In today's rapidly changing work environment, remote work has become the new norm. While remote work provides many benefits, such as flexibility and increased productivity, it can also present challenges for technical teams, especially when it comes to collaboration and communication. HappyTeams has supported hybrid and remote teams all over the world and our People Science leaders have noticed the best leaders are obsessed with improving and iterating their communication styles. It is extremely hard when you have different cultures spread across different time zones however some fundamentals stand out.
In this blog post, we'll explore some tips and strategies for fostering stronger connections our People Science team has seen in remote technical teams.
- Establish Clear Communication Guidelines: In a remote work environment, it's important to establish clear guidelines for communication to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This includes guidelines for email communication, messaging, video conferencing, and more. Make sure everyone understands when it's appropriate to use each communication method, and establish a protocol for responding to messages in a timely manner.
- Embrace Video Conferencing: Video conferencing can be a powerful tool for fostering collaboration and communication on remote technical teams. Encourage team members to use video conferencing for meetings, brainstorming sessions, and other collaborative work. This can help build stronger connections among team members and foster a sense of community.
- Use Collaboration Tools: There are many collaboration tools available that can help remote technical teams work together more effectively. Consider using tools like MS Teams, Slack, Trello, Asana, or Basecamp to keep everyone on the same page and facilitate communication and collaboration.
- Encourage Casual Conversation: When working remotely, it's easy to feel isolated and disconnected from your team. Encourage team members to engage in casual conversation and get to know each other on a personal level. This can help build stronger connections and foster a sense of community, even in a remote work environment. This is also the same for feedback.
- Celebrate Successes: Finally, don't forget to celebrate successes and milestones as a team. Whether it's completing a major project, reaching a new milestone, or simply hitting a productivity goal, take the time to celebrate your successes and recognize the contributions of each team member. This can help build morale and foster a sense of pride and accomplishment among the team.
- Develop a culture of informal no agenda feedback sessions. Feedback that is honest is like a muscle. If it is something that is done once a month or even once a quarter it will feel formal. Like a muscle - if feedback is a little and often there will be a habit and culture of open communication which can only be good for leaders, team members and the company culture.
In conclusion, fostering collaboration and communication on remote technical teams can be challenging, but it's not impossible. By following these tips and strategies, you can help build stronger connections among team members, facilitate better communication, and ultimately drive better results for your team and your organisation.
Leveraging your existing communication tools, HappyTeams people science leaders always recommend making engagement and feedback as natural as possible. Hence our obsession with emoji based communication and combining this with the latest organisational psychology. Reach out for a chat or virtual coffee or download and use the HappyTeams platform for free for the first 14 days.