Run a Great Remote Work Stand-up, Rule #1: Now It’s Personal
There a tons of opinions on how to plan and run an effective daily stand-up meeting. I believe that face-to-face and remote team stand-ups are fundamentally different in a few critical ways and should be run differently to accommodate these differences.
A face-to-face stand-up is an exercise in brevity and focus. It focuses on “what happened / what’s happening next” trusting that follow-up meeting and in-office collisions allow plenty of time to address the “why” and “so what.”
In contrast, a remote-team stand-up is a precious opportunity for collaboration. Knowing what everyone’s up to is important but you should take steps to maximize this daily chance for real-time communication. It’s for this reason I recommend scheduling 30 minutes for remote stand-ups instead of the typical 15 or less. Please hear me out before venting your rage in the comments below.
This guide describes the 5 rules I follow to run highly-effective remote-team stand-ups. Those 5 rules are:
- Now It’s Personal
- Forget “Yesterday, Today, Blockers” and embrace “Decisions, Choices, Impediments”
- Call Multiple Plays
- Wrap-it-up like a pro
- Prepare a Cheat Sheet
Today we’ll focus on: Rule 1: Now It’s Personal
Building a great culture is a challenge across all teams, but it’s especially daunting when you rarely see each other face-to-face. Taking time for personal or social interaction at the start of each stand-up hedges against the challenges remote workers face with loneliness and social isolation. I believe a well-run remote-stand up is a critical component of great team culture.
Here’s my recipe for maximizing the social value of each stand-up:
Arrive Early — Join the meeting 3–5 minutes early if possible. You want to be the first person on so you can maximize the time spent “waiting” for others to arrive. This habit is a critical pre-requisite for the tactics recommended below.
Video On — Most modern conferencing solutions (think Zoom, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, BlueJeans) include video capability but many companies and teams still don’t use it. The benefits of video over voice-only meetings are huge. You can see your peers, get a sense of how their mornings are going, and get to see the environment they’re working in on any given day. It starts each interaction on a more personal level, and it’s that higher sense of personal connection that we’re trying to foster.
Take a stand and be the first one to join each meeting with video on. It feels weird at first but, trust me, you’ll get used to it. Once you’ve established this pattern encourage others to do the same. Once it’s the norm, everyone will join daily with video on without even thinking about it.
Ask a Personal Question — Now that you’ve got video on, and you’re the first to join each meeting you’re in a great spot to actually talk with your teammates while you’re waiting for the stragglers. Ask how their weekend went, where they’re working for the day, or about a sound you hear in the background. Talk about the weather, your favorite sports team, or their kid’s graduation. Talk about them.
Most people like to talk about themselves (they’re experts after all) and over time you’ll find the topics most interesting to everyone you’re working with.
Tell a story — Another great way to get your team to open up is by taking the lead and sharing a personal story. Open-up with something funny your kid did, your take on the Game Of Thrones finale or by sharing the latest internet meme that has you cracking up. Each team has a different set of norms and shared interests but there’s always a broad set of safe topics.
Just as important, if you open up with a quick personal story it only increases the chance that others will engage and share a bit about what’s happening in their lives.
Take Notes & Follow-up — I’m going to assume you’re already taking and distributing notes coming out of your stand-up but I’m not talking about “action items” here. Instead, jot down a few notes on the personal things your team shares. Where is Jill headed on vacation next month? When is John’s 4th grader home for spring break? When is Tom playing in that charity tennis tournament?
Referring back to these things on stand-up or via slack are great ways to reinforce that we’re human beings working together not just a convenient set of job descriptions.
In conclusion, I believe that reinforcing and deepening personal relationships is a mandatory component of a great remote team stand-up. The tactics above are great ways to encourage a bit of human interaction at the start of each stand-up and to combat some of the feelings of isolation that can plague remote workers. A happy and connected team is an effective team.
Scatterbrain is a boutique consultancy helping companies unlock the full potential of remote teams. We’re rethinking how remote teams operate to maximize employee happiness, team effectiveness, and business impact. Learn more at (WeAreScatterbrain.com)
Originally published at https://wearescatterbrain.com on July 23, 2019.
