Dave Grow, CEO of Lucid Software. Source: Supplied.
While hybrid setups have become the standard, many leaders continue to struggle with establishing an intentional workplace strategy that prioritises digital-first collaboration.
Effective collaboration is essential for successful teamwork. However, in today’s world of work, it can be a challenge to keep employees on the same page as many of us balance our time between the office and home.
When it comes to project deficiencies, Lucid’s research has found that 37% of Australian workers believe that their teams lack alignment. Miscommunication, information silos, and a lack of clear direction can lead to missed deadlines, frustrated employees, and ultimately, impacting your bottom line. Recognising the alignment breakdowns and taking proactive steps is crucial, but so is understanding that digital-first collaboration is more than just the purchase of new tech, it is introducing the right strategies, culture, and tools to improve knowledge sharing, alignment, and engagement.
Dave Grow, CEO of Lucid Software shares three ways you can effectively implement digital-first collaboration strategies, which will ultimately boost organisation-wide productivity.
Establish a living blueprint
Almost half (47%) of Australian businesses lack a standardised way to share documents with organisations finding not all relevant team members are kept in the loop. In fact, the average employee is actually spending 3.6 hours daily searching for information. Regardless of where your teams are working, establishing processes and systems to help people streamline information and create a single source of truth is a necessity in keeping teams aligned.
These single sources of truth should house your teams’ most-used resources, project-specific goals, timelines, and progress towards these goals. The idea is to create a centralised repository for all relevant project documents, data, and information, ensuring the whole team is, quite literally, on the same page.
At Lucid Software, they use Team Spaces as their living blueprint. It streamlines collaboration for diverse teams, while also offering project management and communication options to help avoid unnecessary meetings (virtual or IRL).
Streamline workflows and encourage team-wide engagement
Employees who have returned to the office may instinctively revert to pre-pandemic in-office routines such as using a physical whiteboard or taking notes during meetings. Consequently, they’ll miss out on valuable digital records of their ideas and decisions and run the risk of excluding their remote team members.
To ingrain digital-first collaboration into your culture, you will need to identify where it can make the greatest impact. Digital-first collaboration is best thought of as a philosophy to guide how your workforce operates and works together daily. When evaluating your tech stack, you’ll want solutions that integrate with apps your team already uses to keep them aligned, engaged and improve decision-making. For teams that are in-office, having an engaging brainstorm is seamless by incorporating interactive touch screens, such as the Google Board 65 by Avocor. All teams, whether in-person or remote, can contribute equally so they can keep the flow of ideas moving.
Consider what gaps are left by your existing process and tools and where you can introduce digital-first solutions to keep teams connected both in meetings and asynchronously. Every worker, regardless of collaboration style or location, needs to have the ability to contribute and communicate equally. Executives can lead by example and be the first ones to add a digital format to their meetings or other collaboration activities.
Unlocking the power of visuals
If you haven’t evaluated your tech stack post-pandemic, now is the time to identify which platforms are still the right fit. Ask yourself these questions: How can we replace multiple tools with a single one? Are teams currently connected in a meaningful way despite their location?
Visual collaboration software can provide your team with the right tools to enable high-value, digital-first collaboration. Visual collaboration is the practice of simplifying and streamlining organisational teamwork digitally through scalable canvases which can be used for mapping processes, diagramming systems, virtual whiteboards, brainstorming, and tracking ongoing projects.
By implementing visuals into the way you collaborate, teams can clearly see connections between complex ideas, plans, and systems, while giving your team a shared, visual point of reference, helping communicate big ideas across remote or dispersed teams.
As the world of work continues to evolve, organisations need to evaluate their current processes and tools to make sure they’re truly supporting their workforce the right way. Digital-first collaboration strategies and tools can support teams in unlocking better alignment, helping businesses achieve their goals while creating a more positive and engaged work environment.