Switching to remote work - and making it work
The key to remote work is getting to know team members as a whole person, not just a bot that sometimes does things. That means understanding and creating CONTEXT for each others’ actions.
Context =
Understanding how people think, not just their actions/decisions
What is a person thinking about? What are the feeling? What’s important to them? What are they seeing and responding to?
Sharing some positive emotions – laughs, listening, the attention of the group
If you are team leader:
Get more facetime than usual with your team. At minimum, set a 15 min check in with each team member 1x week where you can connect on what’s going well and what’s not
Get clear on which channels are best for what– e.g. text for emergencies, email for usual
Agree on explicit expectations for how fast people should expect an answer from each other (e.g. emails=24 hours, texts=2 hours, etc.)
You and everyone should set “office hours” – 30-60 min a day where you will be fully available for spontaneous q’s. These can be each person’s choice, but don’t forget to have everyone list them
Tech set up: Video: Get set up on zoom or the video client of your choice. Zoom is offering free stuff right now. Chat/Slack: If you don’t already have one, set up a free account where people can ping each other for fast requests instead of long email chains.
Slack comes with a channel where people can share memes and dumb stuff to make each other laugh without it being in the middle of work stuff. Get this ball rolling!
Set Monday and Friday scrums (15-60 minute standup meetings depending on the size of your team)
Here’s the agenda:
One sentence check in from each person– context for how you’re showing up today, something on your mind or that you want to share
Do not skip this! This is the #1 way to maintain a sense of human relationships when working remotely
Do allow people to pass if they aren’t feeling chatty
Mon: What’s your main focus for the week? / Fri: what did you learn this week?
What do you need from other people at this point?
Closing – what are you taking with you? or what do you want people to know?