Winning at Remote Project Teams

Pajamas and Productivity

Mindy Bohannon Mindy.Bohannon@excella.com@mindybo93

Teleworking, Telecommuting is Remote Work

• Cultural Norms– Personality– Tone

• Methods to Employ• Collaboration Tools

Intentions

• 80% of communication is non-verbal• How to

someone you can’t see?

Challenge

• How do you communicate with someone many miles away?

Culture and Communication

• Understanding and Respecting our differences in our humanity– Gender, class, race, spiritual, age, etc.– Personality

• Understanding and Respecting our cultural differences– Language, ethnicity – Directness

Multiculturalism

MulticulturalismHofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory Hofstede Country Comparison

MulticulturalismHofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory Hofstede Country Comparison

• Metaphors

Culture

• JargonGo forward up to the bow, and yank on the lines to let the jib out to heel over. I’ll stay at the helm to guide a port tack.

• Tone

CultureI’m

Fine

• Use of Emoticons and punctuation

• Golden Rule: Be nice, courteous• Love/Hate with Auto-Correct

• Spelling and grammar

Culture

=> Eats Shoots and Leaves

=> Eats Shoots, and Leaves

=> Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

• What makes a good remote worker? Proficient written communicator &

Trustworthy

• Show up on time

• Set an agenda for all meetings

• Accountability set explicitly

Remote Communication

• Use Direct language – not passive

Remote Communication

• Space for the virtual water cooler• Informal talks, reveal something personal

The baby was carried by the kangaroo in her pouch. (passive)

The kangaroo carried her baby in her pouch. (active)

• Create Time Zone chart– http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

• Set expectations of your work style

• Use code words to protect time– ex/Tree time

• Over communicate - build trust

Methods to help Teleworking

Tools

• Chat/Messenger tool• Gov’t - √ (Yammer X)• Logged on => in the office• Messages - private, group, or everyone• Power comes from Transparency – use group channel• Notify using @name• #Random channel is fun

Tools - Slack

• Work together like you’re in the same room• Audio, desktop and video sharing• Gov’t - √?? • Google Hangout, Skype (1); join.me (10),

AnyMeeting (4)

• Join early to chat casually or start with a first 5 minutes (timed) personal check

• Pair up with someone each week to talk about something fun

Tools – Online Meetings

• Project management tool• Gov’t - √• Product roadmap, Editorial calendar, Sales

leads, add any part of a project that needs to get done

• Post Trello activity and notifications to Slack

Tools - Trello

• Gov’t – √ SharePoint• Google Docs, Hackpad• Collaborate easier• Transparency to colleagues

Tools - Document Sharing

• CamScanner– Take a picture of printed doc, sends to PDF

and can email immediately

• HelloSign for eSignature– Don’t make people print, scan, email

Tools – Other

• Cultural Norms– Personality– Tone

• Methods to Employ• Collaboration Tools

Review – Were Our Intentions Met?

• What have you found that doesn’t work, that hinders communication and productivity?

• What else have you found that does work?

• Mindy Bohannon• Mindy.Bohannon@excella.com• @mindybo93

Questions, Discussion

• Zapier, Inc; The Ultimate Guide to Remote Project Work; zapier.com/

• The Hofstede Center; Comparing Countries; geert-hofstede.com/• Escribano, Javier; How we organize our remote team using Slack,

Trello and Google Drive; https://medium.com/@fesja/how-we-organize-our-remote-team-using-slack-trello-and-google-drive-70b5a8190ce2#.g0fe0em21

• Active/Passive Voice examples: http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-active-and-passive-voice.html#WTh572sWpgdtmZOT.99

References