How can you improve remote collaboration skills?

My entire team works remotely and hence I can certainly say that regular and clear communication is the most important aspect to produce effective team work. Daily sync up meetings can work as a refresher for where everyone is at and what are the agendas for the day. Software’s like Teemyco helps us to quickly talk to the team without placing any calls and meetings. Make sure to come together as team every week for a small amount of time just to discuss on random topics just like what we have in office cafeteria.

Don't underestimate the need to build social interaction into your remote working day. Your interpersonal relationships play a big role, especially remotely, in working together effectively as a team and creating a sense of togetherness.

There are 3 things are play a key role to improving remote collaboration skills; 1-Understanding team dynamics 2-Building psychological trust 3-Being responsible and goodwill The alignment of these 3 factors enables successful and sustainable remote work ground. Providing some open, kind and understanding dialogue, active listening and constructive feedback work culture are foster belonging and inclusion.

Trust and rapport can only be developed with proper communication. Also we need to know that it is a slow and meandering process that takes efforts. There are no shortcuts to trust while once the trust is broken there are no quick fix as well! Hence it is important to have a clear communication, understand what the other person is doing. Know if he/she needs help with a stuck project. What I have observed to be beneficial is dropping by every teammate for small amount of time everyday, just in order ask them how they are doing and if they need any help. Show that you care and then actually care.

Assuming things for someone only because he/she belongs to a certain area or if of opposite gender or of other backgrounds not familiar to you, is a big No-No. Assumptions make things worse. Set yourself free to new people, new cultures and new experiences. Approach everyone with respect to their culture, their way of talking or their way of fashion. In case you do not like something, and if that thing doesn’t bother your work, try and stay away from speaking something about it in public. Make sure to accept people for what they are as you also needs to be accepted by others.

Perception vs. perspective One of the first things we should all learn, but remotely it plays an even bigger role: Understand the difference between your own perception (which is solely your own) and perspective (each person has their very own and unique perception). Unfortunately, we start by believing that everyone else perceives a situation in the same way as we do. This inevitably leads to misunderstandings, conflicts and arguments.

Priorities tasks that require only you to work on. Then communicate on how and what time you need to sit down with someone if you have any work in collaboration. Mostly what I do is because my teammates have different login times, I make sure I finish my own work in first 2hrs so that when everyone is in I can collaborate with them and work on shared projects. Make sure you have access to the team calendar in order to know who is busy and who is not. This will help you save your energy and schedule meeting in smooth fashion.

Coming together and communicating can resolve most of the conflicts. Make sure to address gap in communication if there is any due to which the conflict has occurred. Understand what the core issue is by listening to the involved parties. Make sure not approach any conflict with previous biases. Listen, understand and analyse.

Remote collaboration can be tricky, still, teams and leaders need to go through it. To this end, establish regular check-ins through meeting schedule so everyone knows when they can connect and discuss any issues or ideas. Needless to say, be flexible when understanding that schedules might be different for each team member, so be willing to adjust as needed. This is when setting clear expectations can make sure everyone knows what they are responsible for and when it needs to be done. In many instances, use project management tools like Trello and Asana can help everyone stay organized and on task.