When we talk about work culture, we generally address a plethora of things, from office decor to management principles, without clearly understanding what it means. Work culture is simply the reflection of the ethics of an organization. In simpler words, if your workplace were a person, their beliefs, ideas, and character would be their “work culture.” The ultimate goal to achieve through a positive work culture is productivity.
Apart from the obvious factors that influence the environment in which we spend most of our time—like communication, leadership, and work ethic, to name a few—there is one more element that we almost always fail to address: team collaboration.
Team collaboration is as the name suggests, an alternative term for teamwork. Everyone can agree that teamwork is necessary in an organization, but how many of us know just how necessary teamwork is to foster a positive work culture?
Let’s break it down:
Teamwork makes the dream work
The phrase isn’t far-fetched from the truth because a joint effort is always beneficial and effective in getting any work done. It is found that team collaboration can improve an organization’s productivity by 20-25%. There are many tools to facilitate collaboration and bring about these results. Zoho Cliq, team communication software ensures that you’re always connected to your team, has many features to help you stay on top of your tasks and work together.
Removing the monotony
Imagine you’re going to work on a Monday. You get to the office and the first thing you do is get yourself a cup of coffee and settle down at your cubicle to start the day. You go about minding your own work, not really bothering to get up from your seat because work comes first, after all. When it’s 5pm, you pack up and leave promptly.
Now, imagine the same routine repeated for all the 365 days in a year.
While monotonous work can be a little relaxing every now and then, having the same routine over a continuous period can be draining. Staying connected with your team ensures that you always have someone to interact with and don’t fall prey to boredom at work.
Always on the same page
Often we find ourselves feeling like we’re falling behind in our work while everybody else is cruising through, without even knowing what it is that everybody else is actually doing. The best thing about team collaboration is that you work together and not just beside each other. Having your teammates work together with you at the same pace brings in the urge and the courage to push harder so that everyone gets their work done better and faster. What better motivation than joint effort?
Staying healthy
According to Harvard Business Review, a workplace characterized by humanity leads to employee happiness. Collaboration between employees builds that sort of culture. Instead of the competitive workplace that we’re all so accustomed to, it builds a workplace that is characterized by understanding and respect. In other words, humanity. A happier employee is also a healthier employee. In essence, if your working environment encouraged positive interactions with each other, you can pretty much say goodbye to all stress-related ailments for good.
Brainstorming innovation
When you work together as a team, there’s bound to be a mingling of ideas and strategies, and this can lead to unexpected innovation. When it comes to say, sales, involving more collaborators leads to a larger pool of ideas for consumer satisfaction. Studies suggest that teams of six or more people generated concepts that performed 58% better with consumers in pre-market testing. A workplace resonating with great ideas resonates positivity as well.
To conclude…
From the listed points, evidently the key that all of it boils down to is one thing: employee happiness.
If anything, that should be the ultimate goal that every organization must strive to achieve. A positive work culture promotes happiness among the workforce and employee happiness is vital to success because happy employees are 31% more productive.
In conclusion, team collaboration reduces work stress by allowing people to share the load rather than carry it all on their shoulders, and it is therefore essential to create a positive work culture that encourages employee interaction.
Now is the time to reflect. Does your organization promote healthy interaction among its employees?