Integrating more flextime into the workplace is a must as the workforce adjusts to a more hybrid landscape. With increased flexibility in the way we work comes greater opportunities for innovation and improved employee interconnectedness.

According to statistics, 63% of employees believe flexibility is the key to feeling empowered in the workplace.

In this article, we’ll explore the power of flexibility in the workplace in the following topics:

• What is Flextime?
• Why Flexibility Matters
• The Creative Flex
• Options for Flextime

What is Flextime?

Flextime is an arrangement in which employees can alter their work day. Employees with flextime can adjust the time their work day begins or ends. In addition to giving employees more freedom to work outside the standard “9 – 5”, flextime is a favorable scheduling option for organizations experimenting with hybrid work offerings. 

Greater flexibility in the workplace creates a more enjoyable and enthusiastic experience. With flextime, team members can do their work when they feel they perform at their best. While flextime doesn’t reduce the number of hours in a workweek, a flexible schedule allows employees to design their workday according to their needs. Successful flextime schedules meet both the needs of their employer and employee as this new schedule allows each team member to maximize their productivity and performance.

Ultimately, flextime acknowledges that an organization is more than the work that is done; it’s about how the work gets done. By allowing your team members to work in a way that meets their needs, you’ll encourage flexibility in the workplace and promote a greater work-life balance that allows them to do their best work yet. 

Why Flexibility Matters

Flexibility plays a crucial role in the working world. As more businesses opt for hybrid and remote positions, allowing team members to redesign their workday encourages a sense of autonomy that can lead to improved performance. Flextime is a suitable option for team members seeking a new way of work depending on their unique circumstances.

Employers can improve employee satisfaction by focusing on flexibility by enhancing the overall employee experience. A workplace that allows members to center their needs and work accordingly promotes empathy. Organizations that align their values with their team members will build psychological safety, trust, and connectedness. 

Though some may see granting flexible working hours as a “give and take” in the workplace, flextime is really about building relational capital. In honoring the needs of others, we deepen our connection with each other. With this dedication to connectedness, you’ll be able to build stronger, more passionate, and more motivated teams. 

The Creative Flex

Flexibility goes beyond granting employees’ wishes to work an hour earlier or later. At its core, a flexible workplace fosters the most creativity. Organizations that encourage the greatest flexibility can redesign the way they work, reshape their destiny, and co-create their future. A company that is a safe space for flexible working, creative thinking, and innovative collaboration is the breeding ground for the best ideas and most productive work. 

In deciding how flexibility fits in your company culture, consider the overall employee experience. Giving your team the most flexibility helps to build trust among employees and employers. Moreover, team members will feel as though they truly matter to the company and will choose to remain loyal members of the team.

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As you configure various flextime arrangements, consider the following advantages and things to consider when thinking of offering workplace flexibility:

Advantages:

• Boost productivity
• Reduce overhead costs
• Improve morale
• Aid in recruitment
• Increase retention
• Foster innovation
• Expand your talent pool

Things to consider when planning for flexwork:

• Blurring a work/life balance
• Procrastination
• Communication issues
• Isolation
• Different time zones and working hours
• Technical needs of employees
• Training initiatives for team members

In the world of hybrid and remote work, flextime offers a significant advantage: team members can get the most work done, wherever they may be. Promoting an asynchronous workforce gives distributed and hybrid workers the greatest opportunity to reach their objectives. 

Remember, the goal of flextime is to encourage employees to do their work when they’re the most productive. Offering such flexibility in remote and hybrid teams effectively promotes positive performance, achieves team goals, and increases motivation and productivity.

Options for Flextime

Though there are a variety of work models that increase flexibility in the workplace, flextime focuses on adjusting one’s work day. While this type of flexibility is easily accommodated with one person, employers should make further considerations to accommodate flextime requests.

Consider the following options when approving flextime in your organization:

1.Job Sharing

Since flextime does not reduce the number of hours in the work week, job sharing allows two employees to enjoy a flexible schedule while working the same number of hours. With job sharing, two part-time employees split the hours of one full-time employee. This allows team members to maximize productivity by evenly splitting their roles and responsibilities.

2. Flexible Schedule

One of the best models for flextime is allowing team members to work during different hours. This can mean coming in at different times or working on an asynchronous schedule in a hybrid or remote team. 

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3. Flexible Work Week 

In a flexible workweek, team members can alternate the number of days they work in a week. This allows team members to take a few days off as needed or work consecutively to have multiple consecutive days off.

4. Comp Time 

Offering employees flextime with comp time gives them the ability to work later and leave earlier or take days off to balance their hours. 

5. Remote Work

Flextime through remote work allows team members the opportunity to work from home, a co-working space, or wherever they have a stable wi-fi connection.

Benefits of Flextime

The reality of flextime is that it benefits both the employer and the employee. In a successful flexible workplace, all parties realize their potential and enjoy the greatest returns.

Employees that take advantage of flextime in the workplace will benefit from the following

1.A Better Work-Life Balance

Flextime gives employees the chance to meet their personal needs without compromising their performance or productivity. With a flexible schedule, they can do their work anytime, anywhere. 

2. Improved Health

With the freedom to enjoy increased flexibility in how one works, employees can properly care for their mental, physical, and spiritual health. Team members enjoy optimal health, they’ll be able to do their best work. 

3. More Opportunities

As flexibility allows for greater innovation, team members with flexible work arrangements can take advantage of more opportunities. Employees with flextime can realize their full potential and make greater steps in their careers. 

Create flexible workplaces to change the way your organization works. At Voltage Control, we help leaders build retention and strengthen employee experience through change! Contact us to learn more about how to make flextime work for your team.

The post The Hybrid Flex: Why Flextime Changes Everything appeared first on Voltage Control.

To innovate is to survive. 

As an overwhelming 80% of founders believe innovation to be the heart of organizational growth, employing an innovation strategy that promotes,  facilitates, and feeds innovation is essential. 

Developing a solid plan for facilitating innovation in your organization is a necessary step in your company’s growth. In this article, we’ll discuss the best ways to harness innovation as we explore the following topics:

• The Source of Innovation
• What is an Innovation Strategy? 
• Strategizing for Innovation
• Innovating from Within 
• A System of Innovation

The Source of Innovation  

Innovation often feels like a form of magic: it’s a powerful yet elusive force that drives the best ideas and creates the greatest breakthroughs. While some prefer to wait for inspiration to strike, happenstance is hardly the driving force behind innovation. 

The true source of innovation is the organization itself. Leaders must intentionally create systems, processes, and strategies that allow for innovation at every turn.

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Innovation is similar to any other corporate function as it requires careful strategizing to make the best ideas come to life. In doing this, leaders can set the stage and make the most innovative ideas and processes a regular practice in their organization. Ultimately, innovation may appear in the initial spark of a great idea, but it takes purposeful, thoughtful, and conscious planning for a great idea to exist beyond that moment of genius.

What is an Innovation Strategy? 

Driving organizational innovation starts with creating an innovation strategy. An innovation strategy identifies processes that allow for the most creative and effective solutions. 

The ideal innovation strategy allows an organization to zero in on its audience’s expectations by:

•  Identifying customers’ unmet needs 
• Targeting these needs for growth

A healthy innovation strategy allows an organization to create the most efficient pathways to resolving these needs and growing its company. Effective strategies for innovation follow a prioritization method to help teams understand which ideas hold the highest return. In creating a solid innovation strategy, leaders must develop a system that can be repeated time and again. 

Strategizing for Innovation

From defining your goals to using tech to transform your organization into a hybrid model, the possibilities are endless when it comes to innovation. As you design your innovation strategy, it’s essential to understand the nuances of innovation. Working with an innovation consultant can help you iron out a strategy that’s best for your team. With an expert in innovation, you’ll be able to better determine effective next steps toward the business’s goals.

Consultants are equipped to explain the subtleties in innovative strategizing, such as the various types of innovation:

• Routine Innovation.

Routine innovation is a building block that adds to the company’s pre-existing structure, such as its customer base or earlier versions of a product. 

• Disruptive Innovation.

Disruptive innovation results in a new business model that disrupts or challenges the competition’s business models. 

• Radical Innovation.

Radical innovation introduces new inventions, software, or technology to completely transform an existing business model. This type of innovation is best used to help organizations achieve a competitive advantage in the market. 

• Architectural Innovation.

Architectural innovation uses new technology to create new markets. Essentially, architectural innovation changes the entire overall design of a product by redesigning existing components. 

In creating the best innovation strategy for your current needs, take into account the following guidelines:

• Clarifying your goals and priorities.

The right innovation strategy outlines your organizational goals and efforts to identify the best actionable steps to achieve these goals.

• Fostering alignment within your organization.

Alignment should be at the center of any innovation strategy. Everyone must be aligned in pursuing a common goal for an organization to achieve new ideas and an innovative way of working.

• Encouraging your team to keep improving.

Complacency kills innovation. Make sure your company is always ready to move on to the next great idea by making continuous growth and development a key part of your innovation strategy.

• Reaching long-term success.

Focusing on reaching long-term success is an essential part of any innovation strategy. 

Innovating From Within 

An innovation strategy becomes the most effective when leaders can ingrain the processes and practices into their culture. Once innovation becomes an integral part of how a team works, they’ll be able to keep innovation top-of-mind. 

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By innovating from within, you’ll create a sustainable innovation strategy that becomes part of your company culture. Consider these pillars of innovation as you center innovation strategy at the heart of your company:

1. Models: Innovation strategies fall into two models:
   

• Business model innovation
  In this process, an organization completely adapts its business model to add value to its customers.
  
• Leveraging an existing business model
  This process allows an organization to use its existing business model while bringing innovation to the business itself.
  

2. Intrapreneurship
   Intrapreneurship empowers employees to act as entrepreneurs while working within the company. This encourages each person to create and act on their ideas, thus fostering a culture of ongoing company-wide innovation.
   
3. Corporate Accelerator
   Corporate accelerators are programs started by larger enterprises, offering aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to find mentors, access seed capital, and make important connections.
   
4. Innovation Labs
   Innovation labs are a starting point for R&D teams and startups to facilitate new ideas.
   
5. Open Innovation Program
   This model of R&D encourages existing employees to collaborate on new business ideas that add value to the company.
   
6. External Accelerators
   Though external accelerators don’t meet in-house, they can add incredible value to an organization. Businesses can use external accelerators to advance startups and drive concepts that align with their goals and needs without covering the costs of running an in-house program.
   
7. Collaboration
   Collaboration is an integral component in shaping a cohesive innovation strategy. Through constant discussion, interaction, and creative collaboration, all members of an organization work together to bring their ideas to life.
   
8. Ideation
   Managing innovation requires organizations to manage ideation. In doing so, leaders work to identify the best plans for analyzing, gathering, and implementing the right ideas. Ultimately, companies need an effective system that will transform an idea into a process that gets results.
   
9. Measurement
   Innovation strategies should include a plan to measure success by considering relevant metrics for each goal. For example, KPIs such as email subscribers, website traffic, and social shares are excellent metrics for tracking brand awareness. 

A System of Innovation

Developing a comprehensive innovation strategy must go beyond general objectives such as achieving growth, creating value, and beating competitors. To truly create company-wide change through innovation, organizations should clearly articulate specific objectives that will allow for the most sustainable competitive advantage.

A thorough innovation strategy successfully embeds innovation in the very system of an organization. To implement such systemic innovation, design your innovation strategy with the following objectives:

• Creating Long-Term Value for Potential Customers

An innovation strategy should always consider the most effective ways to create long-term value for customers. In developing a cohesive strategy, consider the type of value you’re aiming to create through innovation. Value can be created in many ways, including improving customer experience, making a product more affordable, or benefiting society at large.

In your efforts to identify what values to zero in on, consider those that will have the greatest impact in the long term. This way, your innovation strategy will include continuously iterating towards better designs in the future. 

• Capturing Value Generated From Innovations 

Innovations easily attract competitors that can pose a risk to the original product or idea. In your efforts to create a thorough innovation strategy, consider how your company plans to capture the value its innovations create. 

For example, a company that creates an exciting new product should be prepared for its competition to create more affordable prototypes. In the worst-case scenario, the competition may capture the value of the innovation. 

Consider these risks in your innovation strategy by identifying what complementary services, products, assets, and capabilities may improve customer loyalty. This way, you’ll already have a plan in place to ensure your organization continues to profit from every innovation. 

• Strategizing for Business Model Innovation

Technology plays an important role in innovation but isn’t the only path to new ideas. In developing a robust innovation strategy, consider the level of technology and your preferred method of innovation to pursue. 

Harnessing the magic of innovation takes careful planning. Need help driving innovation in your organization? At Voltage Control, we help leaders develop innovative strategies through change! Contact us today to discuss the best path to innovation. 

The post Designing Innovation: Fostering Creativity with an Innovation Strategy appeared first on Voltage Control.

Learning to connect a culturally diverse virtual workforce is an essential part of managing cross cultural remote teams. Faced with the challenge of virtual team building, remote team managers also have to unite their virtual teams across any cultural differences, time zones, and other unique elements.

Recent studies show that 62% of virtual teams are comprised of workers from three or more cultures. Surprisingly, only 15% of team leaders have successfully led cross cultural remote teams. Such statistics show the dire need for improving cross cultural remote teams management.

In the following article, we’ll discuss managing cross cultural remote teams as we cover topics such as:

• What Are Cross Cultural Remote Teams?
• The Challenges of Cross Culture Remote Work
• Closing the Virtual Gap for Culturally Diverse Teams
• Essential Skills for Managing Cross Cultural Remote Teams
• Improving Cross Cultural Leadership Skills  

What Are Cross Cultural Remote Teams?

With the rise of remote work, it comes as no surprise that cross culture remote teams are the reality of today’s working world. Cross culture remote teams are teams made up of the global talent pool. Whether a company pulls freelancers from various parts of the world or hires remote team members within the same country, effectively working together requires a strategic approach to managing such a diverse group of workers. 
Remote work experts suggest that culture is defined as the social expectations, customs, and achievements unique to a nation or region. One’s idea of culture frames the way they approach work, life events, and communication. While distributed teams composed of members from various cultures are an effective way to diversify the workforce, the difference in cultures and time zones can lead to collaborative and communication challenges.

The Challenges of Cross Culture Remote Work

Managing cross cultural remote teams come with unique benefits and challenges. Being able to fill your team with the world’s greatest minds is an incredibly powerful way to shore up your company’s talent pool. However, each team member will have their practices, preferences, and ideas of company culture, and as a result, may have trouble gelling with the rest of the team. 

Moreover, team managers will experience the challenges of building a team in the virtual world. Without the face-to-face interaction of a shared workplace, cross-culture remote teams are more vulnerable to conflict and communication problems. 

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Remote team leaders face unique challenges such as:

1. Work Style

When managing cross cultural remote teams, be sure to address the individual work style of your team members. When working with team members from different cultures, it’s essential to acknowledge each person’s work style. This is especially true for team members that are of vastly different cultures. For example, certain work cultures prioritize individual opinions while others expect to follow a leader’s course of action.

2. Information Gaps

In the virtual world, information gaps are a huge threat when managing cross cultural remote teams. Any information gaps can negatively affect processes and data flows. All team members need access to the most appropriate resources to successfully collaborate. 

3. Motivation Factors

Team leaders should do their best to analyze how each person’s culture may affect their motivations to better manage their team. Motivation factors for cross culture remote teams are vastly different than that of a traditional company. For example, while some team members may be motivated by a range of tangible benefits like bonuses, others focus on intangible benefits like encouragement and job satisfaction. 

4. Influences

When managing cross cultural remote teams. Managers face the challenges of certain factions attempting to influence the rest of the group. If part of the team has the same cultural identity, they may use that to dominate a conversation or outcome, leading to conflict and contentious work environments. 

Closing the Virtual Gap for Culturally Diverse Teams

Navigating virtual cross-cultural teams starts with first addressing virtual team building. While your team’s cultural background may play a role in the unique challenges you face, everything comes back to your ability to work together as a team. Level the playing field with an effective strategy to close the gaps and facilitate stronger personal relationships among team members. 

By making an effort to strengthen connections between your team members, you’ll be able to bridge initial gaps created by remote work. Moreover, team members that share a common bond will be able to better navigate any cross-cultural challenges that may arise. Consider using intentionally designed games and activities like icebreakers to help strengthen connections between team members. 

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Essential Skills for Managing Cross Cultural Remote Teams

In the virtual world, company culture is constantly changing. To effectively run a diverse group of remote workers, team leaders must be open to learning the most appropriate skills to bring the best out of their team.

Lead your remote team to success by honing skills such as:

1. Adaptability 

Cross cultural management hinges upon the leader’s ability to understand each team member’s work style and make the necessary adjustments. While you shouldn’t completely abandon your leadership style, you will need to integrate other behaviors, worldviews, commonalities, and perspectives to find more relatable ways to manage your team. 

2. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a key skill for leaders of cross-culture teams. Conflicts can arise quickly in a virtual workspace, so it’s important for you to regularly monitor and manage your own biases as you exercise patience and grace in your communications. Make an effort to frequently challenge your perspective and take a step back in your interactions with team members. This will help you navigate complex cultural challenges as you take note of where your perspective and behavior may require adjustment. 

3. Articulation

When working with a virtual team from different cultural backgrounds, clear communication is essential. By prioritizing articulation and careful and deliberate conversation, team leaders will be better able to ensure that every member of their team understands what they’re saying. Similarly, if other team members tend to speak too quickly, don’t hesitate to ask them to repeat themselves or speak at a slower pace. 

4. Writing Proficiency

In virtual meetings, calls, or voice notes, words can easily get lost in translation. Team leaders should develop the habit of communicating in writing to make sure all their team members have access to a document they can refer to at a later point in time. 

Improving Cross-Cultural Leadership Skills  

Remote work opens a world of possibilities in the way of team leadership. As your team expands to include a more culturally-diverse group, your leadership skills should improve as well. At Voltage Control, we offer facilitation courses, remote collaboration resources, and team-building workshops to help you navigate the pitfalls of managing remote teams and connecting culturally diverse groups. 

Work with our team of expert facilitators to learn more about managing cross cultural remote teams. With the help of workshops and resources, you’ll learn to expertly lead a virtual session, unite a distributed team, and appreciate and highlight the cultural differences that make your team a well-oiled virtual machine. Contact us to learn more about our custom programs for leadership development, master facilitation certification, and change management.

The post Closing the Virtual & Cultural Gap: Managing Cross Cultural Remote Teams appeared first on Voltage Control.

Learning how to keep remote teams connected is an integral part of remote work. Connection in the virtual world isn’t something that happens by accident. As a result, teams must intentionally create and maintain connectivity to keep their remote teams together.

A 2020 study conducted by OnePoll shows that 63% of workers feel less engaged with other team members as they missed in-person meetings, after-work happy hours, and office celebrations.

Faced with the challenges of distance working, remote companies must introduce inventive ways to keep their teams together. 

In this article, we discuss how to keep remote teams connected with the following:

• The Importance of Team Connection  
• Tips for How to Keep Remote Teams Connected 

The Importance of Team Connection   

Working remotely allows employees and managers to discover how to keep their remote teams connected and build stronger bonds. Though the idea of working outside of a traditional office space can seem like an isolating experience, it doesn’t need to be. By making a significant effort to keep your team members connected, remote teams will increase productivity, morale, and employee loyalty.

Tips for How to Keep Remote Teams Connected 

Connection is one of the most sought-after intangibles in the remote working world. Though navigating connection in an age of distributed work can be challenging, the right tips on how to keep remote teams connected in hybrid and remote companies can completely transform how teams work together. 

Learn how to keep remote teams connected by applying the following:

1. Hold Regular Meetings

One of the most important ways to keep your remote team connected is with weekly video meetings. Digital tools and tech give remote teams the opportunity for face-to-face interaction. Though team members aren’t able to see each other at the office, the power of video chat makes it possible to read each other’s body language as they chat over Skype or Zoom.

Successfully leading virtual meetings is an important factor in learning how to keep remote teams connected. Proper facilitation will help you lead engaging meetings where team members can connect and communicate in very meaningful ways. Regular meetings that are organized, engaging, and informative will help your employees feel like valued members of their team. 

2. Use Tools for Collaboration

Collaboration tools are also essential as you learn how to keep remote teams connected. The most productive teams use messaging tools like Asana or Slack as these platforms allow them to better organize their communications based on projects, locations, or teams. With the right communication tools and resources, team members are able to stay in constant contact throughout the workweek. 

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In addition to using collaboration tools for work-related discussions, consider dedicating channels to general conversation. This allows team members to bond and connect with one another outside of work-related topics.  

3. Encourage Open Communication

Open communication is a must for remote teams. 

Keep communication open by holding check-in meetings regularly to make sure your team members have the support they need to complete their projects. 

Additionally, creating a company culture that encourages employees to share openly is another important step in keeping remote teams connected. 

4. Be Transparent and Kind

Encourage transparency and kindness in all virtual communications to ensure team members understand and avoid any misinterpretation. Humor, concern, and urgency are all challenging to convey through virtual communications, so be sure to say what you mean in all emails, texts, voice calls, and all forms of communication going forward. In cases of miscommunication, leaning on a culture of kindness will help to smooth out any misunderstanding between team members.

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5. Utilize Asyncrouns Collaboration

Asynchronous collaboration will unite and unleash your remote team. Collaborating in real-time with tools like MURAL, Figma, and Loom allows your team moments of deep focus across timezones while achieving faster results than traditional asynchronous communications. This also allows for more intentional and meaningful meetings when the team meets virtually.

6. Offer Your Team a Better Work-Life Balance

Increasing your team’s morale by promoting a healthy work-life balance is another essential way to keep teams connected. A healthy work-life balance helps remote team members feel better about themselves and their work. However, hybrid and remote work makes maintaining this balance even more of a challenge. 

Work to connect your team by offering more flexibility. Give your team members the ability to work when they choose to while clearly outlining deadlines and expectations. Additionally, encourage your team members to take vacations and go off the grid to protect them from burning out. With the ability to take breaks as needed, team members will be ready and excited to get to work once they return. 

7. Encourage Mentorship

It’s easy for remote team members to feel disconnected, especially if they are new hires or haven’t created close relationships with other team members. By creating a mentorship program, employees will know that they always have support should they have questions or concerns. Moreover, having a mentor will help team members feel as if they are an integral part of the team and that there are always resources available to help them do their best work. 

8. Celebrate Your Team Members

Never underestimate the power of appreciation in remote teams. Recognizing each employee’s improvements and accomplishments is a key step in making them feel truly connected to their team. Taking the time to celebrate their wins and their quality of work will boost their self-efficacy and productivity. 

Offering praise remotely is as simple as sending a quick text or email to celebrate a job well done. A more formal celebration of accomplishments can include acknowledging employee accomplishments in an Employee of the Month program or similar event. Additionally, creating a company culture that encourages team members to praise each other will help them feel better about themselves and their coworkers.

9. Host In-Person Retreats

Remote teams should make an effort to plan yearly in-person retreats to help build stronger connections with team members. While creating relationships remotely is an important part of remote work, there is nothing like connecting with your team in person. It may not be possible for all team members to make it to the exact location, getting most of your team members in the same room at least once a year will deepen connections and allow them to spend quality time with each other.

10. Provide Feedback

Just as showing appreciation is an important step in learning how to keep remote teams connected, providing feedback is another essential part of helping teams understand how they can improve. As many remote workers interact with each other around specific projects, it’s important that they understand where they’re succeeding and how they can do better going forward. Making an effort to give constructive and honest feedback will help your team grow stronger overall. 

11. Have Fun Traditions

At times, working remotely can seem like checking off tasks from a to-do list. Team managers can counteract this by establishing fun traditions within the company. From virtual pizza parties to having a Fun Friday once a month, finding ways to inject fun into your team’s remote routine will help employees feel good about being part of the team. 

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Don’t let a lack of connection unravel your team. At Voltage Control, we help remote teams learn the best ways to communicate and engage with each other. Connect with us to learn more about how to keep remote teams connected.

The post Creating Connectivity: How to Keep Remote Teams Connected appeared first on Voltage Control.

Managing remote teams goes beyond using the right tools and tech for communication: intangibles like grace and empathy are an essential part of successfully leading teams.

Remote work undoubtedly changes team dynamics and communication. Making the most of distance work requires us to humanize remote work and challenge the culture of isolation that remote companies typically face. 

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Remote Work Culture
• Conflict in Remote Teams
• Exercising Empathy Online
• Building Psychologically Safe Remote Teams
• Transforming Your Remote Team Management

Remote Work Culture 

The nature of remote work undoubtedly changes company culture. As team members prepare to work remotely, they lose out on the real human connections gained from working in person. As a result, it can be challenging for coworkers and management to truly connect with each other. 

By intentionally creating a remote work culture of connectedness, remote companies can navigate the hurdle of separation and bring team members together regardless of where they may be working. 

Strong remote work culture counteracts the effects of isolation and unites team members around their shared purpose or common goal. 

When managing remote teams, it’s important to:

• Encourage feelings of camaraderie 
• Ensure regular effective communication
• Shift your work culture to a balance of synchronous and asynchronous work

Conflict in Remote Teams

Making the transition to successful remote work culture isn’t easy, especially with regard to conflict resolution. This lack of face-to-face interaction makes miscommunication easier than ever before. While all team members may be focused on achieving a common goal, in the digital world it’s easier for words, and actions to get lost in translation, causing conflict between team members. 

According to a study on remote work conflict, 81% of workers reportedly experience conflict and 39% of workers think about leaving their jobs as a result of a virtual conflict. Moreover, workplace conflicts are increasing in remote teams as employees are no longer able to verbally and visually communicate as they would in a physical workplace. 

Exercising Empathy Online 

With more workplace conflicts happening online, it’s up to companies to head off these communication challenges as proactively as possible. Experts suggest that empathy may be the cure-all to virtual drama in the remote working world.   

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When managing remote teams, maintaining team members’ well-being, morale, and engagement from afar requires intentionally exercising empathy.

Practice exercising empathy with your remote teams by:

1. Connecting with Your Team

Managing remote teams with empathy starts with establishing and maintaining a meaningful connection with your team. 

Improve team connections with the following:

• Ice breakers that add team-building and play to a meeting
• Regular check-ins with team members
• Video chats so team members can see facial expressions
• Consistantant communication via platforms like Slack, Trello, or Asana

2. Actively Listening 

Listening is an essential part of empathy, especially in remote teams. Listening allows remote teams to contextualize conversations and can help team members avoid unnecessary conflict.

Actively listen by asking intentional questions during check-ins to identify challenges team members might be facing. Experts recommend using prompts to help check-in.

3. Creating Opportunities to Ask for Help

It’s not always easy for employees to speak up and ask for help. Team leaders can demonstrate empathy by showing other members of the team that it’s okay to ask for assistance. By being vulnerable with your teams and asking for help yourself, you’ll open the door for others to feel as though it’s okay to ask for help as well. 

4. Equipping Team Members 

Ensuring that team members have everything they need to complete their work is another way to embody empathy. Be sure to ask thoughtful questions and offer materials and tools proactively to ensure your team is properly equipped to do their jobs. 

Be sure to ask questions such as:

• What traditional resources does my team not have access to when working remotely?
• Do any team members have accessibility needs?
• What tools do all team members need?

5. Encouraging Transparency

Transparency is key when managing remote teams. Without in-person conversation, information isn’t always as readily understood in the virtual realm, so it’s essential to regularly share important and accurate information. 

• Set explicit expectations for team members like KPIs, milestones, and timeframes
• Share objectives clearly with the team
• Provide feedback and guidance regularly to team members

6. Increasing Recognition

Recognition is essential in helping employees feel valued and validated. Employee recognition for remote teams can take on many forms from a shoutout via email or a monthly gift certificate. A small gesture of gratitude goes a long way online as it reminds your team members that you see the work they do and you value them as a critical part of the team. 

Building Psychologically Safe Teams 

Another element of successfully managing remote teams is creating a sense of psychological safety. When team members feel psychologically safe, they’re most confident to share their ideas, ask for help, and perform their best work. Creating this environment in the virtual realm allows employees to work without the fear of being punished, judged, or ignored.

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Empathy and psychological safety go hand-in-hand. Team members are all responsible for creating this environment for each other.  

Promote an environment of psychological safety by:

• Encouraging participation
• Practicing conversational turn-taking
• Encourage leaders to take on challenges
• Use breakout rooms on Mural or Miro
• Address problems immediately
• Increase mistake tolerance

Transforming Your Remote Team Management 

With empathy in mind, it’s time to transform your remote team management. 

Manage remote teams with these best practices:

1. Offer Multiple Contact Options

When managing a remote team, it’s essential to provide multiple forms of contact. Share your contact information for video chat, email, instant messaging, telephone calls, and other platforms. By diversifying your methods of communication, you’ll give your team every opportunity to stay in contact with you. 

2. Increase Flexibility

Flexibility is a valuable element when managing remote teams. From offering flexible hours to allowing team members to set their own deadlines, allowing more flexibility will help build trust and boost morale with your remote teams. 

3. Use Remote Work Advantageously

Focus on the advantages of remote work and hire a diverse and dynamic team. Remote work gives companies access to the global workforce, allowing them to hire the best in the business from any country in the world. 

4. Find a Balance for Asynchronous and Synchronous work

When managing remote teams, there is untapped potential in understanding, and utilizing synchronous and asynchronous work times. With remote workers, we have discovered the benefits of deep focus, asynchronous work. This allows for flexibility across timezones, teams accomplish more in a shorter amount of time, and it allows for synchronous time to be more focused and productive. Managing remote teams takes a leadership team that understands the importance of synchronous and asynchronous work.

5. Accept Adjustment Periods

In learning how to best manage remote teams, don’t forget to be patient. Transitioning to a remote-only or hybrid workplace will take time. From troubleshooting technological issues during meetings to learning new habits to improve your virtual workplace, allowing team members to learn as they go is an important part of managing your remote team. 

Working remotely comes with its own set of risks and rewards. Want to learn more about how to navigate the ins and outs of managing remote teams? Connect with us to discover how to implement empathy and grace as you lead your remote team to success.

The post Grace in the Virtual Workplace: Managing Remote Teams with Empathy appeared first on Voltage Control.

The future of work is changing and with it the landscape of how we work. We are seeing remote and hybrid teams more often, and the way remote teams flourish might be different than we initially thought. The old way of collaborating required an immediacy that poses new issues for remote and hybrid work. Recreating the office remotely is not going to get you the results you are looking for. Asynchronous collaboration and management can truly unleash your team’s potential.

“There’s a different methodology for managing remote teams. And that’s actually the essence of what I looked at when I wrote this book over the last year and a half, which was saying to myself, no one really knows how to manage these remote teams. They simply just thought that it was just slapping Zoom and Slack and Microsoft Teams on top of what everyone does. And everyone goes home and works from their laptops. It’s completely different.”

Liam Martin, author of Running Remote

Remote teams have gone from 4% of the population, pre-covid, to 45% of the population today. This is a massive shift and assuming that the traditional in-person work practices of the past can translate into the remote environments of the present, is detrimental to both team health and company growth. There is a time for togetherness and connectedness, and there is a time for deep, focused work. Async communication is not the full story, with async collaboration we can communicate ‘in real time’ or synchronously, with more intention. This balance of asynchronous and synchronous work will unlock the potential for leaders looking to scale their enterprise and unleash their teams. 

In order to understand asynchronous let’s start by defining synchronous, the old way of doing things.

What Is Synchronous

Synchronous communication happens in real-time; it is when at least two people are exchanging information at the same moment with each other. This can be in person or virtual; if you are a remote worker these moments are usually scheduled over Zoom. Synchronous communication is vital for keeping work human. When the balance of async and sync is off it becomes easier to forget that there is a living, breathing, person at the other end of your communication. Including moments of live interaction like storytelling, sharing fun facts, or even just casual check-in conversation allows us to connect with grace and build empathy for one another. 

Examples of synchronous tools:

• In-person meetings
• Zoom or other video conferencing
• Phone call
• Coffee Break or water cooler conversations

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Synchronous work should be a time to explore new ideas, a time when progressive moves can be discussed, and a time to develop relationships with your team. When we focus on trust and transparency in our asynchronous work, we allow space in our synchronous work for future planning and we are given the opportunity to be reminded that we are human, that connection, play, and psychological safety are critical to our wellbeing. The foundation of a healthy remote organizational culture is built on a balance of both sync and async work.

What Is Asynchronous

Asynchronous communication is any type of communication that has a lag between when information has been sent and when that information is received and processed by the recipient. This type of communication is not typically in person, and while it may sound a little disconnected from a human-centered mentality, the truth is, it can be an incredibly powerful tool for generative ideas and productivity.

Examples of Asynchronous tools: 

• MURAL
• Trello
• Slack
• Loom
• Google Docs
• Figma 

With the proper tools in place, your team’s communication can be fast, accurate, and informative.  Asynchronous tools are also an excellent option for remote and hybrid groups dispersed over time zones because they provide both flexibility and a permanent record of ideas, decisions, and discussions. When teams are encouraged to prepare asynchronously before a synchronous meeting, you will find more time for deep exploration of topics, ideas, and discovery when you meet.

Async Collaboration

Slack, emails, and even text are asynchronous communication tools, but slack and texting have a high sense of immediacy. There is an expectation of short response times, and this can be habitual, or cultural. These tools are also not well suited for dynamic, adaptive, or shifting conversations. Take, for example, the email thread from hell. Someone sends an email with 5 points, the first person responds to the fifth point, but not the others. The second person responds, and it is unclear if they are responding to the first responder or one of the other five points, and so on….   

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Synchronous work happens in the moment meaning it is faster, more dynamic, and has active, present participation. Asynchronous communication happens over time, meaning work is produced at the pace of the individual and allows for uninterrupted deep focus. 

Collaboration is key. Digital whiteboard tools like MURAL can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous work, allowing the full team to generate ideas, brainstorm, and collaborate on creative solutions in and out of meetings.

Asynchronous collaboration allows leaders and teams can stay connected and flourish without falling into predictability and rote communication. With asynchronous communication comes automation: higher velocity work with lower failures and improved productivity certainly sounds like the winning ticket for a successful business, but too much automation can begin to feel robotic. Studies show that human connection is key to employee engagement and retention, so organic thought processes and collaboration are as critical as improved efficiency to unleashing your team.

“Over 60% of leaders said that communicating values is a significant challenge within organizational culture, and 28% said misalignment in values is the challenge. Respondents also identified significant challenges in the areas of DEI initiatives, distributed teams (55%), and lack of company-wide cohesion (55%).”

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Asynchronous collaboration rather than just communication in a remote setting allows for a new level of cohesion. With collaboration through tools like MURAL, we are able to interact in real-time, generate solutions to problems with immediacy, and when we do enter a meeting we do so with intention and ability to get the work done.

Our Asynchronous Collaboration Tools

• MURAL – This digital whiteboard allows for asynchronous collaboration that is in no way lacking creativity or innovation. Our team uses MURAL to collectively share ideas, designs, and prototypes. We also use MURAL to guide our weekly meetings. With MURAL, we can collaborate with the full team in real-time.
• Loom – Our team utilizes this screen recording tool to ask questions, give detailed answers, and share new features. As you record your screen, you can get explain issues thoroughly and be able to recall the videos at any time. This means you have a database of Q and A that can be accessed at any point.
• Figma – When designing new assets this tool is key to remote collaboration between design, marketing, and engineering departments. With real-time messaging, stunning design tools, and the ability to share working boards, design work can get done between departments with efficiency and speed.

Facilitated Asynchronous Collaboration

Asynchronous Collaboration incorporates facilitation at every encounter, and it requires a deep understanding of how remote employees optimally work.  . Remote-first companies understand remote operations, and there are important lessons that companies new to remote, or hybrid, can pull from organizations that have been running remote long before the pandemic.  

There are elements of facilitation in all of our remote interactions, and often teams who are new to the remote landscape struggle to implement best practices across their teams. Liam Martin, co-founder of Time Doctor and co-organizer of Running Remote, takes on this challenge daily. Coming from a small community of people that know how to work remotely effectively has forced them to reevaluate asynchronous management. According to Liam we need to be able to manage teams without necessarily interacting face-to-face with them.

“Whenever you require immediacy of response from an individual inside of your organization, you believe that you’re speeding things up, but in reality, you’re simply speeding yourself up, but you’re slowing down the organization because you’re creating a culture in which people have to disconnect from their deep work.” 

Liam Martin, author of Running Remote

The fact is that if you allow your team these moments of deep focus, the results are going to be a lot of really great work completed in a much shorter amount of time.

If you are seeking efficient structures to change the way your remote team works, the facilitators at Voltage Control understand the intricacies of remote work, design thinking, and much more to help your team discover their potential. Contact us today for a custom fit growth strategy that will help your business, your team, and yourself reach new levels of productivity. 

FAQ Section

How can asynchronous collaboration improve business success in complex projects?
Asynchronous collaboration helps teams manage complex projects by enabling focused work and more thorough preparation. Teams can use collaborative project management tools, such as virtual whiteboards and project plans, to share ideas without the pressure of immediate responses. This results in a more thoughtful workflow and supports the entire project lifecycle.

What tools are commonly used in asynchronous and synchronous collaboration strategies?
Asynchronous tools include document-sharing platforms, asynchronous work tools, and video recordings for meetings. Messaging platforms like Slack and project management tools like Trello allow communication at any time. For synchronous collaboration, tools like video calls, real-time chats, and video conferences are used to facilitate real-time communication and engagement.

How does asynchronous collaboration support a hybrid work model?
In a hybrid work model, asynchronous collaboration ensures that team members working remotely or with flexible schedules can contribute equally. It reduces the need for physical meetings and supports a reduction in meetings by utilizing asynchronous updates to keep the entire team informed. This allows for more flexibility in balancing life balance with work demands.

What role does asynchronous collaboration play in project management?
Project managers can leverage asynchronous collaboration methods to improve internal communications and maintain momentum even when teams aren’t online simultaneously. This approach enhances real-time conversations when needed while allowing for an asynchronous collaboration strategy to manage follow-up meetings and provide regular updates on the project context.

How does asynchronous communication enhance workplace culture and employee engagement?
By allowing employees to work in an asynchronous environment, businesses support employee demand for flexible working arrangements. This fosters a positive workplace culture by reducing the pressure for immediate responses and giving employees more control over their schedules, leading to improved focus, creativity, and job satisfaction.

What are the challenges and benefits of using asynchronous collaboration tools?
One challenge of asynchronous tools is addressing the potential for a knowledge gap due to delays in communication. However, tools like collaborative document platforms and asynchronous meeting tools provide long-term records of discussions and decisions, which can enhance institutional knowledge and improve team performance over time.

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The remote work revolution is here and it’s more important than ever for remote companies to follow distributed teams’ best practices to keep their teams connected.

As 82% of US businesses encourage their team members to work remotely, it’s essential that distributed companies learn to properly manage their dispersed workforce. Following Distributed teams practices will help.

In this article, we’ll discuss the following:

• What Are Distributed Teams?
• Remote vs. Distributed Teams
• Benefits of Distributed Companies
• Distributed Teams Best Practices 

What Are Distributed Teams, and Why do we need Best Practices?

Distributed teams are teams made of remote workers that don’t have access to a shared location they can work from. Many distributed teams include team members that work from home, in co-working spaces, or anywhere else that is not a shared office. More and more companies are exploring the benefits of distributed teams as they allow their workforce to do their best work from anywhere in the world. With this freedom of location, it is important that we follow distributed teams’ best practices to ensure we are leading productive and healthy teams.

These teams must prioritize communication to ensure all team members are working efficiently. Though distributed teams work from different locations, they use telecommunication technologies to stay connected and work together as a team. These teams may communicate virtually using channels like text messaging, video meetings, emails, and voice calls. 

Remote Teams Vs Distributed Teams

While remote teams exist, distributed teams are in a different category. While distributed teams often work remotely, they are not the same as remote teams. Remote teams include workers that choose to work outside of a company’s office space. Distributed teams bring together team members that are already working remotely to achieve a common goal.

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Benefits of Distributed Teams

Distributed teams may not physically work together, but they’re certainly effective in getting teams to do their best work.

Distributed companies enjoy the following benefits:

1. More Flexibility

Distributed teams allow team members to enjoy more flexibility at work. Employees are free to fit work into their own schedules, allowing for a greater work-life balance. As long as the work gets done, team members can work whenever they feel the most productive. Studies show that team members can achieve more in less time and experience greater enjoyment as they work on their own terms. It is important to keep distributed teams’ best practices in mind to keep teamwork productive, healthy, and engaged.

2. Improved Employee Retention

Employee retention is a natural result of distributed teams as team members are allowed to follow a flexible work schedule. Companies that follow distributed teams’ best practices give their employees more freedom to work as they want, which leads to increased employee loyalty.

3. Access to Global Talent

Distributed teams can choose team members from anywhere in the world, giving them access to the global talent pool. This way, distributed companies can build a team with the best remote workers around the world. This is key to distributed teams’ best practices because it opens your team to a wide variety of ideas and increases the potential of generating new and diverse ideas.  

4. Become More Agile

Businesses that embrace distributed teams can enjoy less risky scaling as they become more with less overhead costs. For example, a company that hires an entire workforce of freelancers can expand their businesses without ever hiring part- or full-time employees. Retrospective tools can also be used to help teams become more agile as they review their recent work together and identify room for improvement. Utilizing asynchronous work within distributed teams’ best practices will allow your team to develop ideas and solutions that they may not have in a traditional working environment.

5. Lower Overhead Costs

Without a team of full-time employees, companies spend less of their budget on hiring-related expenses. Distributed companies also save money on office space and operating costs as their employees work wherever they choose. 

In lieu of traditional expenses, distributed companies invest in communication tools and team-building activities to prioritize and improve collaboration and communication. Even with no physical office to gather in, this allows distributed companies to stay connected with each other. 

6. Increase Productivity

Distributed companies are able to boost productivity throughout their workforce as they focus on achieving their goals without added distractions. Teams should follow distributed teams’ best practices to ensure increased and continued productivity.

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Distributed Teams Best Practices

A recent study shows that even though distributed companies allow their employees more flexibility, many team members have mixed feelings about digital collaboration. According to a recent study, members of distributed teams recently rated their company’s digital collaboration quality a 6.5/10, citing a false sense of urgency as a reason for their dissatisfaction. Following distributed teams, best practices can help to alleviate that feeling.

The reality is that the most successful distributed companies place a heavy focus on communication to ensure that each team member feels as though they’re a valued member of their team. 

The following distributed teams best practices will help you escape the pitfalls of operating a distributed company:

1. Celebrate Wins

It’s essential that team members feel like a valued part of the team. One of the best ways to encourage your team members is to celebrate wins regularly. Distributed companies can celebrate wins in a “win-thread” where members share their weekly wins with each other. Likewise, team managers can shout -out team members’ achievements through company-wide communications. 

2. Schedule Team-Building Moments

Team-building is pivotal for distributed companies. Team managers should intentionally design team-building moments so that team members can connect with each other remotely. Consider setting up a channel for casual conversation and out-of-office chats. Likewise, distributed companies may consider hosting in-person retreats where team members can meet and bond in real life. 

3. Have Check-In Moments

Check-in moments are an essential part of distributed teams best practices. Even with the help of digital collaboration tools, team managers need to ensure that their tech and workflows are actually working for their team members. 

It’s important to set up regular moments for team members to check in with managers on one-on-one calls or in team meetings. With regular feedback from team members and managers, distributed companies will be able to spot potential issues and make the necessary adjustments. 

4. Have Clear Workflows

Clear workflows make for the most efficient and productive distributed teams. As distributed teams are comprised of a global workforce, conflicting time zones can make aligning deadlines a challenge. 

With the right project management tech and clear workflows in place, distributed companies and their team members are able to complete projects with minimal confusion and delays. 

5. Use the Best Tools

Distributed teams rely on top-tier collaborative tools to keep their teams on the same page. 

The best project management, online security, and communication tools for distributed teams are as follows:

• Meetings: Zoom, Mural, Miro
• Text messaging: Discord, Slack, Google Chat
• Video Messaging: Vidyard, Loom
• Email: Outlook, Gmail
• VPNs: NordVPN, ExpressVPN, IPVanish

In addition to the right tools, it’s essential that you employ them properly with distributed teams best practices for cross-team communication

6. Prioritize Asynchronous Communication

Team managers should prioritize asynchronous communication to encourage team members to take an appropriate amount of time to complete tasks rather than feel a false sense of urgency. 

Likewise, team managers should set rules that indicate how long it should take to respond to emails, team messages, video calls, and emergency situations in your company communication guidelines. These guidelines will take the pressure off of team members that believe they need to be constantly available. 

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7. Set Clear Expectations 

Set clear goals and expectations for everyone working in distributed teams. In addition to treating specific team goals, team managers need to clearly communicate their expectations with all members and review them periodically.

Moreover, as team members progress on their goals, managers should be sure to check in on tasks and deadlines to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

8. Exercise Empathy

Even in distributed companies, emotions and tempers can flare up. From missed deadlines to moments of miscommunication, mistakes will happen and can create strife with your team members. It’s up to teams and their managers to be understanding and exercise grace with one another.

By employing distributed teams best practices, companies and their team members can enjoy the benefits of working with a team of talented remote workers from all over the world.

Need help improving your distributed company or implementing tools for digital collaboration? Connect with us to learn more about how to grow your distributed teams and encourage collaboration amongst your team members.  

The post Making Remote Work: Distributed Teams Best Practices appeared first on Voltage Control.

As working in person becomes a possibility again, many companies are opting for a hybrid work model. Hybridity in the workplace is trending up as 74% of American companies are choosing to adopt some version of a hybrid work model.

In this hybrid era, it’s up to companies to design a work model that best fits their needs and introduces a balance of in-person dynamics and remote work. While some companies prefer a model that prioritizes one over the other, it’s important to approach the one you choose with intentionality. 

In this article, we’ll explore the following:

• What is a Hybrid Work Model?
• Types of Hybrid Work Models
• Why Hybrid Works
• Making the Shift to Hybridity
• How to Go Remote-First

What is a Hybrid Work Model?

A hybrid work model blends the best of in-person and remote worlds. In such a model, companies allow their team to balance their workweek with in-office days and remote hours on their schedule. In this model, an employee typically has the opportunity to choose when and how they work.

Types of Hybrid Work Models

An ideal hybrid model is a blend unique to each company’s needs as well as that of their team. While each hybrid work model looks different, most are versions of the following:

1. Remote-First 
2. Office Occasionally
3. Office-First 
4. Split-Week 
5. Week-By-Week 

Remote-First

The pandemic saw a lot of companies shuttering their in-person operations for a remote-only model. Now, many companies are allowing their employees to continue to work from home using a remote-first model. This model allows team members to continue to work from home as they choose while allowing them the flexibility to use the office as needed.

With this model, many companies like Quora are offering their space to employees that want a physical location to work from as they choose. In this model, team members come in on a case-by-case basis or if their company requires them to appear in person. 

Office-Occasionally

Other companies that are ready to start working in the office again are opting for an office-occasionally model. This approach encourages employees to work from the office a few days a week. This model focuses on in-person and remote collaboration, with a hope to be a true balance between working from home and in-person. 

Each company sets the rules for hybridity in an office-occasionally model. While some companies require employees to work from the office a day of their choice a week, others may impose specific days that all employees must be present. 

Office-First

Office-first allows for occasional remote work, with the office considered the primary place for working. This model may require the majority of team members to work in the office while a few employees work remotely. Companies following this approach often encourage the leadership team to work from the office while other members of the workforce are encouraged to treat the office as the default for in-person collaboration and conversation. 

Experts warn about the pitfalls of this type of model as remote workers may feel left out of potential career opportunities as they have limited access to their coworkers. If you’re considering an office-first approach, be sure to stay connected with all team members, regardless of where they are working.

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Split-Week Model

In a split week model, team members split the work week between remote and in-person setups. The company can assign specific days or ask their employees to choose when and where they will work.

Week-By-Week Model

Week-by-week models are ideal for team members that prefer working either remotely or in person for weeks at a time. A week-by-week model allows all team members to spend an equal amount of time in and out of the office.

Making the Shift to Hybridity 

Transitioning to a hybrid work model can be challenging. 

If you’re going to make the transition to a hybrid approach, consider the following tips:

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• Follow the Leaders
  • The leadership team plays an important role when implementing a hybrid work model. As you consider the best approach to hybridity, be intentional about how your leadership team works. Wherever company leadership works, others will likely follow. For example, if the leadership team tends to work primarily from home, your employees will likely follow suit.

• Note Employee Experience
  • Many new adopters of a hybrid approach often never realize the pitfalls of this model until it’s too late. A hybrid model that sees some employees in the office while others stay home can lead to different employee experiences. It’s important to monitor employees’ experiences with unbiased performance reviews to ensure each person is receiving the same support and opportunities as their counterparts, whether they’re in-person or working from home.  

• Prioritize Consistent Communication
  • Whether you’re a remote-first company or hoping to introduce more in-person policies, consistency is key in keeping communication flowing. Experts recommend prioritizing online communication over-communicating in-person to ensure that all team members receive the same information in the same way. Additionally, team members should participate and respond online whether they are working in person or remotely. This way, remote workers always have access to the same meetings, conversations, and projects as their counterparts.

Why Hybrid Works

Hybrid work models give companies the best of both worlds. According to a survey from Harvard Business School, 61% of workers prefer to only work from home two to three days a week while 27% want to work remotely most of the time. It’s clear that the majority of workers value a hybrid model and it’s up to companies to find the right one. 

Though a hybrid approach isn’t one-size-fits-all, this model is ultimately one that works. The most effective version of this model is one that considers your company culture while addressing the needs of your team members. Implement this approach by finding ways to ingratiate your current culture into a hybrid one. 

How to Go Remote-First

As you determine whether to implement mandatory in-office days or choose to encourage mostly remote work, it is helpful to prepare a remote-first infrastructure. Going remote-first will help you refine best practices that will serve both in-person and remote workers. 

For example, making the transition to online-only communication for all team members now will set the stage for the model you choose to use. The rise of hybridity allows companies to use the latest tools for virtual meetings to bring their teams together as each successful model of a hybrid workplace allows for remote team collaboration. With a remote-first culture in place, your team will find strength in the flexibility of being able to work anywhere, regardless of how often they frequent the office. 

If you need help shifting to a hybrid work model, consider hiring a professional. The experts at Voltage Control can help you adopt the best remote work practices for your team as you consider your needs going forward.

Call today for a consultation as we help you design a hybrid work model that fits your company.

The post The Rise of the Hybrid Work Model: How and Why Hybridity Works appeared first on Voltage Control.

Remote work was once associated with poor accountability, incohesive teamwork, and confusing communication practices. Fortunately, that’s now easily preventable. With the right management practices and tools, remote management should feel empowering, productive, and streamlined. Consider these five best practices for managing remotely.

Hybrid and remote work is something to embrace.

Managing remote teams takes a focused and thoughtful approach. The role of a manager is to guide, support, and connect the team. Approach the responsibility with a proper strategy, and hybrid or remote work becomes an asset to both the employees and the employer.

As the benefits of remote work become apparent, it’s safe to say that remote and hybrid work are here to stay. There’s plenty of existing research for remote work. According to a Forbes study, “Teleworkers are an average of 35-40% more productive than their office counterparts, and have measured an output increase of at least 4.4%.” Below are a few more positive consequences of remote work.

1. Employees have location independence, and employers have the option to recruit top talent worldwide.
2. Employees can be more productive, in turn reflecting on the company’s performance.
3. Employee engagement tends to rise.
4. Both sides tend to save money, enhancing profitability for the company.

With an effective manager, confidence and trust become apparent on a team. Build best practices into place, and you can expect game-changing results. 

How can you effectively manage a remote team?

It takes practice and the right mindset to master effective management. We recommend practicing the steps below, and considering our Workshop Design course to build lasting results.

Embrace technology and tools.

Technology is on your side. There are countless tools made specifically to improve, and manage remote work, especially remote management. Make the most of the tools you have, and use them consistently. Focus on empowering your team to value available resources. Here are a few tools that we recommend.

Make sure each person understands how to use the tools in place. A chain is as strong as its weakest link. If your team depends on a project management tool to share and develop work, everyone should know or be taught how to use it effectively. It’s your job to oversee processes and enable people to work efficiently.

Define clear communication practices. Everyone benefits from guidelines for communication, and technology is on your side. Clarify when and where to share certain messages. For example, urgent messages should be shared via Slack or another instant messaging tool, while they should use email for higher level communication about projects.

Technology should enable you, as a manager, to manage less. Redundant tasks are easily minimized with the right tools. If your team is confident in how to use them, you can focus on more important tasks.

Implement boundaries and state expectations.

Boundaries are especially important with hybrid and remote work. They’re a sign of respect for employees. Working from wherever should not equate to always available. People work from different time zones and schedules, so align on a work schedule and respect those hours. Constant notifications outside of work hours often have a negative impact on engagement and morale.

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Stating expectations clearly defines how to respect the team. Outline expectations for work hours, available hours, assignments and deadlines, email turnaround time, meeting timeliness, and communication practices. If you’re following a hybrid model, be sure to clarify when and how often in-office work is expected.

Check in on individuals.

Remember the value of face-to-face interaction and use tools to continue it. This is especially important to newly remote teams. As an employee, it’s affirming to know that leadership values your work and recognizes your productivity. 

As an employee, it’s affirming to know that leadership values your work and recognizes your productivity.

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One-on-one check-ins offer space for connection. Having a regular check-in on the calendar is motivating, especially when the work is acknowledged and rewarded. While it will take practice to know the right cadence, it’s important to start with something on the calendar. Try weekly check-ins to start. If you have the option, schedule those for while you’re both in the office. 
Clean up before hanging up. Outline current projects and align priorities before the next check-in. Looking to improve the structure of your current meetings? Look to our expert facilitators for guidance through a meeting systems workshop. We’re here to help.

Check in on them, not just their work.

Understand that people are working from a variety of environments. Some may work in solitude, others in a coffee shop or at home with young children. It’s important to provide opportunities to connect.

Countless benefits can arise from open conversation and listening. Working remotely means working with differing experiences and viewpoints. It also means that acknowledging shared stress of work goes a long way. Your employees sense the emotions you convey. Focus on conveying calm and empathy when it’s appropriate. When people sense space for sharing their experiences, camaraderie is built and they feel invested in. 
Provide opportunities for connection whenever possible, including in-person. Consider monthly happy hours outside of work.

Communicate priorities and values to manage your team.

Proactive communication lends itself useful. Communicate values from the start. Aligning on values gives individuals a tool for navigating decisions and managers’ confidence in employees. Values serve as the first resort for help. 

Keeping the team aligned on priorities is also essential. Focus on goals and outcomes rather than how people are accomplishing their work. It minimizes micromanaging and enables employees to settle into their own style of work. Different people work differently.

Make sure that you’re finding ways to lead the team, not just manage it. Constantly tracking progress is a waste of time on both ends. Communicate tasks that need to be accomplished, but don’t use that as an excuse to check in on their work more often than is necessary. Trust communication practices you put into place, and use your time for accomplishing work.

Explaining the “why” behind priorities and deadlines is also important. Employees have a greater sense of purpose when they understand the reason for a project. 

How should I go about implementing these 5 strategies?

Practice. Practice in our workshops and with our library of tools. Practice with other leaders and with your team. We want you to see a lasting impact from your work, and we’ve seen it many times over with our toolkit.

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Get Our Concentric Consensus x96

Use this template when a large group needs to create key points for a topic or question and write down those key points to a consensus. This is an adaptation of the Liberating Structures 1-2-4-All for 96 people.

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Voltage Control offers workshops and courses for a forward-looking workplace. Managing teams remotely effectively takes practice with an advanced toolkit. Just like you should exit a meeting with a plan for action, you’ll complete our Workshop Design course with experience and valuable feedback for how you specifically can effectively manage a remote team. Please reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com to discuss what we offer.

Still eager to refine your approach to meetings? Consider applying for our Facilitator Certification for a deeper dive. Voltage Control also designs and facilitates innovation training, Design Sprints, and design thinking workshops. Please reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com to discuss what we offer.

The post How to Effectively Manage Remotely appeared first on Voltage Control.

As the world changes, so does the workplace. After all, we were forced to shift from in-person to completely virtual communication and collaboration seemingly overnight. This means leaders have had to continue having those important meetings, collaborating with team members, capitalizing on innovative ideas, and transforming their businesses—albeit virtually.

We must continue to adapt in order to not only survive, but thrive in this changing workplace, and thankfully, today’s top tech can help. Let’s take a look at the best tech available to efficiently and effectively make the shift, while fostering and maintaining a positive and connected company culture.

Top Tech to Implement Today

As we discussed in our Virtual Work Guide, the new virtual business landscape is ripe with opportunities for partnership and teamwork—opportunities that simply weren’t possible before.

Think about it: You’re no longer bound by the physical space of meeting rooms that only have capacity for 10-30 people. Now you can gather 100 people or more from around the globe all at once in a shared, communal space. But how can you ensure your changing workplace continues to feel ripe for creativity, collaboration, and innovation?

Top tech to the rescue. Given the pace at which technological innovation is happening—and its response to the shift to remote work during the pandemic—you have more than your fair share of options to choose from.

In order to help you decide which top tech to invest in or simply add to your toolbox, here are some of our favorite tools that make our work lives more productive.

Meetings

Your company and projects are made up of meetings; after all, they’re how you get things done. Remind team members to approach virtual meetings as they would in-person ones: they should dress appropriately, come prepared with notes, and get ready to share their input on others’ ideas.

In order to ensure your digital meetings are effective and are enhancing—rather than hindering—your team and company’s success, you need to first make sure you have the proper meeting scheduling and hosting tools in place.

Calendly

When it comes to scheduling meetings, we recommend Calendly. This free, web-based tool helps participants easily schedule meetings across different time zones without redundant back-and-forth emails. Simply share your calendar to have other people book time with you.

Doodle

If you’re trying to get your team on board for a big initiative and want to ensure everyone can attend, you can use Doodle to provide a clear, visual snapshot of availability across time zones.

Zoom

The pandemic favorite, Zoom allowed colleagues, families, friends, and loved ones around the world to come together during uncertain times. Thankfully, it also allowed organizations to continue to be productive. Use Zoom to host your meetings of up to 100 participants (up to 1,000 with the Large Meeting add-on), use breakout rooms, create branded events, and more.

Check out more of the gear you’ll need to run magical virtual meetings with our Virtual Meeting Hardware Guide.

Once you’ve landed on the meeting tool that’s right for you and your organization, it’s time to work out the bugs and issues in your meeting culture—and that’s where we come in. Voltage Control can help you audit your meetings, then renovate and redesign their usefulness in order to create a system that optimizes your success.

Collaboration

Although collaborating in person may be your notion of ideal, collaborating in a virtual, changing workplace can provide you with unique opportunities you may not have considered. For example, how many times has a new tool been used in an in-person meeting that has generated some awesome ideas you wouldn’t have considered otherwise?

One of the perks of digital collaboration is that it forces us to try new things and use new tools. And sometimes, some great ideas can be birthed from those awesome digital tools. Here are our top picks.

MURAL

MURAL is a digital whiteboard that’s all about visual collaboration around planning, brainstorming, and designing. Its customizable whiteboards support interactive and collaborative work for virtual and hybrid offices. With everyone working together in one visual space, you can design meetings, workshops, courses, and more for lasting organizational growth and transformation. Check out our MURAL cheat sheet to quickly learn how to use this incredible tool, as well as our MURAL templates.

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Get Our Yarn Weave

Use this activity to discover connections that emerge between group members through storytelling.

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Pastel

Pastel is great for collaborating on design and UX projects, like creating or updating a website. Turn any URL into an interactive canvas, create mockups, and leave comments and copy suggestions on different pages. This tool finally makes the exchange of feedback on websites streamlined and coherent.

Coggle

Unlike collaborative editors like Google Docs which provide linear or tabular document formats, Coggle is a freeware mind mapping tool that provides hierarchically structured documents like flow charts and branching trees. With multiple starting points, branches, and loops to represent process and workflow, Coggle can be used for taking notes during meetings and/or allowing teammates to contribute and edit diagrams collaboratively.

Workshops

At Voltage Control, we love workshops. We believe they can provide an effective and unique way to create collaborative team relationships, tackle challenges, suss out innovative ideas, design effective project kickoffs, improve facilitation, and more.

Because we’re all about finding and implementing the best tools for workshops, we’ve dedicated ourselves to creating tools based on our own experiences with a changing workplace. Here are some we’ve found to be especially effective.

Control Room App

Based on our own facilitation experiences, we created the Control Room App to help you run and facilitate exceptionally good meetings, events, and virtual workshops. With 20 free activities and additional premium features, Control Room will keep your team engaged, maximize meaningful connection, boost productive work, and help you capture feedback about what’s working and what isn’t.

Design Sprint Guide

Our Remote Design Sprint 101 Guide is everything you need to plan and run your own remote design sprint. We created this after successfully adapting our own tried-and-true design sprint model for remote work. You’ll learn all about design sprint basics, what you’ll need to implement a five-day design sprint, and how to get your own sprint started.

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Get Our Remote Design Sprint 101 Guide

This is a comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to run their own remote Design Sprint. It outlines everything we’ve done at Voltage Control to successfully adapt our tried-and-true Design Sprint model for remote work.

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The Facilitator’s Guide to Questions

We all get stuck sometimes. That’s why we created The Facilitator’s Guide to Questions. After reading this pocket reference for facilitators, you’ll always know what questions to ask to keep your meetings magical, from introductions and filling awkward silences to meaningfully wrapping things up.

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Get Our Facilitators Guide To Questions

A pocket reference for facilitators to always know what questions to ask to keep your meetings magical. Subscribe below to start your download.

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Use the Tools in Your Toolbox

As we’ve mentioned on the blog before, with greater diversity in collaboration comes more creative ideation and problem-solving. Let’s use this changing workplace shift to more virtual and hybrid offices to solve problems, create collectively, and collaborate more effectively than ever before.

Armed with the right tools, we can.
Learn more of the best ways to work in a hybrid environment in our Hybrid Guide.

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Get Our Work Now 2022

The world of work as we know it is at a tipping point. As a natural result of changes long-in-the-making and then expedited during the pandemic, the state of work now and work in the future is forever different.

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The post 9 Top Tech Tools for a Changing Workplace appeared first on Voltage Control.