3 Effective Ways to Bring Teams Together

Today’s guest post comes from Dana Larson, marketing and community manager at OnePlace, an online collaboration and business organization solution.

In a world where virtual offices are sprouting up all over the place, and businesses are working with clients, customers and vendors from all around the world, the amount of face-to-face communications continues to decrease.

However, this isn’t a bad thing – it’s sparking new ways for businesses to stay connected while collaborating on many of the same products and processes. Businesses still need to develop their products, work with the right people to get the job done and partner with the right companies to achieve their business goals.

So, to help run a successful business in an increasingly virtual world, here are a few effective ways to bring together dispersed teams via virtual processes, and tips to facilitate collaboration across great distances.

Leverage social media tools

Facilitating greater communication is the major key for increasing the success of your business, even if you aren’t working in a virtual environment. However, when you are working with your team from one location, and you have other people in your business at other locations, you need to keep open channels of communication.

Social media tools allow for streamlined communication. They keep the people in your business connected through easy, online solutions, while keeping you and other project leaders and even executives up-to-date on the activity happening within your team.

You can also use these communication and social channels to connect with clients, customers, vendors and business partners. Increasing the number of ways in which you communicate with your corporate peers ensures consistent chatter and reach for the same goal: amplified success.

Utilize team collaboration software

Team collaboration software systems are fantastic ways for businesses to stay connected and work together on important business projects and tasks. Integrating a business collaboration solution into your team processes for business tasks is a great trick for encouraging teamwork and to producing a more quality product, together.

Finding a collaboration solution that allows your team to work on documents together and conduct online discussions can greatly impact the effectiveness of your business. Your team members will keep all of their communications and discussions organized around the work so nothing is lost, and your team will feel a sense of pride in the work they produce. This will encourage the team to continue working together, resulting in the increased success of the business.

And, by finding a team collaboration solution that is Web based, your team will be able to collaborate on the same projects from across the state, country and throughout the world.

Conduct online meetings

Lacking a single team office should not be reason for unproductive meetings. There are many tools available to facilitate meetings for virtual companies.

Find a solution that enables Web meetings and conference calls with your team. Choose a solution that allows for group conversation, shared images and live computer screen shots. Being able to view someone’s screen and see the face of your teammate during conversation can increase the understanding and retention of what is being decided in the meeting. These solutions are available, and businesses can now hold meetings for the entire company, plan projects and business actions with partners and even hold interviews when trying to hire new team members.

The benefits of a virtual office are huge, as long as you utilize the solutions to keep your virtual team on track, focused and communicating. Increasing the channels of communication opens the doors to greater collaboration and connecting via online meetings. Your virtual company will see increased success in the new world of business.

To learn more about Dana or OnePlace, check her out on Twitter or on the company blog.