Small moves, big impact - three ingredients for effective teams
When Amy wrote about intention and attention, I went "Hell yeah!". Remote teams and organisations can't run on auto-pilot. People at all levels, but leaders in particular need to be intentional and they need to pay attention to details. Look at everything with a fresh new lens. You wouldn't play soccer with a baseball kit. Similarly remote work needs a new set of sensibilities. I'm so glad that Amy's writing about some of those sensibilities in this article.
“I absolutely agree with the views but… we need to set more realistic goals for our business to be able to practically implement any change within our teams.”
I get it. I really do. There is no room for one more organizational change initiative, one more to-do on mid-level managers’ plates, or one more mandatory company-wide training module. Yet, we needn’t shrink from the goal of fostering teams where people thrive and we achieve our business objectives.
With attention to our team’s needs we can make intentional choices about how we build connections, meet meaningfully, and communicate effectively. Even seemingly small efforts in these three interwoven areas of action can shape the quality of our individual work lives and our team’s success.
Coordinating our communications practices
Which channels are we currently using, for which purposes - Instant messaging, Slack, email, kanban boards, digital white boards, slide decks, shared drives? For our team, what merits real time communication, which parts of the work would benefit from interacting asynchronously, and what information do we all need easy access to anytime? Chances are we are each doing our own thing, expectations are unstated, and we’re driving each other mad, yet uncomfortable saying so. Even if we don’t rebuild our communication systems top to bottom, what is one thing we can improve upon now and hold each other accountable for?
Stepping up our meeting game
It’s time. We need to build our meeting skills muscles. All of us. Setting realistic agendas; communicating our objectives clearly in advance; gathering the right set of people, for the right amount of time; showing up, staying present; using transparent decision making practices; facilitating well; capturing post-meeting action items; ending on time; and communicating outcomes afterwards. This is going to include becoming comfortable with the power of our tools, video conferencing and shared digital spaces in particular. What one small move will you and your team make to improve your meetings? Choose one. Make it a habit. Choose another.
Make. It. A. Habit.
Creating quality connections
Now more than ever we can - and must - build meaningful connections while working together. This is the secret sauce to bake into our interactions wherever and however those take place - in-person, asynchronously, real-time, in writing, or through a screen. We can create high quality connections, offer positive micro-moves, and experiment together with simple tactics to build connections. For instance, greeting teammates as they join a virtual meeting is a small act. Yet, the difference between a team that greets each other on these calls and one that does not is palpable.
Rather than comparing our new experiences to previous in-person interactions, let’s reframe the conversation from "This is hard” to "How might we?" This means stepping back and identifying what the underlying needs and goals of the group are, which when followed back far enough are often about how we feel when we are together, our sense of shared respect, rapport, and trust. The question isn't "How do we replace Friday lunches?” It's "How might we build connections, share levity and laughter, and learn about each other?”
The reality is that work didn’t work well for many of us when we worked in-person. In particular, much of what some colleagues now miss was inadvertently exclusionary for others, including some non-native English speakers, some introverts, some with impaired hearing, some that are neurodivergent, as well as some Black, queer, and other peers that experienced frequent micro-agressions. This moment of flux in our communications, meetings, and connection building practices is an opportunity for us to co-create teams that are more inclusive as well as more effective.
Great collaboration is about how we work together: how we each show up and the attention we bring to the dynamics and needs of the team. We need not wait for enterprise-wide policies and massive change initiatives to step up our communication, meeting, and connection game. Nor should we.
