Focus On The Virtual Workforce — Remote Relationships Building
In the near future we are going to have a hybrid workforce, there will be centralised offices, there will be teams that work fully remote and for some the flexible time will mean working from many different locations, from home, from a satellite office and a blend throughout the week.
Working remotely can be challenging for both manager and staff member, you miss the informal chats, you do not always have the same opportunity to develop the connection of understanding tone, gestures and get chance to have lunch together or share a coffee regularly.
Here are a few ideas of how to support remote workers and develop relationships
Documents, Templates, Frameworks
Apply the same format & templates
As a manager having the same templates is a good way to ensure your team has the same opportunity
1–2–1 Q&A
The whole team as the same opportunity to ask questions, 1–2–1s can be great in building relationships and an opportunity to develop talent and help guide team members. Remotely this can be more challenging as you are pressured for time and you often you rely on technology not to fail.Offer your template out for Q&A and provide times and chances to ask questions upfront and in real time.
As a manager you have the opportunity to collate these questions and offer transparency if applies to the other members of your team or could help the wider business.
Frameworks
Can be good guidance to teams, frameworks are levellers, guiding the team to use and complete the frameworks or guideline documents will help the collective and if managed correctly guide everyone to work in the same ways.
Centralised System
Have a centralised system that enables everyone to complete actions in the same way or shares notes etc centrally. Many teams will be evolving in coming months, it is essential to have centralised documents, dedicated homes for each team to share learnings, share templates, share opportunities.
I strongly recommend a company wide wiki solution and create principles to update and centralise.
Managers have the opportunity to review in team meetings and publicly praise.
Video For All One To Ones?
A trend that started to happen was all one to one were held over video (yes over zoom, meet etc) so the whole team had the same formal one to one environment. This could be something you try however it can be particularly draining and inpersonal if you are in the same office.
Relationships
Get To Know Each Other Better
Have you ever seen a personality test spread through organisations? They spread like wildfire and you see humans come together over personality types and identify traits. If you and your team all complete the same quiz or survey you know more about each other, you will understand each others quirks and understand why some types take longer to digest and warm to ideas over others.
Agree Principles
Look at team sessions and have a system of hand raising and agenda creation. Hand raising is essential in remote meetings and working virtually especially when many people will have points to raise and the problem of speaking over each other or fighting for who has the best internet connection or loudest voice. Use rotating note takers and sharing the actions and take aways from the meeting to empower the team and offer rotating ownership. Human behaviour is contagious, we mimic each other, we mimic the words used (think buzzword bingo and how words spread) so encourage a set of positive behaviours.
Walk And Talks
For remote staff, replace the 1–2–1 coffee’s with walking meetings so you are doing the same action & end up having some food or ‘drink together virtually’.
Coffee meetings have often been a great way to develop relationships, but it was the act of walking, talking and getting around the same table that was also powerful.
Impromptu Conversations
Arrange times where you replace the impromptu conversations — dropping by the desk isn’t always convenient for both parties but times can help. This can often be frustration if managers are always busy or stuck in back to backs however leveraging new technology like around.co or pragli, you will enable those drop in moments and encourage open discussion.
Round Ups
Weekly stand ups and sit downs, all in the same sort of format (this enables you to not have favourites) think if it has to be: 1–2–1 or 1–2-few or 1–2-many
In the coming weeks empower yourself:
If you are a remote worker or planning to work remotely:
Offer to build templates, collaborate with the existing team members in the office or planning to return to the office to help your manager create templates and frameworks. Offer advice on wiki’s that might have worked previously (Atlassian confluence is always an option, Notion would be my recommended tool of choice)
If you are a Manager:
Empower the team to work collaboratively, encourage the team to pick recurring slots in your calendar and offer the team to use an agenda template, to share important updates and work with you to develop out career plans. Be super proactive, find a wiki, set it up with an operational member of the company and create ways to easily empower the team to collaborate. Find out what times work best for each individual (some need their morning coffee, others come alive after lunch), arrange time slots for remote teams especially if based in different time zones and ensure you are flexible and you stick to one to ones.
It is essential that you create a level playing field for all staff, it is equally important that you remain as flexible as possible and accommodate individual needs and personalities (the way they work best) to encourage a great working environment so your company wins the long battle ahead.
I created Focus (a culture and strategy consultancy) to combat the world of work losing its focus and these issues are all elements I have seen, experienced or have found out about undertaking a year of exploring the problems within the workplace and where companies are falling down. I will be writing forward looking articles and creating presentations to set you and your business up to win. If you have any questions or would like culture and strategy consultancy happily get in contact.
