Within a good project management system and process, you and your business should have outlined a team collaboration plan and seen collaboration tools and features to bring you closer together. These collaboration features can include anything from wikis for internal collaborative work development to online discussions and forums to hold and save on-going conversations around a specific topic.
But there are practices that are either confused with good team collaboration or reverted back to when collaboration proves “too difficult”. These just aren’t effective at bringing a team together to produce a quality outcome.
Email
No, you cannot just send a mass email to a team and expect a quality collaborative experience. Selecting those to CC on an email is not going to give you what you want. Half the team members may not even see the email as it could get lost in the clutter of their inboxes or even end up in their junk mail folder. The other half could respond, but forget to include the right other people on the receiving list. And with all these chances for error, trying to find the decisions that have been made in the long string of email is the greatest challenge of all.
Solution: Try to find a solution that archives all discussions, and that allows you to hold discussions with only the necessary team members. This will lead to more effective communication overall, and a great collaborative outcome.
Meeting After Meeting
Sure, meetings are generally the oldest form of collaboration. However, you need to learn how to make your meetings successful and productive. How many meetings have you been in that do not end with definitive action items, and suddenly you have more meetings scheduled? When decisions aren’t being made, meetings are a waste of time.
Solution: Work on the outline of each meeting, giving specific time deadlines to review, discuss and present new ideas. Make sure someone is taking notes on the decisions made and the tasks stemming from the meeting so you and your team can work on them productively and be ultra-prepared for the next meeting if you have one.
Managing Your Own Task List
It is nice to be in charge of your own world, but don’t work in a vacuum. By only you having exposure to your task list, no one else is able to see if you can help out with another project, or if you are too busy that you need a little extra help one week. You also aren’t being very collaborative when you work on your own tasks all the time without the input of others.
Solution: Find a project and task management solution that allows for transparency so others can see your task list. Then, make sure you are scheduling your work and working with others’ schedules as well. Bringing the team together like this facilitates greater communication and collaboration around what is on their plates, and how to get through it all.