Effective collaboration at work is being driven by making it possible for anyone to work with unlimited others – from anywhere. Video conferencing is now easy and personal. Just connect via an app, often hosted in the cloud. Secure content sharing to a team is as easy as posting on social media. Voice messages integrate seamlessly with email communications. Technologies that used to be individually managed and quite expensive, have come together to form a symphony of communication options anyone can understand.
Why Does This Matter?
The workforce has shifted. Employees are rarely in the same location, either by situation or by personal preference. Organizations can hire the right person for the job, not the right person in their zip code. Connecting a team of people who may be spread across different timezones and technologies connect via collaboration systems in the cloud.
What’s Effective Collaboration Look Like Today?
Effective collaboration tools support the flow of engagement. Meetings can be scheduled and conducted via the web. No special equipment is necessary, just the camera and microphone built into almost every computing device. Video enables the immediate feedback of body language and other engagement signals. Audio is automatically integrated. Screens are shared in real time. Ideals and plans can be shaped, edited and refined.
Social-style Collaboration for Documents
Live discussions and meetings are one type of collaboration, but now employees can collaborate in secure online meeting rooms. Inside these customizable private social media-style platforms, employees can deliver their expertise as needed. That could be documents, content or discussion. The beauty is that these spaces work 24×7, so employees can engage on their schedules. Unlike email, edits can be done in one place, instead of continuously routing attachments. Conversations happen rapidly as chats, rather the the more cumbersome email. Collaboration is easy, and can include people within an organization, or pull in outside resources.
Collaboration For the Win
By adopting collaboration tools, teams become more effective because they are composed of the right members with the right skills, knowledge, and motivation. Now project stakeholders can have a consolidated view of deadlines, milestones, status reports and other project details. Another benefit is the collection and organization of knowledge and even feedback via discussion forums and surveys. Users contribute their knowledge into a medium where it will continue to add value, precisely because it is organized and retained regardless of later turnover. When used correctly, this agility drives a powerful competitive advantage every time.
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“The Benefits of Online Collaboration Tools” – Lifewire
