Three tips for building high-performing virtual teams
TLDR
Invest in infrastructure
Hardware and office essentials (with a special focus on audio – Jabra headsets and speakers are a personal favourite)
Reliable and fast internet (speed should be at least 20 Mbps; test yours here)
Collaboration tools (e.g. Slack, InVision, GitHub, Teams, Jira, Trello, Monday, Miro, Asana – choose wisely)
Promote empathetic leaders
Create a healthy feedback culture
Maintain morale and encourage social chat
Accommodate personal challenges (children, other dependants, pets, etc.)
Hire trustworthy people, and trust them to deliver autonomously
Communicate effectively
Choose the right communication method (video call vs. phone call vs. email vs. DM vs task)
Learn how to use the tech effectively (invest in L&D - example)
Record and store demo videos (turn Stream into a video knowledge management hub)
Digitise key assets and processes (e.g. Trello onboarding boards)
Deliver written communications training (inc. encouraging the use of tools like Editor)
I’ve captured many tips (inc. the occasional rant), tricks, and tools below, and I think I’ve just about avoided any link paywalls. What are your top tips? I’d love to find what others have discovered over the last 24 months of remote work.
Long version
COVID has undoubtedly proven to be a catalyst for change and transformed the world of work in ways few anticipated. It encouraged us to reflect more deliberately on the relationship we have with our employer, the work we do, and how we do it. It also forced a large-scale global experiment on the viability of working from home (WFH) or indeed, from anywhere (WFA).
We are fast approaching 24 months of this trial, and we have learned a few important lessons along the way. For starters, we accepted that physical presence in the office and commitment to 9-to-5 are not a recipe for productivity or quality of output. We have also understood the value and importance of solace and quiet hours to productivity (and creativity). Having tasted from the forbidden fruit, we’ve swiftly transformed our collective perception of remote working, and upgraded it from “necessary evil” to “essential requirement” (or “desirable benefit” to those not fully onboard yet).
The Great “Resignation”, “Reshuffle”, “Reset”, “Upgrade” also points to a sudden and concurrent shift in expectations, and (among other changes) a requirement for a hybrid work model. The data supports it too. In the UK, job ads with terms related to "home working" increased by 3 times from Feb 20 to May 21 (ONS). Similarly, Gartner forecasts that more than half of the UK's knowledge workforce will be remote in 2022.
The bottom line: like it or not, remote (virtual) working is here to stay.
As with all things, this shift presents both opportunities and challenges. Less time commuting can support work-life harmony and promote greater flexibility, but it can also lead to people feeling isolated and disconnected. Working virtually can boost productivity, but it can also lead to longer hours and burnout. The list of pros and cons goes on, but the trend is clear. Despite undeniable and enduring advantages of centralised and co-located teams, remote working is in our future much more than in our past.
So, here are some tips and ideas on how to maximize the opportunities presented by virtual working, and how to build high-performance teams.
Invest in infrastructure (physical and virtual)
Hardware and office essentials - ensure people have a good desk, chair, monitor, keyboard, mouse, laptop stand, headphones/speaker and video camera. These are not optional or nice-to-have. If you want a high-performing team, they’re a foundational must. Audio is particularly important, and a small investment in a good microphone (Jabra headsets and speakers are particularly good) will lighten your audience’s cognitive load and enable them to engage and contribute with more energy, rather than mentally switch off in frustration.
Internet - the cost of productivity lost from poor internet far exceeds the cost of having a fast and reliable connection. Highly productive team members will have a steady connection of at least 20 Mbps (you can test yours here). If using VPN is a requirement, use a good one. Even the best VPN will have a small negative impact on your speed, but a bad one can slow things down by up to 10x. This can lead to lost time, frustration, and process non-compliance, which will have a higher indirect cost than a good VPN.
Collaboration tools - Slack, InVision, GitHub, Teams, Jira, Trello, Monday, Miro, Asana etc. are all great tools. We have seemingly endless choices, but this flexibility often leads to confusion, wasteful spending, and collaboration overload. Too much is just as bad as too little, and finding the right balance will require deliberate selection, clear guidance and training. It’s best to adopt and focus on one or two tools at a time, and fully exploit their capabilities through systematic upskilling (across all seniorities). Any additional collaboration technologies should bring clear benefits to virtual teams and avoid overlap in functionality with existing resources.
Promote empathetic leaders
Bringing work into our homes can amplify different struggles and challenges, and cause heightened anxiety. We are only beginning to understand the psychological effects of remote work, but leading with empathy and compassion has never been more important. Besides bringing clarity, reassurance and encouragement, leaders should focus on:
Creating a healthy feedback culture without fear of negative consequences
Maintaining morale and encouraging social chat for smaller groups and teams.
Avoiding team burnout, resetting focus, and making sure teams understand and accommodate each other’s personal challenges (children, other dependants, pets, etc.)
Hiring trustworthy people, and trusting them to operate with autonomy
Communicate effectively
Zoom fatigue is real. Avoid holding people “captive” with video calls, and don’t always default to Teams/Zoom/Meet. Alternatives are a well-crafted email, a to-the-point DM, an old-fashioned phone call (paired up with a walk) or a task in a task management system (e.g. Trello). When a video call is needed, allow yourself time to prepare, have some notes, frame the camera correctly (avoid nose/forehead shots), and keep to an agenda. Also, don’t mistake familiarity for competence when using technology. Invest in yourself and your colleagues’ sanity by learning the tech and effectively leveraging it to engage with team members. Yes, this means putting some time aside to pick up the essentials from scratch (this course is a good example) - it’s time well spent.
Make demonstration videos. Did you ever run the same demo multiple times to internal stakeholders? If so, creating a video demo will save everyone a lot of time, and provide better access to knowledge throughout the business. You can record your screen and voice using Win + G (this shortcut will launch the Game Bar on Windows) or set a Teams meeting with yourself (and use the native record feature). Once recorded and edited, upload onto your internal Microsoft Stream (or equivalent). Use this for onboarding videos, software management/setup, how-to tutorials, company-wide announcements, etc.
Digitise key assets and processes. Building high-performing teams often requires headcount growth. And that growth means bringing new people up to speed, ideally in an engaging self-paced way. Start with a process like “new hire onboarding” as a lighthouse project, and redesign it with virtual delivery in mind. For example, you could get rid of the trusty Readthis40page.docx and replace it with something more engaging, accessible, and interactive like a Trello board. Design it as an individual’s launchpad into an organisation, and leverage multimedia internal assets (e.g. demo videos, see above) to keep it interesting. I love Trello for its versatility, ease of use, and starting price point (free!!) and if you are looking for inspiration, look at their never-ending public templates. While not as polished or full-featured, Microsoft’s Planner is a good alternative if you must keep it M365. Digitising processes will also enable your teams to focus their time on value-adding activities, instead of repetitive admin. Explore automating tasks and approval processes with tools like Zapier, IFTTT or Power Automate. This will make communication between team members more efficient and effective and will generate high quality structured data as a byproduct.
Deliver written communications training. According to some (source 1, source 2, source 3 – you get the point), writing efficiently and effectively is crucial. Rather than repeat many of the well-articulated points and suggestions in the sources above, my #1 tip is of the tech variety (crowd gasps!). Use an AI-powered writing assistant. If you already use M365 products, try Editor. It’s a free add-on that helps you improve your writing and helps you understand how others might perceive it (via a Felsch-Kincaid rating; see below). If you can afford it, try Grammarly or Outwrite. Your future self will thank you.
Create virtual rituals. These will generally be recurring virtual sessions at a given day/time, with a purpose (e.g. team update – everyone speaks; product demo – most people listen; social – everyone plays a game) designed to celebrate your organisation’s culture and people, and to promote wellbeing and belonging.
