The Art of Navigating the Collaboration Space

Collaboration in the workplace can either be rewarding or stress-inducing. At the best of times, everyone can be fabulously cooperative, communicate regularly, come up with loads of great ideas and meet the deadline on time. On the other hand, it can leave you wishing that you could bake a cake and just be happy, and all get along like you did in middle school. I think we all know which scenario we’d prefer.

Here’s Workshare’s best advice to help you get the most out of collaborative projects:

Commit to targets

Creating simple, outcome-oriented goals that each person can achieve within a reasonable time-span gives everyone something to work towards. Clarifying roles and responsibilities at each step of the project means that the group is clear on what they need to do and when the deadline is. Also, if something negative occurs, there’s less room for disputing blame. In this case, being the professional employee you are (obviously), you should be prepared to face any issues head-on so they get resolved quickly.

Communication vs Collaboration

Contrary to popular belief, communication and collaboration are two very different things. Where communication is a one way street constituting the transmission of information, collaboration is the exchange of ideas and the shared process of working together. The main aim of collaboration is to make tasks easier. Why take months solving a problem on your own when you could take a mere 4 hours whilst working collaboratively? Each person should be able to specialize on a task so individual skills are utilized. This method of divide-and-conquer makes for a more efficient model overall, thus giving you more time for other things.

Use the right tools

Sifting through emails to find the most recent version of the document you’re working on can be a confusing and time-consuming process, especially if it’s being edited by several parties. Using document comparison software that integrates with your DMS leads you to always be aware of the latest version, and be notified if any new changes are made. Using a client extranet to facilitate file sharing in collaboration can also be helpful for differentiating between old and new versions. Plus, by sharing your files with the group online, you don’t have to keep precious documents on your

hard-drive, freeing up space for that photo album of your cat you keep on your desktop, just because.

When done correctly, collaborative projects don’t have to be a chore. Ultimately, success in collaboration reinforces positivity in the workplace, increases productivity and job satisfaction all round. To try out document comparison software and a client extranet for free today, click here to download a trial of Workshare 9.