TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING EFFECTIVENESS ON DISTRIBUTED TEAMSRick Neighbarger, Enterprise QA Manager, Grange Insurance, NeighbargerR@GrangeInsurance.com

CATEGORY TECHNIQUESHOW DO I BUILD A DISTRIBUTED TEAM?

Overcoming management resistance Research & present case (cost savings, access to larger pool of skills, retention of good employees who move, etc.)

Change in management mindset: manage using multiple channels (phone, instant message, email, etc) instead of face to face

Pilot with one team

Plan for up-front costs (video conference, bridge, presentation software, phones, travel)

Work From Home form

Remind employees: WFH is a perk & can be removed (team becomes self-policing High Performing Team)

Identifying The Right People

Hire right kind of people. Critical characteristics: good fit with rest of team; motivated; problem-solver (doesn’t wait to be told what to do—ready to tackle new

challenges); flexible

Get rest of team involved in interviews when adding members (clarify parameters: diversity, legal issues, target skills, how you will use their input)

Forming Team Relationships

Share “safe” personal info about selves in kickoff & following meetings (e.g., Kickoff: What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work? Regular meetings:

Manager presents recent team member successes (be sure to distribute equally to avoid resentment).

Creative ideas: distribute baseball cards with picture of each team member in front of something symbolizing their location, with bio on back. Online bulletin

board—pin up photos of kids, vacations, etc.

At least one team face-to-face meeting if possible can change them from a scattered group of people who sometimes work together, to well-oiled team & even

lifelong friends. (Plan for cost of travel & time away from work.)

Ask team to set their own ground rules for themselves. (Examples: high-level—mutual respect; more detailed—team's core working hours; process & location for

contributing/saving shared presentation work…)

Be flexible with employees—if you ask them to make personal time compromises be prepared to give them flexibility during normal work hours.

If some of team are co-located & others are elsewhere, consider allocating a PC as an office videocam for watercooler conversations (remember: you're always

on camera ;-)

Onboarding Team Members Clear onboarding checklists, with links, screen shots, contact emails/phone numbers

Online trg (company catalog; free/pay vendor webinars; YouTube, etc.)

HOW DO I LEAD A DISTRIBUTED TEAM?

Setting/Managing Objectives Remotely

Ensure everyone is crystal clear on team & individual objectives: establish clear ownership, determine appropriate tools to manage progress (traditional status

meetings? Scrum stand-ups? written statuses?).

Provide coaching, support & encouragement (1:1 meetings with each employee, office hours, open door policy)

Plan periodic face to face meetings if feasible (at least one initial meet & greet if at all possible). Particularly when the team is forming, you may need more

touchpoints than a co-located team (caution—can become interference if overdone).

Build a regular rhythm for meetings and activities to introduce structure (don't overdo it).

If tools allow, supplement in distr meetings with pictures (chat, meetings, emails, collaboration tools).

Determine appropriate tools for managing tasks: spreadsheet? PM tools? Agile virtual kanban board?

As with all teams, find sweetspot between micromanagement & chaos. Depends on type of work, skill level of individual workers, their experience working on

distributed teams, etc.

Ask team what you can improve—how can I be a better manager? (Is anyone still following me?)

Assuring Team is Working

Measure what you want to see. People respond to how you measure them. Do you want butts in seats during specific hours, or problems solved & work

completed?

Encourage high performing, self-guided teams, with mutually agreed upon ground rules. They will police each other with peer pressure to some degree.

Initiate/encourage regular communications between employees and between them and you.

Implement tools to clearly communicate work completed, currently in progress, and in the backlog (shared spreadsheets, WBSs, online kanban boards, etc.).

Rewarding Good Effort If some of team are local & you take them out to lunch, be sure to reward remote members equally.

Gift cards (coffee, meals), flowers, cookies.

Hand-written cards for a personal touch

Do stealth research on what they love (ask coworkers, admins, etc.).

If you know someone visiting their location, ask them to drop off the surprise

HOW DO I WORK ON A DISTRIBUTED TEAM?

Communicating in Meetings Respect people's time by planning meetings

Planning the call Beware of Daylight Savings time offsets. Some states and countries do not switch to DST. Those that do, do not all do it on the same date

Take into account local commute hours and conditions for each timezone involved in the meeting

Agree as a team on acceptable time ranges for meetings

Send an agenda for every meeting—define purpose & topics for the meeting (don’t be inflexible, but have a plan & try to follow it); limit topics to what will

reasonably fit within timeframe; stop meeting at agreed time unless all agree to proceed; note all times with relevant timezones to reduce confusion

Send out any documentation that will be discussed in the meeting, with enough lead time for participants to review and prepare their responses. Add more time if

non-native speakers will be participating.

If holding meetings in a conference room with remote attendees calling in, ask for assistance getting a room with a good phone & mikes

If not able to get a room with good acoustics, arrange phone and room as optimally as possible. Use a token system to encourage those in the room to speak

one at a time and approach the phone when speaking (do not move the phone around--can be deafening to those calling in).

Use a good conference bridge to dial in to meetings, and include bridge numbers in meeting invitation and agenda

Use a good collaborative presentation software so all can see slides and take control when appropriate

A bridge or presentation tool that includes photos of each participant helps add a personal touch to meetings

During the call At the beginning of the call, announce everyone who is on the call

If a lot of people will be joining the call, consider disabling the bridge line auto-announcer to avoid constant interruptions whenever someone joins or leaves the

call

If team is large or unfamiliar voices are on the line, preface your comments with your name ("This is Rick. My thoughts on the subject are…")

If participating individually, use a headset instead of the built-in mike & speakers on your PC or speakerphone, so others can understand you and environmental

sounds don't come through (consider a good bluetooth headset)

Don't eat, chew gum, shuffle papers, drum on the desk, or carry on side conversations while on the call. If you hear others doing so, politely ask whoever is

making the distracting sounds to refrain

Don't put your line on hold while on the conference line--it can force everyone else to listen to elevator music

Use your mute button when not addressing others on the call, but do not ever assume that the mute button is on and it is safe to make snide remarks

Meetings with international team members

Use English (or less commonly, another agreed-upon common language) in the call. Provide interpreters (and additional time and offline discussion breaks) for

anyone on the call who is not a fluent English speaker

Ask all at the beginning to speak slowly and clearly

Avoid idioms ("apples and oranges", "burning platform", "ballpark estimate", "bean counter", etc.)

If someone is not understanding your point, don't keep repeating the same words or raise your voice. Rephrase your statement with different words. For

important statements, ask them to summarize and repeat what you said

Restate important statements or decisions to ensure understanding ("This is what I heard you say…")

Don't assume the person with the clearest English or loudest voice has the the most value to add

Many cultures are less direct than the US and if they don't understand, will not speak up without coaching. When asking someone to do something, ask them to

summarize back to you what they said.

Research the cultures involved and potential misunderstandings Americans fall into. We tend to be more direct than some cultures and less direct than others.

Cultures vary drastically with relationship to hierarchy, titles and gender. Consult experienced leaders and cultural training books or courses

Make deliverables measurable to resolve difficulties with saying no or delivering bad news. A clear WBS with % completion spelled out can help with cultures

where delivering bad news is avoided (otherwise your understanding of 90% done may really only be 20%)

Consider learning greetings in each language to endear yourself to team members. If you can't pronounce them, put them in writing. Ensure with an *expert* that

it's appropriate for the context and for your relationship with the team members, or it can be as offensive to them as a bear hug between Americans on a first

meeting).

If using video or meeting international team members in person, be very careful with hand gestures. Many have offensive meanings in other cultures (US signs

for "peace", "OK"…).

Collaborating on Documents Plan for use of appropriate tools

Email: ubiquitous but provides versioning challenges

Central repository (Sharepoint/wiki): better for check in/out, document management

Supplement with phone (consider VOIP), instant message, Skype or Telepresence, integrated office toolsets

Use central repository for shared presentations, projects, assignments, reference materials, etc.

Centralize project or assignment repository to track work completed, in process, and backlogged

Consider social business software (Jive, Yammer, Salesforce) to integrate team with other communities (customers, service desk, support, etc.) to expedite

workflows and effectiveness

Minimize Disruptions at Home Set up dedicated office space: comfortable, quiet, well-lit, room to work, separated from others

Set agreement with everyone in household on do-not-disturb hours or signs (door is closed)

Set regular habits/work hours where possible

Schedule interruptions (cable guy, deliveries) where possible

Minimize Weight Gain at Home Set regular habits/work hours where possible

Prepackage snacks & meals

Schedule break times when leaving room

Don't graze while working