What leading a transformation remotely has taught me
Anna Divers| Director of Product & Design at Purplebricks
If you said to me a year ago that within 12 months I’d be leading the transformation of a function at a business in a different sector—particularly where I had never met any of the team in person—I would have struggled to believe you. However, fast forward a year and that is exactly the journey I have been on.
The mission was to bring a product-led approach to a Digital team used to being project-driven; product thinking and product roles were nascent, the business not used to a build-test-learn iterative model. Product roles were in place but very much crafted in the world of Scrum and its associated ceremonies, with little focus on outcomes.
The role had the wider remit of Design as well as Product, which enabled the breaking down of silos, embedding design talent into product squads and partnering Design leads with Product & Engineering leads, adopting Apple’s DRI (Directly Responsible Individuals) approach to foster collaboration and accountability in each squad.
The perception of the Digital team had largely been ‘black box’ and not well understood by the business — something the newly formed digital leadership team focused on was to change that perception, with transparency as our key mantra. One of my earliest actions was to set out what great looked like for product demos and made these a cornerstone of the product development lifecycle for squads. Product demos now happen every two weeks, stakeholder and wider business participation is encouraged, each demo is recorded and then socialised with the wider business via Workplace. A digital digest is also compiled every month to showcase the key highlights of the sprints in that period.
So, what have I learnt?
On the face of it, the following learnings would all be in play ordinarily and might not seem isolated to working remotely — true enough, but the key learning is that you have to work twice as hard at it when you’ve never actually met any of the individuals you are working with personally.
1. Let people get to know you. Be human.
In an office environment, there’d be opportunities to grab a cuppa, go to the pub and generally have time away from the desk to get to know your work colleagues. Joining a business during the pandemic means this simply hasn’t been possible, so sharing snippets about your own life, family and home become more important — helping to stimulate conversation & foster connection that isn’t completely bound by work, with those on the screen.
2. Earn respect and build trust. Action your words.
Going into a business and leading change requires building trust early on. Doing this fully remote without any previously-formed relationships and earned respect, means you have to work even harder at establishing the trust. Be specific, have a bias to action and do what you say you are going to do. Follow through, always.
3. Bring people on the journey. Show and inspire.
Share where you are going, make time and put energy into the storytelling — do this with words and visuals, help paint a picture for your teams. Tools such as Mural can help you ‘walk through’ your vision with your team, and enable them to collaborate with you, to become part of that vision. Be conscious on calls of those seemingly less engaged — check in with them afterwards, it may be they feel uncomfortable contributing in a large group (a challenge remotely but also in-person).
4. Communicate. Over-communicate.
Be mindful of people bouncing from one video call to another, think about just how much can be truly digested — will they remember the key messages from the first call of the day by the end of the day? Always follow up with the written word when you need important content to land.
5. Share liberally. Be transparent.
Don’t be an island. It can be easy to become solely focused on the immediate task at hand, your direct team. Consider the wider business, socialise the work and change your team are going through. This helps foster understanding, inclusion and can often trigger change actions in other teams. Encourage your teams to share using online tools such as Workplace — videos, talking heads and product demos all help bring to life what your teams are working on, and more importantly, why they are working on it.
6. Give feedback. Including the tough stuff.
Often harder when you’re not able to do this in person, but crucial when driving change. This is where radical candour is required — delivering direct and challenging feedback but showing you care at the same time. Be super clear with your feedback, give examples to help demonstrate what you mean. Be mindful that the individual may well be hearing such feedback for the first time, especially if past leadership has shied away from giving it — which is, sadly, often the case. Work hard on building a feedback culture to raise the bar in team performance.
7. Make the difficult decisions. No matter how hard they are.
Again, if you are leading transformational change in a function or in the wider organisation, there will inevitably be tough calls to make. The key is making them, and at the earliest opportunity once you feel sufficiently informed. Then it is all about communicating the decision and being clear about the ‘why’.
8. Actively listen. Become expert in the non-verbal cues.
Hopping from call to call can be draining, but practising active listening (and observing*) is vital if you are to truly understand those you are leading — what makes them tick, identifying where they might be struggling, assessing engagement. *Body language can be a clue to how people are feeling — from signs of anxiety to apathy. Understanding how individuals and teams are feeling can help you adapt your approach to bring them on the journey and through the change curve.
9. Build strong relationships. With all disciplines.
Successful transformation rarely happens in an isolated bubble. You are likely to need cooperation and support from other areas outside your immediate span of control to make change happen. Identify allies and build those relationships, and don’t make every call a task-related call — often the informal conversations are the most fruitful.
Having reflected, I would add two final thoughts.
Do build your support network. I have been blessed to be part of a strong peer group who I am able to share openly with when the going has been tough — everyone needs support.
Show humility. Through this period I haven’t always got it right, but when making a wrong call I’ve held my hand up — everyone’s human.
I’d be interested to hear others experiences of leading change fully remotely, where have you seen this done well, what lessons have you learned?
In the meantime, I cannot wait to actually meet my team and colleagues in person!
