7 Reasons Why Collaboration Is Important

With rapid expansion of information and technology in this day and age, people’s skill sets are on the rise with more and more specializations. With this in mind, collaboration as a practice has become more important than ever. 

But here’s the tricky part: what does that mean? What exactly is collaboration? Collaboration has become a buzzword, established as integral in the workplace in order to make teamwork successful. It’s when a group of people come together and contribute their expertise for the benefit of a shared objective, project, or mission.

But it’s also a skill to be learnt. Every company collaborates virtually all the time. In fact, WFH conditions have demanded it at its most efficient form now, to the point that we rarely even notice when we’re doing it.  Keeping this in mind, here’s a look at seven reasons as to why collaboration is important.

Assists in Problem Solving

Despite our best efforts and progress on a task, we sometimes encounter snags that bring our work to a stop, and prevent us from continuing. So what do you do? You could schedule a session with your team to have a fresh take on the case. In other words you can collaborate with your team to solve the problem at hand.

When a group of people bring together their knowledge, skills, and expertise, they can talk any problems out, and identify or evaluate potential solutions, so that stalled work can move forward once again. One such tool to help you with this case is MultiCall, a group calling app dedicated to let you call many with the ease of calling one. 

 

Brings Company and Employees closer

One of the critical WFH problems witnessed during the pandemic of Covid-19 is that certain teams in the company rarely interact with each other, rather alienating and working seemingly in isolated silos. For such a situation, you might want to try putting together a mixed-skills team i.e.teams that  generally ad hoc teams that tackle projects which require people with diverse skill sets and areas of expertise. 

For instance, a mixed-skills team might include a product manager, a graphics designer, a developer, and a content lead. All in all, it’s a new team set up to collaborate for a shared project. In doing so, you’ve brought together members from three (or four) different teams, created a common purpose between them, and set up connections which will serve all of you in the future. In short, you’ve used collaboration to break down some walls in your organization, and tighten up connections between departments.

 

 

Helping people learn from each other 

Would you like a dinner table with only a single dish or a variety of meals to choose from? Why should skill sets put on the table be treated any different? Working collaboratively with people who bring different skill sets and backgrounds to the table is learning from their experience. It can and should be thought of as a learning experience, from which you should try to make the most of.

This includes asking for feedback and opinions, sharing knowledge, finding out how your collaborators approach their side of the project, and gaining a better sense of how they work. Learning from colleagues is not just a benefit of collaboration, it’s the first step towards building a workplace culture centered to learning and development.

Teams that collaborate not only have an opportunity to learn from each other, but also can gain an understanding of the other team’s perspective. Everyone’s way of thinking would be put into context and perspective from their personal and professional experiences. This can be extremely valuable as you work together going forward.

Opens up new communication channels

Working with different people means that working in different areas of the business as well. This in turn means opening up new communication channels. Finding new ways to communicate and share information is hugely important to the success of any business, which is why collaboration should be utilized whenever possible to form bonds between departments.

Maintaining communication with team members that is transparent and regular allows for gaining  valuable insights into the operations of each department. It also renders teams to be able to resolve issues quickly. Besides that, a company is also like a family. Interacting more regularly brings the teams closer than working apart would. MultiCall comes in useful at this point as a tool, with its ability for you to set groups and favourites for those individuals you frequently contact.

 

 

Morale Booster

Creation of connections between teams and departments, means that people will naturally trust each other more, which can gradually boost the morale of your entire organization. After all, resentment is corrosive, and organizations fail to be successful with a lack of trust and low morale. Regularly working together with people outside of your own team or department is one of the most effective ways to build trust.

This also works the other way around: the higher your company’s morale, the higher the likelihood that your people will feel comfortable working alongside team members from other departments. This is also attractive to top performing candidates who are increasingly looking for more open, engaged workplaces.

 

 

Lesser Attrition

Collaboration lays the foundation for a more open, connected, and engaged workplace, to be able to reach more instantaneously. To that extent, it’s appealing to future and current employees; in the rationale that an atmosphere where collaboration stands the foremost priority is one that’s connected and positive. Thus, it is essential to preventing them from looking for work elsewhere. 

Connections matter to people, especially in the workplace. This is not just from a networking standpoint. It’s human nature to want to work with people we can trust, who understand and respect our points of view, and who work well with others. In simple terms, working collaboratively is the answer to this.

 

 

Increases workers efficiency

Working independently does have its advantages. We can focus on a given task without having to consider the time we may lose due to distraction, or how to bring a team together in time to meet at short notice for a given deadline. For many types of projects, collaboration helps make working more efficient.

When the task is complex or demanding, help is needed. It’ll therefore have to be a group effort. And that’s where collaboration comes in, with the ability to divide a workload, and find creative solutions to problems encountered. MultiCall’s Call Monitoring is of help here, not only in being able to monitor who is involved, but also to record and keep track.

The very operational efficiency of a business, the start of any relationship, the ability to lead and the building of trust, all are dependent on effective collaboration. At the same time, it’s also quintessential in team building, and in acquiring each team member’s optimal value. This can only be done by ensuring synergy in one another’s roles, and minimizing conflicts.

"You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together." - Henry Ford

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