Remote teams - different time zone - stakeholders management

Soha -

Beyond the great feedback provided by Thomas and Andrew, I'd suggest three more ideas:

1. Split the work strategically so that you are benefiting from timezone/virtual separation rather than having it be an impediment. Try to create "whole" teams at each location...

2. Use multiplayer online gaming as a team building exercise - not the "shoot 'em up" type of game, but strategy-oriented ones. That will start to create virtual camaraderie

3. At the team level, start each meeting by having everyone share something important to them with each other. For example, culture-specific holidays are a good topic for a quick discussion.

Kiron

Hi Soha,

Beyond what was previously said I'll add the most important thing for me - clarity in communication.

Long distance communication is severely restricted, as you're relying mostly on words (and add foreign language issues to it) for emails, maybe some voice inflexions for phone calls and a bit of body language during video calls.

As such, it is of paramount importance to use simple language to convey very clearly the assignments, and solicit / validate their understanding (in their words) of the assignment. One trick I employ is to break down the WBS more granular than I would normally do, so the assignments are smaller and simpler - and the impact limited.

Speaking of impact (a.k.a. status/progress reports) - as project managers we'd like to know about issues as early as possible to act accordingly, but there are cultures where conveying bad news is an absolute no-no. You have to specifically ask (and you'll get the true response) but don't expect them to volunteer information if they encountered any issues.

Hope it helps,


George Jucan

Thomas has a great amount of info here.

I'll add my $.02 since I've been in this situation

1) Daily / weekly catchup meetings that work for all time zones. Set meetings with various groups that can be cancelled if there's nothing to discuss (it's important to block time on people's calendars particularly for really global teams)

2) Microsoft Teams is good for remote global teams as people can also chat and drop files. WhatsApp is great for working with India but I hesitate to use it since it can draw people into discussions in what should be off hours on a too frequent basis. Overtime all the time is the best way to get burnout.

3) If at all possible use video conferencing for meetings - especially if budget / management won't allow a F2F kickoff - it helps to build rapport and have people get to know each other.

4) Understand the cultures you're working with - are you working with Asian cultures that won't question in front of a group? If so, touch base 1-on-1 or through email.

5) Make clear "handoff" times if people are working on the same thing around the clock. Ie) US Team posts works until 6 pm. Posts where they're at on some internal team site (teams, sharepoint, whatever). Offshore team then picks up until 8 am US time when they post an update for the US team. (Ideally, there should be a daily meeting between these teams at this time just to discuss any issues)

6) Make sure to compliment and congratulate team members in a way that everyone can see. An email to a remote member is nice but if the rest of the team doesn't know about it it's easy to feel disengaged. Celebrate your team's accomplishments, make sure the whole team knows.

7) Make the same information accessible to everyone - including breaking info.

8) Make sure everyone knows who to contact if they have questions / get in a jam. I can't tell you how many projects that are large and spread out have really unclear places to go with questions for team members. It's extremely demoralizing to try to get info, not get it and then get scolded for not getting work done.

Hi Soha,

in working with Indian teams from Germany, we used these principles and it worked well
- have a face2face kickoff, include cultural awareness
- establish ground rules acceptable by all cultures involved
- regularly travel to visit key remote locations, include weekends to bind privately
- have a fixed schedule for regular communications - in the team and 1:1, at least calls, better video calls (skype, teams, zoom, ..) - make it comfortable for all time zones
- use a asynchronous communication tool (if all fails whatsapp)
- have a central document store, agree on standards like language, templates, naming conventions
. have a central stakeholder register, access by core team only. Assign remote core team members to remote stakeholders if possible. Establish standard engagement and measure it (e.g. one call per month at least)
- have a central issue list - require all stakeholder complaints, comments, requests to be entered there
- follow key stakeholders on social media

I agree with Thomas that initial face to face is a key to success. You need to develop a relationship and understanding with the various team members that doesn't get established as well remotely. If not possible, then make sure you connect to each team member individually.