How Connection Affects Work From Home Teams

According to the reading I had done, psychological safety was supposed to be just as impactful on remote teams as collocated (in office) teams. It sounded good in theory, but now that we have lived it, I can testify that it is true.

It felt like we were sent home overnight and have not been back since.

When we first moved my company into a 100% work from home (WFH) environment, I was concerned about the impact WFH would have on our team. I did a lot of research into best practices, and together the leadership of our company made the effort to intentionally connect with every member of the team on a regular and consistent basis. My feeling was that this would create a backstop so that productivity and the psychological safety we had worked so hard to create would not deteriorate under the strain of being isolated from each other.

Much to my surprise, I found that my work actually became more enjoyable. I also heard from team members that they were finding the new regiment more productive and strangely they felt closer to each other and leadership than ever before.

How was that possible?

New research from VitalSmarts and Gensler provides insights into how Connected Leadership and Psychological Safety can build Social Capital (effective team culture) in remote work environments.

New Study’s Surprising Results

The sudden, (and unexpected) move to a 100% Work From Home environment has had a polarizing effect on many teams. Some teams are fortunate enough to actually grow closer, while other teams feel disconnected and isolated.

What is the difference?

Connected Leadership.

According to a study published by VitalSmarts and written about in Fast Company, teams that invest in intentionally creating ad hoc interactions are experiencing measurable performance gains as well as increased job satisfaction. A similar Work From Home (WFH) Survey done by the architecture firm Gensler had similar findings. Some work types and groups did find a noticeable improvement in productivity.

However, clearly, not all teams are faring as well. According to Joseph Grenny, best-selling author and principal at VitalSmarts, the teams that have experienced the most rapid decline in “social capital” - a measure of groups' healthy social systems - are the teams that did literally nothing to promote team connectedness.  

The teams that focused on “productivity” not only struggled to keep pace with their previous work output, they are also experiencing an alarming decline of employee wellness. Even before COVID sent people scrambling for the safety of their homes, Corporate Wellness programs were on the rise. The sudden shift to a more isolating environment did not help.

The good news is that it does not have to be that way.

In fact, not only can social connection be bolstered in a remote work environment, it can actually be improved.

What We Left At The Office

Office environments provide a form of synchronization for social activities. In fact they are actually engineered to create the kinds of unplanned interactions that lead to human connection. According to Dr. Marissa Franco, a psychologist, and expert in helping adults make new friendships, “It is harder to make friends as adults for a variety of reasons.” The chief culprit? It’s harder to enter into the types of casual interpersonal experiences that build relationships.   

Knowing this, architects try to design office environments to create the kind of unstructured social interactions we experience in schools. Offices synchronize work schedules such as start times, lunchtimes, and they hope we end the day together. Then there is the physical layout of open-plan offices and shared spaces that encourage random interaction. We bump into each other in the hallway, mingle in the break room, and crane our necks to eavesdrop, possibly joining interesting conversations that affect us and our work.  

In fact according to Science Direct:

Numerous studies have consistently demonstrated that characteristics of the physical office environment can have a significant effect on the behavior, perceptions, and productivity of employees.

The walls of our office did more than keep out the weather, they held together and bolstered the social glue of our teams. Or as Grenny put it,

“we are like marbles in a jar, rubbing up against one another.”

When we left the office, we left much of that behind.

Some teams dramatically increased their social capital while working from home.

Bounty of Friendship

The good news according to VitalSmarts is that WFH does not have to be a socially isolating destroyer of company culture. Connected Leaders who apply energy into actively developing social capital have been reaping the following benefits:

• Employees are more responsive to each other. In fact, they reportedly are 60% quicker to respond to peer requests.
• When problems arise, team members are defaulting to trust, giving each other the benefit of the doubt more often.
• Cooperation is receiving a boost from coworkers who are almost three times more likely to sacrifice their own needs to serve the larger team goal.
• Empowerment is improving as employees take initiative more than twice as often to solve problems instead of waiting for explicit direction.

The Gensler study that focused on knowledge workers found that 60% of respondents reported new remote models were much more effective than traditional channels, and some businesses reported: 

“working faster and better than they ever imagined.”

Some teams have experienced a rapid decline in social capital and team effectiveness

The Cost of Neglect

The sad news is that the businesses which have struggled to adapt to WFH are experiencing an alarming deterioration in social capital. Among VitalSmarts findings were the following:

• 54% of executives reported feeling a deterioration of culture since leaving the office en masse.
• 40% of the time employees did the bare minimum of their work.
• Reflecting this disconnection, these teams took four times as long to respond to requests from others.
• Erosion of trust, as team members were also four times as likely to assume the worst when problems arose.
• Fracturing as team members put their own interests ahead of the groups three times as often as not.

The Gensler report echoed the desire of people to return together:

The longer we work apart from colleagues, the more being together matters.

From Passive to Active Connection

It is clear that a lot of work has to be done before people will return to the office. What’s more, even when that happens it is extremely clear that “business as usual” has come to an end. Teams that rely on passive means to establish social relationships among workers will lag behind more progressive companies that have found the power of actively managing team connections.

In other words, the days of relying on the office building to shape and sustain the company culture may be over.

We believe it is time to move from passive social engagement to managed social connection.

It’s About Connection

The good news is that humans are wired for connection. The trick is that these connections need to happen through unstructured interactions. Why? Because it is part of the human psyche to “explore” the unknown. Modern psychology tells us making friends is a combination of repeated exposure and discovery.  

It is like we need to bump into each other to discover how we fit together. We need time, space, a premise, and the opportunity to test for compatibility. These behaviors can be assisted when supported by mutual interest. The leaders of the teams that are fairing the best in WFH have discovered that giving people a chance to connect outside of work meetings has unlocked performance that surpassed their expectations.

To understand why this is, the work done by Dr. Maria Jose Laria, gives us a clue. According to her psychological bonding promotes three important factors in people:

1. Feelings of Relatedness
2. Capacity Regulate Emotions
3. Resiliency

Dr. Laria calls these the “Three Big R’s”.

When you look at the behaviors of the “productive” WFH teams vs the “Struggling” WFH through the lens of Relatedness, Regulation, and Resiliency team member response seems to make a lot of sense. Fragile people, who struggle with emotional control and don’t know how to relate to their peers are much more likely to be slow to respond, act out of fear rather than optimism when problems arise, and put their needs ahead of others.

In contrast, resilient, relatable people, with adequate emotional regulation are likely to be calmer, more responsive, and easier to work with. Studies have shown that high emotions, especially anxiety and fear can reduce mental capacity and curb creativity and problem-solving. High levels of relatability increase empathy which leads to more trust and compassion in a problem situation. Having more access to higher-order mental functions not only opens creative problem solving, but it also enables the kind of contextual thinking that can help a person prioritize team goals over their own. A sense of optimism gives them the confidence to believe in themselves and that this sacrifice will work out for the best.

It isn’t just that connected teams are happier, bonded teams possess the psychological resources needed to access their best selves.

The False Trap of Resisting Virtual Events

If your company has been reluctant to embrace remote team building activities, no doubt one of the key objections is, “we are burnt out on video conferencing.” While many people feel this, few know why. It turns out there is some science behind how we interact with each other in person, and how we receive visual cues on video conferences that may cause mental fatigue.

Video conferences make it hard to know what people are looking at.

Until recently it was believed that human beings were the only mammals with white’s of the eyes. (it turns out some rare gorillas have sclera too).  

According to a theory called cooperative eye hypothesis, humans have whites of the eyes (the scientific term is sclera) to make it easier to know what other people are looking at. 

We are constantly watching each other, and one of the things we are looking for are signals to know what is important to pay attention to. Human eyes move incredibly fast allowing us to rapidly check our cohorts for signs that the attention priorities have changed.  

Is everyone still watching the speaker? The moment one person looks away in a meeting, like a yawn, that darting glance can ripple imperceptibly through the rest of the attendees.  

Video conferencing disrupts these social queues. Why? Because everyone’s array of faces are laid out differently. On a video call people can be looking in virtually any direction or multiple directions at once even though they are all watching the same speaker.

The cacophony of visual cues strains our focus and leaves us drained. We never get to relax. Our brain is constantly trying to figure out what is important and who is worth paying attention to. Turning off the cameras can be even worse because then we have no idea how people are responding to us when we speak. A lack of visual cues can leave to even more disassociation.  

So now you know why we are drained by video conferencing, but you don’t let that have to scare you away from trying to create opportunities for your people to connect.

Why? Because there are a wide range of events and activities that allow your people to focus!

One Example From Video Games

Virtual Esports Opens have been enormously popular with colleges and universities across the country from coast to coast. Just like WFH professionals, most college students have been forced day long online learning sessions, and yet they find the community engagement of a video game tournament exciting and refreshing.

Why?

Because the program is designed to do three things:

1. Create opportunities for unplanned, unstructured interactions.
2. Create a focal point for common interest.
3. Facilitate inclusion through live support

The program features a live-stream hosted by a professional commentator who makes the program engaging for people to watch. This passive participation is a gateway to more active engagement. Viewers can interact with the commentator in real-time (if you have not paid attention to Twitch you might want to start now, it is the future of media), and each other. The moderated conversations allow the audience to co-create the content experience together.

The participants who actually play in the tournament are supported by a tournament organizer who facilitates making matchups, exchanging game scores, but also gives live support so players do not feel isolated and left on an island.

Every part of the experience creates a funnel to focus attention on what matters most during the event. The spontaneity of play provides a near endless stream of novelty and excitement, which in turn provides more fuel for those unstructured moments that bind us together.

By focusing on maximizing participation, the events visibly demonstrate engaged community. The participants can literally see what they are a part of.

This is one of many solutions available to teams and companies that are looking for ways to build connection in their organizations.

It’s About Connected Leadership

A growing body of evidence makes it clear that we do our best work when we feel connected to the people on our team. The recent large scale shift to work from home has made this clear in multiple surveys. We can help your people develop resiliency, regulation, and relatedness through compelling and engaging virtual events.