These are strange times, and for good reason. There is a lot of uncertainty in society and the world at large, which can cause tension and even anxiety in the most calm people. It is therefore extremely important to think about our people, show tolerance and empathy, because when we experience crises and threats, even the most rational people can behave irrationally. Most of us are working with others in some kind of team. When a portion of our employees are working remotely from home, creating an effective team culture can be a real challenge.
As we move increasingly into remote work, it’s helpful to consider the findings of recent research on effective team cultures and what we can adopt from them and how. Here’s a short list of key points:
- Psychological safety* is the alpha and omega of good teamwork. We experience it when team members can be open with each other, offer ideas, admit mistakes, and take risks without fear of consequences.
- The team has a common purpose and goal.
- The team has shared values as a guiding principle in collaboration and communication.
- Team members experience support from each other and feel like they belong on the team.
- Team members believe in what they are doing and feel that they are working on something that is important to the team.
- The team does not avoid conflict but deals with it together with respect as a guiding principle.
When we work in the same space, we are used to informal interactions where we meet our colleagues in the hallways, at the coffee shop, or in meetings. These are interactions that occur many times throughout the day without us particularly noticing or appreciating them.
This is often what creates motivation and creativity in the workplace, interactions that increase effectiveness and productivity and are crucial in forming bonds between colleagues and increasing well-being in the workplace.
When we work remotely, these moments inevitably fall away and we need to be more intentional about creating a collaborative spirit.
What can we do to build and maintain good team spirit and create those little moments in remote work?
We assume in these recommendations that the team is known and the purpose and goals of the team are presumably clear. How do we ensure that sufficient psychological safety is present in the team for the team to be effective in remote work?
- Check in with your people regularly, just like on a normal workday, and focus on motivation and team cohesion.
- Create a team agreement with your group, practical things like when to have meetings and how often. Get the group to discuss topics like; how we are going to behave and how we are going to support each other and look out for each other. How do we prevent misunderstandings? How we word things can make a huge difference especially when we are working remotely. It is good for the team to discuss this, agree on behavior and put it on paper.
- Make sure everyone participates in the meetings, that everyone speaks something. When it is especially important that everyone contributes an opinion or feeling, it is good, for example, to pose a question, ask people to write down their answer and then go around the circle, this way we ensure that everyone has their say.
- Create remote work traditions in collaboration with the team. Traditions are very important for team spirit and team success. Teams can decide to always meet for a quarter of an hour before starting the day’s tasks, where they have a cup of coffee/tea/water together and check in on each other. It could also be possible, for example, to meet once a week and meditate together or tell jokes. Traditions can be of any kind and in any way. If any traditions have been in place before, it is a good idea to look at ways to maintain them in remote work.
- Don’t just talk about the projects and project status in team meetings, practice talking about how you feel, what’s going well, and what challenges you have.
- Create a buddy system and even change buddies every week. The buddies look out for each other, check in with each other regularly.
- Create an atmosphere where mistakes can be acknowledged and learned from. This can be done by showing a learning mindset, vulnerability, and admitting when we don’t have the answers. Ask for help and offer help, thereby setting a good example of sincere communication that promotes learning and growth.
- Be curious/interested, ask the team questions, not just work-related ones. The better the team knows each other, the better they can work together and support each other.
- Last but not least. Play is the foundation of creativity and innovation. Play reduces stress, helps us learn, and connects us with others. Play can increase our productivity at work and increase job satisfaction for all of us. Find the joy and humor in this situation and find the benefits of temporary home working. One way to do this is to create fun traditions with your team that include a little joy and humor. Play!
Example of team work:
Teams meet for a quarter of an hour at the beginning of the day. Each person reports what they did the day before, what they plan to do today, and what obstacles they see. 1 minute per person. If there are any obstacles, they ask if anyone can help and those parties meet after the meeting.
Each team member has their own “buddy” and they talk daily, whether it’s about projects or just to lift spirits over a cup of coffee. The buddy changes weekly. At the end of the week, the team meets in a remote meeting and reviews what went well during the week, what went less well, and what they could do better. Every other Friday, they have a theme day in clothing and give a prize for the best costume at the remote meeting of the day.
Leading in the era of remote work
Remote working creates new challenges for managers. It is important to build mutual trust between employee and manager and for the employee to know what is expected of them and how they are evaluated, this can vary from person to person.
- Make sure everyone has enough to do and has appropriate tasks.
- Make sure no one is forgotten, that everyone belongs to a group, and have remote meetings with them.
- Set goals or shared performance metrics, it could be time logging, work orders, reports or analyses completed, etc.
- If you’re using Teams, it can be a good idea to move notifications to the chat channel there and save email notifications for very important messages.
- Make it clear to employees where they report to work and how, for example when they arrive at work or are present, when they leave or are absent.
- Think about positive wording in text messages so there is no misunderstanding about how you feel, and find your favorite emoticons to lighten the mood 🐸🙃
- It is good if the meeting is well prepared, meeting materials are sent out in advance, and time is set aside for discussion.
- Ensure meetings are efficient and the agenda and management are clear. One challenge with remote meetings is to ensure that people don’t lose focus and start doing other things, such as answering emails, etc. One way is to ask participants directly what they think about certain issues or to let the discussion flow between them.
- Make sure there is a balance between introverts and extroverts. These contrasts are often exaggerated in remote meetings, with the extroverts taking over the meeting and the introverts just sitting there watching and not getting involved. Having agreed on meeting culture and behavior during meetings can help a lot with this.
- Think about the individuals, find out if anyone on the team is having a particularly hard time focusing when working from home and find ways to support them.
These strange times call for a change in working methods and more work-related solitude, and at the same time perhaps also more household and parenting responsibilities than on normal working days. It is important that employees manage to establish a work routine and stay in control of their work and personal lives while this unusual situation lasts. It is also important that you as managers nurture your team and ensure that goals are clear and support a positive working spirit and a successful team culture. This is then an ideal opportunity to practice adaptability and changed working methods that can be useful for us in the future.
Please get in touch if you need advice, training or assistance.
*Psychological safety refers to a team’s ability to be honest with each other, share ideas, admit mistakes, and take risks without fear of negative consequences. When psychological safety is present, team members are more likely to support each other when needed, challenge each other’s ideas, and make decisions to better achieve goals.
