

Trello is a list-making application. It allows you to create and assign tasks and follow the progress by dragging and dropping the assignment cards in different columns. 

4. Monday.com

Monday.com is a work-management platform. With Monday.com, you can create your applications and even your own work management software. 

5. Prezi

Prezi helps you create engaging presentations with a lot of flexibility. Take your presentation to an online meeting or make a recording so that your team can view it at any time. 

For data visualization projects, you’re already in the right place. Infogram offers a great range of features that are particularly useful for teams working on multiple projects together, such as monthly reports, presentations, infographics, dashboards, and social media posts. With a team plan, you can collaborate in real time and share projects across teams within your business.

#4 Streamline complex processes

Company silos can negatively affect team collaboration and productivity. Communication barriers between teams or confusion about team responsibilities can lead to duplicate work, lack of teamwork, limited knowledge sharing, and disengaged employees.

It’s important to eliminate technology, project, and information silos to improve communication and team collaboration. To remove silos, encourage cross-team brainstorming sessions to find new ways to improve existing processes and implement new processes. By doing so, you’ll engage employees to take part in improving their own workflow. You’ll also motivate them to strive for better individual and team results.

#5 Team-building games

Team-building games are great for building new relationships and strengthening old ones. Games that involve physical or mental activity increase your employees’ confidence and trust in their colleagues’ abilities. Trust and confidence are important for people to feel safe speaking their minds, coming up with new ideas, and performing better. 

If your employees are on-site, you can organize activities like team sports or board game nights. If your company has a hybrid or remote working model, try organizing online activities, like video games, trivia, or online escape rooms. These activities will strengthen communication between employees and teams and will help to break the ice for newcomers.

For an engaging game night in a virtual setting, use infographics and presentation slides to grab interest like in the example below.

#6 Implement a team-based reward system

Thorough research on financial incentives by Garbers and Konradt found that team-based rewards positively affect team performance. The study revealed that when rewards are offered only for individual achievements, employees interpret it as motivation to work alone instead of collaborating with others. However, when teams were awarded by their achievements with bonuses, company benefits, career opportunities, or recognition, they were more driven to work together to reach their goals. 

By implementing a team-based reward system, you’ll motivate team members to collaborate and hold each other accountable to get the job done and reach their objectives. If you’re thinking about implementing a team-based reward system, think about what kind of benefits your teams would be interested in so the reward is worth the effort.

#7 Improve internal communication

Communication is the key to successful team collaboration. If you have the best experts in your teams, but don’t have efficient communication guidelines in place, your teams won’t be able to effectively cooperate and deliver fast results.

To improve the flow of information internally at your organization, clarify your communication guidelines and encourage employees to share ideas, feedback, challenges, and other helpful information. Create communication channels specifically for sharing ideas, encourage teams to have weekly meetings, and, most importantly, lead by example.

Team collaboration is vital for every organization’s success and well-being. People want to feel heard and share their ideas. All you need to do is give them the tools to collaborate, the encouragement to speak their minds, and a motivating reward system so they can work smarter together. If your teams have a remote or hybrid work model, make sure you have online team collaboration tools that increase productivity and improve communication within and across teams. Use Infogram’s content creation features to improve online team collaboration with engaging presentation slides, infographics, and many other content outlets. Explore what Infogram can offer your team and get started today!

Interested in discovering how Infogram can enhance your team’s work? Join a brief Zoom session with our Infogram representative to explore key features, get answers to your questions, and understand how we can assist. It’s quick, informative, and just like a coffee break chat. Schedule your call now!