The top 10 good practices for teamwork

The virtues of collaborative work in companies are countless. Time and productivity savings, job satisfaction, talent retention... It is fair to say that the proverb "together we go further" has never sounded so true as in the professional world. According to an Ipsos and Openmind Kfé study, 60% of employees believe that collaborative working has a particularly positive impact on knowledge sharing, team productivity, problem-solving, employee motivation and creativity .

Yes, but here's the thing: it's not enough to want it to happen in order to establish a collaborative culture in your company. You have to give yourself the means to do so. In this article, we summarize the ten best practices to adopt in order to encourage internal collaboration in companies .

Collaborative work in companies, definition

With the rise of teleworking, many French companies have had to learn to collaborate remotely, to take care of their team cohesion while teleworking... But what exactly is "collaborative work"?

Collaborative work", "internal collaboration" or "collaborative culture" simply refers to a way of working that is centered around team spirit and mutual support. In a collaborative workspace, success is collective and the result of joint efforts.  

Encouraging collaborative work in companies therefore means offering its teams the ideal framework (as well as the tools) to enable them to work well together. The goal: to rely on collective intelligence to lead the company to success.

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How to create a culture of collaborative work in your company?

Improving internal collaboration within a company is a long-distance race.

Here are the main actions to put in place to motivate your troops and stimulate their collective spirit on a daily basis.  

1. Share a common vision

Whether it is a question of fighting against food waste, facilitating internal communication in companies, preserving the environment with products made in France... Each company has, in principle, its own reason for being. The first thing to do to stimulate a sense of belonging among your employees is to make them sincerely adhere to the company's mission. Your talents must be driven by the same ambition as you and feel the impact of their daily actions on your success.

💡 For example, at Mozzaik365, we all share the same project: to allow companies to improve their internal communication and the productivity of their employees. How do we do this? Through a unique and intuitive workspace that makes life easier for teams! To achieve this, we work together every day to improve our product. After all, what could be more motivating and unifying than promoting well-being at work?

In fact, we have created the ultimate guide to creating an internal communication plan!

2. Unite your teams around common objectives

This approach is a continuation of the previous advice. After having united all the employees around the company's mission, it is important to assign common objectives to each team (product, marketing, IT, etc.). The aim? To strengthen the team spirit and allow employees to surpass themselves together, by making the most of their skills.

3. Building trust

All human relationships are based on trust - whether they are friendships, romantic relationships or professional relationships. To be able to come up with new ideas, think outside the box or solve problems, your employees need to feel free to express themselves openly.

The right approach: make open-mindedness and tolerance central to your values. By encouraging your staff to be good listeners, you create a climate of trust and encourage inter-team exchanges.

📌 Remember

It is through your actions that you will show your teams that you value teamwork. Supportive, caring and transparent leaders and managers encourage their employees to demonstrate the same qualities.  

4. Cultivating transparency

Trust often goes hand in hand with transparency! There is no better way to weaken team cohesion than by not saying anything and not communicating.  

But how do you create a culture of transparency in your company?

As an employer or manager, you can set an example by :

• Sharing with your teams your current projects/questions/challenges/difficulties;
• Developing a transparent salary scale that is accessible to all employees;
• Sharing your company's financial results/key figures;
• Encouraging employees to share honest feedback regularly;
• Explicitly stating what you expect from your employees and teams.

5. Empowering each employee

According to the multiple theories of motivation developed in the 20th century (Adams, Maslow, etc.), employee motivation is a matter of recognition... and involvement. Yes, how can you feel useful and belong to a company if you do not measure your contribution to the common objectives?

💡 According to Maslow's Pyramid, the more you value an employee by giving them responsibility, the more their self-esteem and satisfaction increases.  

Get into the habit of involving all your employees in the success of the company with a few simple actions:

Regularly share with them the company's news (its financial situation, its next strategic challenges, its latest contracts, its new partnerships, etc.)

Give meaning to their daily missions with the OKR method (for Objectives and Key Results). Popular with digital giants such as Twitter and Netflix, this method allows employees to be involved in the overall success of the company by setting collective and individual objectives that have a concrete impact on the company's strategic objectives.

Some examples of OKRs from a fast-growing company wanting to increase its turnover by 20%:

• For the HR team: recruit 30 new talents in Q1 2022.

The key result is to receive 200 qualified applications every month.

Key result: 100 interviews by the end of Q1.

• For the marketing team: increase website traffic by 20%.

Key Result: Launching acquisition campaigns via Google Ads.

Key Result: Implement an SEO strategy to boost the site's ranking.

➡ Give your talents the opportunity to express their opinion and participate in decision making! There is nothing more rewarding than to feel that your opinion counts.

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👆 Mozzaik's advice  

Be pragmatic and think about making the most of your employees' strengths. Are some of your employees virtuosos in design or web development, experts in communication or customer negotiation? Turn their strengths into competitive advantages.

If you don't know what talents everyone has, it's time to set up your company directory with Microsoft 365 ! We explain how in 4 steps.
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6. Celebrate each other's achievements

In business, there are no small victories. Whether it's positive customer feedback, new partnerships signed or goals achieved, take every opportunity to thank your employees for their efforts!

Also think about valuing the behavioral skills of your employees. Has one of your employees recently distinguished himself/herself by his/her spirit of solidarity and availability to his/her teammates? Highlight his/her team spirit and thank him/her! There are many ways of doing this: email, message on Teams, oral thanks during a meeting, etc. Simple gestures that will mean a lot to your employees while creating a good atmosphere 🙌.

7. Provide a stimulating work environment

As explained above, your talents need a safe place to perform at their best. To stimulate their creativity and innovation, make sure you encourage bold initiatives.

To do this, you can, for example

• Valuing failure instead of demonizing it.
• Use your meetings to invite your staff to share their ideas/improvement ideas.
• Provide a working environment conducive to exchange (by introducing coffee breaks, setting up living areas within your premises dedicated to informal discussion, etc.).
• Create cross-functional working groups bringing together several teams with different areas of expertise, hackathons, etc.

8. Enabling teams to connect

Let's face it: no collaborative tool or inspirational speech will ever be able to motivate teams as effectively as good times shared together.

By getting to know each other, your teams strengthen their sense of cohesion and belonging to the company... As a bonus, forging strong links with your teammates boosts morale, well-being at work, etc. And the desire to innovate! Remember: we said earlier that trust was the keystone of human relations. The more your employees feel confident with each other, the more they will feel free to express their most original ideas.

The right approach: organize regular internal events such as aperitifs, team building activities of all kinds, team lunches, seminars, etc.

9. Use appropriate collaborative tools

Gone are the days of the Word document that was sent back and forth dozens of times as it was modified! Today, it' s time for the shared document. According to Heidi Gardner, author for the Harvard Business Review. "Social applications allow people to work not only faster and more economically, but also in entirely new ways.

According to her, collaborative tools promote internal collaboration - whether it's messaging applications like Slack or Teams, a collaborative work platform, survey platforms... Which ultimately improves team productivity and facilitates internal communication. An idea confirmed by a study carried out by HBR in 2017 on enterprise collaboration. According to this study, 67% of employees surveyed felt that the lack of communication was the biggest obstacle to collaboration in their opinion.

At Mozzaik, we've adopted Teams and we're revealing our best tips for taking this incredible tool to the next level

10. Using a Digital Workplace

The Digital Workplace is a workspace that facilitates information sharing and collaboration. How can this be achieved? Through digital technologies that facilitate collaborative work, such as internal communication applications, electronic document management tools, intranet platforms, etc.

Mozzaik365 is a Microsoft365 extension that adds features to Sharepoint. Its objective: to facilitate internal communication, access to information and collaborative work within companies, thanks to a simple and quick to deploy tool.

In practice, Mozzaik365 allows you to :

• Create beautiful Intranets in Microsoft 365 ;
• Highlight important information on your intranet and target your communications to specific audiences;
• Combine the features of Teams and SharePoint ;
• Give your employees a voice through social features and surveys;
• Facilitate information sharing by providing your teams with key resources;
• Centralize and personalize information for each user with the Personal Dashboard;
• And much more!  

To find out more about our collaboration tool, please contact our team or browse our product page.

Promoting collaborative work in companies, in conclusion

For managers and employees alike, collaborative working has its benefits. Time and productivity savings, increased well-being at work, better organization and coordination between teams, better problem-solving, employee commitment...

In other words, bringing teams together around common issues can be a real strategic lever for a company's success.

In order to facilitate the sharing of information between your employees, consider equipping yourself with the appropriate collaboration tools, with a collaborative work solution such as Mozzaik365.

Things to remember

📌 Share a common vision;

📌 Federate your teams around common goals;

📌 Create trust;

📌 Cultivate transparency;

📌 Responsibility of your employees;

📌 Celebrate the achievements of your teams;

📌 Make your work environment stimulating;

📌 Create a bond within your teams;