Simplify Collaboration With These Handy Tips
When you collaborate with others on the Internet it can quickly become a frustrating experience when some of the people don’t have access to the same tools. Trying to match a Word doc to Google Docs is a nightmare. Officially it’s as simple as uploading Word into Docs. In reality doing so opens a whole can of formatting worms, one you’d rather not deal with if time is of the essence.
The timeless issue with lack of time
Time is ALWAYS of the essence when we do business online. It’s so easy to let yourself get distracted with chat, email, and other non-essential business tasks. I guess that most entrepreneurs suffer from an unstructured work day. We tend to revel in a constant state of “busyness” while nothing concrete gets done.
Ask yourself this – Can you finish each working day knowing you’ve been at your most productive that day?
Become a savvy collaborator
Go back to basics: If you work with a team of collaborators then the first step you all have to take is one that lets you face in the same direction. In practical terms this means you need to use the same tools, access the same software and platforms to share your work. When the whole team is familiar with the tools the whole process of sharing becomes easier and more fun. Plus, you will save a ton of time trying to become acquainted with unfamiliar software and processes.
Minimize unnecessary conversation: There is a time and place for meaningless social chat, and then there is a time for business. If you spend your days surfing forums, chatting with others and emailing jokes, then please don’t be surprised if your business sucks. In order to build a business you actually have to lay stone upon stone. Each stone represents a day of work during which you need to stay focused on your tasks.
It’s easy to lose focus with unnecessary distractions. There is a high change that we are all guilty of doing this from time to time. The difference between the winners and the losers lies in the frequency in which we give in to the distractions.
Centralize task management: Any collaboration management should focus on centralizing the handling and management of tasks. Whether you choose to use Google Docs, activeCollab, Box.net, or a host of other groovy online collaboration tools, it’s important to settle on the same set of tools for all people involved.
Make life easier with cloud sharing: Web-based tools are far easier to handle and manage when you are a frequent traveler trying to collaborate with others. While there are certain risks to storing your information online so are risks while you cross the road to grab your steaming mug of coffee in the early morning. Fact is that there are risks in anything, if you want to win, you have to step out of your comfort zone at some time or another.
The essence of training: I can’t stress enough how important training is when you handle a growing team of people. I urge you to use video training (Jing), strict guidelines, samples, guides, etc. Collaboration becomes child’s play when you show your team EXACTLY what is expected of them. It leaves little room for error and ambiguity.
Enforce structure: Every home needs a structure to stop it from falling down. The same applies to a business. Unless you define your business with clear guidelines, and make these known to your team you can never expect the to pull the same strings you do. If you manage a group of people by means of collaboration you need to pay the same attention to structure.
Free tools vs paid: I’m a sucker for using free tools when they serve their purpose and are GOOD. Today you can find an increasing amount of free tools that simplify collaboration with your team. Some people will advocate that using free invites problems, but I beg to differ. Yes, some free platforms will undoubtedly disappear over time, but then so will paid-for platforms.
As long as you use tools that serve the purpose of your collaboration requirements you will always have plenty of access to both free, and paid options.
Hopefully by now you are looking at simplified collaboration in a new light. Feel free to share your own collaboration tips with us in the comment section. I’m love to learn about your ideas.
Monika
Related Collaboration Articles
- 3 Up-and-Coming Collaboration Suites (readwriteweb.com)
- Use Google Docs for Quick, Disposable Collaboration Without a Google Account [Google Docs] (lifehacker.com)
- Top Online Free Collaboration Sites (brighthub.com)
- Freelance Toolkit Key (slideshare.net)
- The Difference Between Collaboration and Projection (code.kynetx.com)
- ProtoShare 3.9 Speeds Workflow, Simplifies Collaboration Process (prweb.com)
- WizeHive 2.0 Launches With A New Interface, Google Docs Integration, And An iPhone App (techcrunch.com)
- 50 Powerful Time-Savers For Web Designers (smashingmagazine.com)
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Very cool Monika, and much appreciated. I’m just beginning to get into this sorta thing.
Right now, my only “collaboration” is with my designer. So far so good with messenger, email, and the phone. Obviously though, i am not her only client, and she seems to now be picking up even more work…things like this can surely come in handy.
Dennis Edell recently posted..Organization is a MUST I’m Taking Time Off…Line
Yes they will Dennis. It’s good to get organised early on in business. Once your business grows you will find it a lot easier to deal with a larger group of team members.
Now there’s good advice for so many different areas…..START right and save lots of alcohol later.
(A good segway into my latest post in Commentluv) LOL
Dennis Edell recently posted..Organization is a MUST I’m Taking Time Off…Line
Cheers to that one
Great write-up, Monika. Collaboration is such an important aspect of successful work and yet it is the one that gets least attention. It is good to see that you have summed up the post so nicely here.
TechChunks recently posted..5 Steps on How to Know if Your Gmail Account has been Hacked
Thanks TechChunks, I’m glad it was of help and inspiration to you. I’ve had my fair share of organisational chaos in the past. These days I’m very eager to keep things organised, easy to find and clean.
Well wrote Monika! Here I would like to add a project management collaboration tool which makes my work easier. The tool is DeskAway (http://www.deskaway.com) – a project management tool with free basic plan, free trials for paid plans having powerful and rich features.
Twitter: volaer
says:
Very inspiring Monika. Good work!
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Very well written, Monika. Work really improves by thinking about the softer values, such as collaboration.
We have recently came with the idea of trying to find a way of working together in most areas in the company. We did this by first looking at the internal processes and identifying where we should actually collaborate better, and then by implementing a tool that would help us out.
I must say, however, that finding ONE tool that could help us out in a lot of areas wasn’t easy.
We wanted one tool that could handle:
Agile Project Management
Waterfall Project Management
Document Management (incl Searching inside Documents)
Time Tracking
External Helpdesk incl public portal for the customers
Internal Helpdesk to be used to order services between teams
My own todo’s and documents
This is a really interesting exercise and having everything in one system really makes it easier for everyone to communicate. Also, what we usually do is to transfer people to different kind of work so that they are able to learn each others way of working. Since we all have the same tool to work with, the bridge between the teams is already there.
Now, we investigated a lot of tools for this. Sure, there are a few free alternatives. But, the cost for getting them integrated to each other to make it feel like one system for all is very hard. It is also important to realize that if there is one database in the background, there are a lot of possibilities to bring out good statistics.
So, we ended up choosing a software that was commercial: VisionProject. The system is very intuitive, which was needed since everyone from the development department to the reception was going to use it. Also, it was among the cheapest systems on the market of Project Management Systems.
It is also important to understand that there are not very many systems on the market that can handle that amount of functionality. We actually didn’t find any other software that could meet our specifications, and I think we looked at around 150 systems.
Anyway, to sum it up – I totally agree with you about the importance of collaboration. However, I also think it is important to add to the fact that having ONE system (or at least as few as possible) to work with for the employees helps out a lot into bridging between the teams.
Hello Matt, thank you so much for adding so much value to my blog post. I love how you summed up the issue at hand and delivered the solution of your choice VisionProject.
I’m going to take a look at this software now, but doubt that it is ideal for businesses of my size. It sounds more like a corporate tool.
Good to know is that their smallest customers are only 1 user and they go up to larger organizations.
Since the user interface is so configurable, it is actually quite good even for smaller businesses.
Anyway, good luck with it and please feel free to ask me if you wonder anything. Also, it would be nice to hear what you liked it.
Some good points in this post. It is true that it can be a challenge to get everyone on the same page. Something we used to use in the ARMY and that I continue to use is gotomeeting. Kind of an internet conference room if you will. Might minimize wasted time to get together as a group and sync up.
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