Effective Remote Collaboration
- made possible with great tools
As we all face down a global pandemic and shelter in our homes to stay healthy, for many this also means trying to maintain business as usual while working remotely. This is the case if you run your own business or work in a corporate environment. For some remote work practices is not a new idea, but for others it is uncharted territories and confusing.
In my years exploring and testing ways to enhance remote collaboration, I have found many tools that can help teams be effective no matter where they are located. My own company, Global LEAP Consulting, has always been remote primarily because of my and family’s need for location freedom but also because my clients are global, so I do the majority of my interaction with clients remotely.
My work is all about enabling success for remote teams, so I am always on the lookout for new methods and tools that can boost virtual collaboration. I regularly utilize a wide range of virtual collaboration tools that I want to share to help make this new global work from home environment easier and less chaotic. Of course there are challenges, but using a combination of tools that are right for your needs can make things much easier, make creativity flow and be enjoyable work interactions for your team.
And let’s just be clear virtual synergy isn’t drowning in emails or back-to-back video conferencing. It’s not about passing email tasks to each other which we then work on solo. We thrive as colleagues when we can bonce ideas of each other, when we can create deep focus work together, and when we collectively come up with solutions to solve the problems ahead of us.
Use Padlet to Create Collaborative Bulletin Boards
I was first introduced to Padlet when I saw the tool used by 486 users during a online +Acumen Challenge some years ago. I was taken by how seamless that many participants simultaneously could share visual ideas with each other. Since then I have used Padlet in many of my own online workshops as a easy to use online visible board where users can post images, videos, files of any kind, as well as social media and/or news posts. Padlet allows for an unlimited number of contributors to be invited, but also allows permissions to be set as read-only, write, moderator, or admin access — all of which can be changed at any time. I in particular like the little heart/like function which sets the tone of a team environment where we give kudos and acknowlodge when we we find value in our colleagues’ input and thoughts.
> Free 30-day trial is available at: https://padlet.com/
Shared Overview of Your Projects Using Trello
Trello is a virtual bulletin board which can help you and your colleagues organize even the largest of projects. A Trello board helps your team asynchronously maintain an overview of projects and provide input that is visible to the entire team. Everyone can create cards (typically cards for each sub project) and team members sign-up for their projects. The ongoing communication and progress on that sub project is visible to all members of the remote team even if this sub project isn’t a responsibility area for them personally. This is an excellent way practicing narrating your work as the central principle for the remote work practice of Working Out Loud. Deadlines, files, links, project communication can all be housed with a Trello board. You can also comment on tasks, assign people to projects and archiving cards once you’re done with them. I have used
I have used Trello very successfully for self-organized projects like online Open Space experiments as well as LEAN coffee agendas. It’s a flexible tool that is easy to use from the get-go, the free version of Trello is quite comprehensive and could comfortably meet the needs of your remote team.
> Link: https://Trello.com
Miro to Visualize Work Processes
Miro is perfect as your team’s ‘virtual whiteboard’. Many global companies use English as their company language which often means that a lot of the team members aren’t working in their own native language and with that potential linguistic challenge. Therefore, it can be an advantage to supplement the spoken and written word with visual elements.
Miro’s boards give you a wide range of options to visualize your projects and processes. The tool provides a broad selection of templates for mind mapping, brainstorming, project planning or customer journey mapping. Miro can also boost your collaboration efforts because all team members can contribute asynchronously providing a greater sense of co-creation rather than the feeling that each person is working on isolated sub-processes.
Miro has a free version that includes three whiteboards that you can customize as you wish. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, Miro opens up a wealth of opportunities.
> Link: https://miro.com
Circles Facilitates Peer Learning
Circles is a video conferencing tool that was built with the intent of creating a remote environment where the hierarchical, linear notion of meetings is replaced by a circular, co-creative meeting format. The platform is meant to create a structured meeting space that encourages the practice of authentic and intentional dialog so that individual team members can learn from each other. Instead of your typical Zoom video grid (aka the Brady Bunch) you have participants’ videos organized in a circle with the person currently speaking being in the center of the circle. The tool doesn’t promote a traditional meeting host but have features where all meeting partipants can add to the agenda and promote others to speak. Circl.es can be scaled for any size organization and encourages team members to learn from each other and be accountable for their work through functionality such as equal access time, polling, agenda adherence and dedicated thinking time. I have really enjoyed using Circl.es in idea generating meetings as I find the format freeing for creative thinking.
> Free demo is available at: https://welcome.circl.es/demo/
Build your Online Team Space Using Sococo
Sococo is a tool ideal as the virtual workplace where distributed teams come to work together each day, side by side. The Sococo space has a layout like a birds-view of an physical office space. You can always see your colleagues (represented by a smiley avatar) and where they are in the office. If you’re in the same room as some of your colleagues, you have the option of turning on your camera and microphone, and then automatically switching to an online meeting. You could use Sococo for ‘regular’ virtual meetings as well as the space where you connect more informally with a colleague over a coffee in the Sococo lobby.
The prime feature in Sococo, in my opinion, is the freedom of team member in the tool. No one dictates which break-out room you should go to and for how long. Everyone navigates the Sococo space freely as we would a physical team space. For that Sococo is ideal for relationship building among remote colleagues, for Open Space experiments and as a place for pair-working. I often recommend managers of remote teams to have open-door slots in Sococo on a weekly basic or for teams to have unstructured virtual coffee meetings. With Sococo you get the feeling of being in the same place. You can give each other a ‘knock’ if you have a quick question, or you can meet on the sofa for a chat so you can get to know each other better.
> Sococo offers a 14-day free trial period: https://www.sococo.com
