Rahul PatekarProject Manager| XebriumCa, United States
We are coming up with a blog on the topic 'How can (project) managers bring the best out of remote teams?' I would like to know your opinion: What tips can you suggest to bring out the best in your remote team members? I look forward to including your tips in our upcoming blog. Saving Changes...
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Rahul PatekarProject Manager| XebriumCa, United States
Also, I have done some research and compiled a comprehensive dataset using tools such as SEM Rush, Google Keyword finder, Google Trends, and listed the most backlinked, and most shared articles on 'remote work.' I hope this research will be helpful to you.
Andrew JordanVP, Research and Development| Harris Computer SystemsDowningtown, Pa, United States
Hi Rahul,
One thing we're doing now is hosting an ongoing (optional) video call for the whole day for the team: it's optional, and people are free to join and leave as they want, but it sort of allows the feeling of an office with people talking to each other more spur of the moment, rather than just reaching out when they have an explicit question. We also welcome intrusions like pets, children, or spouses, which helps the remote members to get to know their coworkers as whole people more. Saving Changes...
A couple of things jump at me. First, you need to trust your remote workers (this is not a given). Second, you need to involve your remote workers in all team activities. Saving Changes...
there is nothing actually unique to inspiring remote team members relative to co/near-located ones. The difference is the tactics, frequency or approach you might use to accomplish the same thing.
Focus on Daniel Pink's three drivers of intrinsic motivation (Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose) and remember that recognition (informal at least) is needed by all of us on at least a weekly basis.
And make sure you are keeping an eye on psychological safety within the team - this is harder when you are not physically present with the team, but assuming you are remaining in regular contact with them, you are in a good position to gauge it.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
Communication is critical in any team setting but even more so with hybrid and remote teams. By hybrid I mean a combination of office and remote. Hybrid teams are the most challenging as some team members are exposed to the office environment whereas the remote workers may feel left out.
Typically in a office setting communication kind of works itself out, members talk to each other in hallways, over coffee, etc., you have ad-hoc meetings, by-the-way one-on-one get togethers resulting in team members getting involved and becoming familiar with other aspects of the project - that is areas that they are not directly involved with but their inputs can become valuable. I believe this is critical to project success.
Remote team members tend to communicate on a more formal basis, pre-scheduled meetings with agendas. Limited by-the-way chats. Even with everyone effectively performing their tasks there is less team cohesion or spirit. In many cases the team members have never met nor worked together before so that connection is not there.
How does one deal with these concerns? First you have to recognize the issues, determine the extent of importance to the project and develop measures to compensate. One idea is to assign a communication officer or facilitator focused on team cohesion rather than technical tasks. The project manager may want to take on that role.
Another consideration, which is related to communications and team cohesion, is clear definition of individual team member's deliverables including how these fit into the project. In an office environment unclear deliverables and expectations can be fine tuned through face-to-face discussion and/or input from other members as the project advances. There is less chance of that with remote settings. Saving Changes...
Jessica MooneySenior Project Manager| PPDOrlando, Fl, United States
One of the best things with remote teams is setting up informal channels for communication and utilizing them: skype, TEAMS, etc. When people are frequently communicating, they are going to share personal items which help in team building, but they are also more comfortable sharing issues and problems through established contacts. Saving Changes...
Ramadevi LankaConsultant - Software Services| Ancla Tech ServicesLittle Elm, Tx, United States
In my experience I had to execute projects remotely in multiple instances in the past. This was due to couple of compelling factors such as offshoring and teams having to work directly from client development centers. Due to cost arbitrage of offshoring, most of the times development/maintenance work is offshored. However there are situations where the project teams have to be at the client locations but project management had to be offshored. Similarly I have handled projects wherein I am managing Offshore Delivery Center but some of the teams had to be working out of client location. So in these scenarios, not only the team members are co-located, but also there are other factors such as company policies, HR policies which were different between the team members and the project manager. For example, my team members could not attend all hands meetings as they were physically very far from our office and they couldn’t take a day off to attend these meetings. There were issues like client holidays are different from our company holidays.
Some of the things that can be looked at for bringing in efficiencies in remote project management are listed below.
First and foremost, Communication is the key. It is not just about quantitative definition of communication in terms of frequency (daily), mode of communication, how long meetings should last etc., Focus should be given on how to have effective qualitative communication. Once the focus shifts to this, the physical barrier will vanish automatically. Because even if the PM were to be present physically, he/she will not be available for a discussion all through the day. So once the team and the managers start making their communications effective, the interactions become more productive. Similarly the project manager also has to develop the art of providing actionable and useful inputs for various project issues and discussions that come up during these meetings.
Trust is the key for any project success. It is very important for the project manager to develop skills to be able to assess and measure the progress of work. Team members should be made aware of the vision of the project. Mutual trust should be made as a way of living in the project. Issues like taking leaves, doing the work in times convenient to the team member and not as per office timings, over load on some team members etc., can be overcome by building trust in the team.
How to appraise teams is another key aspect to look at. Some of the best practices can be noting down individual team members performance on a weekly/bi-weekly basis. If there are any areas of improvement, immediately communicate to the team member. If any achievements are there (big are small) share with the team. Having a notes maintained will help project manager to justify the team members performance.
Collaboration using tools available is another important aspect. Creating different groups enabling teams to chat and discuss issues, having video conferences in regular frequencies etc., are very key.
In conclusion, I feel it is a myth that teams who are collocated will be more effective than remote teams. Coming out of this myth will open up a pandora of opportunities for PMs to take up interesting opportunities not constrained by the boundaries of work. Similarly breaking this mindset will allow clients to get access to good talent not limited to physical boundaries. Saving Changes...
