How to Encourage Collaboration in the Workplace
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
By the NRMC Team
Collaboration in the workplace can catalyze more creative ideas, help with employee retention, and make it more fun to go to work every day. But it won’t happen without some effort and focus. Here are some ways to foster collaboration in your nonprofit team.
Learn employees’ likes and dislikes. Ask your team members what types of projects and work experiences fill them with energy, and which ones drain them. This can help you better identify collaboration opportunities for team members and help them grow their ability to work with each other.
Establish how you will communicate. How often will you meet, and for what purpose? What will be your primary methods of exchanging information between meetings? How quickly do you expect a response to messages?
Establish the team’s goals and review progress. Make sure all team members know what their group is responsible for, and give specific responsibilities to team members. If you can, give team members input into their goals. Discuss with your team how you are progressing on the goals at least quarterly.
Create times and spaces where employees can do their best work individually and together. If you have in-office spaces, make sure you create areas that invite collaboration, as well as quieter areas of the office where employees can write or think. Online, communicate norms for how employees can manage their time—can they set a “do not disturb” status for an hour to focus on writing, for example?
Share examples of great collaborative efforts by your team, and reward them. Your performance management system will need to change as you increase your emphasis on collaboration. If all your employees’ goals are based on individual achievement, you can’t expect them to make collaboration a major focus. Include teamwork goals in your employee performance assessments.
Foster psychological safety. Collaboration can’t happen if employees don’t feel safe sharing their opinions with their team members. To create a climate of psychological safety, leaders must demonstrate that they trust their team members, become less reactive, and allow for failure and experimentation.
Assign people roles when appropriate. Dictating every step you want team members to take would negate the innovation and experimentation benefits of collaboration. But to get collaboration started, it can help to assign people duties on a team. You might want to assign a team mentor, so employees know who to approach with questions.
Welcome conflict and provide guardrails to navigate it. When you work with team members who are different from you, the group will likely have some differences of opinion. That can help surface potential issues in client service delivery. Set expectations for how to handle conflict and how long you will take to make a decision about how to move forward.
Resources
- Collaboration in the Workplace: 11 Ways to Boost Your Team’s Performance – Asana
- 5 Tips for Effective Collaboration at Work – Slack
- 12 Crucial Strategies for Promoting Team Collaboration – HubSpot
- How to Improve Teamwork Collaboration in the Workplace – Gallup
- How to Increase Collaboration Between Teams in 10 Steps – Indeed
“First let me congratulate you on a conference well done. I had a great time at the Nonprofit Employee Benefits Conference and walked away with some valuable tools and questions that we’ll need to be addressing in both the short and long term. Thanks to you and your staff for all you do to provide us with quality resources in support of our missions.”
— Scott Brown, Mohonk Preserve
“BBYO’s engagement of the Center to conduct a risk assessment was one of the most valuable processes undertaken over the past five years. Numerous programmatic and procedural changes were recommended and have since been implemented. Additionally, dozens (literally) of insurance coverage gaps were identified that would never have been without the work of the Center. This assessment led to a broker bidding process that resulted in BBYO’s selection of a new broker that we have been extremely satisfied with. I unconditionally recommend the Center for their consultative services.
— Sidney Abrams, BBYO
“Melanie Herman has provided expert, insightful, timely and well resourced information to our Executive Team and Board of Directors. Our corporation recently experienced massive growth through merger and the Board has been working to better integrate their expanded set of roles and responsibilities. Melanie presented at our Annual Board of Director’s Retreat and captured the interest of our Board members. As a result of her excellent presentation the Board has engaged in focused review which is having immediate effects on governance.”
— Pamela Mattel, Basics Promesa Systems Inc
“The Nonprofit Risk Management Center has been an outstanding partner for us. They are attentive to our needs, and work hard to successfully meet our requests for information. Being an Affiliate member gave us access to so many time- and money-saving resources that it easily paid for itself! Nonprofit Risk Management Center is truly a valued partner of The Community Foundation of Elkhart County and we are continuously able to optimize staff time with the support given by their team.”
— Jodi Spataro, Community Foundation of Elkhart County
“The board and staff of the Prince George’s Child Resource Center are extremely pleased with the results of the risk assessment conducted by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. A thorough scan revealed that while we are a well run organization, we had risks that we never imagined. We are grateful to know that we have now minimized our organizational risks and we recommend the Center to other nonprofits.”
— Marti Worshtil, Prince George’s Child Resource Center
Great American Insurance Group’s Specialty Human Services is committed to protecting those who improve your communities. The Center team has committed to delivering dynamic risk management solutions tailored to nonprofit organizations. These organizations have many and varied risk issues, hence the need for specialized coverage and expert knowledge for their protection. We’ve had Melanie speak on several occasions to employees and our agents. She is always on point and delivers such great value. Thank you for the terrific partnership and allowing our nonprofits to focus on their mission!