Remote Teams: When the Globe is Your Office, Remote is Standard

At some point, a successful company reaches a level where employees will no longer fit in an office, a city, or even a country. When this happens, it’s official: the company is growing, and that usually means you get to work with remote teams. This experience can be a challenge for employees both new and experienced with remote work.

Working remotely brings problems to the surface, and the big one is communication. We have a rule that states you should communicate clearly. Well, let’s just say that when you have to communicate remotely, you get a whole new perception of what that means.

Having to manage local and remote teams made me reflect on how we could improve our communication. So I came up with a set of best practices that makes a big difference when it comes to our meetings. Let’s go through them.

Have the Right Toolset

First, ensure that everyone has a headset nearby so that they are only a minute away from a remote call. The tools used for remote conferencing must not be an obstacle; they should be able to be used easily and transparently by all participants.

Second, invest in rooms where you can perform remote meetings. We use Google Hangouts, a dedicated laptop device, a dedicated wired network, and Logitech hardware. This way, people just need to go to the room, open their laptops, and click the virtual meeting space in their calendar.

Use the Toolset Correctly

The point of a video call is just that — video. So make sure you can see who you’re talking to and that they can see you! In a conference room, try to get everyone in attendance in the frame, and make sure the lights are bright — no silhouettes, please. And this might be a no-brainer, but if you’re video conferencing from a laptop, make sure the video is on. Visual communication is highly relevant in remote meetings, and it goes a long way to establish an understanding with someone who might be halfway across the world. If you cannot have everyone visible, make sure that you always start by introducing who’s present.

Another powerful tool is the mute button. Not when you’re speaking of course, but if you are in a busy environment, for example, waiting at an airport, muting helps cut out background noise that will distract others in the meeting.

Prepare the Meeting in Advance

If part of your team is together in a meeting room, the first person in should set up the toolset and makes sure the microphone, screen, and internet connection are good to go. Since people might be joining from anywhere around the globe, you should have everything ready before the meeting starts.

If you’re going to be sharing your screen or presenting in the remote meeting, be sure you have your documents or screens ready to present. And if you’ll be reviewing a specific document, make sure everyone in attendance has a copy up front.

Speak Slowly and Loudly

It doesn’t matter what equipment you use. With bad connections or temporary lags, remote meetings can be somewhat painful. No equipment will capture everything you say. Talk slowly and loudly to increase the chances for the microphone to capture everything. Avoid the tendency to speed up when speaking with the people who are in the room, and remind others to slow down if they are speaking too fast.

Yield: Let Others Talk

A best practice that you can also apply when driving: allow others to go first. In this case, allow meeting rooms with fewer people to speak first. If two or more people start talking at the same time in different rooms, don’t be too apologetic — these moments are bound to happen — just allow the person from the room with fewer people to speak first. Saying sorry repetedly wastes a lot of time. Fallback to room priority and move on.

Another great rule of thumb: when a remote person asks a question, try to answer as soon as possible. Even if you can’t answer them entirely in the moment, make sure you arrange a proper time to do so. People working in another office can’t just get up and find you at your desk, and lack of feedback can lead to long waiting periods or delays that could be avoided.

Still with me? You might have noticed, as we move forward, some of these best practices are getting a bit more complex, but I promise, following them will help you maintain team unity across continents.

Treat Everyone as if They’re Remote

Treat everyone in the room as if they’re remote. It is normal for a room with more people to have a natural tendency of creating a communication silo through the use of a fast-paced dialog and body language. Well, during remote calls, body language can be poorly perceived, so we need to be more aware of it and ensure that we are inclusive by actively involving others and asking for their input. If we need to point, we should use the mouse; we should speak to the camera so that others can look at our lips; and we should look to all attendees body language as best as possible — yes, even those that are remote. If they start moving their ears closer to the sound system, there’s a communication problem.

Everyone Owns Successful Remoting

It can be easy to forget these best practices, and that’s why everyone in the meeting is crucial. We all need to have the right attitude and remind others that there are remote people in the meeting. When two people start arguing, ask them to be quiet. If someone in the room is pointing, use the mouse to represent what they are doing or ask them to describe what they are pointing. Ultimately we are all responsible for the success of the meeting.

As you can see, most of these guidelines are behavioral. Successful remote meetings depend more on everyone’s attitude than on equipment. I would even dare to say that it is 80 percent attitude and 20 percent equipment. So aim for the 80 percent. You can help encourage a good attitude by promoting remote meetings in your workplace. For example, our offices are quite big, so sometimes it’s easier to set up a quick video chat. This promotes maintaining good remote practices, too. In the beginning, it may be hard, but you’ll notice some of your communication issues and you’ll quickly start acting on them.

Last, but not least, always say goodbye before you hang up. There is nothing worse than being on a remote call and realizing that people forgot that you were there.

Looking for a remote cheat sheet? Download the image below.
Happy remoting and see you soon!