You’re struggling to work collaboratively in Manufacturing Engineering. How can you improve your ability?

1 Assess your strengths and weaknesses

The first step to improving your collaboration ability is to identify your own strengths and weaknesses as a team player. You can use self-assessment tools, such as the Belbin Team Roles, to understand your preferred role and contribution in a team, as well as your potential pitfalls and areas for improvement. You can also ask for feedback from your colleagues, managers, or mentors on how you perform in a team setting and what you can do better. By knowing yourself better, you can leverage your strengths and address your weaknesses in a collaborative environment.

2 Communicate effectively and respectfully

Successful collaboration in manufacturing engineering requires effective communication, which involves the sharing of information, ideas, opinions, and feedback with various people across different functions and levels. To ensure that communication is respectful and effective, it's important to use clear and concise language that avoids jargon and ambiguity. Additionally, one should actively listen to others and acknowledge their perspectives and concerns. Asking open-ended questions and seeking clarification when needed will also help ensure effective communication. Furthermore, expressing one's views and suggestions constructively and diplomatically is essential, as is avoiding interrupting, dominating, or criticizing others. Lastly, the appropriate channels and tools should be used depending on the purpose and urgency of the communication - such as emails, phone calls, video conferences, or online platforms.

3 Align your goals and expectations

When working collaboratively in manufacturing engineering, it is essential to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding the goals and expectations of the project. To do this, you need to clarify and agree on the scope, objectives, deliverables, timeline, roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, standards, procedures, metrics, risks, assumptions, constraints, communication protocols and reporting frequency with your team members and stakeholders. Through aligning your goals and expectations, you can prevent confusion, conflicts and delays in the project execution and delivery.

4 Embrace diversity and inclusion

Working collaboratively in manufacturing engineering means interacting with people who have diverse backgrounds, experiences, skills, personalities, and cultures. This diversity can bring innovation and creativity, but it can also lead to misunderstanding and friction. To embrace diversity and inclusion, you should recognize the value of each team member and stakeholder, respect the differences and similarities among people, encourage the participation of everyone in the team, address any issues or conflicts that may arise from diversity in a respectful manner, and promote a culture of trust, openness, and mutual learning in the team.

5 Learn and grow together

Working collaboratively in manufacturing engineering is an opportunity to learn and grow together as professionals and as a team. To enhance your collaboration ability, you should seek and provide feedback regularly and honestly, share your knowledge, skills, and resources with others, celebrate your achievements and successes as a team, identify and pursue opportunities for continuous improvement and development, and reflect on your collaboration experience to apply the lessons learned to future projects.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?