Everyone wants to work remotely.
Everyone thinks it’s a great idea to have people work remotely.
But at the first sign of trouble or discord – first item on the list to get blamed – is working remotely.
The big problem with remote work today is it sounds really, really cool – working from the local java shop, watching my kids do sports while hammering out some emails, coding in a restaurant or in a plane terminal – that is some very, very cool remote work locations.
But is work getting done?
If you’re the Team Lead looking to setup your team for remote work there are a few honest questions you need to ask yourself.
- Will you be okay with not seeing everyone work, but seeing
theirdelivery ? - Will you be okay with not having daily status meetings
whereeveryone goes through and says what they are doing (wastes of time regardless) - Will you be okay with seeing that someone has been offline or
awayfrom their desk for more than five minutes?
Once you know the answers (truthfully) to the above, you will then be able to craft your strategy for remote work and outline your expectations to your team.
– What level of presence are you comfortable with?
– What minimum meeting interaction requirements are necessary?
– What collaboration tools will you ask others to use?
– Do you need check-ins? That’s okay.
The failure in Remote Collaboration is not the act itself, but rather the time we put into setting up the infrastructure and foundation to make sure it works.
