Collaboration is one of the most important parts of remaining viable in business, regardless of what your industry is. Creativity and people power is what leads to innovation, and working together is part of running a company that continues to achieve its goals. Today’s tools for collaboration are advancing steadily and more accessible than ever before. Video conferencing is a great way to ensure that your team, whether scattered around the world or joining a meeting from their home office, maximizes their collaborative brainpower.

1. Assessing Current Methods and Systems

Even if your company excels at collaboration, it’s never a bad idea to sit down and review how you’re doing things. Enterprise Innovation suggests assessing your organizational requirements, reviewing how the technology you currently have is being used, and then adjusting accordingly. If you’re not already using technology, for example, integrating video conferencing into your communication and collaboration plan is a wise decision since it’s one of the most cutting-edge tools on the market. For example, establishing forward-thinking business tactics for collaboration using BlueJeans Web Conferencing Tools by BlueJeans, a popular provider of video conferencing services, is a great approach to ensure that you’re supporting your staff’s maximum power. Staying up to date with the newest tools and technology being used in business to promote collaboration and creative brainstorming is a surefire way to keep your business current and on the map.

2. Delegate, Assign, Accomplish

In an article for Entrepreneur, Richard Branson, founder of multi-billion dollar enterprise Virgin Group, writes about the importance of knowing how and when to delegate work. Whether you’re at the helm of a startup company, or hold the position of manager in a large organization, this is an essential skill that every business leader needs to master.

Branson describes this goal with a simple anecdote, relaying a story about hiring an accountant in his early days with Virgin because he knew he was bad with numbers. Admitting a weakness upfront and getting the right person to do the job paid off. This is the kind of attitude that will get take you far, but you also need to also utilize the right tools to delegate work when necessary. Using video conferencing to effectively move through these three steps is simple:

• Delegate. Choose the work that you can’t do yourself and pass it off to the right person. If you’re bad with flowcharts, for example, don’t struggle through creating one yourself. Choose the colleague who can best create the needed diagram.
• Assign. Schedule a video conference with the appropriate staff person and go over the task with them carefully. Face to face communication is essential when you’re giving specific instructions.
• Accomplish. Get the work done and then touch base for an update. Assess how the flow of the delegation functioned, and highlight the most effective parts of communication for future reference.

3. Accommodating Diverse Work Styles

Different types of people use different planning systems, and there’s a good chance you probably fall into one of the main categories. In an article on Business 2 Community, social media strategist Penney Fox terms two of the most common approaches as “Digital Doer” and “Visual Workspace.” The first type describes an approach by someone who focuses on digital aids, like apps or a smartphone, to keep track of tasks. The latter type is all about visual cues and elements of organization, such as printing out lists or using post-its at a workstation.

Whether you’re pulling a Digital Doer or Visual Workplace, using video conferencing can achieve both of these goals. Acclimating to colleagues’ different approaches to work and organization can be a challenge, but by providing both a visual and digital connection to information, you’ll be able to more easily engage with all your colleagues. You may encounter someone who finds the auditory cue of speaking helpful when retaining information, or the type of coworker who records deadlines and goals in a smartphone as the meeting progresses. Regardless, having an in-person meeting, whether over video or in a physical conference room, helps to effectively convey information in multiple ways.

4. When Text Doesn’t Cut It

Sometimes, an e-mail thread discussing a company project can become exciting, but it can get so complex that e-mail is no longer effective. This type of idea trading can escalate to the point where video conferencing is the only way to go. Whether you’re exchanging intricate ideas or your dialogue with a colleague is simply going too fast for text-based communication, video conferencing is just as good as seeing each other in person when you’re in the process of collaborating. The ability to interact face to face is underrated. Having visual cues, facial expressions, and voice makes collaborative discussions far more productive and clear.

Collaboration is the creative lifeblood of any company, and you want to use the best tools out there to maximize the potential of your staff. Video conferencing delivers multiple opportunities to more effectively convey information and ideas.