Jun 4, 2020
With the sudden “rush to
remote”, many teams and managers have sought training in working
remotely - however, sometimes taking a different first step towards
adapting to the new environment can be more beneficial to your
team, in the current situation, and with a view to the
future.
In this episode, we give you an overview of four different types of
interventions. If you need help with any of them, get in touch at
www.virtualnotdistant.com
In this episode, inspired by the academic paper Team Development Interventions: Evidence-Based Approaches for Improving Teamwork published in the journal American Psychologist 2018, Vol. 73, No. 4, 517–531, Pilar goes through four different training interventions that might be suitable for your remote team, right now.
Think of the team competencies
you might need to address. For example,rather than training in
working remotely, your team might benefit undergoing training in
other areas like “communicating in writing” (you’ll probably need
to do A LOT of that when working remotely), or “concise
communication” - which can be done in writing and audio.
“Giving and receiving feedback” (also necessary when working apart
from each other as a team) or even “task management”, or spend time
together learning how to master three or four functions in MSTeams
that will save you time and headaches in the future.
(Pilar mentions her Remarkable
tablet.)
- Team
Training.
What are attitudes, skills and knowledge we need to work in a team?
(By the way, don’t assume that because someone knows how to use the tech, it doesn’t mean that they know how to use it collaboratively)
If you are losing visibility in the organisation, and are a highly specialised team, you might benefit from training in using everyday language to communicate with others.
- Leadership Training
In-house training courses are
the best option, because they enable peers to talk to each other,
network and learn from each other. Sometimes, if there is a very
specific issue that a manager has, coaching might be a better
option.
“Transfer” is key, to be able to put all new
information and learning into practice, as is feedback.
Of
course, attending any kind of training also gives you the
space to reflect.
Improving Team Dynamics and
TeamBuilding in Remote Teams
These intervention have the aim of improving
how people work together: co-ordination, nurture trust, discussion
of values etc
These help with goal setting, problem-solving,
role clarification… in any case, it’s important to know what a
teambuilding intervention can help you solve. As we talk about all
this, we talk about the work, and how we engage with the work, and
collaborate.
These interventions will also surface a lot of
hidden information, and a lot of information remains hidden in team
members’ heads when we’re remote.
Role
clarity in remote teams, can give us role flexibility, making the
team more resilient.
Having a facilitator running these discussions
can help, giving people the space to think without worrying about
team dynamics as much.
4)
Team Debrief
These are great learning and teambuilding
opportunities (Agile teams do this very well through their
retrospectives!) and opportunities to celebrate success. (LINK TO
CELEBRATIONS)
They
give us an opportunity to reconnect through the work.
These sessions don’t need to be very long, 18
minutes are an average good length, and are the most effective in
improving team performance.
These sessions are influenced by the team
climate, (here it helps to have a facilitator to create a
psychologically safe climate), learning to provide feedback. You
might want to think in your team about the kind of questions that
help you really learn from the experience.
“Conclusions and agreements need to be
documented”.
And
of course we can help you with tailored management team-training
and team facilitation.
But why not run Team Debriefs in your team, led
by different team members each time, so that you can discover new
talents in your team, which have emerged recently in the remote
space?
Get in touch through www.virtualnotdistant.com