{"id":6439,"date":"2021-10-13T20:34:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T20:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sigmify.com\/resources\/?p=6439"},"modified":"2021-11-10T10:37:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T10:37:57","slug":"how-can-remote-teams-work-effectively-what-do-we-need-to-do-our-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigmify.com\/resources\/how-can-remote-teams-work-effectively-what-do-we-need-to-do-our-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How can Remote teams work effectively\u2026 What do we need to do our work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe World had shut down<\/a>. We had gone home. And we were doing fine. For now. We were used to working remote. We started having discussions on what kind of an office we would need in the future<\/a> We had extensive discussions, and figured out that we needed an office largely for stuff \u201cOther than Work\u201d.\r\n

But what about \u201cwork\u201d?<\/h2>\r\nWhat processes and infrastructure would we need to put in place to enable our teams to not only carry on working seamlessly, collaborate effectively, but also make it possible to bring new resources on board a team, make transitioning easy.\r\n

When did virtual teams become popular?<\/h2>\r\nEspecially those virtual teams where the team members are not in the same physical space. It\u2019s not something new. There has been a lot written and researched about \u2018virtual teams\u2019 for a long time\u2026 here are a few examples from the nineties and early aughts – 2000s.\r\n\r\nDavidow and Malone released the book on \u201cThe Virtual Corporation\u201d in 1992. Almost before Internet!! But it was the advent of Internet enabled virtual teams.\u00a0<\/strong>It became much easier for an organization of any size to have virtual teams. One did not require any specialized equipment or facilities or make heavy investment to have virtual teams.\r\n\r\nAs a result, \u201cVirtual teams\u201d has been a term of ongoing interest in the age of internet \u2013 since the early 2000s according to Google trends.\r\n\r\nMichael Watkins identified Ten principles to make Virtual teams work in his 2013 article in Harvard Business Review<\/a>.\r\n

So, what did we learn about virtual\u00a0 teams?<\/h2>\r\nIf we look at these principles on the dimension of physical proximity, we find that only one of them \u201cof getting the team together physically at an early stage\u201d requires physical proximity.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nNone of the other nine principles require the teams to be physically together.\u00a0\"\"The other principles can be divided into 3 broad categories \u2013 all related to communication. Communication content – Clarify tasks, processes, goals and roles; have a shared language.\r\n\r\n\"\"Communication Tools \u2013 Use good communication technologies; have a virtual water cooler; have a way of clarifying and tracking commitments.\r\n\r\n\"\"Communication style \u2013 Have a charter, establish a rhythm for the team; promote shared leadership; remember 1-on-1s.\r\n\r\nThat effective communication is at the heart of making remote (virtual) teams work effectively is borne out by others as well. A study published by buffer.com in 2019<\/a> found that 17% of the respondents\u2019 regard communication as their biggest challenge.\r\n\r\nErica Dhawan, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic agree with Watkins. They elaborate further in their 2018 article titled \u201cHow to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote<\/a>\u201d. They clarify why \u201cremote teams demand new collaboration skills? What\u2019s missing from our texts, emails, conference calls and other digital communications? Body language.\u201d And that can cause misinterpretations. \u201cThese misinterpretations create an anxiety that can become costly, affecting morale, engagement, productivity and innovation.\u201d\r\n\r\nOn the need for a shared language, they say \u201cdon\u2019t assume that others understand your cues and shorthand\u201d. One of the ways is to \u201cconsider creating team acronyms for digital communications like \u2018Four Hour Response (4HR)\u2019 and \u2018No Need to Respond (NNTR)\u2019 that bring predictability and certainty to virtual conversations.\u201d\r\n\r\nOn establishing a rhythm one of their recommendations is to not \u201cbombard your team with messages \u2013 it\u2019s ineffective, and annoying\u201d.\r\n\r\nThese are extremely useful tips and guidance. What does it mean for us? How do we use it to our advantage for our teams?<\/strong>\r\n

What did we take away from all this?<\/h2>\r\nWe discussed all this extensively and arrived at the conclusion that we needed to invest in two things. Technologies and Training. We needed to adopt the tools that we use or get or build new ones. And we needed to adopt and change the way we worked \u2013 we had to retrain ourselves.\r\n\r\nSo, this showed us the way. It became the basis for our plan to adopt to our situation.\r\n\r\nWe had come to a fork in the road, and we took it :). Thank you, Yogi Berra.\r\n

Our plan of action<\/h2>\r\nGet together from time to time\u2026 and when we do, we have those 1 on 1s which we have when we are remote as well\r\n\r\nClarify tasks, processes, goals, and roles; have a shared language. Communication Tools \u2013 Use good communication technologies; have a virtual water cooler; have a way of clarifying and tracking commitments. Communication style \u2013 Have a charter, establish a rhythm for the team; promote shared leadership; remember 1-on-1s.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\r\n