How to know that your remote teams are working

I teach workshops on remote work to a wide variety of audiences. There are those organisations that have had a work from home policy for some time, those who have shied away from the concept, and everything in between. No matter what the scenario is, there is always that one person who has a fear that if they allow their teams to work from home, they will lose control of what they are doing.

The reality is that if we have our work environment and culture set up to be self-organising and psychologically safe, then the location where the person is working is irrelevant.

I love this question. My first question in rebuttal is “How do you know what they are doing when they are in the office?” The reality is that if we have our work environment and culture set up to be self-organizing and psychologically safe, then the location where the person is working is irrelevant. This is only an issue in a command and control environment which is neither self-organizing nor safe.

However, I also stress to companies that remote work should not be an accident. It needs to be intentional and deliberate. Just saying “OK everyone let’s start working from home” is going to create unintended consequences.

THREE THINGS YOU MUST HAVE BEFORE STARTING REMOTE WORK

We suggest that the following things must be in place before teams work remotely:

• Corporate policy for remote work: Before anyone is told they can just “work from home” the company needs to put a policy in place that clearly defines the expectations. The policy needs to, at a minimum, define remote work, enumerate the consequences to breaking the policy, and discuss expected work conditions for the remote work location.

• Team Work Agreement: Every Agile team should have a work agreement in place that defines how they want to work together as a team. Even if your company does not have Agile teams, the concept is still relevant. The team needs to be clear on what it means to work together, including remote work. Every team will have their own agreement.

• Team Communication Plan: Rather than choose tools first, each team should define, in writing, how they want to communicate with each other. Different information needs require different methods. A short check-in message may be appropriate over a chat platform, but any conversation that requires repeated responses may necessitate a different mode.

And after all of this is in place, the team needs to make sure that the work environment works for them, that there is a feedback loop for when it doesn’t, and that they have the right tools to do the job. The feedback loop is essential to the success of remote work. If the communication plan is not working for an individual or group, there needs to be a way to articulate that and take corrective action.

The feedback loop is essential to the success of remote work.

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About the Author:

INDRA A. BOOKS

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