15 Practical Ways Tech Leaders Can Build A Culture Of Collaboration In Their Teams

Innovation 15 Practical Ways Tech Leaders Can Build A Culture Of Collaboration In Their Teams Expert Panel® Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Oct 25, 2022, 08:15am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin There’s never been a time when building strong, collaborative teams hasn’t mattered to tech leaders.

But there’s also never been a time when it’s been quite as challenging as it is now. With so many team members working in hybrid or remote arrangements, the traditional workplace chats at the water cooler, office pop-ins and in–person socializing have become increasingly rare or, in some cases, have vanished altogether. With so many tech teams working away from each other on a daily basis, it’s especially important for tech leaders to develop and leverage strategies to build a culture of collaboration and knowledge-sharing—otherwise, it’s inevitable that not only team silos, but also personal ones, will develop.

Here, 15 industry leaders from Forbes Technology Council share practical, actionable ways a tech leader can create and foster a culture of cross-collaboration and knowledge sharing among their tech team members. Members of Forbes Technology Council share practical ways tech leaders can build a culture of collaboration in their teams. Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Find The Right Collaboration Software Implementing the right collaboration software is key. My team relied heavily on in-person meetings and whiteboarding sessions prior to the pandemic.

By reevaluating our tools, we found creative solutions—including Miro, Loom and Framer—that allow us to share ideas asynchronously, whether a team member is in Berlin or Tokyo. – Katie Madding , Adjust 2. Strive For Simplicity When Choosing Tools We found that using simple, basic tools, such as an internal wiki or a chat tool, helped us foster internal communication, especially during the Covid pandemic.

Very important though: No matter the tool you are planning to use, test for its simplicity of use. We found that even the most powerful tools will not be used by teams if they don’t provide a great user experience. – Matthias Woggon , eyefactive GmbH Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives.

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Celebrate The Work You’re Looking For You get what you celebrate. If you tell your team how proud you are of the engineer who worked with the sales and support teams to deliver a killer feature that was exactly what the customer wanted, you’ll get more engineers who collaborate to deliver exactly what the customers want. Teams are driven to do a good job, and they will look to you for examples of what that looks like.

– Jeff Yasuda , Feed Media Group 4. Offer Development Opportunities And Compensation for Knowledge Sharing Offer career development opportunities and compensation upgrades for members of tech teams who have the knowledge and care about sharing. Fostering a culture requires investing resources—time and budget—and communicating the goal.

When employees realize part of their development and promotion path is also driven by this aspect, they will naturally take the initiative and make it a personal goal. – Maya Mandel , Helios 5. Leverage Tech Tools That Enable Team Members To Work Together In Real Time Fostering collaboration is more critical than ever in a remote world.

Software such as G Suite or Microsoft Teams allows employees to work together on projects in real time, sharing documents, asking questions, making suggestions, sending messages and initiating calls. But it’s also important to have regular team-building activities, independent of regular work, to boost morale and recharge the team. – Andreas Sulejewski , Neptune Software 6.

Stress The Importance Of Communication You have to develop a culture of communication. To build tech solutions that really make a difference, you can’t have teams in silos that never collaborate and communicate. That’s a surefire formula for failure.

It all starts with teams who document well, communicate and allow for consistent input. I can’t stress enough the importance of communication. – Ernie Bray , AutoClaims Direct Inc.

(ACD) 7. Request Feedback On What’s Working (And What’s Not) Tech leaders must prioritize building genuine connections and trusting relationships that enable seamless collaboration across time zones and geographic distances, especially when working with remote teams. Regularly request feedback on what’s working and what can be improved to help facilitate collaboration, invest in in-person gatherings, and onboard tools that foster knowledge sharing.

– Gregg Johnson , Invoca 8. Upskill And Hold Group Sessions To Foster Understanding I can’t stress enough the necessity of cross-functional teams for a business that aims to survive disruption in the modern world. It is increasingly important to upskill workforces to truly have a community who understands how the other team operates.

I believe the trick is to build sustainable collaboration teams through group sessions where everyone has a chance to share their views and perceptions. – Dharmesh Acharya , Radixweb 9. Hold Joint Cross-Team Reviews Cross-collaboration is best facilitated by having joint cross-team reviews.

Though this may seem like you risk creating a scene from Game of Thrones , having all tech leads present for each other’s reviews—with each being empowered to share their knowledge and opinion—actually creates a more shared vision and greater stakeholder buy-in regarding the outcome (and all with no dragons). – Sterling Lanier , TurnKey 10. Promote Transparency Creating spaces for your employees to share knowledge, give open feedback and collaborate is important.

Whether it is one-on-ones or departmentwide meetings, promoting a sense of transparency and collaboration is a great way to keep your employees engaged, make them feel valued and create a space for them to ideate. – Matt Pierce , Immediate 11. Create Spaces For Teammates To Come Together Creating spaces and platforms in the workplace to allow teammates to come together to share ideas and collaborate is very important to fostering cross-collaboration within the team.

This can be in the form of physical meetings in the office, breakout meeting spaces or virtual meetings. Having an open-door policy within an office so you’re approachable for everyone is equally important. – Emma de Sousa , Insight 12.

Focus On Predicting And Managing Change Technology leaders must comprehend how an organization’s culture functions. When economic, technological, political or social environmental factors fluctuate or are not recognized, they can become liabilities to the organization. Tech needs to focus on predicting, calculating and managing change.

Technology can augment or diminish the likelihood of achieving or failing to meet an objective. – Will Conaway , The HCI Group 13. Allow Team Members To Share Their Unique Expertise And Passion Fostering a culture of cross-collaboration can be difficult in the tech world, given that there are uniquely specific skill sets across the tech community.

Creating a space for people to share their own expertise and passion with their peers during meetings and allowing them to use their voices is an excellent way to promote knowledge sharing as well as foster a sense of community and collaboration. – Alfred Kahn , OvationCXM 14. Encourage Lunch-And-Learn Sessions One practical and actionable way a tech leader can foster a culture of cross-collaboration and knowledge sharing among their tech team members is to incentivize them to schedule lunch-and-learn sessions on a regular basis with specific topics and agendas.

This provides a great process for tech experts to hone their communication skills while sharing their knowledge with their team members. – Mark Schlesinger , Broadridge Financial Solutions 15. Rotate Tasks Among Team Members Rotate tasks, including leadership and project tasks, among members, and allow both senior and newer members (under necessary supervision) to drive initiatives for the entire group.

Soon, members will realize the value of communication and cross collaboration, as they will have experienced what it takes to be a project leader. Have regular meetings to share lessons learned and best practices. – Spiros Liolis , Micro Focus Check out my website .

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