What Are Collaboration Goals and Objectives?

What Are Collaboration Goals and Objectives?

Defining clear and achievable goals and objectives is a crucial part of setting your team up for success. But another important aspect of team success is how well your team members can work together to deliver projects and achieve company wins. Collaboration goals and objectives help keep your whole team on track together  — let’s explore how.

Collaboration goals and objectives are simply what they say on the tin — they are the goals and objectives set for your team that relate to, and can be achieved by, better collaboration. Effective collaboration has always been a cornerstone of a successful company, but now, as we move towards the future of work with hybrid and remote work models, seamless collaboration across locations and departments is even more important. 

Collaboration allows your team to feel a sense of community as they work together to achieve common goals. It can build purpose and motivation for your team and engagement among employees. Setting goals and objectives for your team’s collaboration is a way to ensure that they understand the importance of good collaboration and how it can improve their day-to-day at work.

What are some collaboration goals and objectives that you can explore with your team?

There are a number of areas where your team can set goals and objectives for better collaboration. Here are just a few examples.

Cross-functional projects

If your company regularly deals with departmental siloes, where projects never seem to move seamlessly from department to department, it may be time to look at how collaboration can improve. 

Sit with your team and figure out where delays normally occur in your project process. Once you’ve identified these, have a cross-departmental meeting with your colleagues, where you discuss your team’s findings and how they translate in other departments. Then try to set some goals for how to overcome these siloes. For example, you may decide that your Creative team should try to complete ten requests from the Marketing department every week — if they hit this goal, the process should move more smoothly.

Using a project management tool that works for a variety of departments is a great way to have every team involved in a project on the same page. 

Productivity

Increasing overall productivity is never a one-person effort — it comes from every team member striving to do their best and helping others to do the same. If you find that certain team members seem to take a long time on certain tasks and shorter times on others, there could be space to investigate productivity on your team.

Using a time tracking tool for all your teams’ tasks makes it easier to see how and where team members are using their work hours. You could then use this information to make changes to your team’s responsibilities so they can work more efficiently. For example, if one team member is very quick at proofing blog posts, make it a goal for them to proof five posts a week, as it’s something that may come more naturally to them. If another team member is taking a long time with a relatively simple task, schedule some time in their calendar to go over the process and make sure they’re up to speed before setting a goal of a shorter period to complete the task next time around. 

Company culture

A company’s culture is much more than free lunches and ping-pong tables — it’s about how comfortable, supported, and happy your employees feel when coming to work every day. Building a culture like this requires strong collaboration, and if you feel your team may be lacking morale, it’s time to put some effort into changing things.

Perhaps your team members feel overworked and on the brink of burnout. You may discover that they are not taking the breaks they need and that other teams are unaware of the pressure their requests are putting on your team. Make it a goal for each member of your team to carve out time in their calendars every week to switch off — whether that’s a coffee chat with the rest of their teammates or just time to themselves. Ensure that the number of requests your team receives each week is appropriate — if it’s not, try to lower the goal number of completed requests for each member so they can feel more relaxed about work.