With all the chatter about effective business collaboration, you’ve probably heard that our main stance is that collaboration needs to be accepted and integrated into the corporate culture before it can take hold and be effective for the business. What’s incredibly challenging is when there are some in the organization that realize the need for an effective work management and collaboration solution, and others don’t realize that anything is wrong with their current situation.

So how can collaboration penetrate these businesses? Before we go into those solutions, let’s take a look at a real life case study of how ineffective processes are hurting individuals and business projects.

My friend Angela called last night to explain a small work collaboration issue to me. As a collaboration professional, it pains me to hear friends and colleagues having issues that could easily be solved by updated collaboration processes and understanding.

Angela is the marketing and communications manager of a non-profit organization and has seen some recent challenges in many areas affecting her work each day. There is a lack of shared communication between different departments, and even between members of the same department. Their filing system for documents is a mess, with files stored in unintuitive file directories and under the names of people who worked for the organization eight years ago. Tasks and communication around projects are not passed along until the last minute, leaving many team members scrambling to complete their work before the deadline. Quality of work completed seems to be sacrificed for speed and “let’s just get it done and over with.”

And poor Angela is stuck in the middle. She is a smart girl who understands the benefits that better business practices can bring, and can see how a collaboration solution would positively impact her work environment - if everyone accepted it into their business processes. She knows that a better collaboration process and online solution will improve communications internally as well as around projects and deadlines, keep their files stored securely and intuitively, and manage the work that needs to be done.

So what can Angela do to help her organization? And what can you do to introduce collaboration into your organization to better your business processes? Here are a few tips.

1. Research, research, research
Just because I say there are benefits to business collaboration doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also do some research on your own. Find all the studies that show those benefits, and make sure you understand exactly what to expect from collaboration in your business.

2. Set up a meeting, and come prepared
Schedule a meeting with your supervisor to review the current state of the business, and your ideas for improving processes and collaboration. If it helps, create a slide deck showing the current situation in the office, the objective of collaboration in your office, and your collaboration strategy. These details will show your supervisor that you are serious about this issue, and have given a lot of thought to improving it for everyone.

3. Use specifics, not generalizations
Try not to complain and say “everyone is so bad at communicating!” Give specific examples of situations that could be improved by a better collaboration solution. If Gary didn’t pass along details of a client engagement to you until Tuesday, and the work needs to be completed on Wednesday, share those specifics in your meeting with your supervisor.

4. Outline an integration plan
In order to take your idea to the next level, you’ll need to do some leg work and outline an integration plan. Create a timeline of research, education, training, implementation and full integration for your collaboration solution. Share some of the responsibility with teammates you trust and create a “collaboration committee” to help move the plan along toward success.

5. Be a continued champion
Once your plan has been accepted and you work with your teammates to accept and integrate effective collaboration into your business processes, your job isn’t over. Make sure you keep encouraging your teammates to use the new collaboration tool and to follow the processes. Give them feedback and words of encouragement when they do something great, and offer them help when they aren’t following the processes correctly. And always be on the lookout for new and improved solutions to make your collaboration even better.

So if you’re finding that your work situation is similar to Angela’s, try to find ways to fix it for all involved. If you think that a better collaboration process and solution can benefit your business, take the right steps to implement it into your organization and watch the business improvements multiply.

And if you need help educating your team on collaboration and integrating a solution for your business, contact us and we can help!