If you’ve spent time reading my writing, you know that I’m a major proponent of collaboration in the business world. Collaborative efforts don’t just have the potential to help companies resolve supply chain issues and eliminate information silos within the organization, widespread collaboration actually has the potential to make the world a better place.

This goes beyond simply improving your company’s bottom line. Widespread collaboration both within your organization and with others can help generate lasting change that improves quality of life for countless people.

Collaboration Shares Valuable Resources to Accomplish Worthwhile Goals

Perhaps the most obvious way that widespread collaboration can make the world a better place is in how collaborative efforts can give a tremendous boost to charitable humanitarian work.

A great example of this comes from a recent conversation I had with Darin Mangum, CEO of ZuLoo, Inc., a benefit corporation dedicated to universal access to toilets, hygiene, clean water and sanitation through the power of social enterprise. ZuLoo helps bring toilets to the over two billion people worldwide who don’t have access to clean and safe sanitation.

In an email, Mangum explained, “Our worldwide toilet and clean water initiatives have in large part been made possible through an amazing collaborative effort. Like-minded individuals, businesses, nonprofits and donors helped us achieve a much wider impact than we ever could on our own. Even relatively simple collaborative efforts, like a ZuLoo ‘2 for 2’ Partner business that donates two percent of its gross sales of a particular product towards building toilets in India, makes a tremendous difference in ensuring we have the resources we need to accomplish our work. We also work with local NGOs who know their communities and who understand the greatest needs of their community members.”

Of course, improving access to sustainable sanitation is only one area where widespread collaboration is helping improve quality of life on a global scale. Many organizations provide volunteer time off, collaborating with area nonprofits so that their employees can have a direct impact for good in the local community. Collaborative efforts that come with a focus on “doing good” can go a long way in helping to address societal issues or expand the reach of nonprofits.

Collaboration Drives Innovation

Widespread collaboration also has the potential to make the world a better place by fueling innovative ideas that can prove truly world-changing. Collaboration has long been associated with innovation to introduce new products or services that help a company gain market share from its competitors.

What is often overlooked, however, is how innovative results from internal or external collaboration can make the world a better place. The race to develop autonomous cars is creating jobs and other opportunities. Even the proliferation of faster internet connections and cloud technology has improved quality of life for many by allowing them to work remotely wherever they want.

Another great example of this comes from LISI, an organization with a goal of shifting the legal industry to a co-creative (rather than competitive) mindset by building a community of law firms, academia and tech companies. The organization aims to improve alignment between investors, stakeholders, and investors to improve the law’s role in supporting investment practices that help fuel the transition to a sustainable society. Supporting new economy financing models and making consequences and benefits of legal agreements clear and understandable helps organizations create sustainable value.

Even more innovative collaboration comes as people use these technologies and opportunities to implement new ideas, taking advantage of the resources that are available to them to make further improvements to their quality of life. Collaboration gives someone with an idea the resources, feedback and support they need to repeatedly innovate until they create something that has a lasting impact.

Even if a new idea is business-minded, it can unlock for making the world a better place by helping people save time, money or energy. These little things can improve quality of life and create more opportunities for all who use a product or service that resulted from collaborative innovation.

Collaboration Improves Collaborators’ Quality of Life

In an article for Social Media Today, Jacob Morgan, co-founder of The FOW Community and author of “The Collaborative Organization,” argued that effective collaboration in the workplace could help employees become more productive, inspired and happier at work, while also giving them a greater sense of purpose and a stronger desire to help their coworkers.

Obviously, such collaboration would improve the quality of the office culture, but Morgan also went on to state, “What happens to these same employees when they leave work at the end of the day? I believe these same employees will be less stressed out at home, will spend more time with family and loved ones, [and] will live their lives with greater zeal and passion.”

Essentially, the idea is that because collaboration will reduce stress and increase happiness in the workplace, people thus also become happier and more satisfied with life outside of work. According to McKinsey, 70 percent of people define their purpose in life through work — so if collaboration helps them feel like they are accomplishing that purpose, it stands to reason it would lift their perception of their entire life.

This may not seem as world-changing as a big humanitarian project, but increasing individual happiness and well-being of those you work with can go a long way in making the world a better place.

What Will You Accomplish?

Widespread collaboration in the business world can have a much greater impact than you might expect. From helping charitable organizations accomplish their worthy goals to simply improving your team members’ quality of life, such initiatives can have an astounding effect for good.

Even if the ways your collaborative efforts are making the world a better place aren’t immediately apparent, rest assured that they are making a difference. Each contribution — no matter how small it seems — can help add up to something truly extraordinary in the long run.