7 methods to optimize collaborative work

1. What is collaborative work?

Collaborative work is a way of working that aims to improve team cohesion in order to achieve common goals. Working together, cooperation and mutual aid are the pillars of this method. In a few words, it is simply about working better together.

To do this, we rely on the sharing and pooling of resources, tools and knowledge. In this way, each employee makes their own contribution to the teams in equal measure.

According to the Ipsos/OpenMind Kfé study, 69% of the employees surveyed believe that collaborative work has a positive impact on knowledge sharing. Sixty-five percent believe that it has a positive impact on team productivity, 62% on problem solving and 60% on employee motivation.

What is the difference between cooperative and collaborative work?

Collaborative work should not be confused with cooperative work.

The first is defined by the interdependence of actors, with collaborators pooling their skills and responsibilities. The second, on the other hand, is achieved by putting individual tasks together. There is no notion of mutual commitment, but simply cooperation to achieve a given goal.

2. What are the benefits of collaborative work?

Collaborative work has many advantages. Among these (it's impossible to list them all!), we can mention :

• Increasing team productivity and performance;
• Facilitating exchanges between employees and teams;
• Centralization of work tools;
• Strengthening employee motivation and involvement;
• Stimulatingcollective intelligence;
• The fluidity of the information flow and time savings.  

3. What are the different methods to optimize collaborative work?

Method 1 - Use SharePoint

With SharePoint, you can store your documents online and share them with different teams. No need to waste time sending successive new versions of PowerPoint: you can collaborate on documents online and live, with the people you want.

Finally, you can also create SharePoint team sites to better communicate with all your stakeholders, as well as communication sites to disseminate information on a large scale.

SharePoint also allows you to create collaborative intranets thanks to the natural extension Mozzaik365. You will be able to create beautiful pages in a few clicks, add many graphic and functional features to offer your collaborators a solution to each of their needs (communication, collaboration, knowledge management)

👍 Did you know that you could turn SharePoint into an internal collaboration tool?

Method 2 - Use project management tools

To meet the needs arising from the emergence of new ways of working (digitalization, remote work, hybrid work, etc.), Microsoft offers many project management tools. These tools can be used to meet different types of needs, depending on the project concerned. They can be easily adopted by employees, thanks to the optimal and efficient collaborative workspace they offer.  

Some of these project management tools include:

• Planner: this application allows you to create tables and facilitate the management of the tasks of each collaborator. Each plan is composed of tasks that include the elements to know, such as deadlines;
• Lists: With ready-to-use templates, employees can track, manage and customize their to-do lists, no matter where they work. These lists can then be shared with other employees;
• Tasks: this application allows you to integrate individual and team tasks in a single location, and thus prioritize the tasks to be accomplished;
• Microsoft Project: this software allows you to plan your project management, notably by facilitating exchanges between team members.  

🚀 Learn more about project management with Teams and Microsoft 365

Method 3 - Use Teams

Teams is a communication and collaborative work platform that centralizes all the tools and resources needed to make the work of your project teams as efficient as possible. It meets the different needs of a given project, regardless of its complexity. It is thus possible to create teams and channels dedicated to a specific project, to facilitate its realization.  

With Teams, you have the ability to organize your projects and exchanges with your colleagues. Teams allows you to edit documents, manage your SharePoint files, and also to notify your colleagues of a task or specific information without leaving Teams.

Note: You can pin your project management tools to your Teams channels .  

💡 To go further, discover 5 use cases to know in Teams

Method 4 - Make the business directory a strategic tool

As a first step, encourage employees to fill in their skills, their training, as well as the projects they have worked on and the tools/software/methods they have mastered. This will optimize knowledge sharing and simplify the information flow between colleagues.  

Secondly, suggest to your employees to use thecompany directory to search for internal experts on a subject and ask them to answer their questions. This should become automatic!

With Mozzaik365's Who's Who feature, you can search for experts by name, department or skills, and also highlight skills and achievements. At the end of the day, making contact is much easier.

Method 5 - Create shortcuts

The shortcut buttons to all the business tools allow you to access the tools, and to move more quickly between the spaces without getting lost.  

The application launcher allows you to create quick links to applications directly from the Digital Workplace. It allows to answer 2 issues:

• User confusion in the face of the multitude of applications;
• The company's implementation of applications for the appropriate audience.

Method 6 - Make your meetings more interactive with Whiteboard

Since the health crisis, online meetings have become more popularized. 60% of respondents in a survey conducted by Owl Labs said they participated in video meetings more often in 2020 than in 2019. But the "all remote" can have its limits, especially in terms of concentration and attention of employees. Hence the interest in implementing interactive features that capture the attention of participants.  

Whiteboard is an application of the Microsoft 365 suite, which takes the form of an interactive virtual whiteboard. It allows you to make all your exchanges more collaborative, even from a distance! For example, you can use it during your Teams meetings. By capturing the attention of the participants in a meeting, Whiteboard helps them to better assimilate the information exchanged and to feel more engaged.  

Method 7 - Strengthen your corporate culture by engaging your community

85% of employees say they are more motivated when management communicates regularly about company news. But you shouldn't ignore bottom-up communication, which comes from employees and goes up to management. More direct, more transparent, it has a positive impact on thecommitment of your employees and reinforces their sense of belonging. We know that corporate culture is very important to create team cohesion and unite employees around common objectives and values.

You can therefore help your teams share their ideas with the Idea Box tool, but also collect their opinions and feedback with the Survey feature.

📌 To go further, find out how to create a strong company culture

4. To go further in internal collaboration: create a personal Dashboard

All these collaboration tools can invade the physical and mental space of employees if they are not used properly. To take a step back, the PersonalDashboard is the ideal solution. Tailored to each of your employees' needs, it offers users a simplified interface from which all the company resources they need are accessible.

Thanks to the Dashboard, each employee can organize their work as they wish, prioritize their tasks and access their shortcuts. The result: a clearer mind and better productivity.

Conclusion

As we have seen, collaborative work helps develop thecollective intelligence of a company and thus increase its performance and productivity. And what happens internally is reflected externally, through the perception that customers have of the company. More involved, more informed, more motivated, employees transform the structure from within.

To set up and optimize this collaborative work, do not hesitate to use the methods mentioned in this article. Numerous tools are available today to help you adopt a collaborative culture that is sustainable over time.