Your network is your net worth. It’s a saying that has been repeated multiple times by many successful people but how do we go about it? Where do I start? Here’s an easy one, Let’s start by networking in a co-working space and the different benefits to your network and eventually your net worth.

Co-working spaces bring about different people from different industries and backgrounds, and with more companies and employees choosing to work remotely, more people are choosing to work in co-working spaces instead of the office. Like for example at From Here, we bring professionals and people with creative backgrounds together for our different events and being around people from different industries brings about so many benefits which we will elaborate on for you below:

– People coming from different industries and different backgrounds – With all types of professionals coming to work at these co-working spaces your next million-dollar advice could be one conversation away. Strike a convo over coffee with anyone at these spaces, you may never know what kind of advice or insight they can give you about your field or other industries you may want to branch out to.

– Your next client may be next to you already – You never know what kind of work or businesses the people who go to co-working spaces may be doing. They might be part of an advertising firm that is looking for a graphic designer to design their next advertisement for a client or a new business that is looking for someone to design their brand-new website. It’s all up to you to strike up a conversation, but getting to know someone from these spaces surely wouldn’t hurt and you never know that they could become your next biggest client.

– An environment for collaboration – Co-working spaces are a hub for collaboration. Collaboration is essential to the success of any project, As we have stated in our previous points you never know what type of collaborations you can foster by being around different people from industries and backgrounds. It’s always better to meet someone new in person than on the internet, and you never know what kind of collaboration by talking to someone new in these co-working spaces. 

– Other individuals with the same field and industry as yourself – you might see these people as competition but you never know how much insight you can learn from striking a conversation with someone in the same industry as yourself. You never know in these co-working spaces, you might find a fellow graphic designer or a fellow social media marketer and they may be able to give you some insight or tips on the industry that you are in. No one can possibly know everything about their field, so a conversation with someone like yourself could give you that insight or advice you may need to boost your current project. 

– Motivation – Being around other high-performing individuals, isn’t it fuel for you to do even better? Every person has their sense of competitiveness no matter how much we like it or not, we all have this. Being surrounded by other people adds fuel to that competitive spark that we may just need to motivate ourselves to do even better in our respective fields and where else can we get this but from a diverse work environment like a co-working space?

There are several benefits that we can name from working in a co-working space but these are the top that we have found out for your networking by being in a co-working space like From Here Cebu.

How to Create a Collaborative Work Environment

Creating a collaborative work environment, why do it and how does it benefit your companies productivity? The more comfortable your employees are the better the productivity is, a space that induces trust and openess allows employees to be productive, inspiring them to be collaborative and creative with the work that they do. So how do we go about this? Here are a few tips that we have found to help create this environment in your workspace 

Recognizing diversity – Diversity in a workplace cannot be avoided, especially in todays day and age where different cultures come together in one place. Respecting each and every employees background and culture allows them to be seen and more comfortable in their own respective work places.

Providing the right tools for your employees – Granting your employees the right tools and resources such as trainings, work tools, and the like gives a significant boost to their productivity making their work easier for themselves.

Create an open environment, judgement free and encouraging the sharing of ideas – Everyone wants to be heard and seen, through their ideas and own opinios making them feel valued as a person. Creating an environment that encourages this, allows every individual to feel seen making them feel more compelled to contribute to the community as a whole.

Create a strong sense of community – No man is an island, people thrive being part of a strong community that fosters growth and encouragement among their different members. Creating this kind of environment allows the workers to be more collaborative with each other and projects are done quicker with more than one person working on a specific task

Build trust and integritiy among each other – Building a strong foundation among the different employees through trust and integrity creates an environment that fosters growth and open communication between the different workers. This allows people to trust each other and creates the right environment for collaboration in the work environment.

Create activities that encourage employees to talk among each other outside work – Informal talk between employees goes a long way in building the professional relationships between each other. This allows them to get to know each other outside of the work that they are doing and allows for an environment that inspires collaboration. These activities can include coffee breaks, lunch breaks, and other activities outside of work which they are not necessarily required to go but are encourage to go to.

Create seminars and activities – Activities like this allow each employee to learn and collaborate with each other. Aside from learning new skills, employees will learn new skills while learning how to collaborate with each other with these new skills.

Reward collaboration – Rewarding collaboration incentivises people to collaborate with each other as there is a reward for this. The best way to incentivize something is to reward someone who performs that action, that’s why we need to reward workers who are collaborating with each other to encourage this kind of environment.

These tips on creating a collaborative work environment require the team to invest in these different things to achieve the desired result but may require a sizeable investment. A more immediate solution to achieving this kind of environment may be investing in a co-working space for your team. A co-working space like From Here Cebu would be a good investment to encourage this type of environment between your team. There are already seminars and activities that are happening here that your team could utilize, aside from them having a diverse set of clientele, the resources that your team needs may already be here like a stable internet connection. They are also implementing activities like coffee breaks which encourage activities outside of work, so for more information check out the website on how to set up your team!