Companies moving toward specific goals must support successful collaboration and provide teams with the tools they need to transfer on-premises strategies to remote environments.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to abate, there are many reasons to look back and think about what this period has taught us. As business professionals, we learn about agility, resilience, teamwork, and the power of technology to help us continue our work in a variety of circumstances.
Another thing we learned is collaboration, a concept that commonly conjures up images of 2 or more people gathered around a table or a computer. However, the pandemic has forced us to change how we define and participate in collaboration. Due to the need for remote work, teams have had to find ways to create together without being in the same physical location. Some teams have embraced this new reality better than others.
Solving problems
One of the first things remote teams are doing to be more effective at collaboration is addressing some of the pitfalls that come with it. Some of them include:
- Ineffective communication. Successful collaboration starts with effective communication, but communication can be challenging outside of a shared physical space. Several factors can affect remote communication, including different time zones, technical issues, and poor body language in many online communication methods.
- Ineffective processes. Collaboration often requires effective processes such as mutually understood steps, productive team meetings, and rounds of analysis and review. Lack of agreement on how collaboration will occur can prevent its smooth implementation.
- Diminished workplace culture. When teams collaborate, it's important that they speak the same language. Not just English, Spanish or other world languages, but also industry terminology and a background of the company's goals and vision. Without these factors, trust can diminish and collaboration can suffer.
- Ineffective information sharing. What happens when everyone on a team can't view the same document because there's no centralized place to put it or bring it together on a conference call due to technology issues? Collaboration suffers, team members become frustrated, and workflow slows.
The sections below describe solutions that can help resolve these issues.
Using the right technology
The right software can help tremendously with effective remote communication and collaboration. For example, video conferencing can allow team members to speak as they would on a phone call, but with the added benefit of being able to see each other's facial expressions and body language. This element alone can considerably improve collaboration and make long-distance communication more immediate.
Mimicking the office environment in other ways is also helpful. For example, virtual whiteboards can help team members visualize ideas and relationships between different parts of a project. File sharing software, cloud storage, project management tools, automation tools, and more are also important for effective remote collaboration.
It's important to remember that some team members may need training in certain aspects of the technology. Some examples are proper video meeting etiquette, such as looking at the camera when speaking, social technology that allows each participant to respond to each comment, and asynchronous communication methods that allow teams to have virtual meetings without needing to be available at the same time.
Improving communication
As powerful as it is, technology cannot help you collaborate more effectively if it is not combined with effective communication skills. Team leaders should set an example by starting each project with well-defined expectations, goals, and deadlines. Each team member must have a clear understanding of their role in the project and how they can help other team members succeed.
During the project, leaders and team members should provide regular updates on its progress, especially any delays or problems. A significant part of collaboration is problem solving, but team members won't get help if they don't share their challenges. Teams should agree in advance on how and when to provide these updates, as well as the cadence of regular meetings and deliverables.
Making meetings more productive
Just like in a shared physical space, remote meetings can be planned or occur spontaneously. If it is spontaneous, team members should be trained to bring in anyone available who might have something to contribute or gain from the conversation. Planned meetings can be improved in the following ways:
- Have an agenda and send it out before the meeting. One person must take charge of this effort.
- Have a goal. What do you want to achieve? Set the goal in advance to ensure you meet it by the end of the meeting.
- Take notes. One person should be responsible for recording meeting minutes and distributing them to team members or posting them to a shared online location.
- Record the meeting. A big advantage of virtual meetings is that they can be recorded for future reference. Save the recording with notes for later access.
The following video includes additional tips for running effective remote meetings:
Creating Processes
Just as you need standard operating procedures (SOPs) when working together in an office, you also need them when working remotely. For example, if your team creates reports on industry trends, which cloud tool should team members use to identify subject matter experts? Where should draft reports be placed? How will you keep up with report updates? Which platform will you use to remember milestones and deadlines?
And, perhaps most importantly, which channel will you use for which type of communication? If you use a live chat function, do you have separate channels for each project, team or topic? Do you have a separate one for social interaction? What times should team members be available to participate in chats or other types of communication?
Once you've identified these processes, there's one more to consider: how you will train new and existing employees on them. Will this activity be the responsibility of human resources? From the team leader? From a team member? How long should it take? What should be included in the training?
Better collaboration for greater success
Collaboration means team members can have a greater impact together than they can alone. That's why companies moving toward specific goals must support successful collaboration and provide teams with the tools they need to transfer on-premises strategies to remote environments.
