18 Expert Tips to Get Your Team to Collaborate Effectively
When any new project begins, success is rarely guaranteed. Collaboration helps improve the quality of work by bringing in extra brainpower, but coordinating efforts between multiple people comes with its own challenges. These 12 experts weigh in on how to make sure your team is primed for collaboration success: Initial Project Communication Communicate the Purpose of Work “Make absolutely sure that everyone knows the purpose of the direction the team is going in, and the reason that their part in it is critical in achieving that end.” —Alexander Ruggie, 911 Restoration Show How Work Aligns with Larger Goals “Make sure that the team goals are clear. Demonstrate alignment in two ways from those goals: one, to the larger organization or company vision, and two, to each individual and the importance of the role they play." —Susan L. Lauer, Certified Business Coach Principal, Aspire Consulting Get Buy-In for the Vision “Collaboration increases when the goals and objectives are really clear. Also, if the team members are involved with the development of the goals and objectives, the buy-in is even better.” —Tatsuya Nakagawa, VP Marketing & Strategy, Castagra Products, Inc. Make Sure Everyone is on the Same Page "Get your team onto the same page, aiming for the same goal. Sit down with the team and explain your short- and long-term goal, and be open to their suggestions. Discuss how you have planned to hit those goals, and then assign each of them their respective work." —Anant Mediratta, CEO & Founder, WiseCalvin Organized Project Roles Know the Strengths of Your Team "Knowing the strengths, motivators, and behaviors of the individual team members can help you put together a better team. Knowing the same about each other will enhance their collaboration.” —Susan L. Lauer, Certified Business Coach Principal, Aspire Consulting Assign Everyone a Specific Project Role "Clearly designate who is responsible for each segment of your project. Your staff needs to know exactly who is in charge of what, regarding the project in question. That way, they'll know who to go to for help and who to follow up with as they move towards project completion." —Andrew Schrage, CEO & Co-owner, Money Crashers Identify a Project Lead with Strong Leadership Skills "A clear group leader is necessary. To define the group leader, someone with strong leadership skills will be the best choice for the team. What constitutes leadership skills? The ability to problem solve (outside of situational training received), to listen, to energize, to support, AND at the same time to add their knowledge and expertise to the outcomes of the team." —Jess Dewell, CEO, Infusion Principle Ask Your Project Lead to Consistently Gather Feedback "Designate a project lead who will accept responsibility for the project and seek lots of feedback from other team members. The team lead creates accountability, and the high degree of project feedback creates short, frequent check-ins on how the project is progressing." —Sam Balter Marketing Manager, Waterfall Discuss the Flow of Work from Person to Person "To eliminate bottlenecks, you need to delegate tasks on the front-end. Make it absolutely clear what each person's responsibility is, and then discuss the flow of project from person to person.” —Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development Day-to-Day Operations Implement Scrum Methodology “I founded a startup financial tech company in 2012 and recently implemented Scrum, which has turned out to be fantastic way to get my team to collaborate.” —Jonathan Wallentine, AmcoInvestor Hold Regular Meetings for Problem-Solving “We meet almost every day where I ask: What do you need to move forward on this project? Where is it stuck? What can we do to get to 'done'?” —Beth Bridges, Marketing Manager, J - I.T. Outsource Try Setting Collaboration Hours "Set hours for specific collaborations times." —Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development Use Specific Tools for Specific Functions “Use specific platforms for specific functions — don't mix them up! Messages via Slack over Email. All documents need to live in our team Dropbox account. All projects and tasks get defined in our project management tool. No rogue activities! Define and post them so others can see progress/status without having to consult you." —Kenny Jahng, Founder & CEO, Big Click Syndicate LLC Leave Email for External Communication "Use a chat system for exchanges and collaboration other than email. Leave email for coordination with customers/clients." —Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development Standardize Organization & Naming Conventions "Standardized file naming conventions. E.g. Date first on all files using YYMMDD format, like 150612 for June 12, 2015, so that files sort nicely in folders; and include a client/project short code in all file names (so it is searchable).” —Kenny Jahng, Founder & CEO, Big Click Syndicate LLC Your Team Leadership Empower Your Entire Team to be Leaders "Give your team freedom to take initiative and implement new ideas; that will make them feel empowered and they'll perform well." —Shreyans Jain, Marketing Manager, EduPristine Don't Micromanage, Allow Them to Make Decisions Together “It’s like parenting: How do you split the last chocolate cookie? One child cuts, and the other chooses. Managers should see this as a guiding principle in collaboration. Instead of micromanaging, give a general directive and deadline, then let your team divide up the work amongst themselves.” —Angelique Pivoine, 911 Restoration Show Appreciation for a Job Well-Done and Invest in your Team, Especially Team Building for Remote Teams "Recognize the efforts put in by your team and appreciate it, this will make the team members feel good and it will also increase their interest level and productivity. If a team member has spent several hours on fixing issues, motivate him/her by showing gratitude and announcing his/her achievement to the team." —Shreyans Jain, Marketing Manager, EduPristine What collaboration advice can you share? Have you had to coordinate effective team collaboration? Do you work on a team that collaborates well every day? Share your experiences and advice in the comments below!
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Remote Work: Why Reddit and Yahoo! Banned It
When an internal memo from Yahoo! leaked to the public back in February 2013, there was a collective groan not just from people working in the company, but also from supporters of remote work in general. The memo banned remote work for all Yahoo! staff and cited that more effective collaboration would happen face-to-face — that it all begins with being physically present in the office. A Yahoo! spokesperson clarified that banning work from home was not a blanket repudiation of remote work, rather, it was a move that was right for the company's individual situation. They were not the last ones to try to put an end to the practice of remote work. Best Buy followed suit in March 2013 by getting rid of their flexible work program and making employees hold to a more traditional 40-hour work week. Even more recently, Reddit announced the closing of two branch offices in Utah and New York, giving employees two months to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area; then-CEO Yishan Wong cited that while remote work was good for some workers, in the macro scheme of things, the company just wasn't able to collaborate and coordinate efficiently. Why Ban Remote Work? So what has been prompting this about-face regarding work-at-home policies? Why are top technology companies pulling the plug on one of the hottest perks for today's workers? Some clues can be found in the Yahoo! memo. It claimed: "Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home." The implication being that remote work slows down overall productivity and lowers quality of output. The memo also positioned the policy as a way to unify the forces physically, stating that the best ideas usually come from face-to-face interaction around hallways and office water coolers. The truth is that there are many challenges with remote work, we can't pretend otherwise. We blogged about the 8 biggest challenges for leading virtual teams and found that according to our survey, the top two challenges were (1) poor communication, and (2) a lack of access to expertise needed to support the work. Jennifer Owens of Working Mother Media says that the move stems from fear: “Fear that if I can’t see you, I don’t know what you’re working on. It’s a distrust of your own workforce.” What it boils down to is that these companies decided against remote work because they believe virtual collaboration is inefficient. Instead of overhauling their work-from-home policies and investing in better collaboration technology, they'd rather herd their people back into a single physical location to enhance teamwork. But... People Love Remote Work! Even though companies like Yahoo!, HP, Best Buy, and Reddit have returned to more traditional work schedules from centralized locations, a thousand more startups and technology companies continue to fly the flag for remote work. Allowing remote work means teams can take advantage of the resources brought by distributed team members who do not want to pack up and move to company headquarters. And people value the perk! According to our remote collaboration survey of over 1,000 respondents, 25% of workers value remote work so much that they’re willing to accept a reduction in salary in order to enjoy it. Other sacrifices they're ready to make include: free meals, reduction in vacation, and paid cellphone plans. How to Make Remote Work Work So what do we say to the companies who have given up on remote work? How can a company successfully implement their work-from-home policy and avoid possible negative repercussions? You have to weigh up the working from home benefits and drawbacks. Terri Griffith, Professor of Management at Santa Clara University and author of The Plugged-In Manager, says: “It takes a thoughtful combination of people, technology, and process to gain the value of virtual work.” We've put together a free eBook on the reasons you should embrace remote work, and the entire second chapter deals with how to successfully implement the policy at your company. We included relevant case studies from companies that have thrived on distributed teamwork, including Johnson & Johnson and Zappos. Want to find out more about how Wrike can help your organization make working remotely work for them? Read more about our flexible work management platform here. Photo Credit: Asher Isbrucker on Flickr. Some rights reserved. Photo edited.
Print These Valentine's Day Cards for Your Favorite Coworkers
Ready for Valentines? Here's a way to show appreciation for your team. Just print one (or all!) of these PDFs on regular 8.5” x 11” copy paper, fold or cut them out, and give them to your work buddies and office crushes this February 14th. ;)
Personality in a Cup: How Philz Coffee Scales Quality Through Consistency
We sat down with the Director of Coffee and Sustainability at Philz to discuss how Philz has scaled a business nationwide while preserving that shop-around-the-corner brand their consumers know and love.
How to Communicate Like Super Bowl Champions
"Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results; the process rather than the prize."— Bill Walsh, three time Super Bowl-winning head coach It's Super Bowl season! Time to get out the chips, grab the remote, plop on the couch, and watch some excellent... team communication? Yes, you heard me right. It takes two great teams to make it to the Super Bowl but it takes only one team with excellent communication to win that Lombardi Trophy. Follow these steps to get your team communicating like Super Bowl champions: 1. Understand the Objective In football, the head coach runs communication on the field. He's responsible for explaining the objectives, standards, and expectations of the game. He needs to encourage and inspire as well as discipline and instruct. It's up to the head coach to organize and create a vision for his team to execute. Just as in football, a successful project team needs a leader who can provide a vision and set expectations for the project. As important as it is for the team leader to clearly communicate objectives and expectations, it's just as important for the team to effectively listen. Team players also need to communicate their own feelings and concerns to their team leader so everyone is on the same page. 2. Set a Strategy Developing a strategy is the first step to achieving the team's objective. In football, the head coach and assistant coaches evaluate the competition along with their own team's strengths before coming up with a strategy. Once a plan is in place, it's shared with the team. If there's an injured player, the coach needs to factor that into the plan by moving positions around. Just like football, it's important for team leaders to evaluate their resources before they design the playbook. For example, if a team member has a prior commitment on the day of a presentation, they must communicate that to their team leader. The team leader then needs to factor that into their strategy by shifting the presentation date or choosing a new presenter, and communicating the change to the necessary people. Without this upfront communication, the whole strategy will be ineffective. Having a client communication plan in place is also crucial, to ensure that, once your team are on the same page, that this can be effectively relayed to the customer, and vice versa. 3. Run the Play With the plan set — it's now time to execute. In football, there are several key players involved in running a winning play. Let's look at a common running play: a draw. This play is designed to trick the defense into thinking the offense is about to run a pass play by having the offensive linemen act as if they're going to protect the quarterback in the pocket. Instead, the quarterback drops back, turns, and hands the ball to his running back. Although it sounds straightforward, this play often falls apart due to poor communication. If the running back isn't aware of the play, he won't be ready to receive the hand-off from the quarterback. The important tip here is to make sure that everyone is on the same page. The team needs to not only work together, but also understand the game plan and what their role entails. One way to ensure this accountability is to assign a particular task to each individual and come up with a deadline for when each task needs to be completed. Then, host regular progress meetings to make sure everyone is on track and answer any questions they may have. It's important to maintain communication throughout the entire project. Any gaps in communication could result in someone dropping the ball. 4. Evaluate the Strategy At this point, the question is simple: are we moving forward? In football, moving the ball ten yards forward results in a first down. First down keeps the team on the field, as long as they keep moving forward and achieving first downs. Penalties and incomplete throws are examples of instances where the team loses yards. When this occurs, the strategy needs to change. The head coach will look at where the problems occurred and think of a different plan. This is also a time when the coach will evaluate his team and see what changes he needs to make in the lineup. When evaluating a project strategy, it's important to not only look at the plan but also the team players. Is someone slacking on a particular task? Maybe they don't have as much experience, so it takes them longer to complete their task than the rest of the team? These types of observations should be made as early as possible in order to fine-tune the project plan and responsibilities. 5. Touchdown! Woo hoo! By this point, the vision and goals shared in the beginning have been executed and achieved through effective communication and teamwork. It's important to remember exactly what worked and what didn't when this step is reached. The plans may be different, but the communication can be just as successful. Now let's go watch some football!
5 Tips to Make Collaborative Problem Solving Work for Your Team
By taking on collaborative problem solving with clear goals, leaders are more likely to discover smart, creative solutions to help the team progress in its mission. Here are 5 tips that can make the difference in coming up with powerful, collaborative problem solving techniques that work for your unique projects.
5 Practical Tips on Making Virtual Collaboration Efficient
My post about The Secret Ingredients of a Successful Distributed Team turned out to be quite popular, so I decided to follow up on it by sharing a slide deck I recently presented to the Information Management Forum members (IMF). I was invited to speak about virtual teams, as well as how companies can easily overcome challenges connected with their set up. The presentation has 5 practical tips on how to manage remote team more efficiently. The list is not complete, and there’s always room for more! I hope to extend this list in a future post with your help. Easy and Effective Remote Collaboration What secrets of organizing a successful virtual team can you share? Please share your thoughts in the post comments.
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The Ultimate Guide to Total Quality Management (TQM)
Your organization does good work. But, as a leader or a project manager, you feel like a lot of it rests on your shoulders. Up to this point, it’s been your responsibility to review everything carefully and make sure your company’s outputs meet your quality standards. It’s working, but you know there has to be a better way. What if you could set up a system and a culture where everybody is invested in quality? What if you could refine processes that lead your team to consistently and reliably deliver top-notch work? It’s possible, and it’s a concept called total quality management. What is total quality management (TQM)? To put it simply, total quality management (TQM) is a set of principles that helps organizations do their best work. It focuses on helping companies evaluate and refine their processes, with the ultimate goal of improving their outputs and delivering a high-quality customer experience. In many companies, managers and leaders accountable for the quality of work and the success of the organization. However, total quality management spreads the load more evenly. Since every employee is involved in delivering the work, they are also held accountable for its quality. What is the history of total quality management? Think total quality management is something new? Think again. This concept has some pretty strong historical roots. Quality control has been around for ages. However, a mathematician and statistician named W. Edwards Deming is seen as the pioneer of the concept of total quality management. He saw flaws in U.S. production, especially when it came to quality control. Deming thought it was odd that management controlled the production process, despite the fact the line workers were the ones who had boots on the ground — and, as a result, had far more insight into how an effective process should run. He lectured on this topic in Japan in the 1950s. Japan was receptive to the concept of total quality management and quickly began implementing it. Upon seeing the success of those efforts in Japan, total quality management spread across the rest of the world — eventually becoming commonplace in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. Why is total quality management important? Total quality management can feel like a difficult concept to wrap your arms around, and it’s tempting to write it off as another complex, academic subject that doesn’t have applications in the real world. But that’s not the case. Many successful companies — like Toyota, Xerox, and Motorola — implement total quality management. Why? Well, because it can lead to a number of undeniable benefits, including: Higher-quality products and services: This is the obvious one. When you intentionally and mindfully manage a process with quality in mind, you improve your outputs. That’s the biggest benefit of total quality management — your team delivers top-notch work. Improved customer experience: A focus on the customer is a core principle of total quality management (which we’ll dig into in detail later). Keeping an eye on the needs of the end customer means you offer a better experience, leading to more loyalty, a better reputation, and even increased sales. Greater efficiency: Total quality management also hinges on processes, and even more specifically, continuous process improvement. Regularly evaluating your organization’s workflows and identifying ways to refine and streamline them leads to greater efficiency and productivity. Boosted team morale: Employee involvement is another core piece of total quality management. Every single team member rallies around a shared goal and commits to achieving it. That level of togetherness can lead to positive team culture and better morale. See? Total quality management isn’t just a stuffy theory or a buzzword — it can have real, measurable, and important effects within your team and organization. Using collaborative work management software (like Wrike) can make the process easier and enable even greater productivity. More on that a little later! What are the total quality management principles? Total quality management is about improving quality across the organization. But, it’s not quite as simple as saying, “Alright, we’re going to do a better job.” Total quality management has a formal set of eight different principles it’s based on. Here’s a straightforward explanation of each of those concepts: 1. Customer-centered You can think your processes, products, and services are top-notch. But, your opinion means nothing if your customers aren’t satisfied and impressed with your offerings. Organizations that implement total quality management always have the end customer in mind. They know their customers are the ultimate judges of whether or not their organization is of superior quality, and they refine their processes and offerings in the interest of the customer. 2. Total employee involvement Remember when we mentioned that total quality management isn’t something handed down from on high? Rather, it involves every single member of the organization in achieving a goal and improving quality. This can mean several different things. First and foremost, companies need to provide clarity around their objectives. Secondly, they need to provide the training and resources employees need to do their work efficiently and effectively. Finally, a high degree of psychological safety means employees have the freedom to push themselves — without the fear of repercussions for failure. 3. Process-centered Companies that implement total quality management don’t take a willy nilly approach to their work. Instead, there are prescriptive sets of steps and workflows for getting work across the finish line. These processes not only help them deliver more consistent work, but they also make production far easier to plan and monitor. That’s not to say these processes are set in stone. They’re constantly evaluated and improved upon. 4. Integrated system Every company has various teams and departments responsible for different tasks. However, with a total quality management approach, these different groups can’t operate in their own universes. Total quality management emphasizes the importance of the links that connect these different departments and functions. To preserve and improve quality, an organization needs to work as a cohesive, integrated system — rather than a collection of various teams. This requires a high degree of transparency and an understanding of the processes and work of other departments. 5. Strategic and systematic approach Imagine that you wanted to drive to Niagara Falls. Would you set out without any directions? Probably not, because you have no idea how to get where you want to go. The same is true for an organization. Total quality management requires that a company creates a strategic plan. Even more than that, the strategic plan needs to emphasize the importance of quality and quality management. 6. Continual improvement Companies that are invested in total quality management aren’t content to stick with the status quo. They’re constantly looking at ways to be better. This means evaluating processes, products, services, customer experience, employee feedback, and more to identify areas where you could improve. When you spot them, you need to address them and monitor them to ensure those changes actually benefited your work. 7. Fact-based decision making There aren’t many gut decisions made by organizations that implement total quality management. That’s because this approach prioritizes making decisions based on facts and data. Companies need to gather, organize, and analyze data about their performance measurements and use that to make their decisions. Total quality management doesn’t rely on intuition or best guesses. 8. Communications It’s hard to overstate the importance of effective communication on a high-performing team — and that’s why it’s a core principle of total quality management too. There needs to be clear and frequent communication across the entire organization to keep every employee in the loop on changes, operations, strategies, processes, and more. There’s no such thing as over-communicating. How does Wrike help with total quality management? Think total quality management sounds like a lot? It can be. But, rest assured, it’s not something that will be implemented overnight. Even taking small steps in the right direction can help you and your team improve your processes and work quality. Need some help? Wrike can help you satisfy many of the core principles of total quality management for project management, including: Total employee involvement: With clear and automated task assignments, every employee knows what they’re responsible for. Process-centered: Templated workflows allow you to create a process and easily repeat it for similar projects. Integrated system: Wrike provides visibility into what every team is working on (and working toward). Continual improvement: Wrike’s project status report will show you how projects are progressing and make it easy to spot sticking points in your processes. Fact-based decision making: Wrike offers a number of other reports to give you data about how your team is performing so you can make strategic decisions. Communications: With the ability to leave comments, tag team members, attach files, and more, Wrike keeps all of your communication centralized in one place. With a total quality management system like Wrike in your corner, you can help your team deliver top-notch work — without any added stress or hassles. Ready to jump in? Start your free trial of Wrike now.
Working for a Workaholic: 10 Strategies to Save Your Sanity
Ever had a workaholic boss? You're glued to your phone, compulsively checking email notifications at 3 AM, and have long given up making weekend plans you'll only have to cancel last minute. While some people love giving their all to their jobs and thrive off of setting and achieving aggressive goals, that always-on mentality isn’t for everyone. If you’re the type of person who needs a firm separation between office and home, working for a workaholic can be stressful, as you feel obligated to adopt their mindset and habits at the risk of your own sanity. If you're feeling pressured to skip your lunch break, answer emails at midnight, and take stacks of work home with you, skip the Irish coffee and read our 10 tips for working for a workaholic instead. 1. Remember that your work style is valid. Even if you give 100% when you’re at the office, you can start to feel like you’re not doing enough just because you’re not answering emails at all hours, or because you leave your work laptop behind when you go on vacation. Remember that your value is based on the quality of your contributions, not just the quantity, and that you don't need to put in 80 hours a week to be a good employee. 2. Don’t assume that just because your manager is a workaholic, they expect the same from you. Chances are, they understand their work style isn't for everyone. So communicate! Talk about how and when you can be reached when you aren’t in the office and under what circumstances. If your manager knows they can get ahold of you when it really counts, they might feel less anxious about having you available all the time. 3. Decide what your limits are and communicate them. If your boss really does expect you to be available 24/7, you'll need to be proactive about protecting your personal time. A good manager will understand that if the work (and worker) is suffering, a change needs to be made. If you’re taking on so much that you can’t be effective at your job, tell your boss that you're spread too thin, and come prepared with solutions to propose. Have a list of projects you think a teammate would be better suited to handle, or suggestions for how to improve processes and make tedious work less time consuming. 4. Once you've set your limits, stick to them. Even if you’ve had “the talk” about work/life balance, old habits die hard, so you may have to remind your boss a few times about your agreement. If you're still regularly getting assignments on Friday evening that are due Monday morning, don’t be afraid to say, “I’m sorry, but I have a prior commitment this weekend.” 5. Schedule an after-hours commitment. Sign up for a 6 PM spin class, or make it known you have to catch the 5:25 train. By having a definite "hard stop" scheduled, you won't end up staying progressively later because you feel pressured to, or because you keep getting handed tasks to complete. Plus, your co-workers and boss will learn to anticipate and accept when you’ll be off for the night. 6. Consider shifting your hours. Will working 10 AM to 7 PM get you more face time? People are more likely to notice those who stay a few hours late more than those who come in early, even though the number of hours worked is the same. 7. Be willing to step up when it counts. It's good to set healthy boundaries, just don't be stubborn when your team really needs you. Chances are, you'll have a few late nights at the office or a big project that eats up a Sunday evening now and again. As long as it's not every weekend, be willing and gracious about stepping up to help out your team when it's important. 8. Keep track of your achievements and productivity. Every time you cross an item off your to-do list or successfully complete a big project, make a note so you can prove that you’ve earned your evenings and weekends. If you’re committed to your work, efficient, and deliver good results, eventually your hours will become a non-issue. 9. Ask for advice. Workaholics spend a lot of time at the office and have likely learned all the ins and outs of your field, which makes them a valuable learning and mentoring resource for you. Take advantage of their knowledge by asking them for advice, particularly on projects that you find challenging. 10. Focus on the positives. Working for a workaholic boss can be a good thing — it can push you to pick up new skills, give you the opportunity to tackle high-profile projects, and put you in the spotlight for promotions. If you’re willing to buckle up and put in a few extra hours, you could be along for an exciting ride! Reclaim Your Work-Life Balance The good news is you don't have to work 24/7 to impress your workaholic boss. Browse our archive of productivity tips and tools to get more done from 9-5, then check out our Q&A with Overwhelmed author Brigid Schulte for the secret to a healthy work/life balance. Sources: Forbes.com, Fortune.com, TheProductivityPro.com, The Wall Street Journal
5 Reasons Why Your Creative Team Isn't Scalable Yet
Creative teams are constantly under the gun to deliver compelling, innovative campaigns. And it's easy to buckle under that pressure when there's a lack of time and resources. As anxious as you might be to scale, here's why you might not be ready yet.
