October 20th, 2021 | Updated on June 27th, 2022
In the 21-st century more and more businesses hire employees around the globe instead of recruiting people locally. Also, there is a tendency to steer away from traditional project management and choose alternative ways of organizing teams.
Agile project management is gaining popularity in lots of companies. This is an approach where each project is carried out by small self-organizing teams consisting of people from several departments.
All the members of the team share the responsibility for the success or failure of the project. But they do all the planning and divide the tasks themselves.
Self-organizing teams have proven to deal with some problems more effectively than teams with traditional project management. This happens because, instead of one person having the final word in every situation, you have a discussion, where each team member can offer their valuable insights.
Stephen Covey, the author of the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People“, says, “You cannot hold people responsible for results if you supervise their methods. You then become responsible for results and rules replace human judgment, creativity, responsibility.”
So, how can you make your self-organizing remote team more effective? Consider the things from the following list:
- Communication
- Scheduling
- Technology
- Project management systems
1. Communication
A remote team has a huge disadvantage compared to working in the office: there is no face-to-face communication. A new worker cannot say to all the people in the office: “Excuse me, I need advice, can anybody help me?” People have no possibility to have coffee and a small talk together.
This firstly leads to the feeling of isolation. Workers may feel less motivated because they only see the screen of their computer and other people don’t share their energy and inspiration with them.
Secondly, employees cannot listen to their more experienced colleagues discussing various tasks, so there is no option to pick up new knowledge simply because you are in the office with other people.
There are several things you can do to compensate for the lack of face-to-face communication. Create a chatroom where people could talk about anything they want. It should be accessible for everybody and at any time.
This way people will have a place where they can exchange their ideas, discuss the latest news, ask for advice, etc. Minor things may show up, not important enough to write an email to a supervisor, but solving those little day-to-day issues will make someone’s work process easier, and your employees will feel noticed and valued.
It is also important to schedule meetings, where you will set up goals and monitor your teams’ progress. These meetings have to be organized consistently, for example, every day, every week, or every two weeks.
Without them, workers might either become less productive or go with their projects in a completely wrong direction. If a person does not have the possibility to participate in a meeting from their home, some cities offer a solution to this problem.
In Dubai, you can book a conference room or even rent one table or for a limited period of time. To find out how you can hold business meetings without paying a full-month rent, read about coworking spaces in Dubai.
2. Scheduling
A lot of companies hire employees from different time zones. When you schedule company meetings, this is something you have to keep in mind. An American organization might want to save its money and recruit people from developing countries.
Those employees might not be able to attend meetings at 3 a.m. local time. A way to solve this problem is to schedule a second meeting for their time zone.
Remote companies should allow people to work flexible hours. The focus should be on the quality of the work, not on how much time people spend doing it.
When a person works from home, there are many factors that could distract them. They might have children on distance learning.
They could have problems with their equipment. So, one of the benefits your company could offer is the ability to work wherever you want and whenever you want.
3. Technology
Working remotely would be impossible without the proper equipment. It is important that all the staff have got a device to conduct their work and a decent Internet connection. Some managers think that it is also essential to have a camera for video conferences.
There are very good tools on the market that provide companies with software for business processes. Some of the apps are even free. For example, you can use Skype for video calls.
Zoom is a good program for video conferences and is also very affordable. You can use Google Apps or their alternatives for Apple or Microsoft for the same purposes.
4. Project Management System
Implementing systems is very important. It is a good idea to invest in a project management system. There is a wide selection of them on the market.
They save a lot of time by simplifying processes and provide the opportunity to track and document everything. If all of the reports and documents are in the cloud, and all the team members can access them from any device and location, it will greatly increase the productivity of the staff.
Experienced workers will share their knowledge with everyone else, and new recruits will be able to educate themselves much faster.
To sum up, new methods of organizing teams require giving people more freedom to make their own choices. All the team members should be able to take part in project management, but all of them will share the responsibility for project completion.
To manage a remote team successfully, it is important to make sure that everybody has the tools and the equipment to take part in all of the company processes.
