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WORK FROM ANYWHERE AND THE EVOLUTION OF COLLABORATION
WORK FROM ANYWHERE AND THE EVOLUTION OF COLLABORATION

July 29, 2021

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Effective collaboration is among the foundational qualities of any successful team. If members fail on this front, no amount of capital or market influence can revive business growth. This dictum becomes even more significant in the case of remote work.  

 

Before the pandemic rendered work-from-home mainstream, employees had tangible access to each other. Contacting a collaborator was as simple as heading to their cubicle. Even for sessions with several collaborators, calling for a meeting in a conference room did the trick. However, collaboration under remote work entails dealing with arbitrators like video conferencing and instant messaging apps. Though effective at what they do, such communication tools pose a bit of a learning curve and punish an aversion to adaptability. 

 

Thus, it is nifty to have a playbook handy when acclimating to the nuances of remote collaboration. Here are five suggestions that you can start with:  

 

Keep the communication agenda ready before connecting

 

All of us have engaged in conversations that seem to be jumping from one tangent to another. Though enjoyable in personal settings, such free-flow conversations hinder the pace of innovation in business domains. On the contrary, clear agendas help everyone start from the same page, and contribute relevant insights in place of wild conjecture.  

 

However, conversations with a clear goal are not restrictive in scope. Despite having a predefined theme, business conversations can allow room to explore non-obvious or irrelevant ideas. More precisely, even the tangents that arise during agenda-driven talks tend to contribute to problem-solving instead of just being deterrents to efficiency.  

 

So, it is a no-brainer to have a communication agenda handy before stepping into virtual collaborative sessions. After all, it’s important to communicate efficiently when your team members are not in physical proximity.  

 

Focus on fewer but high-quality conversations

 

Setting up a virtual conference is not as straightforward as rallying team members to join the office conference room. Virtual collaborative sessions are more susceptible to technical issues and scheduling conflicts. So, it only makes sense to be economic with the number of collaborative sessions you set in motion. That is because engaging in fewer but meatier conversations gives team members the foresight and time to be prescient about issues that may arise and to troubleshoot in advance.  

 

But that is not where the benefits to such an approach end. Fewer high-quality conversations also prime presenters to bring their A-game. The knowledge that it is not possible to call for collaborative sessions at the drop of your hat breeds performance in response to acceptance of scarcity. Though exaggerated, the lyrics to Eminem’s famous song, ‘Lose Yourself’ epitomize the psychology we are trying to underpin: 

 

“Look  

If you had

One shot

Or one opportunity

To seize everything, you ever wanted 

In one moment

Would you capture it

Or just let it slip?”

 

In short, fewer high-quality conversations are not only well-suited to remote work but are better in general. There is a reason legendary writers hail brevity and terseness in their prose as virtues.  

 

Know your team’s pulse

 

Imagine if military squads were randomly assigned commanding officers before stepping into battle. Do you think that the troops would risk their lives at the whims of someone they have never shared a bunker with? Does not seem likely, right?  

 

Along the same lines, your team members tend to pay attention to your directives owing to the rapport you establish. Organizational hierarchy can only do so much when you have not proven yourself as a leader.  

 

Moreover, a leader who has not trained with his squad would not know of the strengths and weaknesses of his soldiers. Quite obviously, the tactical moves that they deploy would have high chances of backfiring.  

 

Thus, we advise you not to engineer conversations without leveraging all that you have learnt about your team members over time. Do not approach collaboration as a task that your role demands. Approach it as a responsibility that you owe your colleagues, and exercise empathy at every step. Lend extra support to those who require it, and extend autonomy towards those who are self-initiated.  

 

Overall, know your team’s pulse and orchestrate collaborative endeavors accordingly.  

 

Select the Right Tool to Communicate

 

Leaders that call meetings upon meetings over trifles are not viewed in a good light. Similarly, superiors who restrict all interaction with team members to emails are not seen as effective leaders either. On the flip side, managers who use team meetings sparingly, and send emails whenever appropriate are well-respected. A simple phenomenon is on display here. By exercising good judgement over the selection of a communication channel, leaders can greatly inspire efficiency in collaborative ventures.  

 

For instance, it is wiser to share an updated price list of your company’s catalogue over an email instead of communicating the same via a video conference. That is because you would not want technical details to be misinterpreted. However, addressing issues with a personal angle over email can be seen as insensitive and rude. As you can see, you need to walk a fine line when judging the efficacy of one communication tool over another.  

 

Now, cultivating such judgement demands timely interactions with your team members, and understanding some basic principles of communication. But, once you exercise your decision-making muscles enough, you will get to a place where selecting the right communication channel becomes instinctive.  

 

Do not go overboard with instant messaging.  

 

Under a remote work arrangement, it is vital for managers to feel that team members are instantly reachable if necessary. That is where business groups on instant messaging apps come into play. They give leaders direct access to the people in the organization and allow employees to come together when some fire needs to be put out instantly. However, instant messaging apps can quickly become overwhelming if the people using them do not adhere to boundaries.  

 

Essentially, the wisdom regarding picking the right communication tool applies to instant messaging apps as well. They are great for specific use-cases and detrimental to some. As we have detailed already, effective collaborators just know when to punch the gas, and when to let go.  

 

Conclusion

Given how team dynamics have changed as businesses have migrated online, sustaining effective collaboration is paramount. So, we hope that the tips detailed above help with the same, and give you the necessary basis to form playbooks of your own. 

After all, innovation is a destination where you seldom arrive alone.  

 

This article was originally published on PERSOLKELLY blog here


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