Global Team Collaboration: 10 Keys to Succeed Working Across Borders

Efficient collaboration is at the core of making a team greater than the sum of its parts, and in theory, it’s simple.
However, once you start scaling up to the global level, there are all kinds of stumbling blocks that make things pretty difficult — not least different time zones and cultures.

That’s why we’ve put together our 10 keys for global team collaboration to succeed working across borders. It’s a guide that will go into the tools, techniques, and training that all the top multinationals adopt in their company ethos.

From how to share ideas and build trust to launching vast international projects, we’ve covered it all, so if you’re heading to the global stage, read on.

1. Foster a strong company culture The first port of call for strong global team collaboration is unity within your team. Especially important when part of your staff is working remotely, building a company culture that makes people feel part of something is essential. Aside from reducing turnover and keeping morale high, an inclusive ethos and [connected teams is a huge productivity booster]](https://innovaesoft.com/integrating-ai-and-machine-learning-in-cloud-based-pocs-and-mvps/)().

When working across borders, you need to find ways to represent each culture you’re working with. Rather than having an HQ in a major city and expecting everybody to conform to your priorities, try making a mention of local festivities on an international intranet. This way, you can include those in far-flung places, while putting the spotlight on them so your teams can get to know each other.

On a more work-focused note, transparency is paramount to creating a strong company culture. By being honest and open with your international teams, you can build trust across the company — one of the building blocks of a successful business.

Global Team Collaboration

1. Set clear expectations across for your whole organization As much as you should happily accept the diverse cultures in your company, for global team collaboration to work at its best, you need to set ground rules that work across your country. The larger an organization, the stronger the structure it needs to work efficiently. We’ll look at three key areas where you should set expectations for international teamwork.

Goals
It’s hard enough keeping your teams aligned around the same goal when you’re in the same office. That means, when you work with global teams, it’s even more essential to work towards clear, justifiable goals. When there are disagreements about priorities, you can always return to your foundational goals to back up your decisions and to help the company as a whole.

Accountability
Standardized assessments are integral to holding individuals and teams accountable — and if you can make them anonymous, even better. By using the same, structured approach to assessment across the board, you avoid suspicions that someone is being treated unfairly, while maintaining standards of performance.

Conflict resolution
In the same vein, conflict resolution is an essential, but tricky part of global collaboration. Every culture has slightly different approaches to dealing with disputes. Therefore, to keep things running smoothly in the long run, it’s crucial for every employee to understand your standard process from the onboarding stage onwards.