Just because you’re at work doesn’t mean you’re actually getting work done. As fast and demanding as the modern work environment is, it’s hopelessly unproductive.
Without the proper tools, team focus comes at a stiff premium. In attempt to work together, it’s likely that your team is drowning in email, stuck in dead-end meetings, and constantly interrupted. The fact of the matter is, you waste A LOT of time at work. Thanks to three productivity-killing culprits, team collaboration is almost impossible:
1. Email is great for communication, but not collaboration.
Email is an effective means for communication, but when it comes to collaborating with your team on projects and getting work done, it’s a major hindrance to your team’s productivity.
- Group conversations grow unwieldy too quickly
- Keeping track of the most current version of an attached document is the modern-era’s needle in a haystack
- It’s nearly impossible to maintain clarity about what needs to get done, and by whom
When it comes to productively working together with your team, there are three reasons email fails to help you get the job done. Read more…
2. Holding effective meetings is just plain hard.
It’s not that all meetings are bad. Meetings can be an effective means to reach immediate consensus and keep everyone on the same page.
But it’s the pointless ones. The ones that could have been avoided. The ones with no agenda and more tangents than a Family Guy episode. You know, the ones with no actionable deliverables to follow up on afterwards? Not to be too dramatic, but these meetings are the bane of productivity’s existence.
Holding meetings that matter is difficult because it’s so hard to:
- reach decisions without bringing everyone together in one room,
- share a meeting agenda with your team that they can contribute to; and
- track deliverables to completion following a meeting.
3. Being productive is hopeless amidst constant interruptions.
Distractions are everywhere. Many times harmless interruptions lead to other distractions. What might have been a quick exchange with a coworker, quickly turns into 15 minutes down the rabbit hole. It’s shocking how quickly you can lose sight of the task at hand, regardless of whether it’s of your own doing or not.
At the heart of productivity is focus, and it’s delicate to say the least, especially when success demands not just a single person’s focus, but the focus of an entire team. Charging towards a common goal is difficult when:
- work is scattered through shared network drives, hard drives, and email
- and decisions, deliverables, and team alignment center on meetings alone.
When disorganization and uncertainty is the norm, clarification and re-clarification is needed to regularly keep a team focused and working together. Read more…
Is there a solution?
We’ve outlined the major reasons why your team’s workday is devoid of productivity: over-reliance on email, too many pointless meetings, and constant interruptions. These obstacles keep your team from getting the job done well, if not done at all. Simply put, your team needs:
- One place to create, share, and discuss work.
- One place to make decisions and stay updated about work.
- One place to track what’s been completed, what still needs to get done, and by whom – keeping everyone on the team focused and on-task.
Confluence is that place. Proven team collaboration software, connects teams with the content and co-workers they need to get work done, faster.