Five ways to get your remote team to Gel

Team communications suck, I will say it again, Team communications suck, especially remote team communications, the tools suck, the process sucks, plus with all the issues surrounding culture, context, language, diverse backgrounds, makes leading and engaging remote teams a minefield to navigate every day for managers. And it’s not like there are courses in remote management, there are loads in management, but remote, not so much.  

So many managers will struggle to get their remote team to gel and to get them to be high functioning groups. just getting everyone on a call or answer a chat message in time is hard enough, reporting and handovers become nightmares that take triple the time it should. Communications is the key to successor any team. Multiple research’s in team communications shows that the most effective teams communicate vigorously with ALL its members and have plenty of social interaction that is not only task or work-focused. 

The main problem with working remotely is that humans are built to interact in person, we thrive on body language and tones of voice and we gel as much hanging at the water cooler as we do in our professional roles, so the central problem for companies with remote teams is the automatic social distance and thereby creating an emotional connection between coworkers.

When a team works in one place it is easier to overcome different backgrounds or work roles as the social interaction is there and not as in a remote environment not there if not induced. So how can we induce remote social interaction and not get caught in the most common communication traps when working with your remote teams? Here are a few strategies to get your teams to communicate and gel: 

Adopt a common language

Using one language when communicating with the group is a key factor of keeping things running smoothly, some companies that allow more than one language to be spoken by international teams, but that risks excluding parts of the workforce. Establishing a single language as the primary means of communication across an organization can prevent such issues from arising. The regular use of a number of languages for internal communications can cause significant problems in global organizations, including inefficiency and silos.

Keep in mind that having a uniform language doesn’t negate culture. Many managers will underperform because they fail to adapt their management styles and practices to fit a language environment. Understanding the cultural background of each team member, the role of the company, its products and services, and the customers it serves within various cultural and regional contexts is essential, but there is in no way a benefit to do that in multiple languages, In other words, maintain one language but be sensitive about understanding the various cultures behind those speaking it.

Don’t have a one-size-fits-all communication style.

This is a big one and where most problems and misunderstandings come from. There’s no doubt that leading remote teams are more difficult for managers as they must constantly adapt their own communication style to those of their team members. Showing your own communication is important, and so is facilitating the communication of others in a culturally sensitive way. In organizational behavior, we understand that cultures approach to debate and disagreement in unique ways. What passes for normal discourse in Germany or France may be seen as offensive in Asia. It is important to state the objective and spell out the purpose ahead of time – simply put in the room what would otherwise be an implied understanding if everyone were coming from the same background.

There are cultural differences in how trust is established, some cultures primarily establish trust from the head, and others from the heart. The U.S., U.K., Germany, and Scandinavia form trust-based on task effectiveness. In other cultures, such as China, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia, there is a greater emphasis on relationships when establishing trust. When working across cultures, it’s vital to know how the other person may view gestures of trust-building, and lean into that style.

Be strategic about the mode of communication.

As remote team communications tools suck, managers need to be strategic, Voice calls are not the most convent if your team is spread over multiple time zones, and might not be the most convenient overall, there is a huge difference between how we behave at a meeting we are obliged to go to and how we interact in a water cooler environment, and remote work means that there are only mandatory meetings. 

You can break the modes of remote team communication down into two categories: “instant” such as video and teleconferencing, and “delayed” ones, such as email and messaging. Instant technologies are mostly used when leaders need to persuade others to adopt their viewpoint, but are not the best for simple sharing information or verify that the information has been received and understood, for that then delayed methods such as e?mail or messaging are simpler, more efficient, and less disruptive to people’s lives.

Managers should also consider the team’s interpersonal dynamics. While it may be good practice to do a quick call to address issues with team members in the same time zone, this may rankle your team members abroad. Part of establishing solid communication with global team members is showing you respect their time as much as yours.

Establish regular check-ins.

Managing a remote team requires constant communication. Chat groups are the best to say a simple good morning, or check-in time to time, even if it is just to say something simple like “I’m heading out to lunch, so AFK”, With today's chat apps it should be possible or the whole team to understand the availability of other teams members, using email here can cause a delay especially if there are multiple timezones involved or traveling. Work so that the whole team is always checking in their status, even if that is just AFK for lunch or coffee make sure the check-ins are informal and get to be a normal part of each day.  

Learn how to communicate socially using the tools available. 

This is the key to making a team gel, it is not about email etiquette, and not about discussing the movie you watched. It is about asking questions and lead multiple team members in on the conversation. Work with asking about specific tasks over the chat and use wordings like “so @nameA, next week you are starting on task XYZ, that sounds super fun”, “I think that @nameB worked with something similar, maybe reach out and see if there is some overlap?”, “Anyway super pumped to hear how it goes next week”. These are just simple examples of how to get the team aware and involved in what the team members are working on without strict reporting. keeping reporting meetings at a minimum and do all reports over a project management tool is really helpful as the team updates to tool when they have completed a task and not to “make” the meeting. 

In conclusion, running remote teams is hard and there are really no good tools, I will in a future article discuss what tools we at quantum1net use and why we use them, but let's say that minimalism in tools and maximalism in communications is key, to any successful gel of teams.