Collaboration is vital to the success of any business, but particularly for those businesses who deal with design and product development. After all, the more creative, skilled people you have working on a product design, piece of software or new concept, the more original ideas you’ll get and the more rigorously tested the end product will be.
If you want your business to be as successful as it can be, here are some of the most compelling reasons to make collaboration a regular part of your work:
When employees have to collaborate, it forces them to take a closer look at their strengths and weaknesses because they need to be able to articulate their ideas, ask for help on tasks they find difficult and assist their peers in creating a great end product.
Having more self-awareness is always a good thing in business because, when you know what you can and can’t do well, you know when to ask for help and when to push for your ideas to be accepted. This almost always makes for a better end product.
The old adage that two heads are better than one might be something of a cliche, but it is pretty much true, and by using collaborative software, like QASymphony.com, which enables the whole team to work together on problem-solving tasks and software testing, will ensure that everyone’s talents are leveraged to the fullest, so that problems can be solved faster and more effectively than ever before. This could help you to take products to the market much earlier than might be possible with a fragmented team.
One of Nissan’s previous executive directors, Jerry Hirsch, coined the term ‘creative abrasion’ while he was working for the car company. It basically refers to the act of wearing down through friction, which although at first glance seems to have negative connotations, is actually a pretty positive thing for most businesses. It allows companies to leverage the differences between their employees to hash out better strategies and come up with better products, which are the result of many people’s experience, rather than a singular vision.
The simple process of collaboration among employees, using the latest tools from BrainLoop.com who may have different specialisms and come from different backgrounds is a great way to increase knowledge across whole teams, and the more knowledge your team has as a whole, the more effective they will be at innovating and creating exciting new products and services.
It’s fair to say that, although collaboration is essential for business in every sector from electronics manufacturers to design companies, it isn’t always easy and it won’t always work out. As a business owner, or manager, it is your job to manage staff so that collaboration has a greater chance of success, and you must not be afraid to allow for a certain amount of failures, safe in the knowledge that, over time collaboration between employees is likely to be fruitful, despite any small setbacks. If you can do this, big things lie ahead for your business.
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