How can you ensure your virtual team stays connected and productive?

In my experience, clear goals and trust are vital for virtual team success. Autonomy is equally important, challenging the traditional focus on structured objectives. Trusting team members to manage their time and tasks leads to higher motivation and productivity. Encouraging autonomy doesn't mean abandoning goals; it's about balancing them with respect for individual work styles and fostering ownership. This approach values intrinsic motivation and individual strengths, creating a workspace where team members feel valued, trusted, and empowered. It enhances their connection and commitment to the team's objectives.

My goals or our goals, That is the question. Many teams have a goal that they call a team goal but at the end of the day, it is the manager's or company's goal and that is not as motivating as a manager thinks. If we can somehow set goals that make people feel envolved and invested then you willl have the connection. If your virtual team feels disconnected, then maybe you need to see how much they feel themselves as a part of set goals.

As a facilitator, never become a defender of a tool. instead, try to see what are the needs of the whole team, then find the tool that serves their need. Remember that the best tool for a team might be the worst for another team and vice versa so be an active observer and have a backlog of tools at your disposal. You can create a chart and analyze the strength of each tool for each type of requirement and then when you see a team and know their needs, you can lean toward the one that helps their specific type of needs. but remember this: Empiricism is the key, get feedback and improve overtime.

O que deve se ter em mente é que a ferramenta certa é aquela que funciona para o seu time.O ideal é que ela facilite a intera??o durante os exercícios em grupo.Gosto de utilizar o Miro para criar painéis colaborativos onde as pessoas podem expor ideias, realizar vota??es, inserir mídias,textos e criar fluxogramas. Alguns exemplos de uso: - Mapeamento de jornadas - Levantamento de ideias - Compartilhamento de insights - Prioriza??o de conceitos - Gera??o de storybords - Cria??o de protótipos interativos A facilidade de colaborar em tempo real uns com os outros,torna a ferramenta útil para projetos ágeis e versátil pela diversidade de funcionalidades acessíveis para que todos os participantes possam contribuir juntos,porém individualmente.

Do not be pressurised to create faux engagement. Make sure the engagement activities are relevant.. don’t add polls like where are you from if it is not relevant to the interaction just for the heck of using polls.. these tools are interactive only if you use relevant context .. while using break-out rooms.. participants should get atleast 10 minutes in the breakout rooms

It’s so important to lead by example. If you expect transparency from your colleague, you too must do the same. If you want your team to use the tools, you need to be using them too. Leading by example! I think especially with virtual teams, over communication is sometimes the key. Tell your people more than you think so they are able to connect the dots. Share work work and process more, ask more questions so there is less assumption based decision making. If you haven’t heard from someone, check in more. Building that personal rapport over a virtual setup is so underrated but so key!

It’s so important to lead by example. If you expect transparency from your colleague, you too must do the same. If you want your team to use the tools, you need to be using them too. Leading by example! I think especially with virtual teams, over communication is sometimes the key. Tell your people more than you think so they are able to connect the dots. Share your work and process more, ask more questions so there is less assumption based decision making. If you haven’t heard from someone, check in. Building that personal rapport over a virtual setup is so underrated but so key!

To keep your team cohesive and high-performing, measure and provide feedback about their connectivity using metadata from everyday tools (like calendars, chats, emails, documents, code repositories, or task management systems). Focus on team-level interactions, measuring connections within the team and with other groups. Offer weekly feedback on metrics like coworker interactions and cross-team engagements. Leverage this data further to pinpoint productivity drivers such as deep work duration, context switching, and meeting times. Plus, assess well-being factors like workday length and meeting frequency. This approach helps ensure a balanced and productive virtual team environment.

Remember that your team will do the main body of work and nothing but the right goal and right attitude can enable this. For the business owners: Hire people who are excited to share a goal and you are excited to work with them. Facilitation comes after this so you can have a great driver with a broken car and expect him/her to do magic. Set the stage and let the professionals shine the rough diamond you have, no one can make a diamond out of a wooden stump for you.

Managing difficult situations require skills and more so in virtual interactions.. being well equipped to deal with domination, avoidance, derailment etc is crucial ..