Today, we’re sharing with you a quick technique from one of our workshops, The Remote Communicator.
One of the biggest challenges when leading a hybrid or remote team can be the impact of communication. Communication is the bedrock of understanding and connection, so we need to be mindful of how we’re communicating and tailoring our messaging to the medium we’re using.
For example, think of a time you opened a Slack message or email riddled with spelling errors. This simple miscommunication increased the time it took you to read, digest, and respond to the message. Perhaps you needed to clarify certain points in the original message before you could respond properly, leading to more run-up time to resolution.
Miscommunication also happens in the office, but the complete lack of physical interaction in a remote environment can certainly impact the organic collaboration of your team. It doesn’t have that spontaneous synergy that you get in person. The good news is that you can reduce or eliminate some of these communications issues by creating a clear communication blueprint for your team. Here are four practical areas to cover in your communication blueprint.
Implement standards and expectations
General standards and expectations – in other words, the cultural protocols or the conduct that is expected within a remote environment, is a key area to cover within your communication blueprint. This should include the expectations for:
- How frequently employees communicate. Are there guidelines on how long it should take a team member to respond to an email? How about to a Slack message?
- Who to communicate to in periods of uncertainty or struggle. Have you made it clear who to speak to about particular challenges?
- Meetings. How often do you hold meetings? Do you keep minutes? Are there any guidelines team members should consider when planning how long a meeting will take? Are there any protocols to follow?
Setting these standards and expectations helps ensure your people aren’t in the dark or guessing at how frequently they need to communicate. Others can disengage within a remote environment, which makes setting an expectation really important.
Set best uses for specific tools
The next thing to consider is tools and their best practice use. We usually communicate out of a level of convenience rather than the best method. In a remote and a hybrid environment where there’s a larger reliance on chat tools and the like, we should build a framework of what the expectation of standards are around those tools and when to use them.
For example:
- Client communication occurs over email or phone.
- Internal communication happens via Slack message.
- If you’re dealing with a sensitive issue or need to collaborate with multiple people, use Zoom or video conferencing, so that you can hear tones and read body language more easily.
Establish team touchpoints
When you’re in a hybrid or remote environment, the ability to have spontaneous or natural organic interaction can be stifled. To counter this, we can create specific touchpoints where the team can openly share and feedback with one another. This helps to cultivate that sense of community and tribe they might be missing from the physical environment.
If this is done regularly, then employees can start to have confidence and rely upon the fact that their issues or challenges can be aired in an environment that’s specifically geared to unblocking them. Sessions are ideally facilitated by a manager or leader to keep them moving in the right direction with a framework of how they need to be conducted. Whichever way your team decides to go about this, it’s critical to facilitate that sense of open sharing you often get in the physical environment.
Support digital literacy skills
Consider how you will support digital literacy skills in your team. Everyone has differing digital literacy levels, yet these skills and ability to communicate digitally are critical within a hybrid or remote environment. Therefore, it’s important to establish training pathways that support less digitally literate employees and guide them into developing their digital literacy and increasing their skills through a practical framework. It’s up to you how upskilling occurs, whether that’s mentoring, coaching, training documentation, training sessions, or a combination of these.
Create your communication blueprint
These four ideas are just a jumping off point. I encourage you to consider other elements and techniques that will take your communication blueprint from great to fantastic and set your team up for effective remote communication.
If you’re looking for further training around digital literacy or creating communication standards within your hybrid or remote team, feel free to get in touch.