Improve Productivity With Remote Work
COVID-19 clearly transformed the way we work. While the debate between remote and office-based work continues (Yes there are pros and cons for both), what truly matters is how organizations set up their teams for success. Geographically distributed employees and customers are now the norm, especially among Fortune 500 companies. As someone who has worked both in an office and remotely, I’ve seen firsthand the challenges and benefits of each approach.
However, it has become clearer that working virtually is here to stay, even if you sit in an office. Working virtually is essential for any organization, especially for any that have offices or clients across different geographies. No matter what, you are going to find yourself using technology to interact with others who are not located near you. Even if a meeting is in the next building, you will probably have someone remote in to save the time of walking between buildings or having to stand outside in the hall waiting for the previous meeting to end. Ultimately, the key to improving productivity lies in how teams work and collaborate effectively to achieve their objectives.
Here is a list of a few strategies for improving productivity whether team members are remote or in the office:
1. Understand Team Workflow and Challenges: Be clear on the remote or office-related obstacles that teams face and how the team works. You will waste less time by being clear on the problem that needs to be solved for first.
2. Select The Right Tools for The Right Task: For instance, whether using Slack, Teams, or email, define the tool best for specific messages or information sharing. Regarding collaboration, keep your stack of tech tools as small as possible to remove redundancies and minimize confusion.
3. Establish Clear Objectives and Outcomes: Train your team on hybrid meeting facilitation, ensure a clear agenda, and involve only relevant stakeholders. Consider standardizing when and how communication should occur (i.e., Email vs Teams message response times)
4. Streamline Collaboration: Implement consistent file structures and version controls to reduce rework, which will help avoid searching through multiple files with similar titles. Have a primary and backup team folder administrator to help with document management.
5. Enhance Creativity: Developing new ideas can be done effectively whether in-person or remotely. Encourage individual brainstorming first, then bring ideas back to other team members for further iterations. Recent research even shows that group brainstorming sessions generally waste time, can elevate mediocre ideas, and stifle good ideas from introverts who don’t feel comfortable sharing [1]. Lastly, digital collaboration tools like Mural can capture and organize creative concepts and prevent the loss of critical information far better than a physical whiteboard or sticky notes. Eliminating the need to decipher bad handwriting or take photos of the whiteboard.
Remember, it’s not about where work happens; it’s about supporting teams to collaborate and be the most productive they can be. Focus on how teams can do more of the work that matters, regardless of the location [2].
