Many a time in a result-oriented environment like a classroom or workplace, we are required to achieve not as individuals but as a group. This is what collaboration is about and skills are needed.

What is collaboration skill?

Collaboration means working with others in a group to get the best possible results from problem-solving. The group may be physical (people in the same location who are in contact with one another) or virtual (people in different locations who are not in contact with one another). Be it as it may, collaboration skills require we achieve the expected result.

Everyone ought to see the entire world as a virtual community. Similar results are expected no matter the group one finds himself.

Collaboration is a skill; training to acquire it is vital as possible in-born traits of it won’t take one far to ensure robust deliveries especially in a multicultural environment. It inculcates communication, sympathy and leadership values into its operations.

Collaborative problem-solving is an aspect of collaboration that involves developing knowledge and skills working together to complete a given task.

Ways to collaborate

Team members should work effectively and productively at all times with diverse teams. One way to achieve that is to assume shared responsibility. They should be favourably-disposed in mind, prompt to act and ready to yield to the influence of others as well as respect contributions made by each team member.

Besides, all participants should be willing to make necessary sacrifices, including personal interests, to accomplish a common goal. The major ingredients of collaboration is willingness and submissiveness. That means understanding the concept of a “greater good,” that tends towards company-wide success.

Why Collaborate

Working in groups is a feature of the digital age. Technology advancements have the tendency of leaving people behind the modern trends of life. No one wants to be catching up, I guess. We are different individuals having different roles in our schools or workplaces but one objective to achieve or customer to satisfy and that sees us as one. Failure to deliver can have disastrous effect on the business.

Benefits of collaboration

Collaborative abilities have a permanent place among the most beneficial lifelong learning skills everyone should develop. Organizations are no more deterred allocating a reasonable chunk of their production cost to enhance workplace collaboration and other related skills because they understand it can save them from the brink of bankruptcy. Other gains abounds:

It develops social skills that are important to new literacies. As a deep learning and innovation competency and a performance indicator, it offers creativity, such as in creating media contents and promotes positive social change. Web 2.0 tools companies use collaboration to offer its services to online communities.

Many organizations now consider learning environment as separate area in education and use collaborative learning environments to foster flexibility in school infrastructural layout such as creating small near-classroom seminar rooms.