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Collaboration doesn't just sound good on paper, it improves both productivity and output. But how can you encourage your employees to collaborate more? What tools do you need to make collaboration easier? And where can you start if you’re looking to shift your entire culture towards one that fosters open communication and idea-sharing? Here are some helpful tips on how to improve collaboration in your company.

Create Opportunities for Cross-Team Collaboration

Create channels for other teams to get involved in ongoing projects. Have one-on-one meetings with team members from different departments, hold team lunches regularly, and encourage employees to reach out and ask questions when they’re stuck.

Use the Right Technology to Enhance Teamwork

Depending on your industry, you'll find many apps for effective teamwork. For example, if you work in a field that requires intricate drawings or design, Visio or PowerPoint might be good choices.

If you’re looking for a new way to boost communication between teams, apps such as Slack and Asana offer a variety of tools designed specifically for team collaboration.

When you collaborate on documents, you might need to work with PDFs, and editing PDFs can be difficult and time-consuming. Using online conversion tools, you can convert PDF to Word and continue to work while making adjustments with ease. All you need to do is upload the file, convert it, start working, then save your PDF.

Encourage an Open Communication Culture

The ability to communicate openly, directly, and honestly is a skill many companies lack. The best way to change that? Encourage an open communication culture. Make sure your employees know they can voice their opinions, share their ideas, and give feedback without fear of being ridiculed or disregarded. If people feel like their opinions aren’t valued or are actively discouraged, they won’t want to contribute anything else — and collaboration goes right out the window.

Reward Employees for Engaging in Cross-Team Collaborations

In addition to providing ample cross-team opportunities, you can also incentivize collaboration by rewarding employees when they participate in group activities. The most obvious way is by giving them raises and bonuses or gifts and prizes. You can also run competitions and implement team rankings, which serve as a reward in themselves.

Hold Team Social Events 

Giving your employees a chance to get out of their work bubble is an effective way to build relationships and trust. With social events like happy hours or movie nights, it’s easy for everyone in different departments to have a good time. The key is to host these events outside of working hours so your team doesn’t have to put in extra time; you can host fun virtual office events as well.

Create Fun Collaborative Challenges Among Employees and Teams

Fun, collaborative challenges are a great way to lighten up your office culture and give employees some room for self-expression. They’re also great for team building, which is good for company growth. Those who participate in fun events or activities with their colleagues are more likely to feel a sense of community at work.

Critical to Success

Collaboration is critical to success. To be truly productive and collaborate, teams must have solid communication skills and a common goal.

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