How to Remotely Collaborate More Efficiently

Collaboration is imperative for a business’ success, but with more teams than ever divided up amongst their homes, it is arguably even more imperative to their operations. Listed below are three ways that your team can collaborate more effectively while maintaining remote operations. 

1. Institute Standards for Clarity and Concision

While communication is an essential aspect of your operations, it has the potential to become a massive waste of time if it isn’t utilized appropriately. We’ve all found ourselves in those meetings that seem to go on and on when the critical part could have been covered in five minutes. Any of your collaborative solutions could easily be utilized in the same way; not the ideal situation when working with a remote team.

Make sure your team is using the tools you have provided and subscribing to the keep-it-simple rule as much as they are able. You may find it useful to create a company shorthand to use to help clarify the context of a message. For example, if something is purely informative and doesn’t need to be acknowledged, a quick label of NRN (No Response Needed) would help save the recipient some time. Every business operates a little differently, so figure out what works best for you.  

2. Utilize the Right Tool for the Job

Naturally, there are almost as many ways to communicate within a business as there are things to be communicated. This is because different messages and conversations may be better suited to one format than they are another.

Have you ever tried to announce something to a group over an instant message? Unless you’ve stuck the aforementioned NRN label to it or directed anyone with questions to reach out separately, your message is bound to be lost in the crowd before long. In this instance, an email would be the better option for you to use. Just as often, you’ll need to quickly inform another individual of something, and an IM would allow you to do so more effectively than an email would.

This principle extends to any of your business communications, including virtual meetings and other remote-friendly operations.

3. Review What Works and What Doesn’t

Locate a tool to help team members communicate, come up with standards, implement it, and done… right?

Hold up. Collaborative processes are just that: processes. This means that there is always room for growth and improvement to take place within them, and that you need to actively and continually figure out how to facilitate this development. It’s just another part of the process.

Review how smoothly your collaborative processes function when they are implemented. Go through each step to see where any inefficiencies presented themselves, whether the process stalled due to unforeseen complications or it wasn’t executed properly. Once these points are identified, figure out what can be done to limit the impacts, whether it's adding another bullet point to the process or offering additional training to the employee involved. After the process has been adjusted, do it again, and stress test until it gets better, or a new solution presents itself as an option.

For help with these solutions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Macro Systems. We understand how trying times can test a business and can do a lot more than just offer tips. To find out how we can enhance your operations with the right technology in place, give us a call at 703-359-9211.