We would like to begin with a few powerful real-life examples of collaboration.
Albert Einstein, one of the greatest geniuses in history, collaborated with two of his fellow students at ETH Zurich to form the special theory of relativity.
Thanks to the effort of James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Williams, and Rosalind Franklin, we were able to discover the structure of DNA molecules.
William Procter and James Gamble together found Proctor & Gamble – one of the world’s largest FMCG groups that produces everything from shampoos to batteries.
Wilbur and Orville Wright developed something that made flying a fixed-wing aircraft possible. Without their partnership and teamwork, we may never have flown in planes!
…and the list goes on and on! The point is, that each of these incredible inventions is the result of collaboration. People shared ideas and expertise with each other and produced outstanding results.
So, if you want to see your organization thrive and turn your employees into productive superheroes, you need to foster the spirit of collaboration in your organization!
Yes, creating a collaborative workplace takes time and effort, but it is all worth it. Workplace collaboration is indeed the holy grail of building a successful business!
In this blog post, we will walk you through what workplace collaboration is, why it’s important, and the best way to improve it! Ready? Let’s go!
What Exactly is Collaboration?
When we talk about collaboration in organizations, it involves various employees within and across functions working together, sharing ideas, and providing feedback – in order to achieve a particular goal.
Most importantly, collaboration isn’t bound by positions within a company. For example, any member of the organization can work together and collaborate – be it a boss and a junior, two employees in the same position, or two employees from different sectors, like marketing and finance.
Now that you’ve understood the basics of collaboration in the workplace, let’s take a look at why collaboration is an essential aspect of every organization.
6 Reasons Why Collaboration is Important
1. Improves Workplace Motivation
First and foremost, working together fosters healthy work relationships between teams and individuals. It is a fact that humans are social creatures; we thrive on communicating with others and good conversations trigger dopamine – a brain chemical that is responsible for happiness and mood stability.
Moreover, a study conducted by Stanford University showed that simply feeling like you’re a part of a team that’s working towards the same goal – makes you feel more motivated. This clearly highlights the impact that collaboration has on the drive of employees and their willingness to work harder.
Read more: Importance of Teamwork & Collaboration in a Digital World!
2. Increases Productivity
Collaboration involves employees working together, bouncing ideas off each other, and providing different perspectives. Hence, it helps you reach organizational goals faster! Furthermore, when diverse experiences, cultures, and different perspectives come together, problem-solving becomes much easier.
All in all, collaboration allows individuals to combine their strengths and minimize their weaknesses and eventually leads to something that benefits the organization!
3. Helps Teams See The Bigger Picture:
More often than not, employees are so focused on their own work and the problems they have to solve, that they forget to look at the bigger picture that the whole organization is working towards.
Collaboration in the workplace allows employees to come together and makes them mindful of the bigger picture and long-term goals.
4. Helps New Employees Learn Faster
This is one of the most obvious reasons why collaboration is super important. As we mentioned earlier, collaboration isn’t bound by any positions, and hence older, more experienced employees can also work together with rookies in the organization.
In addition, collaboration also prevents new employees from making mistakes that can be avoided. Basically, collaboration is great for teaching new employees the inner working of the organization!
5. Aligns Remote Teams
There are many pros and cons of remote work, but the biggest disadvantage is that it creates communication gaps, and employees are more prone to missing out on important information.
However, through efficient collaboration, everyone can stay on the same page and remain aligned with each other’s work – even if organizations have multiple offices across the world.
6. Reduces Employee Turnover
Collaboration lays the foundation for a better workplace – employees are happier and more in sync with each other, leading to a more satisfactory work environment.
This motivates employees to stay with the company for a longer duration of time, in turn reducing employee turnover. Over the long run, this reduces costs associated with hiring and training new employees. (Turnover can cost employees 33% of an employee’s annual salary!)
So, What’s The Best Way to Improve Workplace Collaboration?
Let’s face it. As your organization grows, collaboration gets more difficult because your team members are spread out across different geographies and time zones.
This is the reason why many companies have started using collaboration tools to improve communication, collaboration, and productivity.
According to McKinsey, digital workplaces and online collaboration tools can increase productivity by 20 to 30%. In fact, 83% of employees now depend on technology for collaborating!
Well, one of the most powerful collaboration tools out there is Bit.ai, which provides a common workplace for teams and individuals to brainstorm new ideas, communicate in real time, store and share knowledge, discuss work, and get things done without jumping from one app to the next.
Want to learn more about Bit.ai? Read on!
Bit.ai – The Only Collaboration Tool That Your Organization Needs
Bit.ai is a new-age document management and collaboration tool that helps teams create, collaborate, share, track, and manage all company information in one place. It’s the perfect tool for teams to get work done without relying on a number of apps and complicated software.
On Bit, you can create smart workspaces around projects, teams, departments, and clients to keep your documents and data organized. Workspaces make it easy to collaborate and ensure that the right team members have access to the right documents at the right time!
The best part? Bit makes it easy for your entire team to work together intelligently across these integrated smart documents. You can work together from anywhere in the world using co-editing, inline comments, document chats, @mentions, and much more.
Bit’s superpower is that it helps you make sure your documents are more than just plain boring text. That means you can add any sort of rich media to your documents – be it YouTube videos, SoundCloud Playlists, Google Docs, One Drive Excel Spreadsheets, GIFs, Tweets, Pinterest boards, etc.
Bit also offers ‘smart search’ using which your employees can search and find any files, images, documents, etc quickly and easily across all of their workspaces.
Moreover, Bit supports features like document tracking, password protection, file access restrictions, etc that help keep your important company information safe.
Wrapping Up
Collaboration is one of the most essential aspects of the modern workplace! Whether you’re working remotely or in the office, effective collaboration is something that you can’t overlook.
From increased motivation and morale to better efficiency and learning, collaboration offers many benefits and that’s why it should be a fundamental process in every organization.
And, with Bit.ai in the back of your pocket, collaboration has become easier than ever! So what are you waiting for? Start using Bit.ai right away!
If you have got any questions, queries, or suggestions, hit us up on Twitter at @bit_docs and we would be happy to help you out.
Further reads:
21 Collaboration Statistics that Show the Power of Teamwork!
15 Team Building Skills You Must Develop for Better Collaboration!
15 Team Building Skills You Must Develop for Better Collaboration!
Happy & Collaborative Work Culture: 10 Effective Ways to Create it!
Team Collaboration: Why You Need To Invest In It?
Collaboration Strategy: Definition, Benefits & Process!
What is Cross-Functional Collaboration & How To Build A Team?
