3 Ways to Use Google Drive to Supercharge Your Team's Collaboration
3 Ways to Use Google Drive to Supercharge Your Team's Collaboration
By: The One Click Enterprise Team | November 4, 2024
For most businesses in South Africa, Google Drive is a familiar tool. It’s the go-to place for storing files, sharing documents, and accessing your work from anywhere. But if you’re only using it for basic file storage, you’re like someone who owns a supercar just to drive to the corner shop.
Beneath its simple surface, Google Drive is a powerful ecosystem designed to transform how your team works together. Especially in the hybrid work environments common across Gauteng, mastering these tools is no longer a luxury—it's a competitive advantage.
Here are three game-changing ways to use Google Drive that go far beyond simple storage and will supercharge your team's collaboration.
1. End the Chaos with Shared Drives: Your Single Source of Truth
The Problem: Files are scattered across individual employees' "My Drive" folders. When someone is on leave, you can't access a critical file. When an employee leaves the company, their files and all the knowledge within them disappear. You’re constantly asking, "Is this the final version of the proposal?"
The Solution: Use Shared Drives (formerly known as Team Drives). This is a core feature of Google Workspace business plans. Unlike files in "My Drive" which are owned by an individual, files in a Shared Drive belong to the team.
How it supercharges your team:
Centralized Ownership: All files belong to the company. If a team member leaves, the files stay exactly where they are, fully accessible to the rest of the team.
Clear Structure: You can create a clean, logical folder structure for your entire company (e.g., /Finance, /Marketing, /Client Projects) that everyone sees and uses.
Controlled Permissions: You can easily control who can view, comment on, add, or edit files at both the main drive and individual folder level, ensuring the right people have the right access.
This one change eliminates version control nightmares and creates a single, organised hub for all your company's important work.
2. Stop Emailing Attachments: Collaborate in Real-Time
The Problem: The old way of working on a document: Person A drafts a proposal in Word, emails it as an attachment. Person B makes edits, renames the file "Proposal_v2_final_B's_edits.docx," and emails it back. It’s slow, confusing, and clogs up your inbox with multiple file versions.
The Solution: Embrace the real-time, simultaneous collaboration features of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
How it supercharges your team:
Simultaneous Editing: Multiple people can work inside the exact same document at the exact same time. You can see your colleagues' cursors moving and changes appearing instantly.
Actionable Comments: Need feedback from a specific person? Highlight a section, click "Comment," and type +TheirEmailAddress to assign them a task. They’ll get an email notification, and you can track when the task is resolved.
"Suggesting" Mode: This works just like "Track Changes" but it's live and interactive. Team members can suggest edits that you can accept or reject with a single click.
Infinite Version History: Worried about a change? You can easily view the full version history to see who changed what and when, and restore any previous version of the document.
3. Build a Simple Company Intranet with Google Sites
The Problem: Where do you keep essential company-wide information? Things like HR policies, brand guidelines, sales scripts, or onboarding materials are often buried in emails or lost in various folders.
The Solution: Use Google Sites to build a simple, private, internal website for your team.
How it supercharges your team:
A Central Knowledge Hub: Create a one-stop-shop for all official company information. Make pages for "HR & Policies," "Marketing Resources," "How-To Guides," etc.
Embed Live Documents: This is the magic part. You can directly embed documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and calendars from your Google Drive onto the pages of your site. When you update the source document in Drive, the version on your intranet site updates automatically.
No Extra Cost: Google Sites is included with your Google Workspace subscription. You can build a professional, internal resource hub without any additional software costs.
By implementing these strategies, Google Drive transforms from a simple digital filing cabinet into the active, beating heart of your company's collaborative ecosystem.
Unlocking these features is just the beginning. As Google Workspace partners, we can help you set up, optimize, and train your team on the entire suite of tools to ensure you're getting the maximum return on your investment.
Contact One Click Enterprise today for a free collaboration audit and let's supercharge your teamwork.