For a mompreneur who hustles hard to create the opportunity to “work from home,” the idea of paying to work in a physical space outside the home might seem a little counterintuitive. However, coworking spaces are springing up around the country offering a diverse range of services and membership options. Perhaps it’s time to consider these five compelling reasons a membership at a coworking space might make sense for you.

1. Networking, networking, networking

Networking is the lifeblood of many small businesses. Unfortunately, it can often feel like a full-time job in itself. Happy hours, meet-ups, lunch bunches, and seminars offer invaluable opportunities to connect with other entrepreneurs—and can also eat up a significant chunk of the work day and cut into valuable family time in the evening.

Hannah Walker, Director of Operations and Community for WorkHub in Tyler, Texas, believes that shared workspaces offer working women an easy way to network efficiently. “For businesses that depend on word of mouth and personal referrals, the opportunity to make casual connections throughout the day with other writers, web builders, start-ups, entrepreneurs and industry reps is huge,” she says. “People want variety and the ability to change up their environment and collaborate with people outside their industry, so we provide a place for that to happen seamlessly.”

Networking occurs in two different ways at shared workspaces: through the natural relationships that develop while working in close physical proximity with others and through organized programming that occurs onsite. Sharing a pod or chatting at the coffee machine creates opportunities for mompreneurs to forge authentic connections with other like-minded business people during the workday or while attending sponsored happy hours. Classes and events offer convenient ways to expand and cement those relationships as well.

2. Restores work-life balance

Working from home can lead to blurred lines and messy boundaries between the two spheres. A coworking membership can help restore the balance between work and home—and even increase productivity.

Hannah Phillips, a freelance writer from Idaho and pregnant mother of a six-year-old admits that her desire to multitask often exacerbates procrastination and sabotages efficiency. “It’s like that book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I tell myself that I’m just starting a load of laundry before sitting down to work, but next thing I know I’m neck deep in a household project and half the day is gone. Then I end up working in the evening to meet my deadline when I’d rather be enjoying my family.”

Coworking spaces minimize distractions, providing a flexible structure that allows many remote workers to buckle down and get things done. When someone else is responsible for brewing the coffee, changing the printer toner and emptying the wastebaskets, you can focus on your work during business hours—and then go home and take out your own trash.

“I find that when I’m sitting at an actual desk, with an ergonomic chair, surrounded by other people who are hard at work, I’m so much more efficient than when I’m at home, sitting at my kitchen table, surrounded by my son’s Legos,” says Phillips.

3. Puts a professional sheen on everything you do

Have you ever arranged a business meeting at a coffee shop only to arrive and find every seat already taken or attempted to participate in a video conference at the exact time your home internet fails? While relatively minor, logistical and technological fails like these can undermine the professionalism you’re attempting to project to prospective clients or peers.

Fully-equipped workspaces, complete with conference rooms, video projectors, hi-speed internet, scanners, double-sided printing and bottomless cups of coffee at the ready can go a long way toward cultivating the image of an established, successful company. According to Walker, these amenities “bring a level of legitimacy to your business and having a place where for client meetings where everything goes smoothly can make all the difference.”

4. Flexibility

When you don’t know the long-term future of your company, the month-to-month membership at a coworking space can make a lot of fiscal sense. Furthermore, many coworking spaces allow you to change your level of membership as needed and can drastically reduce your overhead.

Walker notes that coworking space rental can save small business and start-ups from committing to too much, too quickly. “You don’t know if you’re going to be around in three to five years, which is the type of lease that many office spaces want. A shared workspace guarantees that you’ll have a place to conduct your business, equipped with every resource you need and without being locking into burdensome leases, contracts and unnecessary services that you can’t afford.”

5. Social outlet…or peace and quiet

Finally, coworking spaces provide an easy remedy for the feelings of isolation and loneliness that can often arise from working at home. Or for busy mompreneurs who are looking for a little peace and quiet, coworking spaces offer that, too.

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Post Author: Kathryn Smith
Website: www.zenefits.com

Adapted from the Works of By Haley Chouinard

“Figuring out how WorkSocial create spaces that meet all these needs, that’s a core aspect of the business,” says Natasha. “It’s all about the experience, I think. Obviously, we’re providing a space for people to work in, but when you step off the elevator, we want you to be in a space that’s unlike any other office you’ve ever been to.”

Committed to that idea of uniqueness, the design department also employs around 5 artists and graphic designers, who oversee the curation of art in each office and, when the space calls for it, create original works.

At this point, calling WeWork a startup feels a little tongue-in-cheek. The international co-working enterprise now boasts 701 locations in 28 countries and 121 cities, with the promise of more coming soon. It’s valued at $47 billion and has even garnered a spoof (featuring a knock-off venture called “SheWork”) on Comedy Central’s late, beloved Broad City. It’s less of a startup now and more of a force of nature. To build out those hundreds of spaces, WeWork has amassed an equally behemoth design department, employing a whopping 270 architects and 240 interior designers at last count.

 The interior of a WeWork in San Francisco.Courtesy of WeWork

Design has been a key tenant of WeWork since it was founded in 2010. One of the company’s co-founders, Miguel McKelvey, has a background in architecture, so it was crucial to him that WeWork prioritize the design of its spaces. From the beginning, the company always made room for an in-house design team. “There has always been this big push to hire not only interior designers but also bring in more experienced architects from established firms with a broader background, allowing us to specialize the things that make a WeWork,” says Elizabeth Wisecarver, the company’s global head of design.

The company started out looking for designers and architects with experience designing for retail, but have expanded their criteria over the years. “This department has been able to evolve into something that resembles a more traditional design company,” Wisecarver tells BOH. The team boasts talent at all experience levels and utilizes a project manager on each office, similar to the way a design firm would operate. “What we pride ourselves on is that we’re able to have not only interior designers, but architects, engineers, lighting designers—we have a much more diverse group than you’d find at a typical firm.”

Across all its many locations, from Hong Kong to Israel and Costa Rica, WeWork’s design team has key concepts to keep in mind. A WeWork must be: original, timeless, unpretentious, elegant, functional, comfy and fun, according to Wisecarver.

While differences between a WeWork in New York and one in Chicago might not be so drastic, the contrast between spaces in those cities and an office in Hong Kong would be evident.

An office in San Francisco. Courtesy of WeWork

“In Tokyo, we built a sunken seating area, which you would often see in some of the more traditional spaces in Tokyo and we were able to incorporate that into a lounge in that office,” says Wisecarver, who worked closely on the development of the company’s Asian presence. “People take their shoes off and they have meetings there and, later in the day, they might have happy hour there. It’s a very local touch that really elevated the project but still had the same look and feel that we would have anywhere.”

The co-working boom doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, which means Wisecarver’s team is likely to keep growing and continue to play an integral part in maintaining the allure of working at a WeWork.

“These are places that should feel like home, where you can bring guests and business partners in and it's not only beautiful but it's functional. In a lot of ways I think that’s an important thing, to not be so uptight. Creating that experience is a really critical part of our brand and a lot of thought has been and will continue to be put into that.”

A quick Google search on missed tax deductions will bring up articles listing anywhere from seven to as many as 50 commonly missed tax deductions. Indeed, the tax code's extreme complexity makes it highly likely that small business owners will miss tax deductions that could reduce their obligation, enabling them to reinvest more money in growth and operations.

As a small business owner, you can educate yourself in addition to consulting a tax professional to help ensure that your bookkeeping and tax preparation is well-suited to ensure that you claim all the deductions your organization is entitled to. Below you will find six of the top tax and bookkeeping books for small business owners.

6 Top Tax and Bookkeeping Books for Small Business Owners

1. Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out of TroubleAuthored by a C.P.A. (Certified Public Accountant), this book is written for the small business owner or self-employed professional. The author covers a wide range of topics including best practices for bookkeeping and taxes, financing, finding a good business location, pros and cons of various business models and more written in clear, easy-to-understand language.
   
   This could be an ideal book for someone who is preparing to open their own business or whose business is still in its early phases, since it provides guidance that can help with many of the decisions that new business owners face.
2. Taxes: For Small Businesses QuickStart Guide – Understanding Taxes For Your Sole Proprietorship, Startup, & LLCSmall business owners represent a variety of business models. This book is an excellent guide for sole proprietors, independent contractors and startup LLC business owners that want to gain a broad understanding of how the tax code applies to their organization. Some of the topics covered include:
   • How to keep accurate records
   • When and how to handle payroll taxes
   • Frequently-missed deductions
   • Common tax mistakes small business owners make
   • How to handle contact with the IRS
   This book is available in print and digital formats and is even available for free to members of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program. It also has the advantage of being concise and brief, delivering a lot of useful information to small business owners very quickly.
3. Independent Contractor, Sole Proprietor, and LLC Taxes Explained in 100 Pages or LessAnother book that is free to Amazon Kindle Unlimited members and written so that the information contained in it can be quickly absorbed, this book acts as an introductory primer on tax topics as they apply to business; such as:
   • Home office deductions
   • Estimating tax payments
   • Self-employment taxes
   • Business retirement plans
   • Common business tax deductions
   • Audit protection and preparation
   The book's author, Mike Piper, is a C.P.A. in Colorado who has published numerous other books on finance, and whose writing has been featured in acclaimed digital and print publications including The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, AARP Magazine, Forbes, CBS News, MarketWatch and others.
   ‍
4. J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes 2019: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom LineFor small business owners that want to gain a deep understanding of small business taxes, this guide authored by Attorney Barbara Weltman (nationally recognized as an expert in small business taxation) offers a comprehensive look at small business taxes that is up to date with 2016 information. The book is described as a "solution manual for streamlined tax time and substantial tax savings" that will allow readers to:
   • Simplify the tax season so they can remain focused on their business
   • Reduce tax obligations easily and legally
   • Find the answers that are most relevant to their organizations
   • Better understand when and how deductions should be taken
     ‍
5. The Tax and Legal Playbook: Game-Changing Solutions to Your Small-Business QuestionsSmall business owners looking for answers to specific questions should check out The Tax and Legal Playbook written by CPA and Attorney Mark J. Kohler. This book "answers the leading tax and legal questions facing small business owners, across all stages of business…"In it you will find information about how to choose the right legal entity for your business as well as under-utilized tax and legal strategies that can generate substantial savings. It also covers common legal scams and deceptions and provides information about how to protect small business and personal assets.
   ‍
6. 475 Tax Deductions for Businesses and Self-Employed Individuals: An A-to-Z Guide to Hundreds of Tax Write-OffsWith 475 tax deductions outlined as potentially beneficial for small business owners and self-employed professionals, this book might be the ultimate collection to assist in business tax preparation. Read it cover to cover to familiarize yourself with all the deductions that a business could take or consult it when you have questions about specific topics.

Even if you are working with a C.P.A. or tax professional, educating yourself on the taxes and deductions that might apply to your small business could lead to significant savings and help ensure your organization's bookkeeping and taxes are being done according to best practices. What you learn could keep your business out of trouble and enable you to reinvest more of the revenue it generates in growth and operations.

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Also known as "employability skills," soft skills can determine whether a candidate will be a good fit for your company.‍

Executive chairman of Starbucks Howard Schultz once said, "Hiring people is an art, not a science. And resumes cannot tell you whether someone will fit into a company's culture." This astute observation by the American businessman sums up the importance of assessing a job seeker for their soft skills–not just what's on paper.

WHAT ARE SOFT SKILLS?

Soft skills, also known as "employability skills" are defined by Business Dictionary as "a group of essential abilities that involve the development of a knowledge base, expertise level, and mind-set that is increasingly necessary for success in the modern workplace."

For any new recruit to fit into your corporate culture and be productive, soft skills are prerequisite. While resumes may sound impressive, assessing a job seeker for soft skills plays a key role in promoting effectiveness in a company's hiring process.

But how do you assess something so intangible? Use the following nine factors to create questions that assess for the soft skills you need from future employees.

HOW TO ASSESS A CANDIDATE'S SOFT SKILLS

1. Professionalism. The first impression a jobseeker imparts speaks a lot about themselves. A jobseeker that walks in with a disheveled appearance and salty language, for example, may not take their role seriously enough. What's more, they could make other employees and customers uncomfortable with their behavior.

‍2. Body language. Body language betrays a lot. Observing body language will enable you to learn a bit about a job seeker's interpersonal skills. Also, it can help inform whether the interviewee is lying or answering a question honestly. Jittery jobseekers are generally diffident about themselves and unsure whether they can meet your standards. They doubt their own abilities and may end up as underperformers.

‍3. Problem-solving skills. Regardless of the nature of your business, problem-solving skills are essential for every employee. Candidates who cannot troubleshoot are unable to provide customer care, address issues faced by business associates, or assist colleagues and seniors in the event of any internal problems. Include a couple of questions about how the job seeker would solve a problem. The answer may not be the most thorough, given time constraints of an interview, but it will help you assess this vital skill.

‍4. Awareness about major issues. Your future employee need not be an encyclopedia. Yet, it is vital they know about major issues affecting the world, country, and local economy. Knowledge about these issues and opinions suggest that the job seeker is alert and responsive. It also indicates adaptability to adverse situations, since such candidates will usually possess abilities to respond effectively. Issues and opinions can reflect traits such as positivity, skepticism, and negative thoughts. Admittedly, these thoughts may vary according to the issue. A candidate may be positive about something or negative about another. Yet, such awareness would also help you judge the overall traits since every flip side also has positives.

‍5. Memberships of clubs/organizations. Memberships of clubs and organizations are a clear indicator of a candidate's social and collaborative skills. Such employees generally tend to become great team players. Additionally, it also indicates the candidate spends time on constructive activities such as sports, hobby, or even politics.

‍6. Psychometric tests. An increasing number of employers worldwide now utilize psychometric tests to gauge a candidate's behavior and mental aptitude for a job. They enable you to assess the cognitive capabilities of a job seeker required for any post in an organization. Additionally, psychometric tests help a company to assess an applicant's analytical and pedagogic skills essential for any role. They are particularly useful in finding hidden traits of a job seeker that are often missed during an interview. However, there are debates worldwide over the effectiveness of these tests to assess soft skills and hidden talents as well as negative traits of an individual. Some psychologists and HR experts vouch for their reliability, while others claim the results provide inconclusive results that can mar career prospects of good candidates–so if you choose to use them, do so cautiously.

‍7. Company knowledge. Quizzing a candidate over knowledge about your company as well as past employers, if any, is another effective way to assess their soft skills. Answers indicate an interest in the profession and industry. They will also show whether an interviewee is well prepared and is serious about the job or is eyeing the vacancy merely as another employment option. Sometimes, the answer can also reveal traits such as willingness to adapt to a new work environment and spirit of collaboration to ensure personal success as well as that of your organization.

‍8. Composure under stress. The ability to work under stress is critical for many positions, especially when hiring for more senior roles. One good way to evaluate this skill is by asking a candidate to tell you about a stressful period at work and how they responded. You can also simply evaluate their behavior during the interview. Fumbling to respond or getting frustrated indicate the person may have a hard time working under stress or pressure.

‍9. Ability to work with diverse groups. Companies, just like the country in general, have become increasingly diverse in recent years. Walk into any major employer and you'll find people of all different backgrounds, educations, and beliefs collaborating and thriving together. So if an employee has a hard time working with anybody who thinks or acts differently than them, it can be hard for them to succeed. Ask candidates how they have collaborated with people who have had very different perspectives than them. If their answer suggests that they steamrolled others' ideas or refused to listen to them, they probably won't perform well in a diverse team.

Modern workplaces demand that all employees possess soft skills. Indeed, soft skills can be more difficult to acquire than professional degrees and experience. Without them, any hard skills are far less valuable. So when screening candidates, don't just try to uncover how well they know a particular software program or platform–get to the heart of how they interact with others.

Credit: www.fastcompany.com

the problem: “Not every company has the ability, the funds, the know how, the team and infrastructure to roll programs that create an awesome experience”

There is a relationship link between a company’s employee and customer experience. Leaders in evolved companies are seeing that Companies are focused on keeping their employees happy keep their customers happy. One of my mentors once told me “satisfied customers leave but raving fans sell your product”.

Often, the first opportunity to do so is with some sort of employee orientation for new recruits, experienced hires and at training.Click here to see how How Deloitte’s $300 Million Investment In Employee Experience Is Paying Off. WorkSocial’s corporate training room in NJ was designed to help small companies to create an immersive and memorable experience that quickly convinces employees that they made the right career move. “Our goal was to target companies with 10 to 50 employees,”says Natasha Mohan founder and CEO of WorkSocial. “To my surprise our client roster include all company sizes from 10 to 10,000”

What makes us special is that on one side we have a full portfolio of Clients and an extensive portfolio of trainers. “So a company may reach our to us and learn of our facility. In one instance, an Learning and Development manager (from a Fortune 100 Company), Jamie, was looking for Negotiation Training. “This was already on the schedule and she quickly booked 10 seats. So instead of paying $50,000 they paid $10,000. During our call Jamie learned that we had a Corporate Tax training using ONESOURCE.” In September 2019 Jamie is attending WorkSocial signed up for corporate tax automation training.”

When we opened first in 2015, we thought our clients persona would be of a entrepreneur trying to launch a business. Our first client was Accenture. So it made sense to quickly open a training space. Our mission was to connect the entrepreneurs of the world. We wanted to do this by bringing purpose to people’s work.

We have seen that company leadership want to see their professionals become experts to industry and technical skills. We achieved this by investing $3 million into a state of the art learning space. This is the largest investment for employee development by a coworking history. “Wework is proud to introduce software, applications and frat-houses. We are focused on creating office solutions that can eliminate the pressure and noise of office management.”

Today, new employees come to WorkSocial within the first 90 days of their employment, and attend programs hosted by companies like Global Knowledge, Simon Sinek, and NetCom Learning. Last year, nearly 10,000 people participated in SAP, Oracle, Sales and soft-skills training .

Our learning Center creates “a leadership culture… designed towards developing the leaders of tomorrow.” This is particularly appealing to younger generations such as Millennial’s and Generation-Z. The Participants who attend WorkSocial training sessions are taught by other trained trainers who not only have real work experience but also are training professionals.

Based on industry analysis WorkSocial’s investment is bound to payoff. Studies show companies will spend more than $1 Trillion on employee education and enablement.

The WorkSocial facility is located in Jersey City, NJ in an upscale AAA building that is home to companies like JPMC and SS&C.

WorkSocial coworking space Jersey City has 2 classrooms and 2 Conference Rooms. WorkSocial also has room blocks with Hotels like Marriott, Westin, and the Hyatt.

“Our goal is to make everything seamless so they can be focused in the classroom [and not] have to worry about airport transportation, eating, WiFi,” she said. “We are very purposeful in every single one of those decisions in order to make that seamless experience happen.” That includes non-educational aspects of the experience, such as wellness breaks, meditation, bicycle and walking trails, and more.

Some of the other perks:

1. Free snacks and drinks
2. Chef curated meals
3. No hidden charges
4. Quick access to the airport and Manhattan

When a client arrives at Workocial the goal is to immediately take care of everything the second they get there. WorkSocial continually monitors “guest experience.” WorkSocial has some 90+ 5 star reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook and Bing.

To Schedule a training Click Here

Coworking spaces rent to both individuals and groups, offer unique amenities, and attract movers and shakers in droves. In other words, they’re like the Airbnb of office real estate. But where Airbnb offers bedding, a full kitchen, and other homey amenities, a coworking office spaces can provide a sense of community and a place to work, which might just be better than the buzzy home rental platform.

Finding the right space

Just like Airbnb offers a platform to rent out apartments and homes, various spaces within the coworking industry connect users to open desks, offices, and team rooms. The benefit is twofold: Individuals and small teams gain access to space that is both more customized than coffee shops and cheaper than full leases, and coworking businesses get to rent out their unused office space and foster a community of growth and innovation.

For freelancers and digital workers, coworking offers a new approach to working. We all know it can be hard to get work done in our own home or apartment, but finding a space in a coffee shop or library can be stifling; maybe there aren’t enough outlets, there’s one bathroom, or you simply can’t find an open table. Coworking spaces alleviate this. Teams of any size, too, canz benefit from rented suites or meeting rooms that offer WiFi, coffee, and a relaxed environment.

Finding the right space

Croissant is one of the most popular platforms, providing access to 80 different coworking spaces in cities across the U.S. A simple website and mobile app let you find and reserve a seat or office. All memberships last for a full month and give you a certain number of hours you can use between spaces in the Croissant network during that time.

LiquidSpace can connect you to desks,private offices, and meeting rooms on an hourly basis. If you need a space for a bit longer, they also offer desks, private offices, and office suites on a monthly basis. There are also tailored flexible solutions for larger companies who want customization in their workspace.

SharedDesk is yet another option that lets you filter se

arch results based on your work requirements and location. You can book spaces and pay online, so getting started is as easy as checking in and getting right to work. SharedDesk works with dozens of spaces and clearly lists the prices for all of them as you search. You can choose to rent a space hourly, daily, or monthly, just like on the other platforms.

Choosing coworking over tradition

While both a coworking space and a traditional office will have similar amenities, many people find their productivity increases in a coworking space, which fosters more ease than the classic office setting. Emotional health can also increase, since the environment is more relaxed, there are more seating options and there is often a sense of community. In many cases, coworking spaces are more affordable than traditional offices, especially for startups and entrepreneurs. Additional resources, such as talks with industry experts and networking opportunities, are also available

MIT professor Carlo Ratti, director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, will discuss how new digital tools are emerging to measure human connections and spatial behavior, and how workspace design can respond accordingly.

Previously, new digital communication technologies caused some theorists to predict “the death of distance” — liberating us from the office space. Today’s technology does allow global and instantaneous communication, but most of us still commute to offices for work every day. Why? Human aggregation, friction, and the interaction of our minds are vital aspects of work, especially in the creative industries.

Understanding how the workforce connects within a flexible working environment is crucial for designing and operating next-generation offices. In a recent webinar, "How Future Workspaces Will Improve Productivity and Creativity," MIT professor Carlo Ratti, director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, discussed how new digital tools are emerging to measure human connections and spatial behavior, and how design can respond accordingly.

‍In this webinar, viewers will learn:

1. How digital technologies and ubiquitous computing are transforming aspects of our everyday life, including the way we move, communicate, and work.
2. How co-working — demonstrating the value of sharing a space with a community of like-minded people, facilitating human aggregation — requires the design of new office spaces.
3. How real-time data analytics paired with digitally integrated furniture and buildings may enable the creation of workplaces that respond dynamically.

Why Should Companies Embrace Coworking?

The coworking movement developed to provide community and a collaborative working environment for independent and remote workers. It’s a trend some established companies are learning from.

Advances in technology have made it possible for many white-collar knowledge workers to do their jobs from virtually anywhere. But anywhere still means somewhere, and finding the right place is not always easy.

Some people try working out of a home office but end up feeling too lonely. Others experiment with coffee shops or hotel lobbies but find too many distractions. Now many people are turning toward coworking spaces — shared open office facilities where they hope to find the right balance of community and autonomy.

To understand the reasons for the popularity of this new way of working, our research team visited and interviewed community leaders or founders of two dozen coworking spaces around the United States. One team member also spent six months as a member of a space. We also garnered a broader and more representative perspective on coworking by analyzing the descriptions of a sample of more than 200 coworking spaces in the United States and Europe that were listed in an online directory of coworking facilities. In addition, we interviewed more than 30 people who belong to coworking spaces. These encounters gave us an insiders’ perspective on the experience of coworking and the challenges and opportunities of running coworking spaces.

Besides gaining insights into how people are using these new spaces to work and create new kinds of professional communities, we learned that some large, traditional companies are adopting certain aspects of coworking as part of their overall workplace strategies. Three trends in particular stood out.

Companies see sharing space as a way to tap into new ideas.

One of the key benefits cited by people using coworking spaces is the opportunity for serendipitous encounters with people from outside their own team or organization. This is part of the reason the office furniture manufacturer Steelcase participates in a co-working hub in Grand Rapids, Michigan called GRid70 that brings Steelcase’s workers together with employees from other large companies in the area — including Amway, Meijer, and Wolverine Worldwide. Each company has a dedicated space at GRid70, but all share the reception area, open workspaces, conference rooms, and kitchen facilities. “Our belief is that mixing creative teams from different industries will spawn ‘happy accidents’ that inspire innovation, new products, and different ways of thinking,” one Steelcase executive explained.

Emerging technologies enable virtual and distributed teams to communicate – and innovate – more effectively.

Multinational companies increasingly rely upon the work of virtual teams to manage their global intellectual assets and encourage innovation. Spanning functional, geographical and corporate boundaries, virtual team members work together on various projects but are based in different locations nationwide or worldwide. Virtual teams allow companies to leverage their global expertise, take the pulse of diverse markets, promote broader participation in key strategic decision making, increase job flexibility, lower travel costs and pool the knowledge of experts (Majchrzak et al., 2004a). The current economic and socio-political climate has made frequent face-to-face meetings a thing of the past, and because displacing functional and regional experts from the centers of their expertise is often problematic, many executives seek technological solutions to help their virtual teams maintain and sustain essential links. E-mail and conference calls have, until recently, formed the backbone of communications support for virtual groups, but these rudimentary technologies have been found to encourage miscommunication and the loss of crucial contextual information. Can e-mail and audioconferencing adequately support virtual teams, or do they need new technologies that assure a richer communication flow between participants? Research attention has begun to focus on how technologies mediate communication among virtual team members and suggests what technological features might be best suited to different work and cognitive situations.

The Need for Context

Much of the earliest research on support for virtual teams has focused on the use of technologies such as e-mail and audiocon-ferencing, informed by a theory referred to as “media richness” (Daft and Lengel, 1986). Media richness theory argues that some technologies allow more cues to be shared than others; according to this theory, e-mail allows few cues to be shared and is thus very constraining, while audiocon-ferencing allows a few more cues (such as tone, pauses and recognition utterances) but constrains referential integrity (such as when the speaker points to what is being talked about for emphasis, prioritization and focus). In addition to the lack of cues, e-mail exchanges often lead to what has been referred to as information asymmetry, when members engage in a one-to-one e-mail exchange not distributed to the entire team or when someone is intentionally or unintentionally left out of the e-mail list. The use of e-mail also often leads to information overload, resulting in messages being deleted without being read.

Unleashing Innovation With Collaboration Platforms

Digital collaboration platforms provide innovation opportunities for diverse and distributed teams.

In business, difficult problems mean companies need diverse expertise to innovate and problem solve. Take the biomedical engineering company EpiBone. Facing complex problems such as bone reconstruction and implantation, the company relies on knowledge from a diverse disciplinary team of scientists, engineers, clinicians, and entrepreneurs. CEO Nina Tandon describes how this diverse collaboration has put the company at the frontier of bone reconstruction: “We take two things from the patient: a tridimensional X-ray, and a sample of fat tissue so that we can extract stem cells out of it. We use these stem cells to fabricate a living bone on the basis of the data coming from the X-ray. After three weeks, we have a bone ready for implantation.”

Businesses guided by a similar imperative to innovate can also leverage diverse expertise, but their teams often face the challenge of geographical distribution. Recent research conducted by Gartner states that over 50% of team communication occurs through collaboration platforms.

Based on projected market values, collaboration software revenues are expected to grow by 40% between 2015 and 2022. Demand for collaboration platforms is already at an all-time high, particularly with the proliferation of SaaS-based subscription models. Established incumbents such as Microsoft (Teams), Cisco (Spark), and Facebook (Workplace) all compete in the team-collaboration platform space. As the race to support team innovation rages on, businesses should focus more on how their distributed teams orchestrate collaboration and the conditions team leaders create. The specific collaboration platforms they choose are less important.

We conducted a study of over 600 team members, team coordinators, and managers who use collaboration platforms. Team members filled out an online survey, rating the effectiveness of the collaboration platform for supporting team interactions, and assessing leadership behaviors of team coordinators. Team coordinators were given a questionnaire about their team’s ability to integrate knowledge, and team supervisors were surveyed on team innovation success.

Our results suggest there are two key factors or challenges that affect how much of a benefit teams get from collaboration platforms. The first factor is how well the collaboration platform supports activities needed to integrate team knowledge, despite geographically different locations. The second is whether team leaders can establish conditions that foster knowledge integration in a digital environment.

Ideal Collaboration Platforms

In organizations, success for teams requires fitting different individual knowledge bases and perspectives to particular problems and opportunities. Attempting to do this through a collaboration platform involves many considerations. Our analysis of survey data, corroborated with experiences shared during informal interactions with participants, shows that ideal collaboration platforms enable knowledge integration and therefore team innovation, by supporting three main aspects of teamwork: preparation, execution, and well-being.

Enable team preparation. Orchestrating the integration of diverse knowledge for innovation means teams need to set the stage for coordinated action. This need is particularly acute for distributed teams, because they cannot observe each other’s behavior beyond what happens on the collaboration platform. They also don’t have the advantage of understanding each other’s availability and needs, enjoyed by teams working in a single location.

Setting the stage entails reaching a common understanding of the team’s mission (What is our charge?), establishing team goals (What innovation outcome are we attempting to achieve?), defining team members’ roles and responsibilities (Who is responsible for what in this innovation process?), and formulating a strategy to achieve the innovative outcome (How do we get there?).

We found teams were better prepared to integrate diverse knowledge when the collaboration platform allowed them to document their mission and goals, roles and responsibilities, and create a process road map. Team members could access and revisit these documents on the go at their convenience. Having access to these documents gave more meaning to the independent actions taken by members who were subject matter experts in different knowledge domains. It also let them see the forest for the trees.

For example, one participant in the study underscored the importance of working with a collaboration platform that allows team members to have an immediate picture of who is responsible for what, and how each member fits with the overall goal. When team members are distributed across different geographical locations, they need to know each member’s role in the overall plan. Otherwise, you risk having team members rowing at 120% but in different directions.

Empower complex execution. Setting the stage is not enough. Complex problems, diverse experts, and a variety of information formats can complicate the process of collaboration. Platforms supporting a great breadth of media forms give teams more options. Knowledge can be exchanged and integrated via text, audio, video, images, virtual 3D environments, and shared whiteboards, among others. Our research shows that collaboration platforms supporting multiple formats gives teams the flexibility they need.

Team members also need to be able to coordinate their activities in terms of sequencing deliverables, evaluating results, and tracking progress. When platform technology does not support these activities, team members may tend to focus on their own local goals and overlook the team’s objectives. Teams need collaboration platforms that let them determine the availability of team members in real time, receive status updates when deliverables have been shared, and track how deliverables contribute to achieving key milestones in the innovation process.

Shared digital workspaces, combined with digital archives of the group’s work, should also allow team members to back each other up if the need arises. When problems emerge, teams may not be able to wait for unavailable members, especially when working across different locations and time zones. In one team we analyzed, a member noted the importance of being able to support team coordination by providing constant updates on who is doing what using the platform. They indicated that this real-time awareness of each member’s progress presented opportunities to course correct, whether to reassign tasks or reassess priorities and deadlines. This transparency allowed team members to respond immediately to unanticipated problems, and other team members could be made aware of actions taken to solve the issue.

Facilitate well-being. Collaboration is a human endeavor, and digital environments can be fraught with potential minefields that can derail a team’s innovation efforts. Innovation itself is difficult because there are no predefined solutions. This can lead to tensions and frustrations when teams face major headwinds. Teams composed of members with diverse expertise inherently bring different perspectives and understandings of problems and possible solutions — which can easily lead to conflict. Finally, work in digital spaces can be isolating, leading members to feel disconnected from social interactions.

Failure to empower team members to openly share their points of view can build resentment and leave members feeling like their ideas are not valued. Our study showed that team members are more likely to engage with each other to resolve impasses and misunderstandings when they feel the collaboration platform supports expressive communication forms. As an example, one member noted that emails are usually a source of conflict because of the misunderstandings that may emerge through written text when face-to-face interaction is lacking.

Collaboration platforms that afford members a unified workspace to discuss, share opinions, and work jointly can be seen as the digital “watercooler.” Team members need visibility into all ongoing discussions and interactions so they don’t feel left out.

Leading People, Not Platforms

Giving distributed teams of experts a digital collaboration platform doesn’t always mean success. It’s common for leadership to focus on enforcing use of the tool, given the investment an organization might make in acquiring a collaboration platform. However, our study suggests that leaders cannot stop at simply implementing a collaboration platform. They must play a central role in enabling innovation, by providing a vision of the future and nurturing a climate of fairness, where team members can express their views and treat each other with respect.

Leaders need to ignite inspiration in their team, by setting the vision for what the innovation will achieve and inspiring them to make the most of their diverse expertise. Our study shows that inspirational messages from leadership reinforces team members’ willingness to try new problem-solving approaches. Such messages also encourage them to innovate through continuous recombination of their expertise.

When leaders promote an atmosphere of fairness, team members feel empowered to provide and request feedback, even if they are physically isolated and have little visibility into interactions that might occur off-platform. Leaders should ensure transparency about how decisions are made within the team and encourage team members to have accountability for their interactions — such transparency will guarantee nobody feels left out in the innovation process.

As with many user-facing technology decisions, managers and team leaders need to consider both the complexities of the work being done and the people doing that work. In making these decisions, leaders need to shift their emphasis to people utilizing these collaboration platforms.

The key to achieving innovation success through collaboration platforms — make it about the people — not the technology.