Whether its multiple businesses collaborating with one another or just individuals and teams working together within a single company, there are certain steps and precautions that should be taken to ensure a smooth and beneficial outcome. The primary goal in every business collaboration is to increase profitability or exposure for all the companies involved.
Unfortunately, not all collaborations produce such a positive result, and without the necessary preparation, it’s possible to wind up fairly dissatisfied with the outcome of your team effort. With that said, here are five tips to get the most out of your future business collaborations:
1. Practice Corporate Team Building Techniques
Team building activities can help your employees work better together through the building of solid social bonds and relationships that will improve collaboration in both the workplace and in the field.
Team Tactics is one of the UK’s leading providers of corporate hospitality services. You can contact them for assistance in setting up team building activities for your company. Their solutions are proven to be effective at strengthening staff compatibility and productivity.
2. Schedule Everything
Split your schedules into segments and ensure that everyone knows exactly what they need to be doing and when it needs to be done. Leaving empty time open for interpretation is never a good idea when you’re trying to meet quotas and deadlines.
Plus, when your employees don’t have to focus on shaping their own to-do lists, they can devote their creativity and energy towards innovation instead. Every team member should know what their role is throughout the day to maintain consistently optimal output.
3. Set Deadlines with Slight Room for Error
It’s never a good idea to leave your business open to punctuality errors. If you land a project on the 1st of the month and the client expects you to deliver by the 10th, you need to have your team under the impression that the deadline is the 7th or the 8th. That way, you have 2-3 days cushion in case the other side of the collaboration isn’t able to come through on their promise.
Ideally, you should set the deadline at the soonest possible date that you think they can get the work done, even if the true deadline for the client isn’t until a week or more later. After all, maximising productivity is all about pushing the limits, so push your team to finish early rather than giving them every moment up until the actual deadline.
4. Use a Project Management Platform or System
There are plenty of project management platforms to choose from online. Sign up for some trials and compare a few of them to determine which one has a system that can accommodate your team’s needs. These platforms provide centralised interfaces where teams can quickly share files, adjust agendas, communicate, and perform other collaborative actions.
There are plenty of curated lists of project management software and platforms that you can use to quickly narrow down your options. Alternatively, you might want to go the simpler route of using spreadsheets to keep track of everything. Google Sheets provides an integrated chat interface and all the features you need to keep a log of work, assign duties, and perform all the functions needed to manage a team.
5. Establish Clear Terms and Conditions
Things are bound to go wrong when clear expectations aren’t set forth from the beginning, which is why it’s so important to have a static set of policies, terms, and conditions clearly posted on your website or within the initial project application or contract.
Such disclaimers and T&C pages will also serve to provide a base level of legal protection in the event that a collaboration goes south and results in litigation action being taken against your company.
Collabs Should Be Enjoyable
Ultimately, you shouldn’t have to struggle to enjoy or appreciate any partnership or team effort within your company or between your business and another. By heeding the tips above, you can ensure the most lucrative and desirable outcome for all the parties involved.