Future Focused Skills: How to develop collaboration skills

Students with good collaboration skills perform better in school. Additionally, employers highly value these skills. As companies move to place greater emphasis on team-based work, individuals who excel at collaboration are likely to be more valued applicants. 

We continue with our series on developing Future Focused Skills with this advice on collaboration skills: 

 

Collaboration 

 

What it is 

Working well with others to achieve shared goals, thereby building more productive teams, and fostering a better and more enjoyable workplace. 

 

Otherwise known as  

• Teamwork  
• Team-player  
• Task Management 

 

Tasks to seek out 

Most group projects will naturally require collaboration skills, especially if the project requires coordination of tasks and effort and resolving differences in opinion or perspective. 

 

Ways to practice the skills within these tasks 

• In a group project, consider taking on responsibilities for managing the group’s progress. Help distribute work responsibilities. Keep track of the group’s progress and help the group process and address setbacks or challenges that occur. 

• When a group is trying to reach a decision, whether in school or socially, practice positive communication. Build on the ideas of others rather than always needing to express your own opinion. Think about how you can facilitate dialogue to help the group reach consensus. 

After practicing this skill, ask for immediate feedback from teachers or peers so that you can build on your performance and improve next time.  

In our next post in the series, we will tackle how to develop self-management skills.