Making Productive Virtual Teams

What a great question. Many may discuss clearly defining roles, creating goals, etc., which is needed. However, the elements mentioned in the prior sentence are usually completed but not necessarily followed. What I have found when helping virtual teams become productive, or more productive, is to restructure how they do work. Most virtual work is not collaborative but rather an unengaging, non-dynamic meeting lacking autonomy, followed by siloed tasks. Additionally, virtual work has not changed much from work that is completed in the office – so what can you do?

Create Spaces for Collaboration:

Software such as MS Teams or Google Workspaces has collaborative tools such as MS Whiteboards, MS Planner, MS PowerBi, Google Keep, Google Sites, Google Jamboard, and breakout rooms that can support fluid and open communication in real-time. However, it must be understood that collaborative tools such MS Whiteboards and breakout rooms are tied to individual meetings on the calendar – meaning to migrate the information from one meeting to the next, you must set up a series of meetings or move the same meeting room around on each individual’s calendar. Generally, it is easier to set up a series of meetings.

However, if you just utilize SharePoint or Google Sites, a group or team can access data in a central location that allows each member to communicate and collaborate in real-time, transforming unengaging, non-dynamic work into interactive and engaging collaborative experiences.

The tools listed in the paragraphs above and many others are part of the platforms organizations pay for but hardly use. As an organization, leader, or manager within a company, you must increase your employees' access to tools that support collaborative, autonomous remote work and teach them how to use them effectively.

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Support Autonomous Thinking:

After providing spaces for employees to collaborate, allowing employees to work in an autonomized manner will allow creativity to flow, ushering in new, creative solutions. As a leader or manager, you can help reframe the new creative solutions by providing context around how the potential solutions fit within the business acumen of your sector of the organization. Thus, you are indirectly training employees to think beyond their thoughts and integrate their solutions within the policies, laws, and procedures of your segment of the business.

Make Meetings about the Objectives/Goals:

After the team has used the collaborative tools and created potential solutions for their respective work, the entire team should come together for a more productive meeting to discuss actionable thoughts related to departmental goals and company objectives. At this point, employees are excited to share their potential solutions with the team, and it is your role as a leader or manager to promote an autonomized, supported environment while driving performance for the department and the company.

Wrapping Things Up:

By creating specific times for collaborative, autonomized work, utilizing collaborative tools, and bringing the team together in a supportive environment, your team's productivity will increase by 50 to 60%.

In closing, this article does not touch on keeping remote teams accountable, which will drive their performance above 60%.

Let www.DavisIOPLLC.com help your teams increase productivity.