Improving workplace communication and relationships with project management: Skill 6 – Collaboration

Author: Dan Vucic, Project Manager at IComm

Project management is all about taking control and seeing things through from inception to delivery. Project collaboration is the way that people work together to complete a project, as well as ensuring they have the necessary tools to make it happen. It essentially describes the internal processes that fall under the direction of a project manager, therefore creating a clearer view of the interactions.

When an employee (or an unorganised team of employees) works alone on a project, it can take much longer to complete. This is particularly true when someone is taking on more than they can handle, which can lead to frustration and several more obstacles that can slow things down. When employees don't collaborate with each other, they might as well be working for other companies.

Improving employee relationships can be difficult, and collaboration tools is an excellent method to help you in doing so. As employees collaborate with each other, they not only get to know each other better, but also gain a better understanding of each other's style of work, which saves time and energy long term. Collaboration also permits employees to solve problems together, thus accelerating the process of completing a task to a great extent.

Improving workplace communication is tremendously important, yet it becomes particularly difficult when people work remotely or not at all. Project collaboration almost always has a positive impact on communication, even in situations where employees have a difficult time working together.

Project collaboration can be achieved within a physical office, however, the term is usually used in reference to digital collaboration. Digital collaboration allows remote workers to meet, discuss projects, and carry out specific tasks within a virtual workspace. Internal document management, wikis and blogs, and projects can all be managed from start to finish without anyone having to be in the same room.

When correctly combined, project management and project collaboration can become very valuable tools for solving even the most challenging problems in business. It can take time to get things running, but most project managers find that things run better after their team gets used to collaborating within a virtual framework. The more detailed an approach you take, the more likely that you will be happy with the outcomes.