Remote Teamwork: The “TAC-TIC” for Team Productivity While Working From Home (Part 2)

In the Part 1 of this blog, we talked about important practices which managers can do to foster camaraderie while working remotely.  One of which is to schedule and all-in online team huddle. In this practice, the manager gets in a one-hour video call with everyone in the team and asks them to participate and talk about specific things which we summarized in a simple abbreviation of “TAC” and “TIC”, or for easier recall, “TACTIC”. We now look at how these can be covered specifically during the conversation with the team by dissecting what they mean during these times when people are forced to work remotely, physically distant from their teammates and managers. 

T – Thoughts

First, it is important to allow every individual to express his/her thoughts on the current situation. This helps them verbalize their feelings and put words into some unspoken inner stirrings, emotions, fears, or general mood about the sudden shift in working arrangement and lifestyle. If individuals are not usually talkative or won’t open-up even in the former physical workspace, this first part of the exercise is even more critical because it breaks the ice in the virtual conference call. It aims to immediately bring out the human side of every individual, softening the approach to the rigid and cold virtual workspace and relationships, and reviving the human touch of the normal work life which most people are more accustomed to. If video facilities are available, it is important that everyone gets in the call on video because it further brings the human-side forward and center during this short video conference. Allow every individual to share one or two thoughts about this work-from-home situation. Best if the manager could limit it to 30 seconds or one minute, because it is important to remember that the call is supposed to be a productive gathering where everyone is given the chance to speak, share, and contribute. 

A – Achievements

Next, the manager can ask everyone to cite one major achievement at work that they feel most fulfilled about. This sets a positive layer for everyone to build upon during the whole discussion. The manager should emphasize that it isn’t about tooting-one’s-own-horn or making one’s contribution seem bigger than others. Make this portion about the individual and what makes the individual feel good about himself / herself. There is no such thing as a “small achievement”. Every achievement is valid and contributes to the greater goal of the organization. 

C – Challenges

Following the positive layer is an acknowledgment that everything is not as perfect as people want it to be. Working remotely brings about unique challenges for every individual. From small nuisances such as, perhaps, a slower internet connection at home, a warmer room compared to the airconditioned office facilities, or bigger challenges such as not finding enough time to work in peace while having several members of the family, including kids, are under the same roof all at the same time, or not having access to important files which were left in a hard drive in the office – these challenges should be unashamedly brought forward so that the team can better understand the unique situations every individual faces during these odd times. 

T – Targets

Keeping in mind the positives and nuisances mentioned in the earlier parts of the discussion, the manager can now steer the conversation into citing aspirations. The manager should remember NOT TO IMPOSE expectations when he/she shares his targets to the team. This is more for the manager to listen, understand if everyone in the team is working on the right priorities, and if there are opportunities to shift time, resources, and attention to more important and more immediate targets later on. During this part of the discussion, it is important for the manager not to interrupt because this sets a very important baseline for the last two letters of the conversation, which becomes personal to every individual. 

I – Ideas

With every team member verbally expressing their targets, the manager can then ask if there are ideas which can be tied to their targets to help in effectively executing them. Or, if there are ideas on the implications of working from home in the timelines, in the quality or quantity of outputs, on possible risks and other contributing factors to achievement of the targets. Ideas can help the team and the manager explore the feasibility of achieving the targets and help them decide if the targets are realistic or if it needs to be further reviewed considering the unique work-from-home situation. There should be no right and wrong ideas, but the goal should be to tie the ideas of every individual to the targets which they have also verbalized and to the general direction of the team, based on their understanding. 

C – Commitments

This last part is not aimed to pressure individuals to immediately commit to a certain level of quantity, percentage, or quality of outputs just based on this conversation. The manager should not hold the staff accountable on the numbers discussed during this catch-up meeting. Commitments, in this case, is to help the individuals identify the low-lying fruits which they can immediately commit to, in the coming days and weeks, which the manager can take note of and return to later on when he/she checks in on them to facilitate more substantial discussions around individual and team goals. These commitments, again, should come from individual team members, and not from the manager. 

In all these discussions, the manager should take the lead in being the first to share his personal take on every portion of TACTIC.The manager should understand that, while there is no pressure to immediately come up with a grand masterplan to push productivity back to its original levels, or even higher,  he or she should still facilitate a healthy and constructive discussion that will help individuals clear the path forward. With this work-from-home situation, the managers task is to help clear the fog and allow individuals to see the road ahead better. Even with small steps and short-term courses of action, if the path is clearer and more visible, there will be hopes of sustaining operations and achieving long-term success, while going through the most uncertain times for businesses and individuals. Talk to Catalyst360 today to learn how we can support managers in engaging their staff while working from home.