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Managing remote teams effectively.

Managing teams that who are closely in touch with us and each other can be difficult at times. Managing teams of people who work remotely from each other can be even more and differently complicated. Whether or not they are separated by local site, shift times, time zones, home working, region or country geography can create an entirely different interaction and dynamic between the individuals in the team and its leaders.
The sort of factors that are affected are:-
- face to face communication (we know how important non-verbal signals are to the understanding of messages)
- responsiveness and reactivity
- synergy, 1+1 = >2
- trust & inter-dependence
- co-operation and consistency
- feedback quality and quantity
- direction and clarity
- change management.
So what can we do to help people in these remote teams to work most effectively together?
1. Be careful to recruit mature, independent, flexible and trusted people who will not be so dependent on face to face, continued communication and reinforcement.
2. Work to set their and your own expectations realistically about what is and what is not likely to happen.
3. Set your targets and expectations based more on outputs than on inputs or ways of working that you cannot easily observe and monitor.
4. Be conscious of time differences and their impact and sensitivity of key announcements.
5. Make use of IT systems technology to aid communication eg "realtime messaging", telephone and video conference calls, confirm and back up verbal agreements in writing.
6. Seek feedback from the team members on a continual basis about how the team is working in areas that are important to them and critical to your business.
7. Bring the team together, face to face, whenever feasible and make good use of these opportunities to build relationships at these events.
If you are doing most or all of these things then there is a good chance that you will minimise the impact of remote team working - but remember it is never quite the same as the real thing!