Before we dive deep into the topic.
We need to get this out of the way.
What do you call a team that is not working from the same location?
Remote Team or Virtual Team
Drumroll, please….
According to Google, the term used more often is ‘Virtual Team’ with almost close to 2400 searches monthly.‘Remote team’ comes in a far second with only 590 searches a month.
Now that we have got that out of the way, the rest of the article I will be using ‘Virtual Team’.
Now let’s dive right into it.
What are the steps to build an All-Star Virtual Team?
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate:
The most important part of building a virtual team is communication. As simple as that might sound its important that we keep typing or talking on a video call.
The best example I have of this is when I watched a couple of professional streamers play PUBG on Twitch last year.
They kept giving updates I will give you a few examples of how trivial some of their statements were.
‘Found a grenade’
‘This window looks a little tilted’
Communicating with their team gives their teammates a view of their screen.
Gamers are the early adopters of this whole virtual world we are in right now.
The advantage of clarity in communication pays off in pressure situations. Either with the client or when you are one kill away from a Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.
Clarity while Communicating:
Its a sub-topic to my previous point but as important as the previous one.
Let me give you an example using PUBG again.
This is the difference between how a professional and an amateur calls out where a bad guy is.
Amateur: There is a guy there
Professional: There is a guy 300 degrees West. In the three-storied building top floor.
This makes a world of a difference between being dead in 5 seconds or coming on top of the situation.
You need to be precise when communicating with your team members as well as clients to reduce friction.
As it is in all cases when it is a pressure situation the need to communicate with clarity amplifies 10 times.
You need to get things done: (GTD)
The best virtual teams out there have a task list with the task set for each individual contributor.
The task list will need to have a start date, due date and a progress meter to check the progress.
The tasks should communicate exactly what needs to get done.
You have to be a ruthless task editor.”
Remove the ones that are not moving or add tags like ‘On-Hold’ for the ones that you are not going to work on.
Have zero sympathies for the tasks that exist with no due-dates and no one assigned to it.
Get rid of them.
In short, you need to Get Things Done and develop an environment that helps you to do so.
Running effective virtual team meetings:
Every effective virtual team meeting has to have the following characteristics:
- Stable Internet Connection, check audio and video settings — this is 2 minutes of work.
- The organizer needs to let the team know in advance why are we meeting
- At the outset of the meeting, the organizer needs to announce where we want to be at the end of the meeting.
- Golden Rule — Keep it to as short as possible, don’t do meetings for 2 hours.
During the transition from the office to a virtual environment is the water cooler conversation.
What’s the weather going to be like today?
What is happening with your fantasy league?
What did you get for lunch today?
Did you see what Trump tweeted today?
This is why we also need to have meetings discussing these topics like daily standups.
Then the last meeting is your weekly townhall where the whole team gets together.
This is where we talk about company updates, play some virtual games, check out each other’s background images.
Here is an image of our team in one such meeting recently.
Always be innovating:
An All-Star team needs to be innovating non-stop.
The best teams innovate during a time of crisis like the one we are facing.
Some of the best companies that have built amazing products and solutions started off in 2008 — Financial crisis like AirBnB
The best teams innovate to provide the best solutions, services, products, processes and workflows to provide the highest value to their clients.
The best teams accept what is going on currently, embrace change and build for the future.
At Insight Consultants we have embraced ‘Virtual Teams’ and working from our homes.
We have also started working towards what the future holds for us without dwelling too much in the past.
