Working in Remote Teams

How could structure for team meetings and team ground rules for communication be used in your team? • Use your knowledge of past team work or committee membership to discuss these points.

This week we have been encouraged to get to know our team members a little more as we will be working alongside them more closely now in anticipation of our upcoming second assignment. Although I admit I have been slack at getting to know my team members, now is better than never.

I found an article about building strong relationships with colleagues when you work remotely. Cooper (2015), mentioned that communication is key when working in a remote team because you are not working face-to-face with one another the entire time so you need to keep up with what everyone is doing and the progress of each person.

Working remotely means that you have more of a sense of autonomousity as you aren't side by side with your team, you can work at your own pace so long as you still meet deadlines and you can be in your own comfortable work space be that home, the library or a cafe.

Working remotely also means that you have to be very organised and on the ball, constantly being aware of time and responsibilities because there isn't someone behind you constantly telling you to keep on track. Overcoming this disadvantage could be as simple as creating a group shared calendar where each member can edit when they are free and busy and the leader of the team can edit responsibilities and due dates for every piece of research and information.

This shared calendar would also be an excellent way to schedule in team meetings, whether they be face to face or via skype. It would be a good way to keep a track of where everyone is at and when we can and cannot organise meetings.

I am currently in a committee at work in Hamilton that is primarily based out of Auckland. We communicate primarily via email and our internal messaging system. When we do have meetings, they are scheduled in our calendars and they are completed via skype. Although this is not ideal for us as the skype system is not always reliable, we make do with what we have.

I feel this will be a challenge but fingers crossed that with perseverance, it will be one I can tackle head on and conquer. I am highly looking forward to working with my team for the rest of the semester.

References:
Zapier. (2015). How to Build Strong Relationships in a Remote Team. In B. B. Cooper (Ed.), The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work (pp. 61-70) Retrieved from https://cdn.zapier.com/storage/learn_ebooks/e4fbeb81f76c0c13b589cd390cb6420b.pdf

Comments

Unknown said…
Well I'm sure I'm not the only one glad to have someone with experience in working remotely in the team! I have to say I completely agree with the challenges you've mentioned, but I feel that with everyone in the same boat there will certainly be a support system in place should anyone feel a bit behind. We are a team after all! I am definitely driven by not letting a team down - perhaps instilled in me through sport - so I look forward to testing out these new waters. - Courtney