One of those days where I edited, completed, and was ready to push publish on an episode all ready to go – only to realize we already shipped it. If you haven’t had a listen, take a listen now, Colin and I discuss the ever-present green icon of presence and how it links to trust in the remote workplace.
Everyone did. But not everyone wanted to speak. And not everyone wanted to hear the bad news. And not everyone wanted to discuss the what-if scenarios. So when the client found out, the inevitable question was Who knew? Which then sparked the recycling of the above dialogue.
I remember working on software that interfaced with presence engines before people started working remotely in a big way. And at that time I remember thinking – “wow, there is a lot that could go wrong here.” Presence does not equal trust, it’s something else, but it’s not trust. Don’t confuse the two. We had a great chat on this in our recent episodes on Remotely Prepared.
Ask them how they are doing. Tell a joke. Ask everyone a fun question. Poke fun at yourself. Learn something new about them. Your meetings have a goal, but the first one should always be – “we’re a team and we’re in this together” – make sure everyone always knows that.
It’s tempting at some point during a project, epic, feature, or any piece unit of work to go back to the way you used to do it because it was “easier”. But the question that has to be asked in that equation is – “Easier for who?” For your team? For your stakeholders? For your QA team? For who, this is the question. It might be easier for you to go back to how you…