Distributed Teams and Learning
Don’t let distance get in the way of working and learning!
Working in distributed teams with members dispersed in multiple locations is a common reality for many of us. It presents some extra challenges as we try to improve how we work and learn. If we’re going to succeed in scaling learning (number of people and frequency) we’re going to need to succeed in engaging everyone — regardless of location.
Here are a few tips I’d like to share based on experience. First let’s look at how we can leverage technology to help.
Use video as much as you can. Seeing a smile, a look of confusion or a twinkle in the eye as someone teases can overcome misunderstandings, keep everyone in the loop and make the team feel closer. And, by seeing everyone, we can also better gauge openings in the conversation — or even create one with raising our hands (or other gestures!).
- What if some of the team is together and just some team members are remote? I’ve found it helpful to ask the co-located team members to congregate together. In doing so, we use a single audio channel for the co-located team — and — have each person use their laptop/device to capture their video. This keeps the video set up simple — and everyone can see everyone. I’ve been using this approach recently in some of my projects. And it’s been a great way to see everyone and be seen by everyone.
Consider using tools such as Sococo as a way to provide some structure to a virtual world that everyone can co-inhabit. The Sococo floorplan metaphor makes it easy to understand spatial mapping between the group members, without getting bogged down with unnecessary details (or dimensions). Here’s a couple of ways to use it:
- Use a floorplan for day-to-day interaction. Have team rooms, break-out rooms and even some spaces set aside for one-on-ones. Encourage the team to stay connected throughout the day, occupying the space that reflects their work focus. If they need some private or small group time, use a break-out room and close the door (Note: that if someone wants to talk to a person behind a door, they knock to make the request). If you’re wanting to chat, hangout in a social area.
- Mini-conferences: Set up some time focused on sharing interests, results, problems and failures. And much like a real-world conference, set up your floorplan to have a main hall for major topics and then break-out areas for specialized topics and smaller audiences. Be mindful of the space and consider using techniques to engage the audience as it fits the context. We used this approach with one of my consulting teams. It led to a great afternoon of sharing, interacting and feeling closer than we did in just using traditional web presentation tools. Also, we all enjoyed having a choice of sessions running in parallel and being able to easily navigate our conference hall (virtual as it was!).
Record your meetings / presentations. This is a benefit to having a distributed team. Analog meetings are a thing of the past. As you’re all in the digital space, take advantage of the capability to record the session. This makes it easier to come back to the discussion later or include those that couldn’t make it as scheduled.
- Tools such as Otter.ai look intriguing as an option for taking digital audio and getting notes created. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet — but I am looking forward to experimenting and adding it to my selection of tools.
They are many other interesting digital tools that can help with sharing, collaborating and researching:
- Consider how you can leverage chat, video and podcasts as ways to share personal experiences, questions and lessons learned. A short video or podcast is a great way to share knowledge with the team. I’ve used Flipgrid to engage a group via video in traditional learning settings. It might not be the best fit for a single team, but if you’re following a model that includes pods and guilds, this could be a great way to scale and cover distances. And your phone typically has capabilities (or can be augmented with a simple app or two) to create short podcasts or videos.
- And, seek out tools that support collaborative editing and creation. Google Docs is great for writing together. Tools such as Mural and Miro provide great team workspaces. Tools such as hypothes.is are intriguing ways to collaborate with your team as you access articles, papers or even documentation. Annotating the web can provide a great way to asynchronously learn together.
Take care of the basics. Make sure that you have good audio and video capabilities. Using mute to keep out background noise when appropriate.
And that concludes the easy part. The bigger challenge is the people side. We need to be willing to try new tools, connect, collaborate and learn in new ways, be patient, be vulnerable, and be generous. This is a long list of asks and changes. Be mindful of the amount of change being introduced, prioritize and take time to learn and adopt. Here are a few more people-oriented considerations:
- Don’t forget the Team competencies that I discussed in Teams FTW. A good team is a good team — regardless of distance and dispersion.
- Have a good facilitator that actively keeps sessions on track and keeps everyone involved. The facilitator should be mindful of participants that like to think out loud and those that like to think and share after they’ve heard others talk. We need to hear all voices.
- Make sure that you’re setting up clear working agreements. For example, as a distributed team, you’ll need to be mindful of time zones. Set up core working hours that overlap in availability as much as possible.
- Leverage retrospectives to identify ways to improve, and follow-through on improvement plans. Continuous improvement is a key ingredient of new ways of working.
- And last, but not least, there will be many opportunities to learn from failure. There will be connection issues, audio issues, timing issues and likely some background noise. Learn from the failures and keep finding ways to leverage the learnings.
These tips all come together to help the team operate, work and learn. And while technology helps, this is still a people challenge. We need a mindset where we embrace the ability to connect, share and learn as a team. Together, we create a space where learning is supported in our activities throughout the day, when we socialize and even with more formal activities.
What are your favorite tips for working and learning in distributed teams? What do you find most challenging when working as part of a remote team?
Originally published at https://blogs.ubc.ca/leeackerman/2020/02/06/distributed-teams-and-learning/ on February 7, 2020.
