Remote Working: How Teams Can Maintain Effectiveness

Many teams are now getting used to remote working but still have effectiveness concerns. With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, remote working scenarios have changed as work and life are colliding in ways that we have never seen before due to the health concerns and general panic around. Distractions abound as family members are also around, children are still studying from home, and many other unfamiliar scenarios.

For teams struggling with effectiveness, these three recommendations will help;

Have Regular Meetings

If you need to brainstorm, set vision, assign roles, agree on goals, or do other strategic discussions, a meeting will likely be your most efficient method for getting these activities done instead of emailing and messaging alone. Messaging/Emails may be a reference point, but ensure you have frequent meetings with your team. Most times, you will want to decide if a recurring team meeting is better or random ones. Whichever one you decide, encourage your team members to get used to regular meetings regardless of how crowded their schedules are. You must also note that boring or timeless meetings can have its own negative effect. Hence, keep meetings short, track all action points, and don’t forget to encourage the team.

Ensure You are Only a Message Away

Always be mindful that the culture of office work encourages verbal collaborations and people are already use to this. When you switch to remote working, it best team members can reach you easily. Use collaborative chat tools, like Slack, Teams, Skype, and Flock, etc to get quick notifications and unofficial messages. In those chat tools, decide how often and for how long you’ll engage with the appropriate channels and ensure everyone is aware of this so no one violent the rules of engagement.

Chat tools have proven to be one of the best methods of managing remote teals effectively and ensure everyone is delivering on their tasks. Ensure your team members check the chat tool multiple times a day so they do not miss notifications or important messages. The goal is to ensure team members are only a message away when needed during work hours.

Normalize More Joint Work.

What this means is; Sometimes, have a video call with a colleague while you are both working on a task. This way, you can easily stop and ask them a question or ask for feedback whenever you get stuck and such a task will be completed in no time. This strategy is also effective if you find yourself avoiding something difficult at work or a member of your team is. The positive peer pressure that someone is physically present with you and expects you to get a certain activity done in that window of time can be a good incentive to help you overcome approach-avoidance and overall increase the effectiveness of the team.

Team effectiveness is always a continuous process as newer ways of ensuring team members are still motivated and delivering on expected tasks are ever revolving.