The epidemic has compelled everyone to move online and have virtual meetings to conduct their business. This has been in use for the last six months and may well continue into the near future. However, the communications among the team members are tricky and need to be managed very delicately.
There are certain know facts from research that can help this process. They are based on the concepts of diversity, synchrony, creativity, streamline processes, improve team performance.
Bursting forth
Human communications by nature happen in bursts, ie., there is a period of high activity followed by no activity. These silences often indicate the team members forming new ideas and deep work to develop the next steps in the project or solving a difficult problem. It helps focus energy, develop ideas and achieve closure on specific questions.
To communicate, members should avoid thinking of message-based communications with everyone simply sending messages when required. Instead, members should align their work routines and communicate in short periods when everyone responds attentively.
To facilitate this, members have to find time when they can work together. This can be difficult when teams are remote. Coordinating this can be complicated and stressful but when teams communicate can help smooth out the rough edges of the constraints.
How does one create a common time when members can communicate? Today technology facilitates finding both free and busy time of all members. Calendar technology allows collaborators to see availability. Other technology makes it possible to see the activities on shared documents and also when members are available for discussion.
Managers and teams should work to find new ways to develop awareness so that everybody knows who is available.
Less is more
Diversity in teams plays an important role as it facilitates greater diversity of information which boosts team performance. Small chunks of information help focus the mind and declutter communications. To optimise information, strive to make the message as focussed as possible. Instead of sending one long mail with three topics, send three separate emails. A fewer number of ideas in a message easier it is to go into more depth and exchange ideas about each one.
Better synched
Video communication is always not beneficial for effective communications. Video conferences can disrupt non-verbal cues that enhance collaboration. When we meet in person we look for these non-verbal clues to know when it is appropriate to speak without interruption and how a group comes to an agreeable solution. By not having visual clues in remote meetings, actually increases speaking time. Adding video to calls reduces this time.
It is often a good idea to prefer audio over video. Task focussed conversation is often conducted in audio with participants focussing in the documents pertaining to the project.
Smarter remote teams.
Whenever teams are separate physically in the work setting, managers should develop information diversity, establish periods of deep work without interruptions and use audio or video calling judiciously depending on the need. Such attention would help improve the performance of remote teams.
Successful Remote Teams Communicate in Bursts
by Christoph Riedl and Anita Williams Woolley
HBR 2020/10
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