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What does working virtually mean in practice?

It’s almost hard to believe that one year ago we wrote a blog post on a similar topic, yet as we write this one the circumstances and situation are much different. When Doors Open visited Norway in February 2019 to mentor a newly formed team, with members spread over four countries, we had the chance to prepare the team for the challenges of working virtually. In 2020 many teams will not have been able to prepare themselves for this properly, but rather thrown into this situation suddenly and abruptly due to the disruption that Covid-19 has brought in all of our lives.
While we are all very fortunate and grateful to be able to work from home, this does not mean it does not bring some new challenges for you as a leader and for your team. Less communication, less visibility and accountability and increased complexity make virtual working a struggle even without the uncertainty we all currently face. So, how can you as a leader manage your team while working virtually? And more importantly, where do you start?

To begin with, lets define the term “virtual working”. In her book “Virtual Leadership” Dr. Penny Pullan defines it as

Work done by people who are geographically distributed, working together despite the fact that at least one person is not in the same location as others. Virtual work is supported by communications technology that helps people to connect when far apart.

Since probably everyone in your team is working from home now, not even one person is the same location as the others. This means you will have to give the three points we mentioned earlier (communication, invisibility and complexity) even more attention.

#1 Complexity

It is important to start with this crucial aspect. Make a list of everyone in your team, and note down their cultural background, native language, access to technology, homelife situation (living alone, housemates, with children…) and if they went back to their home country then also the time difference. These are all potential barriers that you want to address to make working remotely as effective and productive as possible. Be aware of every person’s situation and needs, and make a plan on how you can best work around time zones or people who now have to take care of their children at home. Give people in your team who have a different native language more time to process and respond as audio quality and lack of body language cues might make it more difficult for them to understand your message. You can ask your team members to create a “Way We Work” document which outlines the needs and homelife situation of each person, and together as a team they can come up with solutions, guidelines and new norms as a team. Also, most likely you will have some more introverted and some more extroverted people on your team, so make sure you actively invite and give the former the opportunity to speak. Check out this TED talk below by Susan Cain on why people who are more introverted are also very important!

#2 Communication

Or rather, the lack of effective communication. As 93% of what and how we communicate is non-verbal, you now need to be especially aware of what your team members are saying in order to avoid misunderstandings. To make communicating with your team effective, choose the right times and technology. Within our team we use video-calling apps like Zoom and this allows us to set a meeting timer to ensure that our meetings stay short and to the point. Try to keep email communication to a minimum, rather keep it to your virtual meetings or if you have a quick question use Slack to send that person a message. At Doors Open we also use Slack to communicate under specific channels, making it easier for us to track down what somebody said.

Be sure to check out Trello, Zoom, Basecamp and more. There are soo many great tools out there – make use of them!

Make sure all employees have access to Trello or any other project management application for that matter so that everyone in your team knows what needs to happen for which projects. However, applications like these are not just there to provide overview but are also a visual representation of your team’s successes. It is important to celebrate these successes just as you would normally, so take the time during visual meetings to congratulate and praise your team members. Lastly, give people constructive feedback by scheduling individual video-meetings and actively ask for feedback yourself. This is truly the best way for you to learn. You can read more about tips on how to give and receive feedback here.

#3 Invisibility

It is no secret that physical proximity makes working together more efficient. Working remotely induces a certain lack of accountability as you are not able to see what your employees are doing with your own eyes. To combat this, create a sense of trust in the team. Within our team we make sure to check in with each other often and let each other know that we are here for one another. Take five minutes during each virtual briefing and encourage your team to share their emotions or worries and together come up with a solution. Another important aspect to incorporate are routine check-in times with your team via a video call for example. Set two or three specific times every day that you meet with your team where you can see how everyone is feeling (this also helps to create trust) and where they can update each other on their tasks. Lastly, you may have heard the phrase “Shared responsibility is no responsibility”, so make sure you set up one person responsible for each project as this will make them feel more accountable.

Pro Tip: Write down who is responsible for which project or task and share that information with your team through a cloud based technology!

It is no doubt that even well-prepared teams would find working virtually a challenge, let alone teams that have suddenly been thrust into this headfirst. However, as it will most likely be some time before we can return to our offices and physical team meetings it is important for all of us to adapt to this new way of working. Luckily, we as humans can be pretty good at adapting quickly to new situations and routines when pushed. So take the time to reflect on the various points we mentioned and give your team a gentle nudge into this new way of working. As a team we know how difficult and overwhelming it can be come up with your own solutions during a crisis situation, so try out a few things that worked for us like the Way We Work document, the daily check-ins or the various technology tools!

Do you have any other tips for us on how to make virtual working successful? Let us know in the comments below!

24 March 2020/0 Comments/by Hedda

Learning & Development, Teams

How do you build a successful virtual team?

The growth of virtual teams (also known as distributed or remote teams) is remarkable. It is no longer uncommon to work with colleagues who are located on the other side of the world. From quick-growing start-ups and a network of digital nomads to great multinationals, more and more teams are geographically spread over the whole world. And that brings challenges when it comes to building a team.

In February, Doors Open visited Norway, where Suzanne mentored a newly created project team consisting of 10 different nationalities, coming from 6 different organizations and spread over 4 countries, for the start of a new project.

A team like this comes with challenges. Although teams that are geographically located in the same place are also not always easy to manage either, virtual teams differ on 3 aspects:

1 – Complexity

Virtual teams are more complex in creation in comparison to teams that work in the same location. Language barriers, cultural differences, other backgrounds, different working times and irregular access to technology and communication platforms, make working as a virtual team a big(ger) challenge

2 – Invisibility

“Yes, we agreed on this at the coffee corner” or “We brainstormed a new project during the after-work drinks”. Physical proximity makes working together easier in many ways. There are even researches which show that if you are more than 30 metres apart from the other, the collaboration becomes more difficult.

3 – Broken and complicated communication

A great deal of our communication has nothing to do with what we say.

Moreover, when it comes to face-to-face communication, 93% of what we communicate is non-verbal.

Without the face-to-face contact, many virtual teams are completely reliant on verbal communication. We don’t have anything other than words. Even in audio-conferences 50% of what is said, is lost. This leads to a higher risk of misunderstandings and incomprehension. Especially if the different cultures and language barriers are added to this.

How do you make sure , with all these additional challenges, that a team which is spread all over the world still functions well? These are our 10 tips:

1 – Ensure that there is a shared vision

In every team, virtual or not, a shared vision is crucial. Why are we working on this project every single day? What is our goal? Therefore, it is no surprise that the lack of common interest is 1 of 5 of the most important reasons why teams – distribuive or not – fail.

2 – Create trust

In virtual teams, trust is even more important than in physical teams. A very important prerequisite for trust is acquaintance. Make sure that the team members get to know each other and the team. If possible, start off face-to-face and then move towards becoming a virtual team. Make sure that you create a feedback-culture (see point 6 on this list) and that promises are being fulfilled. Often it works well if you first let your team members fulfil small and clear tasks. This will help build trust gradually.

3 – Create a “Way we work” document together

Many virtual teams fail because the “Way we work” is not carried out by everyone. When the virtual team starts, let the team members contribute and create a “Way we work” document, that is based on 3 pillars: trust, shared understanding and communication.

Capture important agreements in this document, such as: When are we available? Do we prefer to communicate by e-mail or via Skype? Which platform do we choose as most important way to communicate? How and what do we communicate during a meeting, and what outside of the meeting? In which language do we communicate? Let the team members express their preferences and take this to build on a way of collaboration that works for and is carried out by everyone.

4 – Don’t underestimate (cultural) differences!

“Non-native” speakers might tend to hold their opinions back during meetings, because they might feel uncomfortable. Are you in charge of facilitating a virtual meeting? If so, try to facilitate participation as much as possible. More importantly, do not go with the “silence shows consent” principle and be aware that different cultures express themselves differently. Ask for confirmation, if something that is (not) said really is meant that way in reality. That way you reduce the risk of misunderstandings like the one below:

5 – Create routine

Keep communicating with all team members frequently. For example, after weekly video calls.

6 – Ask for feedback – and explain what you are doing

Due to the lack of face-to-face communication, the chance of misunderstandings and miscommunication is much bigger. That is why asking for feedback is even more important in a virtual team than in a non-virtual team. Don’t make assumptions but ask for a concrete response. During our session in Norway, the team members had to do an exercise where they had to work together without seeing each other. It is surprising how quickly you work past each other. Feedback and clear communication are essential for virtual teams.

Are you curious how you can create an effective and efficient feedback culture? Contact us, we are happy to tell you everything about it!

7 – Use the right tools for important information

Working virtually creates a great risk that important information gets spread over the (whether or not it’s private) computers of team members. Make sure this information is accessible for every member in a secured and centralized way. This way you can avoid wasting time.

8 – Minimize the use of e-mails

This sounds contrasting, because how are you supposed to communicate with a team if you only have digital contact? The problem is, that many virtual teams tend to send every e-mail to everyone, which leads to an overload of information. Only send the e-mail to those colleagues who are directly concerned with the question. Do you need a quick response? In that case you can choose a chat program where you can directly answer questions.

9 – Shared responsibility is no responsibility

Clearly define and communicate who is responsible for which tasks in the team. As the leader, arrange frequent feedback sessions and remind people of their responsibilities.

10 – Celebrate successes and milestones

Just like in teams where the members are geographically situated in the same location, celebrating successes is equally important to virtual teams. This keeps the motivation up.

Do you have tips that you use with your virtual team? Let us know in the comments below. Would you like to work with Doors Open to build a successful virtual team? Contact us, we are happy to have a cup of coffee with you. Via Skype, or on location.

7 March 2019/0 Comments/by Suzanne Mau-Asam

Top redenen waarom medewerkers ontslag nemen

Leadership, Learning & Development, Teams

Bye boss, I quit

Monday morning. The delicious aroma of your first cup of coffee greets you. You open your laptop. Then you hear a soft knock on your open door. You look up and there he is. Your best team member. Your superstar. You hired him 5 months ago. “Do you have a minute?” he asks with a serious look on his face. Half an hour later, completely in shock, you take a sip of your now cold coffee. You don’t understand. How did you not see this coming?

Every manager has had to deal with it: employees that quit. It’s part of the job. It’s actually good for a company when people leave. It makes room for new people. Fresh ideas, innovation, and different points of view. But what if your top employees leave one after the other? Or if employees that started 6 months ago already leave? That’s a different story.

Why do employees quit?

There are very few employees who just up and leave from one day to the next. Days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years precede. This means that your company also has days, weeks, months and sometimes even years to prevent this. So why is it that retaining good employees is so difficult?

More than 10 years of experience within small and large organisations has shown that there are a lot of different reasons:

Poor leadership

“People don’t leave a bad job. They leave bad leaders.” We hear this frequently. And it’s true. Good leaders are able to make their people grow, to help them bring out the best in themselves. Poor leaders, on the other hand, manage to turn motivated, hardworking employees into pale, uninspired robots that count down the minutes until they can go home and that use their lunch breaks to scroll through vacancies for a better alternative.

Research done by LinkedIn showed that 41% of people named poor management as a reason for accepting another job.

Management is not about being there for a couple of important moments. You just aren’t going to cut it with a performance interview, an appraisal interview and an end-of-year bonus. Employees aren’t machines. Invest time in them. Get to know them. Know what motivates them. Good leadership can make or break the retention of valuable employees.

There is no challenge

Do you know what keeps your employees inspired? What challenges them? This is definitely not the same for everyone. As surprising as it may sound, not every team member is looking for a promotion. Not everyone dreams of being in a leadership role themselves. And that’s ok. It’s important that every employee gets the chance to develop in his/her own way. Whether that’s through a promotion or a new challenge within the current position. A good Learning & Development programma is essential for this.

There is not a good onboarding programme

Did you know that 20% of employees leave the company within 45 days? And that no less than 1 out of 3 people leaves within the first year?

A high turnover rate is incredibly expensive. Replacing an employee costs 50-150% of an annual salary. Additionally, the constant change of employees causes demotivation among the remaining team members. Because how do you form a good team if there’s constantly new faces?

A programme for new employees (also called an onboarding programme) makes the difference. And no, this isn’t about “you can get your coffee here and here’s the printer.” An onboarding programme ensures that a successful candidate turns into a successful employee within 90 days by showing them the culture of the organisation and by offering them a future perspective. By setting goals, clarifying expectations and creating a personal development plan.

Investing in a good onboarding programme reduces staff turnover by as much as 54%.

What do you think? Shall we have a cup of coffee together to talk about your staff retention? I promise you your coffee won’t get cold!

7 February 2019/0 Comments/by Suzanne Mau-Asam

Leadership, Teams

This is why your team fails

Have you ever been part of a team where it just felt like you never managed to get anything done? Where projects were endless and where week after week the motivation of the team members was decreasing? I have. More than once even: dysfunctional teams are more common than you think, both in small and large organisations. It leads to frustration, causes tension and decreases performance. Eventually everyone benefits from a team that functions well. But, to get teams to function, you first have to know why they don’t work. There are 5 primary reasons why teams fail.

#1 – Poor leadership

It’s easy to give the leader of the group the blame, isn’t it? But it does really start here. If the leader fails, the team will fail. It’s that simple. That is why football coaches often get fired when the team performance is disappointing. That is why research shows, time and again, that the manager can be an important reason why people change jobs. LinkedIn asked 10,000 people that recently quit a job, the reason why. At least 41% said leadership was the motive.

“Then we can just switch to autonomous teams, right?” is a question I regularly hear when I get asked by a company to help their teams function properly. Autonomous or self-steering teams are teams where there doesn’t appear to be a leader. But appearances are deceiving. Especially in autonomous teams there is a leader. But one that trusts team members to be independent.

Compare it to a bee colony. It really doesn’t function without the queen bee. Yet most bees fly in and out without saying where they are going. This is perfect leadership, the queen enables everyone to do his/her work. Good leadership is the basis for the proper functioning of a team and vice versa, failing leadership guarantees a team that does not work.

Tip! In this very inspirational video Simon Sinek shows why leadership that gives trust is so important.

Bonus: download my free workbook “5 steps to leadership that creates trust” I have created this workbook that I use weekly during leadership trajectories.

Download

#2 – A lack of common interest

Not everyone comes to work with the same goal. For one person it’s about earning money, for the other it’s about developing themselves intellectually, whilst the third wants to feel useful. For most people, individual interests are easy to identify. It is the lack of common interest that causes teams to fail.

Although it is not necessary that all individual interests are the same, it is important that there is a shared goal that is worked towards. And yes, that is also a leader’s task: the creation and carrying out the vision, the “why are we doing this?”, so that everyone going in the same direction. However, this certainly does not mean ‘imposing’ the vision. In the 10 years that I have been assisting organisation, I have experienced that involving team members in determining the vision and common interest works really well. This creates support. Ultimately the leader is the one to make the final decision, but the common interest is decided on together.

By the way, individual interest is never put above the common interest in a properly functioning team. That leads to unhealthy competition (point 4 in this list!)

#3 – Avoidance

Doors Open Teambuilding en Coaching Den Haag

“What Sara just said was completely ridiculous, wasn’t it? She really doesn’t get it.” I heard two of my former colleagues talking about a team member after a team meeting. In these 14 words, 2 things went wrong:

There is no open communication with Sara. If you don’t tell Sara why you don’t agree with her, how is Sara supposed to know? I’m yet to meet a person who can read minds. We often keep our opinions to ourselves, out of fear that we will hurt someone, or because we are scared that the other person will get angry. But precisely by not giving feedback there are often larger conflicts in the long term that are more difficult to solve.
The feedback, even if Sara had heard it, is far from constructive. How would you feel is someone said to you: “What you just said is ridiculous. You really don’t get it.” If feedback is given (and received) in the right way, it is very valuable. Bad feedback or the lack of feedback, decreases individual as well as team performance.

Tip! Did you know that feedFORWARD is even more effective than feedBACK? I regularly go to companies to train teams about this topic and you often already see a change within 1 day.

Download the workbook

#4 – Competition

Environments with fierce competition create aggression, disfunction and waste. The best way to show this is in this video by Margaret Heffernan, where she takes you into the world of… chickens.

I am very much convinced, especially in the long term that fierce competition within teams does not lead to the best performance. Even though, according to research, Amazon is one of the best places to work, this article in the New York Times created some upheaval.

Former employees at Amazon said the following:

“Work comes first, life comes second, and trying to find the balance comes last.”

“Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

“When you’re not able to able to give it your absolute all, 80 hours a week, they see it as a major weakness.”

#5 – Misunderstanding others

Carefully look at the image below. How many beams do you see?

Doors Open Teambuilding en coaching Den Haag

Within teams there is often little to no understanding of the perspective of others or their personalities. We are so focused on ourselves and believe our opinion and personalities to be the only truth. Through this we become blind to other perspectives or personalities. This doesn’t only lead to tunnel vision, which causes us to miss opportunities, it also causes misunderstandings and conflicts within a team. A well-functioning team is open to the perspective and behaviour of other team members and tries to understand why someone behaves in a certain way has that point of view.

In order to understand your team members better, a personality profile is an excellent starting point. I often use the Lumina Profile sketch during my training sessions or coaching programmes for teams. With this, you get more insight into your behaviour and your own personality. Improved insights into your own behaviour is essential in enabling you to better empathize with others.

Secret reason #6: Lack of attention

A good team is not formed from one day to the next. It takes time. And attention.

With the hustle of daily routine, building a strong team is often forgotten, even though that is the foundation for your organisation. Even if you have a team that DOES work well, it is important that it stays that way. Or even improves.

Could you use a sparring partner for your team? Do you want to create a strong team? Read more about what Doors Open can do for you.

28 November 2018/0 Comments/by Suzanne Mau-Asam