As we enter lockdown 3.0, effective virtual collaboration at work continues to be critical for productivity. When collaboration within a team is successful, it is motivating, exciting and profitable for the employees and the business.

Organic collaboration whilst working remotely is a challenge, because engaging in any conversation requires the use of some form of technology. Those spur of the moment motivational chats at the coffee machine have ceased to exist for the moment. So we have to make sure that they happen in other ways.  Here are several ways that you can help your teams to collaborate effectively, virtually:

Use meetings effectively: Instead of adding more meetings to the diary, use the meetings already in place wisely, to avoid taking up people's precious time. Setting an agenda in advance, however short, and taking notes throughout ensures focus and effective collaboration. 

Working "side by side": Just as you might work next to someone in person whilst you are collaborating on a project, or if you are struggling for motivation (which is not a failing by the way), ask someone to join a video call with you and literally, work side by side together virtually.

Know your colleagues' working and communication styles: by understanding how each of your colleagues works well and how they communicate best, you can help them to get the most out of themselves. A colleague that feels understood is a happy and productive colleague. 

Slack, Teams, Skype etc: Make sure that you are using these tools to work for you, and not the other way round. If you need to need to disconnect from a messaging tool whilst you focus, set your status to let your colleagues know when you'll be back, and be free from it. If a couple of messages back and forth doesn't solve an issue, pick up the phone. Sometimes this is more efficient. 

Effective collaboration is about having laser focus as a team and being aligned on goals. It is possible to collaborate effectively from different locations, if you collaborate with this laser focus and intention.