One of the main pillars of the agile way of working is team collocation. Teams that work together from the same place report higher productivity, effectiveness and better decision making. The epidemic has made this difficult and hence how do we make the remotely located team agile?
However, the experience shows that agile make remote working easier. Many companies working the agile way attribute this to the following factors
- Rigid prioritisation Creating backlogs and constantly refining them have made sure that the team can work together even when remote.
- Working in small teams Small teams build resiliency and make it easier to change direction when needed.
- A regular rhythm of meetings A regular meeting calendar helps to make sure everyone is on target especially when working from home.
- Agile leadership Leaders focus on outputs and allow teams to work out how to achieve them.
Agile is in essence a set of core values, principles rather than specific practices. Teams that follow the basic principles can still operate with the constraints until the time it is removed. Let us discuss how they can remain focused on their efforts.
Maintain alignment
Small, cross-functional teams are at the core of the agile organisation. The ability to act autonomously stimulated creativity and enables teams to take quick decisions. This high degree of autonomy works when there is a good alignment between the team members, especially when they are working remotely.
Team leaders should ensure that this alignment is around the company's priorities, goals. The leaders must communicate this to the team explaining the intent, the why and what to ensure that the team remains focused. This becomes even more important when teams are remote.
Prioritise ceremonies
Regular ceremonies bring order and structure to the remote work. Holding meetings regularly at a particular time provides a forum to discuss progress, plans for the coming week, raise any emerging risks or issues.
It helps when leaders are transparent about their availability. They should make time to meet the teams and regular ceremonies on a regular basis to ensure continuity and get updates on the progress.
Use virtual tools
There are plenty of virtual tools available today and many o them are very useful. An always-on connection during working hours can ensure formal and informal connections among team members. Frequent meetings/ calls during the early stages of the project would help people to adjust to the new way of working. A breakout room helps in discussions one-to-on. Whiteboards help overcome discussion boards.
Breakdown the activities of a typical workday and the locations where they take place. These can be recreated virtually using the built-in tools. taking the team members on a virtual tour can help them get familiar with remote working.
Build a virtual team culture
This is the most important and at the same time the most difficult part of working remotely. Culture is a critical aspect of the workplace and this may be lost when teams are dispersed.
Look for ingenious ways to build a culture among team members. One way is to invite team members into one's new work environment, share photos, have a virtual tour of the home office. Assign roles to team members to ensure focus and encourage participation. Adhering to the following characteristics will help in building a functioning culture.
- Empathy Some readily adjust to the virtual setup while others may face problems adjusting. An understanding of this can help teams members work effectively.
- Transparency Leaders should make extra effort to be transparent about their work, deadlines and responses.
- Engagement Encourage conversation among team members. Not all conversations need to be about work. Ask how they are coping in the new set up and how their family is managing tc.,
It is inevitable that work from home is here to stay for quite some time and leaders should ensure that it doesn't hurt. Agile way of working can keep the remote teams work effectively and make them resilient for the future.
By Benjamin Rehberg, Martin Danoesastro, Shilpa Kaul, and Liza Stutts
BCG 2020/03
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