One of the challenges of moving to a remote or hybrid working situation is finding a way to encourage and improve collaboration when people are not in the same physical space.
GM famously defined their expectations during covid were for their people to “work appropriately.” That meant that many new team members joined the company in remote roles, and many long-time employees found that they could do their jobs from home.
But isolation does not foster great teamwork.
So, ensuring that people share information is a key element of effective leadership.
But the reality is that, according to many of the coaching conversations I’ve had with executives and managers, even in-person collaboration has been imperfect at best.
So, how do you improve collaboration across departments and withing teams for hybrid and remote workers?
Well, it starts with recognizing what exactly collaboration is…
Defined simply, COLLABORATION is “the sharing of information by coworkers to achieve a compelling common goal.”
And as a corporate leadership speaker and facilitator for years, I have found that collaboration requires the foundation of an existing relationship and familiarity with someone before a coworker will reach out to request or offer information.
And providing opportunities for your remote and hybrid team members to build and strengthen connections is a vital part of creating an exceptional team culture – that is why corporate team building events are important.
But even when team members are familiar with each other, collaborative conversations will break down if you have not clearly outlined HOW and WHEN collaboration should occur!
It either becomes unproductive when you have oppressively and painfully common unnecessary meetings that people dread… or it becomes dangerously and dispassionately uncommon when connections wither from lack of maintenance.
So if you want to improve collaboration on a remote or hybrid team, you need to establish clear expectations about how and when it should occur –
Here are the 3 TYPES OF COLLABORATION you need to set expectations for:
1. Casual
2. Structured
3. Asynchronous
1 – CASUAL COLLABORATION
These are 1 to 1 or very small groups that meet face to face or voice to voice to get to know each other more deeply on a personal level.
These are check-ins and conversations that are focused more on strengthening a connection and being sincerely curious about their current challenges or hobbies or family situations.
And it is these casual collaborations that provide the foundation for more focused strategic sharing of information.
On in-person teams, these are office peek-in comments and questions.
On remote teams these are zoom chats or phone calls.
2 – STRUCTURED COLLABORATION
These are the mandatory weekly meetings where values and issues and opportunities are discussed and ideas are shared to move the team toward their compelling common goal.
These are the 1 on 1 meetings you have with managers and team members to establish KPIs and ask about progress and provide support.
On in-person teams, these are conference room conversations with people who can contribute to or will be impacted by team decisions.
On remote teams, these are zoom or WebEx or TEAMS calls where you can invite contributions using chat or breakout rooms or other activities – and effective leaders will find that people appreciate these meetings being held during a strictly protected window of times and days to ensure everyone can be involved, even if they are in different time zones.
Online teleprompters can be invaluable during these remote team meetings, ensuring seamless delivery of key points and facilitating smoother discussions. They help maintain focus and flow, especially during virtual sessions where engagement is critical
On remote or hybrid teams, any leaders have found that structured collaboration meetings are best held between 10 am and 3 pm EST. And often leaders will even block off one day for “no meetings” to ensure people have a chance to get work done without the distraction of interruption-by-meeting.
3 – ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION
These are the daily or weekly contributions your people make to move a project forward.
These are the documents or files that are updated online at different times by people from different locations.
These require leaders to set CLEAR EXPECTATIONS about two things:
* What is the appropriate platform the team will commit to using for each type of collaboration? When would texting be acceptable? When is Slack or Basecamp or Microsoft TEAMS or Google Docs or Rocketchat?
And, then
** When (or how often) are team members expected to update or reply? Will you have a rule where people can expect teammates to check in and comment within 24 hours? Will you discourage weekend contributions? After two emails, should your people have to pick up the phone or chat via zoom to settle an issue?
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Of course, effective leaders are realizing that here is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between measuring someone’s value based on presence and measuring someone’s value based on productivity.
Remote teams have found that people can be very productive contributors without being geographically in the same location.
What will “Working Appropriately” look like on your team?
It is your job to define and clarify and revisit those standards.
Of course, effective leaders are realizing that here is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between measuring someone’s value based on presence and measuring someone’s value based on productivity.
Remote teams have found that people can be very productive contributors without being geographically in the same location. And often, leaders choose platforms like Teamly to help coordinate those interactions.
What will “Working Appropriately” look like on your team?
It is your job to define and clarify and revisit those standards.
Sean Glaze delivers engaging conference keynotes and interactive team building events that help healthcare and education leaders build more positive and profitable cultures.
Sean is also an author, and each of his four books, The Unexpected Leader, Rapid Teamwork, The 10 Commandments of Winning Teammates, and Staying Coachable, are entertaining parables with powerful take-aways for team growth and leadership!
What issues are YOU dealing with that would disappear if you could build a team culture that inspired connection, accountability, and a team-first attitude?