3 tips to help your company’s elves collaborate more efficiently

Collaboration. This has been a huge buzz word for businesses over the past few decades but, what does it really mean? And, how can you encourage your worker elves to successfully collaborate and grow your business.

What does collaborate mean?

Collaboration is working with another person or multiple people on a joint project. By default, businesses are run through a series of collaborations. Whether you work in a law firm, dental office or a construction company, businesses are successful because of the way people within those companies work together to make the organization successful.

3 tips to encourage collaboration.

I know this may seem a little out there but, simple things like incentives, set processes, and a collaboration-friendly atmosphere can change the way your elves interact. Let me explain...

1. Incentives that inspire collaboration. Have you ever worked with someone who steals your work? I’m sure you can think of a timetasks just to feel like they are an asset to the company or to make more money for themselves.
   Watch out! Greedy elves can drag down the whole team. Assess how your incentives are designed to give your employees bonuses or benefits based on their performance as a team. In order to accomplish this, you will need a way to measure the success of each department in your company.
   Measure successes and praise progress. Each team of elves in your organization should have a set of goals to achieve. Look at things like overall sales, appointments set, successful meetings or orders. Then, put a mechanism in place to measure their successes in volume or percentages so you can share their progress in regular follow-up meetings to keep them accountable for their collaborative efforts.
2. Set processes for your company... When you first started your organization, I’m sure you didn’t sit down with a pen and note pad to hash out just how every process would run. Often businesses are built on an idea and constructed under pressure on an as needed basis. Well, if you’ve had your doors open more than a week, it’s time to put some set processes in place so your worker elves know just how to operate things for your business.
3. A collaboration friendly environment. What is that? Well, it’s creating a work environment that doesn’t inhibit interaction. For example, consider an open office space or locating the water cooler in a central location where all the elves are more likely to acknowledge each other. Give your teams time to meet, discuss and create plans for action.
   Collaborate to succeed. Business is an engine for success, but it is often like a run away train. You can’t just apply the breaks and try to fix things. You are constantly engineering new processes and business solutions in the midst of ongoing activities. Keep your company collaboratively working with the tools to grow.