Zippier Zooms

Masterfully Managing Virtual Teams (Part 1)

Facilitating more meaningful conversations with the help of ever-improving video conferencing technology…it’s one small step towards mastery, but one we hope you benefit from implementing immediately.

Big picture, this has been an increasingly essential capacity for years. Whether you’ve fully bought into this notion of virtual teams performing at world class levels, it’s likely a notion you’re paying close attention to now. The good news is, if you’re at all like our team at Prime Movers, you’ll find some degree of remote teamwork so effective these learnings will prove valuable to your company long after quarantine has come and gone.

Pro Tip: Find little ways to replace those “water-cooler moments”

Those spontaneous interactions, springing up naturally as we navigate the same physical space, do provide micro-adjustments that coordinate team members more than their managers often appreciate. Fleeting moments simply conveying care and regard…these too serve high-functioning teams and are arguably more critical than ever.

#1 Virtual Social Hours

Lunch Zoom Room — Teams are reporting that, once they finally got in the habit of logging-in anytime they take a moment to eat, they’re surprised at how impactful even the quickest conversations (with whomever happens to be there) can be.

Happy Hour Room — Once/week hangouts can keep happening as well! These do require more curation, yet a few teams have ironically had more fun together as they improvised new takes on old games. Simpler ones like “Heads-up” often work best, and teammates attempting animal noises with the deck “Animals Gone Wild” has become our new favorite way to embarrass ourselves at Prime Movers Lab.

#2 Formal Meetings

Sentence Stems — Kick-off a meeting by everyone taking 15 seconds to fill in a prompt like “My biggest win this week was___”. Our team also quickly rates ourselves with a Wellness Score 1–10, managers later following up with anyone scoring below an 8. End your meeting on a high note with a prompt like “one silver lining of this quarantine for me and my family has been ___”. **point of procedure — in non-physical meeting space, going “around the room” quickly becomes inefficient. Anytime you intend everyone take a turn speaking, encourage whomever just finished to call on someone yet to speak to keep these processes punchy.

Show & Tell — many teams have actually reported coming to know each other better during this isolated time! Seeing each other's homes in the background, the occasional photo bomb by curious kiddos no longer in school…these moments can quickly enrich a sense of trust and camaraderie. For even more Kumbaya Moments set aside 10 minutes of a meeting for a few people to share a meaningful item in their home, introduce a beloved pet, or bring out an old photograph and reveal how that person is important to them.

#3 Co-working Rooms

Finally, we are hearing all manner of customized virtual rooms being created for co-working, from writing sessions to brain-storming to accountability check-in points. One favorite has been Pomodoro Rooms. All attendees declare a particular task they promise to tackle in 25 minutes, leveraging the power of positive peer pressure by doing nothing but that declared task until the group timer goes off, and then quickly checking back in with the group before declaring their next actions.

Virtual team-building is clearly a vast topic. Opportunities and pitfalls for optimal performance are nuanced, yet bringing more intentionality to your Zoom meetings next week might be a perfect beginning.

Trying out any one of our examples here will invariably lead to you customizing and improvising rituals of your own. I hope you’ll share your favorites in the comments below, for the benefit of inspiring teams everywhere, and good luck out there to you all.

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and computing