Kung Hey Fat Choy 恭禧發財- Happiness and Prosperity!

On February 8th 2016, the Chinese year of the Monkey begins. Every year is governed by a different animal (in a cycle of twelve) and each animal has different qualities and prospects. The Chinese horoscope tells us that these will have influence for the whole year.

We’ve picked out some tips for how to enhance your collaboration in this exciting year of the Monkey.

1. The Monkey is thirsty for knowledge

The Monkey will boost your ability to find and share knowledge. People will be bursting to find out more, to search for additional information and be prepared to spend time looking for it. The easier you make it for them to find that information, the happier they will be. This is a very good year to put your data and information into the cloud for everyone in your organisation to share. They will thank you for it, and be particularly helpful in making it happen.

2. The Monkey is good at developing new ideas, but tends to lose focus

Give people the means to share and discuss new ideas with facilities like online whiteboards. Encourage them to form idea development groups based around finding solutions to particular problems.

Keep the Monkey in check through having a strong information management approach that allows your team to add new ideas, but keeps things well managed through focussed groups, document version control etc. Most collaboration solutions have automatic version control that, if properly implemented, can do this for you.

3. The Monkey loves to communicate

Share activities like adding new documents etc. by using all the functions available in your online collaboration system, so that everyone knows what is going on. Encourage involvement in online document development and project management. Utilize automatic communication options and notify other people of updates and additions to your documents and other activities. Mange this well so that your team always knows what is going on, but without overwhelming them.

4. The Monkey likes to move fast and make quick decisions

This gives you a great opportunity to implement new approaches and tackle new opportunities. Perhaps you could pilot a new idea or unconventional solution?

The Monkey can be a little mischievous too, so you would be wise to assess your risks before starting anything new. But don’t let this put you off, because:

5. The Monkey is quick-witted and clever

Your ability to overcome problems is enhanced this year, and your capability for problem solving is also greater. Use your collaboration system for eBrainstorming to exploit this. There are dozens of idea generation tools and techniques that you can use in a virtual environment; a good collaboration system will give you a mechanism for recording ideas and sharing them e.g. whiteboards. Focussing on getting lots of ideas will hook into the Monkey’s enhancement of your problem solving abilities to find lots of new and innovative solutions.

This is especially useful if you are starting anything new, where you will have new problems that need new solutions.

6. The Monkey is optimistic

Optimism is an asset in that it will help smooth the wheels of most transactions. Optimism increases your sense of well-being, increases productivity and reduces stress. Happy people will spread their sense of positivity to your customers too, resulting in more business.

It is often easier to implement change e.g. to new ways of working, during a time of optimism. Make the most of this by communicating well (the Monkey likes full information and lots of communication.)

So if you are considering a move to online collaboration, this is a good year to do it!

7. The Monkey is generous

This is good news in terms of sharing information. The Monkey will encourage fuller sharing of information, something that is very helpful when moving to an online collaboration system. In the year of the Monkey, people will be more cooperative too.

Whether or not you believe in the influence of Zodiacs on our lives, we hope that you found a few good tips here.

Glasscubes is a UK based collaboration tool that supports a full range of cloud based options. Find out more about how they can help you manage your day-to-day working environment safely and effectively by calling +44 (0)20 3274 2310 or contacting us at enquiries@glasscubes.com.