Robert Hovhannisyan
Product Marketer
Think your team collaboration is working? Think again.
Every year, employees waste a staggering 25 billion hours due to ineffective collaboration in the workplace—leading to delayed projects, unresolved conflicts, and declining team performance. Poor communication among team members, lack of collaborative skills, and weak leadership create bottlenecks that hold businesses back.
Yet, in high-performing organizations, successful collaboration isn’t left to chance. Strong leadership, trust among team members, and the right collaboration tools foster a collaborative team environment where people thrive, projects stay on track, and innovation flourishes.
So, what separates successful teams from struggling ones? And how can you build a collaborative culture that enhances employee engagement, teamwork, and productivity?
To answer these questions, we’ve gathered insights from our People & Culture Lead, Thom van de Lagemaat, alongside research-backed strategies that drive effective teamwork.
Think of a Formula 1 pit stop.
In just 2.5 seconds, an entire crew changes four tires, refuels the car, makes minor adjustments, and sends the driver back onto the track—all without missing a beat.
Each crew member has a specific role, and their ability to work together seamlessly determines whether their driver wins or loses the race.
Just like in F1, successful team collaboration is about each person executing their role with precision, trust, and a common goal in mind. When one person slips, the whole operation slows down. But when collaboration works? It’s high-speed efficiency.
At its core, team collaboration is about:
Joint effort: Each team member’s work connects to a larger objective, ensuring smooth handoffs and efficiency.
Equal participation: No one sits on the sidelines; everyone has a role that contributes to success.
Shared responsibility: Wins and losses belong to the whole team, fostering accountability and trust.
Effective communication: Rapid, clear communication ensures that the right decisions are made in real-time.
A truly collaborative environment leads to higher productivity, stronger employee engagement, and happier teams. Employees working as part of a collaborative team show a 20% boost in satisfaction and engagement.
The foundation of effective team collaboration is a shared understanding of what the team is working towards. Clearly defined team goals and objectives ensure that all team members are aligned and working towards a common goal with purpose and clarity.
One of the most effective ways to establish measurable goals is by using the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework. This goal-setting method provides structure and accountability, ensuring that collaborative efforts drive meaningful outcomes.
Originally developed by Andy Grove at Intel and later popularized by John Doerr at Google, OKRs have become a staple for project managers and business leaders looking to enhance team performance. Companies like Google, Netflix, and Allbirds successfully use OKRs to align their collaborative teams, track progress, and continuously adapt their strategies.
How OKRs Improve Collaboration:
Example OKR for improving team collaboration
Objective (O): Create a high-performing team with clear goals, feedback, and alignment.
Key Results:
"Mistakes should be examined, learned from, and discarded; not dwelled upon and stored." — Tim Fargo
Harvard professor Amy Edmondson’s research on psychological safety has revolutionized our understanding of team dynamics, workplace culture, and collaboration skills.
Psychological safety is the belief that you won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. It fosters trust among team members, open communication, and a sense of belonging, making it a key predictor of team success and employee engagement.
Google spent millions studying what makes teams successful. Their Project Aristotle uncovered something unexpected: success wasn’t about hiring the smartest people or offering the best perks.
Let that sink in. The world’s top tech company, with unlimited resources, found that the key to high-performing teams wasn’t intelligence or talent.
It was about feeling safe.
Pro Tip from Thom: "Psychological safety isn’t something you establish once and forget about. It’s constantly evolving, and it’s worth checking in regularly. One great way to do this is through structured workshops or team assessments. These help uncover any concerns and allow you to actively work on improving the team’s sense of safety."
Autonomy is the freedom to make choices about how to approach tasks within clear boundaries. When employees have sense of control over their work, they are more motivated, engaged, and creative, leading to improved team performance and stronger collaboration skills.
But how much autonomy is too much? Companies like Google, Spotify, and GitHub embrace full autonomy in the workplace, allowing employees to choose their own projects and team members. While this sounds great in theory, research suggests it can backfire.
A study by Harvard Business Review on how autonomy helps team performance found that teams with some autonomy—choosing either their teammates or their project, but not both—outperformed those with total freedom by 49%.
The takeaway? Autonomy is essential, but balance is key.
Pro Tip from Thom: "If you’re giving people autonomy, set clear boundaries upfront. Nothing is more frustrating than feeling like you have freedom, only to later be told there are constraints you weren’t aware of. Be transparent from the start—this prevents misalignment and ensures people can make decisions with confidence. True autonomy isn’t just about freedom; it’s about clarity."
Recognizing both individual and team efforts and celebrating successful collaboration reinforces a culture of appreciation and strengthens relationships.
When employees feel valued for their contributions, they are more motivated to bring their best efforts to the table, strengthening trust, teamwork, and overall morale.
A culture of recognition doesn’t just happen on its own; it needs to be intentional.
A study by Great Place to Work® found that 37% of employees say that more personal recognition from their managers would motivate them to do better work more often.
Additionally, employees who consistently feel recognized are 2.2 times more likely to go above and beyond, and even a simple “thank you” from leadership can increase an employee’s willingness to put in extra effort by 69%.
Pro tip from Thom: “Recognition is most powerful when it’s timely. Waiting too long to acknowledge someone’s contributions makes the impact weaker. A quick shout-out in a meeting or a message of appreciation right after someone does great work can go a long way in reinforcing positive behaviors and boosting morale.”
Organizational silos occur when departments operate in isolation, hoarding information and resources. This mentality is the enemy of collaboration and innovation. To break down these barriers, businesses should actively create opportunities for team collaboration and knowledge sharing.
The challenge isn’t always that people don’t want to collaborate. Often, they simply don’t know how or lack the right collaborative skills.
Take Pixar’s approach—Steve Jobs famously believed that great ideas don’t happen in isolation. That’s why he redesigned Pixar’s headquarters with a central atrium, forcing employees from different departments to collide, interact, and spark creativity.
At Avisi, we actively break down silos by organizing TechDays and Knowledge Sharing Sessions, where employees across different teams exchange insights and learn from one another. These sessions spark new ideas, strengthen relationships, and ensure that knowledge flows freely, rather than getting stuck in isolated departments.
Burnout is a collaboration killer. When employees are overworked and stressed, they lack the mental and emotional energy needed to engage in teamwork, problem-solving, and creative collaboration. A well-balanced workload isn’t just good for employee well-being—it directly impacts team performance, engagement, and productivity.
A key responsibility of team leaders and project managers is to ensure that workloads are manageable and aligned with the team's capacity. When tasks are unevenly distributed, some employees end up overwhelmed while others remain underutilized, leading to inefficiency and disengagement.
One way to maintain balance is by using time tracking and project management tools to gain visibility into workload distribution. By analyzing how time is spent across projects, managers can make informed decisions to prevent bottlenecks, reassign tasks, and identify potential burnout risks before they escalate.
Regular one-on-one check-ins also create space for employees to voice concerns, adjust project timelines, or redistribute responsibilities when needed.
Pro Tip from Thom: "Creating a culture that supports work-life balance also ties into psychological safety. People should feel comfortable voicing when they’re overwhelmed or need adjustments. If employees don’t feel safe expressing concerns, they’ll silently burn out rather than ask for help. Leaders need to set the tone by actively encouraging open conversations about workload and well-being."
Choosing the right tools can make or break your team’s collaboration efforts. These are some of the tools that are essential to our teamwork at Avisi.
Collaboration breaks down when teams lack visibility into their time. Misaligned priorities, unbalanced workloads, and inefficiencies slow projects down and frustrate teams.
Tracket for monday.com makes time tracking effortless, giving teams real-time insights to stay aligned, optimize workloads, and improve productivity.
✅ See where time is spent across tasks and projects
✅ Optimize team capacity to prevent burnout and bottlenecks
✅ Make data-driven decisions for better collaboration and efficiency
More clarity. Better teamwork. Try Tracket free for 14 days on the monday.com marketplace.
Avisi Apps B.V.
Nieuwe Stationsstraat 10
6811 KS Arnhem
KvK: 76632490
BTW: NL860713659B01
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