The world is changing every day, perhaps every minute. We see young entrepreneurs and business leaders breaking all norms and challenging the status quo in different ways.

If earlier it was about going all alone, then now it’s about coming together and collaborating with others. Of late, businesses and organizations have learned the importance of collaboration and working together.

Interestingly, great minds like Henry Ford to Steve Jobs knew that great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.

What Collaboration Really Means

To put into simpler words, collaboration is the act of working with someone to produce or achieve something. Some call it an alliance while others refer it as a partnership.

In the business world, collaboration help individuals to work together to achieve a common business purpose. It exists in two forms - synchronous and asynchronous collaboration.

Synchronous collaboration: Here everyone interacts and collaborates in real time over the Internet as in online meetings, instant messaging, audio/video conferencing, and shared applications.

Asynchronous collaboration: Whenever you send an email, upload a document or annotate a file to shared workspaces, you are collaborating asynchronously.

Despite knowing the role of collaboration in determining the success of an organization, both employees and employers alike think that their companies aren’t collaborating enough. As per a report, 86% of executives and employers cite a lack of collaboration as the main reason for workplace failures.

If you’d like to maximize productivity by enhancing collaboration, here are some tips to improve collaboration in the workplace.

1. Align around a shared purpose: When people know and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, they feel connected with a shared purpose. When they know their part in helping an organization in meeting its goals, people don’t mind going an extra mile to make it happen. Share the company’s goals with employees, it might result in better innovations at the end.
   
   
2. Use alternative communication channels: Quite surprisingly, email is still the dominant method of online work communication in many companies and organizations. According to the 2013 Cornerstone OnDemand State of the Workplace Productivity Report survey, 28 percent of employees already use collaboration apps at work. One has to use technology strategically to want your employees to enhance collaboration and you must provide the right tools to them. ProofHub and Slack are two popular and effective collaboration tools.
   
   
3. Introduce hot desking in your office: Usually, hot desking involves one or more employees having no set workplace. Employees can rotate throughout the office and camp their desk wherever they’d like. It encourages employees to interact with others that they might not normally interact with. In fact, companies such as the BBC will have a third of their employees hot desking every day. The core advantages of hot desking lie in increased levels of communication and improved professional relationships.
   
   
4. Acknowledge, appreciate, and awards: Employees feel motivated to collaborate more with their co-workers when they are recognized for their inputs and efforts. All the managers out there must acknowledge, appreciate, and reward employees to reinforce collaboration and teamwork at a workplace. Organize team outings and lunches for them and let them feel valued and appreciated.

On an ending note, an African proverb comes to my mind, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Remember that success is a collaborative effort and you need other people’s help, expertise, experience, and wisdom to achieve greater things in life.

Author Bio:

Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2017 and 2018. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click. Follow her on Linkedin.