3 principles for effective collaboration with remote teams

Hours wasted away in inefficient meetings, frustrated team members undoing each other's work, and a sense of confusion instead of purpose. 

These are the signs of remote working arrangements that aren't actually working.

Whether you have experience in collaborating remotely or not, frustration and confusion are not natural outcomes of a flexible team structure. More often than not, these are symptoms of implementation issues, not with the flexibility itself. I like to think that, above all, any successful collaboration is based on guiding principles.

Rest assured, I am not going to tell you how many meetings you should hold, if agile project management is for your organization, or if drawing up Gantt charts and printing out seating plans is what drives your project’s success. But it is crucial to have a set of clear and universally understood rules in place that guide your team's collaborations. Naturally every company needs to experiment in order to land on the exact setup that works best for them.

At zkipster, we're fortunate to operate as a truly global team across borders, time zones, and team departments, with collaborating offices in New York, Hong Kong, London, and beyond - thanks to investing in our remote collaboration strengths for years, and tweaking the framework until we found the right one. Here are the three core principles that we learned along the way:

Create a culture of respect within your team

All too often, we take for granted or simply forget the foundation of what it takes to work with others successfully: treating others how we like to be treated ourselves. There are a few dimensions that play into respecting your coworkers, aside from just getting along and not speaking over them. These non-verbal dimensions are just as important, but easily overlooked.

Set rules for meetings

‍Every meeting should have a clear purpose and goal; if it doesn’t, don’t hold it. It’s that simple. It should go without saying, but be on time. Nothing shows “I don’t care about what you have to say” more than appearing for a video meeting with colleagues 15 minutes late and obviously distracted. Last but not least, let everyone be heard whenever possible. You'll be surprised what you find out if you listen to the people who are in direct contact with your customers, speak directly to your vendors everyday, and so on.

Know how to set expectations

‍Circumstances sometimes prevent you from being where you are supposed to be. This is no problem. The key is to set expectations and let your counterpart know what's going on. Being proactive is the basis for effective teamwork all along. It comes down to a simple point - treat others the same way you would like to be treated. In-person communication, like body language and subtle dynamics, often help us figure out how to treat others, but collaborating remotely requires a more conscious approach. Following these principles will build trust, which is the basis for effective communication regardless of the medium.

Provide the right equipment

‍In our world, we work roughly 2,000 hours per year (23% of each year!) in front of a computer. We spend countless of those hours on video calls, screenshares, and other digital meetings. So it should follow logically that we need to provide the appropriate equipment, such as high-quality microphone headsets, to everyone on the team. But that doesn't always happen in practice.

Equipment becomes outdated, needs and collaborators change, or a budget doesn't seem to stretch for new tools, and soon enough remote teams will be back to straining to understand each other talk on shoddy built-in microphones in noisy cafes. The key here is understanding that the tools, even the small ones, that you use have a direct and large impact on the quality of collaboration that comes out.

Set joint goals that encourage teams to work on shared objectives

Working in silos is a common problem, and one that can bring the quality of collaborations crashing down. Regardless of where you stand in yourorganisation, you can help change that. Here are a few ways to avoid silos altogether.

Set joint goals

On a company-level this is likely done by the leadership team. Yet, it is imperative for people to be invested in the overarching goal of the event, project, venture or company. In order to accomplish this at zkipster, we started using OKRs (Objectives and Key Results, as implemented by Google’s John Doerr way back in 1999 and shown by Google Ventures here) - a useful tool to set goals on the company level and keeps everyone moving in the same direction.

Leverage internal skill sets

It's vital to take advantage of internal expertise, even if it is not in the same domain described by a specific job title. There should be opportunities to work with teams in different areas, which has the dual benefit of enhancing collaborations when overlapping skills are shared between teams and also raising awareness of what everyone is working on. Those go a long way to keeping a shared vision strong.

Put technology to work

For cross-functional and global collaboration, technology is really the only way to succeed. As a team, decide what technology you need to build or leverage to make your day-to-day a success. The specific software and tools cycle in and out (for example, at zkipster we use Jira to manage tasks, and a sprint format to divide up our time), so it's important to do up-to-date research and see what's available that can fit your team requirements.

Invest in opportunities for your team to spend time together

All of this doesn’t eliminate the need to get everyone together. Instead, it actually requires more team time spent together. So what can you do if you work on remote projects or teams or in the same office?

Invest in team events

This can be as simple as having drinks after work (if in the same city) or can be as lavish as organizing a retreat to the Bahamas (wouldn't we all!). But the point remains the same - if you get your team together and make sure remote workers are real people and colleagues, no longer just a voice or a virtual face, it will do miracles for teammates treating each other thoughtfully and making intelligent choices in their collaborations.

Hold regular company-wide calls

Due to our own remote set-up at zkipster, we cannot all be in the same office at the same time, but that doesn’t get rid of the need to have everyone in the same meetings. So, in addition to team meetings that happen naturally, we implemented a monthly global call for the entire team to get together at one time and share updates. Establishing a shared ritual like this helps everyone on the team stay connected with each other and even projects that they might not be working on.

People seek being empowered by a structure to be able to do their jobs well; not be stuck in lockstep when complex scenarios come up.

Do something fun to spice it up

In our own zkipster global meetings, we started sharing a regular segment called "A day in the life" in which one member of the team shares pictures and stories of their daily routines, favorite haunts, and gives a peek into how they spend their days. Especially with a team spanning multiple countries and cultures, moments like these are truly effective ways to connect teammates to each other beyond company goals.

Putting it all together

As you can see, some of these principles may apply more or less directly to your own remote team or collaborations. One aspect which I have to underscore again is this: don’t hesitate to try a new approach with your team just because it’s bundled in with other approaches that don't currently work as well. Experiment, keep what works best, and trim off the rest.

But you won't know the right approach until you validate it with real experience. Performing regular sanity checks on your collaboration techniques and best practices, and also your own commitment to those principles is pivotal to effective remote collaboration. Happy collaborating!

Written by Christoph Mueller, reflecting on his experience as Head of Operations at zkipster.