Collaboration is one of the most effective tools a business can use towards success and future growth.
They say that two heads are better than one, and in this case it can be multiple heads, giving you plentiful ideas, suggestions, and creative solutions to difficult problems.
If your business doesn’t collaborate as much as you would like, perhaps it’s time to change the environment and culture within your office, in order to enhance the collaborative feel. Encouraging employees to collaborate can be as easy as using modular office desks, e.g. moving desks around and allowing easier brainstorming and collaboration overall.
The benefits of collaboration are:
- Increased morale, creating a feel that nobody is working alone and everyone is “in it” together
- Increased ideas and suggestions
- Helps employees to feel listened to and valued, again increasing morale
- Higher rates of employees retention
- Helps to attract new talent to your business
- Helps employees to remain engaged and excited about their work
- Lower stress levels, because all employees feel supported
- Helps to increase health and wellbeing of employees
As you can see, there is a lot of good that comes from collaboration, and all it takes is ensuring that employees have the opportunities to discuss and work together during working hours, providing them with the specific office desks and seating which allow them to do so.
Of course, it’s not all about furniture; check out this video which explains how businesses can change their structure, to encourage collaboration between employees and management.
Creating The Ideal Collaborative Atmosphere
We’ve mentioned that you need to provide the right type of furniture for collaboration to be easier to achieve, but what does a collaborative area look like?
It’s best to site an area such as this away from the main office space. If you have an open plan office, why not think about incorporating a collaborative zone, away from the area where people may be knuckling down to concentrate on close work? This means employees don’t feel on edge about disturbing their colleagues, and they’re free to let their imaginations run wild. Who knows what ideas could come from this set up!
The space also needs to be as large as possible. It’s far easier to come up with creative ideas when you can move around freely, perhaps walk around, sit down, stand up, and when there is fresh air entering into the space. Think about using mesh office chairs, as these allow fresh air to circulate around the body, helping employees to feel comfortable and cool whilst trying to come up with new ideas, through team-work discussions.
You also need to ensure that the table is large enough, because this means large sheets of paper can be used to scribble ideas on. Think about cable management too, for laptops and tablets which may run out of charge otherwise. Modern boardroom tables often have this type of cable management incorporated, so this is something to look into.
Of course, you also need to ensure that the decor of the space is innovative and inspiring. Yellow is thought to be a colour which inspires creativity, but you could also think about artwork, which also has the same effect. Add in some office plants here and there, to help purify the air and ensure stress remains out of the equation too.
Put simply, your collaborative space needs to be dynamic, bright, and inspiring. It needs to be a space which people walk into and feel ideas brewing in their minds! A space which is too small, too dark, and has a stuffy feel isn’t going to generate much in the way of collaborative success, so it’s certainly worth investing time and a little of your budget into this collaborative area.
When you consider the benefits of collaboration, surely it’s worth creating a space dedicated solely to it?