As a business owner, the onus is on you to empower your workers with everything they need to do their jobs. You may not believe it, but it’s true that many employees don’t even know how to make their own work easier.
That’s why you have to do it for them. A lot of them may choose to do things one way. It’s up to you to show them things can be done using a simpler or a more comprehensive approach.
While there are so many ways to empower employees, we’ll be focusing on using the visual approach in this post.
Talk about stuff like mind maps, flowcharts, screenshots, videos, etc. In this post, we’re going to be looking at how visual collaborations can help empower your workers.
How to use Visual Collaboration to Strengthen Your Employees
1. Project Description and Project Planning
Best visual collaboration tool for this: A Flowchart
How many times have you experienced delays in task execution in your organization? What about mistakes, wastage, and other organizational shortcomings?
I’m guessing they happen from time to time.
Many a time, these things happen because of a lack of clarity, improper designation of tasks, and imperfect workflows.
Embrace visualization to change the narrative today. You can use visuals to communicate project scopes, assign tasks, and showcase how tasks will be executed.
Clear visuals like flowcharts can help employees understand who’s working on what, which individual is slacking on duty, or how to approach projects.
A simple swimlane flowchart can help workers see all the individual players working on a project or how various aspects of a project connect. And with that, they can get a clearer view of how to go about things. As you’ll agree, once projects are well defined, it will be hard to record mistakes or for anyone to dodge their responsibilities.
Use this free flowchart maker to get started with flowchart creation today.
2. Brainstorming and Ideation
Best visual collaboration tool for this: Mind Maps, sticky notes, whiteboards
From time to time, you will likely need your employees to come up with sparks of ideas. Don’t leave them to do that with just their heads and a sheet of paper.
Equip them with a visualization tool like a mind map. With a visual ideation tool, workers can creatively brainstorm new ideas or come together to expand existing ones.
For example, they can use a digital whiteboard to express tons of ideas and then have each team member contribute their input. When new ideas pop up, or someone offers something insightful, they can use sticky notes to pen things down.
It is easier to make sense of a problem or come up with a solution when you have a ton of sticky note ideas staring at you in the face than when you have to imagine everything in your head.
3. Bottleneck Eradication
Best visual collaboration tool for this: A flowchart
It is not uncommon to find duplicated operations in an organization’s workflow. Like doing the same thing multiple times or spending more time on tasks that could be completed faster.
Usually, bottlenecks arise as a result of gaps in the workflow.
The good news is visuals like flowcharts can help remove these gaps. How? Someone quips.
Flowcharts, as you know them, help to clearly define processes and the steps involved in them. When the entire team has a clear vision of the workflow, it becomes easy to identify gaps in these workflows, unlike when you can’t even picture what’s happening.
For example, if a worker is absent for the day and the day’s operation needs to go through their desk. A flowchart of the day’s workflow can help the team quickly spot the role the absent worker plays. And with that, they can find someone else to fill the void or look for ways to remove the step completely.
4. Effective Feedback and Intra-Organizational Communication
Best visual collaboration tool for this: Screenshots, pictures, clips, etc.
Communication between workers is key for every organization, especially in this age where companies operate hybrid work systems.
To ensure clarity of messaging between your work from home workers and in-office workers, you need to promote effective communication amongst everyone. And a good way to achieve that is with the use of visuals.
Instead of limiting communications to verbal interactions or textual content (emails), inculcate the habit of using visual elements like images, screenshots, and videos.
For example, say a customer ordered an item, and the order has to be passed from one department to another. Rather than sending the order details via a textual message, the attendant can share a screenshot of the order page with the right department.
Here’s another example. Imagine that a worker is trying to communicate a process to their colleague. Rather than sending an email or putting a call through to them, they can share a video clip of the concept.
5. Harmony in the Workplace
Best visual collaboration tool for this: Videos
Stop assuming that employees should know what to do in all cases. Sometimes, they need clarity on what to do or how to go about things. Even when you think some groups are clear about the task at hand, others may not be in sync.
That’s where videos come in.
Videos are a perfect way of making sure nothing is left open to interpretation. By sharing the right videos within your workforce, you equip workers with everything they need to know at any given point in time. When confused, they have something to revert to for guidance.
For example, a new employee who’s just learning the ropes of your operations can be aided by a video. They can watch videos of how things are done or clips of others at work. With that, they will understand the rudiments of the organization, as well as how their role relates to others.
6. Collaboration in the Workplace
Best visual collaboration tool for this: Visual annotation tools
There are some tools that let you write directly on images or leave comments as annotations in videos. Incorporate these tools in your workflow to encourage swift communication amongst workers. Today business communication tools actually make a difference.
Sometimes, workers may want to make reference to a point made in an image or video. Having the ability to provide annotated comments directly on the image or video can be a great way to communicate their points with the rest.
7. Improved Quality of Meetings (Physical and Virtual)
Best visual collaboration tool for this: Digital or physical whiteboards, flowcharts, maps, video clips, etc.
Many workers complain that organizational meetings are usually boring. Do you also notice a disinterest from your workers when you call for meetings?
“Distance make things uncontrollable than you might actually think, but at the same time losing trust on the other hand worsen the catch.” – According to Andrei, Co-Founcer of Dontpayfull
Visual collaboration tools can help you change the narrative today.
If you’re calling in-person meetings, you can improve engagement and eradicate boredom by doing more showing than talking. Rather than bore employees with long talks, incorporate presentations in tandem with visual tools like video clips, images, flowcharts, maps, etc.
If you’re calling virtual meetings, you can use the digital versions of the above.
The idea is to give attendants something to keep their eyes focused on. As you’ll agree, it’s easier to focus on a chart on a board than to pay attention to someone saying something you probably already know.
How to Encourage Workers to Use Visual Elements
It is going to take some getting used to for workers to accept the new approach of visual collaboration. Heck, some might even be stuck in the old way of doing things.
For instance, a worker that’s used to textual communication may be reluctant to accept your recommendation for visual communication. It’s up to you as the business owner to make everyone be on the same page.
So, how do you achieve that?
1. Teach and Train them to Use Visual Elements
Asking a worker that’s never read a flowchart before in their life to interpret a swimlane can be too much to ask. This is why you have to first take them through a period of training. It doesn’t have to be something rigorous. It can be as simple as a short explanatory video. Or if you have time, it can be a short hands-on training.
“Teaching is the most inspiring and developing task on earth.” According to Becky Usanga, the co-founder of Techy10
2. Make Them Feel Comfortable with It
Let workers feel comfortable creating, using, or interpreting visuals the way they’re most comfortable with.
If a worker feels they can’t sketch a nice-looking mind map to illustrate an idea, let them know it is ok to draw an ugly-looking one. If someone has trouble creating a flowchart, point them in the direction of a flowchart maker where they can find free templates.
By and large, make it so easy for workers to communicate and collaborate with visuals.
3. Show Examples
Finally, in the early stages of adoption, ensure you provide sufficient examples to guide workers on how to go about things.
Someone who hasn’t communicated with a flowchart, screenshot, or mind map before may have difficulty understanding when or how to use these things.
By showing examples – like case studies or use cases – workers can catch a proper glimpse of what they’re dealing with.
