Great Project Collaboration: Want to Know How to Assure it?

When you look up Project Collaboration, you’ll find a bewildering array of software tools available. There are tens – maybe hundreds – of credible software solutions for helping your project team to collaborate effectively. But as a Project Manager, all you want is to get the best collaborative behavior from your team.

You may have a software tool available to you on your project. You may even be in a position to make a selection: good luck. Or maybe you have to make do with tools you have, which are not designed for project collaboration. You need to find a way to make them work for you.

This Article is Not about Project Collaboration Software

This article is not about which tool to use and why. There are many many good solutions out there with a huge spread of collaboration features and more.

Indeed, we have two articles that you may like, if you are looking for collaboration software:

1. Free Project Management Software: A Roundup of 20+ Options to Try
2. Asana, Jira, Monday: the Big Three Modern PM Software Tools

Collaboration is built into task management, Kanban and all sorts of Project Management software, as well as being the sole objective of tools like Yammer and Slack. Other tools are really productivity based, and make collaboration easier as a route to enhanced results. There is too much.

This article is about Great Project Collaboration

Instead, I want to talk about the principles of great Project Collaboration, with or without dedicated software. From this, I’ll also draw some lessons for how to use any collaboration tool you do have effectively. And I’ll also consider what this tells you that will help you select the right tool for your project.

We will Cover:

• What is Project Collaboration?
• The Benefits of Good Project Collaboration
• The One Big Thing that is Necessary for Great Project Collaboration
• Five Themes for Successful Project Collaboration
• How to Use Project Collaboration Tools Well
• What You Can Learn about Selecting the Best Project Collaboration Tool for Your Project

We’ll start at the beginning…

What is Project Collaboration?

First, here is a short video that answers the question, ‘What is Project Collaboration?’

Collaboration is literally ‘working together’. In our context, it is where people work with one another to deliver a project. So, collaboration needs three things

1. Clarity of purpose
2. A shared sense of responsibility
3. Mutual trust

Good collaboration harnesses the differences between people. Complementary skills allow a group to achieve more than any of the individuals can. Varied experiences, styles, and perspectives may make collaboration difficult. But they are what makes it powerful.

The Benefits of Good Project Collaboration

Good project collaboration has so many benefits that it is almost taken as read that we need it. But I do think it worth articulating what the main benefits are, because collaboration is hard. So, it has to be worth the effort. And I think it is.

Collaboration has four main benefits:

1. Better problem-solving
   More minds, working together, produce more ideas. And more points of view mean the group is likely to select the best.
2. More robust decision-making
   When people work together to make a decision, they can examine the evidence with care, listen to different perspectives, and give time to consider implications
3. More effective use of resources
   Collaborating teams find ways to optimize who does what, to get the best use of the people available. This works both in time-scheduling terms and in terms of allocating the best people to each role.
4. Improved morale and resilience to set-backs
   People enjoy working as part of a team where they feel their contributions are valued fully.

There are other benefits too, but I think these are the biggest. What other benefits can you list? Among my secondary benefits are: better communication and information-sharing, care and concern for colleagues, and a greater commitment to the task at hand.

The One Big Thing that is Necessary for Great Project Collaboration

I argue that project collaboration requires one thing above all else:

A Shared Sense of Responsibility

And if you want to create this, there is one thing you absolutely must do. You must give your team a very real sense that what they are doing is worthwhile. You must show them that your project has a purpose that they will want to commit to. Nobody is ever motivated to do anything if they can’t see why it is essential. But if your project is essential, and everyone on your team believes this, then they will want to make it succeed and will share a common purpose in doing so.

Once you have created this sense that everyone wants to work together, then you need to put in place the conditions for successful project collaboration. I have scoured my experience for tactics and advice. And I have grouped them into five themes.

Five Themes for Successful Project Collaboration

The five themes we’ll look at are:

1. Communication
2. Planning
3. Issue Resolution
4. Leadership
5. Information and Knowledge

So, let’s get started…

Theme 1: Communication

Human beings are social creatures. And, at the heart of our sociality, are conversation, chat, and gossip. The more you can create space for real-world-like interaction, the better your results will be.

Bring Your Team Together

In the world of remote teams, based in different offices and, often, on different continents, this will not always be possible, at least, not in the real-world physical sense. But if you can create periodic all-hands gatherings and smaller sub-team gatherings, people will become more familiar with one another.

Talk to Each Other

It is very easy for a Project Manager to talk to your team. But collaboration comes from dialogue, not monologue, nor a duologue. So set up opportunities for team members to talk to one another.

A specific example of this is teleconferencing with tools like Teams, Zoom, or Webex. These, if you don’t use them well, become either a presentation or chaos.

Project managers are organized people who like a strong agenda and good control over a meeting. It’s easy for a group call to degenerate into chaos without this control. But real conversations are messy. If you over-rule all informal conversation, you will stifle creativity and team collaboration. Allow time at the start for a little chat, and let the team take control from time to time – even if it gets a little chaotic. Re-assert control and summarise, and you’ll find everyone feels a greater sense of having participated.

Take a look at our articles:

• Lessons I’ve Learned about Productive Web Calls: Zoom, Teams, Webex, Blue Jeans…
• Lessons I’ve Learned about Virtual Working | Video

Email is a Poor Communication Medium

Scratch that. Email is a dreadful communication medium. Arguably, it is the worst. Ever.

Yet some people let it become a sole proxy for talking to colleagues. This even happens between co-workers in the same room. If you possibly can, create ways for people to communicate everything important in better ways. Then, you can use email exclusively for what it is best at; creating written records of important or complex information that two people need to share.

I have a full-length article about team communication, and one on project communications management.

Theme 2: Planning

Without a plan, most people feel a sense of uncertainty. Consequently, they lose confidence in their leaders and don’t know what is expected of them. In some cases, they will collaborate to create the certainty and confidence they need. But far more often, they will withdraw into their shells and await instruction. So, for good project collaboration, people need to know what the plan is, and who they need to work with.

Joint Planning

Just because people need a plan, it doesn’t mean it needs to be you who provides it. It’s far better if you can lead your team to create their own plans. With a clear appreciation of the end purpose, they are likely to do a better job than you would, alone.

Joint planning has another big benefit for Project Collaboration. Your team members are far more likely to commit to and collaborate on a plan they have created, than the one you have handed down. They’ll believe in it more, and feel more of a responsibility to deliver it; because it’s theirs!

Visibility of Responsibilities

Good collaboration among your project team relies on them knowing who is doing what. Without this, they can’t easily know who to collaborate with! Create planning documents that clearly show who is working on what, and with whom. You don’t need clever software. My favorite tool for this is the Linear Responsibility Chart (LRC) – sometimes called a RACI Chart. Each is a slightly different representation of the same core information. I list the LRC as one of my top ten tools that will help you get better Project Management results.

Calendar Openness

As well as creating openness around what everyone will do, you need to allow people access to see one another’s work diaries. This way people can easily establish informal meetings. But… and this is a big BUT, I don’t favor allowing people access to scheduling into each other’s diaries. That way lies the madness of people losing control of their own work time. It robs them of both productivity and a feeling of responsibility. And no one should be able to do this to anyone: not even you, the Project Manager. It is disrespectful and counter-productive. </rant>

I have a full-length article about project planning, and a video.

Theme 3: Issue Resolution

Problems and setbacks can be a great asset in driving project collaboration. When we feel a shared sense of purpose, a challenge to achieving it can galvanize collective action. So don’t miss out on the opportunity to get the best from your team in times of trouble.

Humility

Do you have the answer to every question? I hope you weren’t foolish enough to think the answer to that one was ‘yes’!

You don’t know everything, but collectively, your team may do. They will certainly offer a wider range of options and a wiser collective evaluation than you could alone. So ask questions and listen to the answers. Trust your team, and you will frequently be stunned by the quality of solutions they come up with.

Collective Problems Solving

Better yet, go one step further and train your team in a collective problem-solving process. It can be something as simple and ad hoc as Waigaya. Or it could be a structured problem-solving process like DMAIC, 8 Disciplines, or Synectics.

Share Lessons Learned

Problems are opportunities to learn. And this is true both when we get it right and when we get it wrong. So make sure that a regular Lessons Learned Review meeting is part of your project collaboration agenda. Get the team together and examine what went well, and what did not. Discern reasons for the failings. And, equally important, create procedures to upgrade, systematize, and embed the successes.

I have a full-length article on Issue Management and a video.

Theme 4: Leadership

How well your team collaborates is often a matter of leadership. And that’s your job!

A Little Touch of Harry in the Night

A large part of your job as a Project Manager is to speak to people. Just as Shakespeare’s character of Henry V wanders the English camp on the eve of battle, you need to get around your project team. Project collaboration comes when people feel they know what’s going on and they have the confidence of their PM. Notice collaborative behaviors and compliment them.

Recognition, Praise, and Celebration

Three things together lock in habits:

1. Recognition by people we respect
2. Receiving their praise and thanks
3. Having our successes celebrated in some (small) way

Recognize, praise, and celebrate project collaboration where you find it, so team members are enthusiastic to do it more.

Seek Feedback

Be collaborative yourself and seek feedback on your own actions as project manager and leader. Speak with people and ask them for their opinions and advice. And listen to what they have to tell you, without giving in to the desire to defend your actions.

We have a vast amount of content about Leadership

Take a look at some of our articles on:

• Leadership Skills
• Team Leadership
• Virtual Teams

Theme 5: Information and Knowledge

Information and knowledge are the primary resources of project collaboration. The extent to which you make them readily available will often dictate the level of collaboration you see.

Treat Information Like Water, Not Like Champagne

So first of all, put as much information as you can on tap. Don’t hoard it in a cellar where it can do no good.

Centralize Information Storage

If you want people to use information, it has to be stored where they can find it quickly and access it easily. You are looking for a solution that keeps everything up to date, and that everyone can get at when they need it.

Transparency and Accountability

The last of my 15 tactics is to be wholly transparent about who is responsible for what, and to demonstrate strong accountability. You could do this in the form of terms of reference, job descriptions, delegation schemes, or any of a number of methods. What matters is that each team member knows who is accountable for what. This way, they hold each other to account.

Read my articles, Project Management: How to Get Better with Knowledge Management and Knowledge Transfer, and Project Document Management: How to Organize and Manage Project Information.

How to Use Project Collaboration Tools Well

If we put all of this together and start to apply it to the use of software tools, I think we can draw out some general advice. Here, I am going to assume you have selected your tool, or you are using what is available. So I will focus on how to get the best from what you have. In the next section, we’ll look at selecting a tool.

Learn to Use the Tools

First of all, ‘a fool with a tool… is still a fool’.

Make sure your people learn to use the tools properly, so that using them is as easy. Or, at a minimum, it is easier than not using them. If you are going to invest a lot of money in software licenses or SaaS subscriptions, then it’s a foolish economy to skip the training time and cost, in the hope that people are smart and the tool is obvious. [SaaS: Software as a Service]

Often, people are smart. And the tool is obvious. But without dedicated training time, people can’t be bothered to learn more than the basics, so they only use a small part of the tool’s capabilities. And that leads to patchy commitment and, consequently, to poor project collaboration.

Supplement with Real Conversations

A tool is a tool to help get the job done. It won’t replace good quality real-world conversations. Encourage these as well – and Zoom or Teams-type calls if people cannot get together in the same place.

Migrate all Virtual Conversations to One Tool

Project collaboration fails when people don’t realize there is a conversation going on, or cannot find the conversation they started yesterday or last week. This all becomes much easier when all virtual conversations take place using just one tool. So once you commit, banish all other tools (including email, if you possibly can!)

Use it to Share Schedules, Calendars, and Responsibilities

Likewise, use the same tool for all scheduling and task assignments, so these sit next to the conversations that they will integrate with.

Use it as a Knowledge Hub, so it is the First Place People go to for Information

If all the information people need is in the same place as their conversations, it not only simplifies the process of collaboration but also draws people to use the tool.

Use it to Make People Feel Good, with Praise and Recognition

Here’s a simple, but salient fact. People rarely base decisions on logic. Instead, they make a decision based on how they feel and then use logic to justify it to themselves and others. So having the perfect tool with every feature you could need won’t make people use it. Not unless, that is, they feel good about using it. So make your project collaboration tool a place where people feel good. Use it to share-out the recognition, praise, and thanks.

What You Can Learn about Selecting the Best Project Collaboration Tool for Your Project

So, from all we have so far, what advice can I give you about choosing your project collaboration software tool?

First and foremost…
It must be easier to use than to not use

By this, I mean that it needs to just become a part of the way people do things. Accessing it must be trivial, and using it must quickly become second nature. It must have a low impact on computer/device performance. And it must work, as expected, pretty much all the time. Better yet, it must feel completely intuitive.

Take your candidate software out for a hard test drive. Try to break them by deliberately making foolish, but easy to make wrong clicks. How bad is the damage to productivity and archiving? When people are in a hurry they make mistakes. That isn’t the fault of the software designer. But if simple and easy-to-make mistakes have dire consequences, that’s bad design.

Cultural Match

This one is so hard to define, but organizations and teams have a culture, and some tools will fit in better for no easily discernible reason. For this reason…

Involve Your Team in Selection

And critically, if something doesn’t feel right to your team, then even if they can’t say exactly what’s wrong with the tool, reject it for one that does feel right. In fact, for maximum impact, involve your most skeptical, hardest-to-please colleagues in the process.

Feel over Features

This leads me to the next tip. Define a vital few ‘must-have’ features and functions. Beyond that, avoid the temptation to focus on ‘what else do we get?’ Instead, focus on ‘how much do we like the way it does the vital few functions?’

Choose the Project Tool to Meet the Needs of Your Project

No tool can match every project’s needs. Sure, swapping tools for every project will be disruptive, but if the tool you are used to doesn’t serve the needs of your next project, then start out with the right investment. A wisely chosen project collaboration tool is like a strong set of foundations: you will stop realizing it’s there, but you will be implicitly relying on it every single day.

Discussion at Point of Planning/Problem

For many projects now, team members cannot be in the same room. This would be ideal, especially when you are planning or problem-solving. So if it cannot happen, the next best thing is for your collaboration tool to make good quality discussion easy.

What does this mean for you? It may mean sharing presentations, or a collaborative whiteboard. It may mean simulated sticky notes or a voting system. Dynamic issue resolution is another use you may put your tool to. It is a combination of chat and decision-making. So what capabilities do the candidate software tools offer?

Access to Information

Finally, my preference would always be that a project collaboration tool also serves as a knowledge repository or it integrates seamlessly with one. This latter point is key for two reasons:

1. Your organization may have a knowledge or document management system already
2. Your document management and version control process may need to be more rigorous than a collaboration tool can accommodate

Often software that tries to do too much does nothing really well. So think about creating a fully integrated set of software tools. But find a set that works seamlessly together. For a big project, this may mean you will be justified in investing in some developer time to build the integration. But with much modern software, the ability to integrate with APIs is either baked in, or easily achieved with integration tools like Zapier, Power Automate, or even IFTTT.

Displays Roles, Responsibilities, and Task Assignments

I have a preference for a tool that will let me see easily everything I may want to know about the people I am chatting with. This may be a link to a biography. And if it is, I’d like to ensure certain key fields appear in everyone’s description.

Broadcast and Narrowcast

How will your team need to communicate when they collaborate? Sometimes it will be one-to-one. Sometimes one-to-many. Maybe they will need to come together in informal groups. And sometimes they will need to broadcast to everyone. Find a tool that allows users to address custom audiences as well as one-to-one or one-to-all blasts.

Maximise of Satisfice?

My final tip – or piece of advice – is to avoid looking for the ‘best possible solution’.

• Firstly, it may not exist.
• Second, if it does exist, the tool that fits the description may change tomorrow, with the launch of a new software tool.
• And finally…. life’s too short.

People tend to be happy when, instead of looking for the best, they find the best of a shortlist, all of which meet their core needs. So:

1. Articulate your ‘must haves’, and maybe your top ‘should haves’.
2. Find three candidate project collaboration tools that meet that agenda.
3. Then compare them through testing and tire-kicking, to pick the best one for your team.

I get fed up with people asking ‘What is the best project collaboration software tool?’

It’s only possible to even start to answer that question, in the context of the project, the organization, the people, the culture, the budget, and a load of other factors. And even then, the best tool is the one that works for you. Stop seeking a Platonic Ideal of ‘best’ and look for a tool that works great for your team!

The Future of Project Collaboration Tools

I don’t want to make this article ridiculously long. But it is important to name-check some of the new and emerging technologies that could have a big impact on how we collaborate on projects in the future. The four main ones are:

Artificial Intelligence

AI-powered tools can do more than automate repetitive tasks, draft reports, and predict risks. Increasingly, collaboration tools will integrate AI to allocate work and even collaborate by becoming a ‘virtual’ team member.

• What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? | Video
• How will Artificial Intelligence Impact the PM Profession?
• Artificial Intelligence Tools: Top 5 Practical Project Management Applications

Data Analytics

Sophisticated data gathering and analysis tools will give teams ever-deeper insights into project performance. Collaborating teams will be better able to assess their own performance, optimize task allocation, and understand their projects.

• What is Predictive Analytics? …especially in Project Management

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain-enabled tools will enhance security and transparency in project collaboration. They can track and authenticate documents, transactions, and instructions.

• What is the Blockchain?

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

These will bring a new dimension to remote collaboration. It will feel more immersive and… real. Colleagues working in different parts of the world will be able to meet in a virtual space that feels like they’re in the same room. And it will be easy to customize that meeting space quickly and cost-free to the needs of the tasks at hand, with live dashboards, collaborative documents and whiteboards, and multiple spaces for side conversations.

Learn More about How to Build a Collaborative Project Culture

I recently interviewed Deb Mashek about her new book, Collabor(h)ate, which is full of great guidance about creating a collaborative culture at work. I strongly recommend you watch this interview and read Deb’s excellent book.

We have plenty more resources that will help you build a collaborative team:

• Everything You Need to Know about How to Build a Great Project Team
• Build Shared Understanding: A Firm Basis for Sustained Project Excellence
• Trusted Project Manager: 5 Habits to Build Trust | Video

And, from expert guests, like Deb, we also have other interviews:

• Build High-Performing Project Teams – Conversation with Charles Vivian
• Building Inclusive Teams: A Conversation with Anita Phagura of Fierce Project Management

What’s Your Advice?

I’d love to read your tips and tactics for project collaboration, using software tools effectively, and choosing the right one for your project. I will respond to any comments you make down below.