Creating a collaborative working culture and why it’s important to do so
In recent years, collaborative working has been a prominent topic, especially due to the shift in work culture formats due to COVID-19. With 1 in 5 (22%) individuals working from home at least one day per week, post the pandemic (UK Parliament, 2022), it’s become increasingly important for leaders to ensure collaboration continues within work environments.
Collaborative working has its benefits - stronger team relationships, increased creativity and inspiration and reduced stress in the working environment. With this in mind, as leaders we hold a key role within our organisations in implementing a collaborative working culture.
In order to create a collaborative working culture, we need to:
Prioritise psychological safety
Create a welcoming working environment
Encourage diversity of thought and feeling
Psychological safety, inclusive dialogue and ensuring everyone is seen and heard is essential to creating a collaborative environment for your colleagues. Prioritising this environment will ensure your team feels a sense of belonging - creating a culture of care, courage and connection.
Creating Psychological Safety
To create a successful collaborative environment, it’s essential to understand the foundations through psychological safety.
Psychological safety can be defined as:
‘creating an environment in which people feel safe, able to speak up, are listened to and ask questions’
As leaders, we have a responsibility to be the catalyst in creating this environment that our teams can live through in their everyday behaviour, creating a sense of belonging throughout our organisations.
So, how do you create an environment of psychological safety within our organisations?
Encourage people to share their thoughts and feelings, to agree and disagree with each other and to acknowledge each other's successes, and to challenge each other, to work better together, perform better and become happier in the workplace.
Ensure psychological safety is a core focus of your mindset. For example, when you are preparing for meetings, have this at the front of your mind, think about who is invited and how you will include and involve them. This helps people feel not only that they matter, but that their contribution is welcomed and wanted.
Encourage diversity of thought and feeling. Prompt others in your team, wider team and organisation to have conversations with each other about what helps them to feel safe. Ensure curiosity in the workplace is welcomed, encourage open questions and allow people to share openly and honestly about their thoughts, feelings and opinions.
But why is Psychological Safety important for collaborative working environments?
When Psychological Safety is encouraged throughout a working culture, people feel more confident, they do their best work and they feel trusted in their environment. In times of collaborative working, individuals feel safe to speak up, voice their diverse opinions and share their different views in the hope that their team can learn from their opinions and experiences.
How can you hold effective collaborative meetings with psychological safety?
Due to the nature of our hybrid and remote working schedules, it’s important for us as leaders to make the most of being together with our teams. When beginning meetings, ensure you are able to set the scene to use the time effectively - whether this be creating a circle format or sitting around a square table. It’s important to ensure everyone can be seen and heard.
To begin, invite people to look at the person who is speaking and communicate openly to people to let them know that their contribution is welcome. Ask people to speak for themselves, sharing how they feel and think. In virtual meetings, remind people to give their full attention and listen carefully to each person - this could be a gentle reminder for people to step away from their emails.
Before you begin the core of the meeting, take time to do a quick round of introductions, invite your colleagues to share a few words about how they are feeling. Whether this be in person or online, ensuring everyone can be heard, is essential for creating a sense of belonging within the meeting.
Once the core of the meeting has been discussed, be conscious of your ending. Communicate to your colleagues the summary of the meeting and the actions going forward as a result. Pay attention to the feelings of others and ensure colleagues feel trusted to share their opinions with their teams.
Develop a collaborative working culture in your workplace
If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch today for a chat. As a Leadership Partner, I’ll partner with you and your Executive Team to build a culture of care and connection. Please, do get in touch for a conversation to explore opportunities.
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