By now most people that work in business understand the demands and merits of our collaborative efforts. Unfortunately, many businesses struggle to get everyone on the same page and it hinders organizational productivity to a point where it can really negatively impact the bottom line. Today, we’ll give you three really useful tips on how to take advantage of your collaborative strategies to better manage situations you may run into.
Having Difficulty? Use Video Chat
Not everything works as smoothly as you envision. In cases where you are having problems with a team getting on the same page or even if you have a client that is unhappy and is causing anxiety for your team, one of the best technologies you can use is your video conferencing software. Sure, your collaboration platform is set up so that meetings are sparse and people can be more productive, but to nip problems in the bud, setting up a video conference with the warring parties can really set your project’s train back on the tracks.
The thing is, when people can see themselves when they are upset, it tends to calm them down substantially. In every video conferencing solution workers and customers can see themselves and tend to be more self-aware when they do so. This can be useful to get to the root of any problems so that work can commence and move forward productively.
Don’t Wait, Just Call
When you work in an office, you can simply walk over to a coworker, sort out any issue you have, and go back to your workstation with the understanding that you are on the same page. For remote teams, this can be a challenge. Traditionally, if you were trying to collaborate with people that aren’t working in the same location, you’d send an email and wait…and wait…and finally, you’d get a response and be able to forge ahead.
Even if your team uses a collaboration app that allows people to communicate in real-time, you may run into a situation where you are waiting around for confirmation of a query. One good strategy to avoid this is to just go ahead and pick up the telephone. This removes the ability to push scheduled meetings and provides instant feedback. For remote teams, the faster you can get the answers to your questions, the faster tasks and projects get completed.
When Using Apps, Be Direct and Concise
Nothing is worse than getting in a conversation on an email or collaboration app that tangents off course and either doesn’t provide the collaborative answers your team is after, or it is hidden in a long conversation and takes a long time to find. The reason you collaborate on projects is to use multiple people’s skills to create the best product or service you can. You can’t do that if you are constantly searching through old correspondence trying to find answers to questions.
With the specificity that is demanded by customers and teams nowadays, the best thing that can happen is to have short, to-the-point conversations when discussing work. Whether this is through traditional means such as email or your company has graduated to a collaboration app where people can update statuses in real-time, stress the benefit of concision. The fewer emails and messages someone has to go through, the faster (and better) any project will end up.
At Compudata, we can help your business get the collaboration tools you need to move business forward faster. We also like to routinely provide tips on how to better collaborate like this one. If you would like to talk to one of our consultants about improving your organization’s collaboration, give us a call today at 1-855-405-8889.