Groups form naturally in all walks of life: from friendship groups to sports clubs, from families to workplace teams.
These connections punctuate our daily lives, and we cannot make much progress without our ability to work together.
“A boat does not go forward if each person is rowing their own way.”
— Swahili proverb
In the workplace specifically, some of the greatest advancements in science and technology are the fruits of high-performing teams, including the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, which involved over 400,000 individuals, each contributing to the successful placement of humans on the Moon (Davies, 2019).
This article explores how to boost collaboration in the workplace and build diverse, innovative teams and offers helpful resources along the way.
Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our five positive psychology tools for free. These science-based, practical tools are designed to help you or your clients foster trust, improve collaboration, and create a thriving organizational culture where teams can flourish.
Collaboration in the workplace shares some similarities to the concept of teamwork, yet the two concepts diverge in important ways.
According to the psychology of teamwork, teamwork is a process where individuals within a team or group work together toward a shared goal (Driskell et al., 2018). For example, the sales team of an organization will work together to hit specific sales targets.
Collaboration, on the other hand, is a more expansive process where individuals and groups work across departments or skill sets, often to solve a specific challenge such as building an organization’s corporate social responsibility strategy (Driskell et al., 2018).
Given that the processes underpinning both teamwork and collaboration are slightly different, it is vital that organizations understand that these processes lead to divergent applications and implications in professional settings.
Digital age collaboration
We live in a modern world where the workplace has been transformed and revolutionized by technology (Lane et al., 2024). Instant messaging and project management platforms help remote team members share knowledge, work asynchronously on projects, and meet virtually.
However, digital age collaboration also comes with its own unique challenges, including communication misalignment, digital fatigue, and potential feelings of disconnection (Lane et al., 2024).
Therefore, organizations should spend time finding the right strategies for success by building and promoting both synchronous and asynchronous tools and developing communication protocols.
5 Reasons Team Collaboration Matters
Clearly, team collaboration can be hugely impactful for organizational performance. Here are five areas where team collaboration could have the most observable impact for teams, leaders, and organizations.
1. Problem-solving and creativity
Collaboration across departments brings diverse perspectives and experiences to the forefront. Different individuals can offer complementary and also distinct skill sets that can be leveraged to generate creative and innovative solutions, often to complex problems (Salas et al., 2015; Hülsheger et al., 2009).
2. Productivity and efficiency
There is no shortage of research linking teamwork to performance (Beal et al., 2003). When individuals in teams work cohesively together, they are able to share the burden of the workload, use their unique strengths, and share task accountability. Such cooperation can result in boosted productivity and greater efficiency (Mathieu et al., 2008).
3. Employee engagement and job satisfaction
The beauty of collaboration is that it helps build connections among group members because everyone is working toward a shared purpose. Our sense of self is in part determined by the groups we belong to and identify with, and these memberships provide us with behavioral guidance, belonging, and meaning (Tajfel et al., 1971; Haslam et al., 2020).
This uptick in group cohesion and belonging can influence employee engagement and job satisfaction, with data suggesting that collaborative workplaces tend to have healthier cultures and fewer employee retention problems (Gallup, n.d.).
4. Learning and skill development
Individuals who work closely with others are often exposed to new knowledge, tools, and approaches to problem-solving. Cooperation is an avenue through which individuals can supercharge their learning and develop new skill sets (Johnson & Johnson, 2009).
5. Decision-making
In collaborative teams, a shared identity and a shared purpose can be instrumental in reducing groupthink because team members are able to challenge long-held assumptions (Nemeth, 1986). Furthermore, having more voices at the decision-making table can allow for more thoughtful and inclusive decisions, which can be particularly crucial for advancing an organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals.
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What Workplace Collaboration Can Look Like: 3 Examples
To bring the concept of collaboration to life, below are a few examples of when workplace collaboration has created positive change in the world.
1. The Human Genome Project (1990–2003)
Arguably, the Human Genome Project is one of the greatest examples of large-scale international collaboration ever embarked on. Cooperation was required from experts in various fields, including biology, technology, computing, ethics, and politics, and from across the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, China, and more (National Human Genome Research Institute, 2022).
The project aimed to identify and map all human genes, which number somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000, although the number is disputed (National Human Genome Research Institute, 2022). Thanks to the Human Genome Project, scientists now have a solid understanding of the genetic basis of many diseases and can use gene therapy to test for and treat illnesses.
2. Toy Story (1995)
This example might seem odd at first glance. The beloved film by Pixar was a fully computer-animated feature film. In addition to its success at the box office and its continued success today, Toy Story was groundbreaking in its use of innovative technical animation tools.
Over 100 experts from art, technology, film, and science were all brought together to collaborate at scale. Team members had to learn each other’s languages to work together and created new tools and methods of animation to solve problems no one had tackled before (Henne et al., 1996).
3. AIDS Memorial Quilt Project (1980s–present)
Another profoundly moving example of mass collaboration is the ongoing AIDS Memorial Quilt Project. Since starting in the 1980s, thousands of people around the world have partnered up to sew personalized panels onto the memorial quilt, honoring loved ones lost to AIDS.
The project has surpassed its initial goals by fostering community, promoting activism, and raising public awareness. The quilt currently has more than 50,000 panels and is still going strong to this day (National AIDS Memorial, n.d.).
The three examples above showcase what can happen when humans unite: scientific discoveries, artistic ingenuity, and collective remembrance, all of which make the planet a better place.
Work Together, Work Better: 5 Strategies to Promote Collaborative Teams
Even though working together matters, it is not always easy to create the right environment where collaboration can thrive.
When it comes to designing and delivering organizational mechanisms of change, such as workplace wellness programs, intention is required. The same strategy applies to creating collaborative teams.
1. First, build trust
Trust and psychological safety are foundational to effective collaboration. The first thing leaders should consider doing is building a culture of psychological safety.
Teams with high levels of psychological safety tend to display higher learning rates, better error detection, and more balanced decision-making (Edmondson, 1999), skills that are vital for effective group cooperation.
Top tip:
Leaders can build psychological safety by modeling vulnerability and showing their team that they are human. For a wonderful TEDx talk by Jim Tamm (2015) on the importance of lowering your defensiveness to promote collaboration, check out this video.
Cultivating collaboration: Don't be so defensive! - Jim Tamm
2. Communication is king
Teamwork ultimately starts with conversations and simply cannot happen without clear and open communication (Salas et al., 2005).
Leaders, you must set the tone with your communication style. Leaders should lean into positive communication by giving positive feedback, setting clear expectations, and promoting transparency.
Top tip:
Don’t forget to use instant messaging and project management tools to facilitate communication, especially in hybrid or remote settings.
3. Expectations create alignment
Sometimes leaders fail to set clear expectations, goals, and roles for each team member. To enhance performance and efficiency, everyone should know the team’s purpose and how each role contributes to the bigger picture (Driskell et al., 2017, 2018). When there is a lack of role clarity, confusion can quickly surface, wasting time and energy. When teams align from the outset, they can work efficiently.
Top tip:
Allow team members to job craft, or use their unique strengths during the shared goal creation. This will help keep individuals’ roles clear.
4. Invest in team development
A shared team goal may require some investment from the organization to achieve success. This might be training opportunities, team-building exercises, or even using personality assessments.
These resources help upskill team members and demonstrate the organization’s belief in them and the mission at hand. Group team training can be highly successful for team performance (Driskell et al., 2018).
Top tip:
For any new project, leaders should budget for upskilling team members as needed.
5. Reinforcement and recognition
If organizations want to encourage working together, then collaboration needs to be
Baked into key performance indicators
Introduced as part of performance reviews
Rewarded
Employee recognition goes a long way toward keeping individuals happy and engaged with their work (Gallup, 2016).
When working in teams, each member should be recognized for their unique contributions. This goes beyond public recognition and should include real tangible rewards such as promotions, monetary rewards, and increased responsibility (Gallup, 2016).
Top tip:
Leaders should also prioritize rewarding accomplishments as a team, rather than just individual wins.
Armed with these five strategies, leaders and organizations will be in a much better position to foster collaboration.
3 Vital Skills That Promote Team Collaboration
Organizations may have several strategies for group collaboration, but if leaders aren’t equipped with the relevant skills, the joys of teamwork can falter before it begins.
Below are skills that every leader should build competency in:
1. Emotional intelligence (EQ)
Understanding and managing your own and others’ emotions is a key feature of emotional intelligence, which is a core skill for effective team leadership and collaboration (Goleman, 1998).
EQ is a superpower that can manage conflict and help build empathy and psychological safety.
2. Conflict resolution
Aside from cooperation, competition and conflict are natural features that can emerge from working in groups. Conflict resolution is a critical leadership skill that enables individuals to navigate disagreement respectfully and constructively. Techniques include de-escalating tension, finding common ground, and using compromise or consensus (Mumford et al., 2000).
3. Growth mindset
Leaders and employees engaging in collaboration should consider how their mindset is impacting the way they show up to the project. A growth mindset is the belief that abilities can improve with continued effort and practice, rather than believing that abilities are fixed and immutable (Dweck, 2006).
When individuals approach work with an open mindset, it can encourage curiosity. From a team perspective, growth mindsets help teams overcome challenges together as a unit.
In a nutshell, leadership is not about controlling collaboration but rather enabling it. This cannot be achieved without the right leadership skills, all of which ensure that collaboration is effective, inclusive, and meaningful.
Teamwork is, in essence, a positive action toward a shared goal. Positive organizational psychology is therefore a useful field to mine for relevant theory, research, and tools that can enhance teamwork and promote a positive company culture. Below are three effective positive psychology tools.
1. VIA Character Strengths Survey
Teamwork should allow individuals to leverage their strengths. The VIA Character Strengths Survey is a wonderfully robust assessment that can be applied in almost any context, including the workplace (Park & Peterson, 2009).
Teams can use the survey and the accompanying information to hone in on their own constellation of strengths and spot key strengths in their team members.
2. Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a formidable framework for engineering positive organizational change through collaboration.
The AI framework comprises five stages — define, discover, dream, design, and destiny — and requires organizations to engage numerous stakeholders within the company. When deployed successfully, AI can build trust, generate ideas, and promote transformation (Cooperrider et al., 2008).
3. High-quality connections
Positive workplace relationships influence an individual’s experience and performance at work (Colbert et al., 2016). Specifically, high-quality connections — those that are characterized by vitality, positive regard, and mutuality — can offer a key pathway to building cohesive and collaborative groups (Dutton, 2003).
The beauty of positive psychological interventions and tools is that they can have multiple positive outcomes. Therefore, leaders who use the above tools can expect to see a boost in their team’s positive emotions and sense of belonging, as well as enhanced group collaboration.
3 Common Challenges When Working Together & How to Overcome Them
Have you ever been part of a group project that ran into difficulties? Perhaps team members’ personalities clashed, or the group struggled with a lack of direction and leadership.
These are all common problems that can arise when working in teams. Below are three of these challenges and how leaders might solve them:
1. Social loafing
One unfortunate side effect of working in teams is that participation may not always be equal, and some individuals may get away with doing less than their fair share. This is known as social loafing (Latane et al., 1979). To combat this, leaders should make sure that individual responsibilities are clear and accountability is prioritized.
For example, workloads or tasks within a shared project could be made visible, and roles and responsibilities can be rotated to ensure fairness across the board.
2. Undefined goals
When goals are not clear or are undefined, group collaboration is hampered because team members may pull in different directions and become demotivated (Locke & Latham, 2019). Defining a clear goal from the outset is therefore imperative.
Leaders should make sure to gain everyone’s buy-in by building the vision together. Goals should then be tracked regularly, using frameworks and tools such as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals and objectives and key results.
3. Decision-making bottlenecks
Sometimes decision-making is impaired in teams, particularly when there are too many voices or a lack of clear authority. This can ultimately slow decisions down, creating a bottleneck due to diffusion of responsibility (Latane et al., 1979).
Solutions to this tricky issue can include defining who makes the decisions using a RACI matrix (a project management tool for tracking tasks using the categories responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) and using a democratic process for building consensus, such as dot voting.
Leaders should learn to be proactive about the types of challenges that can surface when individuals work together and seek preventive actions to avoid conflict and maximize positive outcomes.
17 Exercises To Build Positive Teams
Use these 17 Positive Teams and Organizations Exercises [PDF] to strengthen collaboration, trust, and resilience—creating workplaces where people thrive together. Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.
For leaders looking to foster an environment where groups collaborate efficiently and with positive outcomes, the following resources may be particularly useful.
Why not start by digesting this article on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teams? This article provides readers with the foundational knowledge of the psychology that drives teamwork.
Having a clear group goal that all individuals are aligned with is crucial to successful group collaboration. The GROW With Your Team worksheet helps teams achieve alignment.
Given the importance of group cohesion to boosting collaboration, the Creating Shapes Exercise is a game changer. The worksheet is designed to encourage cohesive group thinking and build intuitive awareness of your team members.
One of the most important elements required to boost group collaboration is trust. In the Blindfold Guiding Exercise, team members are encouraged to demonstrate their trust for one another by leading each other blindfolded.
With the above resources at hand, leaders and organizations can build a solid foundation for group collaboration.
History shows us that when humans work together, they can achieve great things. In fact, humans have been working collaboratively, side by side, for as long as they have lived in social groups.
Despite being a fairly ubiquitous experience, not all organizations have the cultural setup for successful, positive group collaboration. Leaders must be intentional when shaping teams, lead proactively, and lean into their own vulnerability.
Role modeling in this way sets the tone for the rest of the team members, building trust and creating a safe space for innovation. Your team may not be aiming for the moon, but with their combined skills and collaboration, you might just reach Mars.
A collaborative effort is team members — sometimes across functions or departments — pulling together to work toward a shared goal or purpose. This could be anything from creating a task force to work on an organization’s DEI strategy to designing a new product.
Why are teamwork and collaboration important?
Teamwork and collaboration are vital for survival, innovation, and for societies to thrive. Without collaboration, conflict emerges and can have devastating implications, such as war, political polarization, and poverty.
References
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Cooperrider, D. L., Stavros, J. M., & Whitney, D. (2008). The appreciative inquiry handbook: For leaders of change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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About the author
Kirsty Gardiner, Ph.D. is a Social Psychologist with a passion for using research to power social change. She holds a doctorate in Psychology, a masters in Applied Positive Psychology, and is a registered chartered Psychologist with the BPS. On completing her Ph.D. she taught on the MAPPCP programme for several years. Currently, she is based in the UK as the Research Director at Ardent - a DEI consultancy.
Groups form naturally in all walks of life: from friendship groups to sports clubs, from families to workplace teams.
Clearly, team collaboration can be hugely impactful for organizational performance. Here are five areas where team collaboration could have the most observable impact for teams, leaders, and organizations.
Even though working together matters, it is not always easy to create the right environment where collaboration can thrive.
Organizations may have several strategies for group collaboration, but if leaders aren’t equipped with the relevant skills, the joys of teamwork can falter before it begins.
Have you ever been part of a group project that ran into difficulties? Perhaps team members’ personalities clashed, or the group struggled with a lack of direction and leadership.
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