Right about now you’re likely building ambitious plans for 2025, packed with strategies, tactics, and supporting initiatives to advance the business. And today, in the glow of the holidays, you even believe you and your team will achieve everything you’ve written down.
May we make a suggestion? As you plan out what your team is going to do in the year to come, why don’t you also spend some time thinking about how you’ll work together to achieve it?
Mediocre collaboration can happen with no forethought or planning. But effective and efficient collaboration? That takes real intention. Follow these steps to establish a foundation for performance in 2025:
#1: Assess what worked this year and what didn’t
When we map out objectives for the year ahead, we typically start by taking a look back at the year that’s passed – what worked? What didn’t? What targets didn’t we hit, and why?
When it comes to ways of working, we recommend taking the same approach. What worked well about how you collaborated? Where did friction arise? Where should you focus your attention to make sure you prevent similar breakdowns in the future?
#2: Establish explicit collaborative norms
Aligning on and documenting collaborative norms – when you send an email vs. an instant message or how your team manages shared documents – takes guesswork out of the equation and saves time as well as frustration. Establish norms across categories like meeting practices, communication modalities, shared platforms, etc., and work with your team to outline the dos and don’ts specific to each. Keep the final list somewhere that everyone can access it easily.
#3: Build your capabilities
There are specific skills that knowledge workers need to be effective but that are noticeably absent from most college curricula. Investing in team development on meeting preparation and facilitation, generous and efficient asynchronous collaboration, and challenging conversations can significantly increase productivity – and team satisfaction.
#4: Maintain your focus
Newly acquired mindsets and skills only serve us if we actually use them. This may sound obvious, but how often have you defaulted to old, bad habits as soon things got stressful? (I’m looking at you, empty carton of ice cream.)
Collaborative skills are like muscles, and we need to keep working on them to keep them strong. Utilize regular team meetings to check in on norms and troubleshoot challenges, and carve out time during offsites / step-backs to continue with skill-building work.
If you consistently treat it as a priority, effective collaboration can become “just how it is.” Simple shifts in mindset and practice, backed up by shared commitment across a team, can make a big difference. Chances are, you’ll see it in next year’s results.