Challenges during collaboration with your remote team
Collaboration with your remote team can sometimes feel like jumping through hoops. It can be challenging to stay on the same page when you’re not in the same physical space. Collaboration-wise, ensuring everyone is on the same page can take more effort than it would if you were all in the same room. You might need to over-communicate a bit to avoid misunderstandings.
Also, it can be hard to find time to collaborate when everyone is in different time zones or has different schedules. You might need to be flexible with your scheduling and communicate what days and times work best for you. Lastly, you might miss out on impromptu collaboration opportunities when people are physically together in the same space.
Despite these challenges, why is collaboration with your remote team important?
Research from Stanford University finds that when people work together towards a common goal, their motivation and task interest increases. It also allows you to divide the workload and share the responsibility for completing tasks. Second, it gives everyone on the team a chance to contribute their ideas and perspectives. By bouncing ideas off of each other and getting feedback, you can help to create a better final product.
Third, collaboration helps to build trust and rapport within the team. It can help to build morale and foster a sense of community within. Fourth, it can help to avoid misunderstandings and conflict. And fifth, collaboration is simply more efficient than working independently. When you collaborate with your remote team, you can be sure that everyone is working towards the same goal and that the work will get done more quickly and effectively.
In today’s business world, more companies rely on remote teams to get the job done. While this arrangement has many advantages, one of the challenges is maintaining a high level of collaboration among team members. So, here’s how to encourage collaboration with your remote team:
1. Provide a space for collaboration.
To encourage collaboration with your remote team, you must create a space for collaboration. This can be done by setting up a dedicated collaboration platform, such as Google Hangouts, Skype, and Zoom, where team members can easily connect and share ideas. You can also use this space to host regular team meetings or video conferences.
Further, you must ensure that your employees are comfortable speaking in the collaboration space. When workers feel comfortable communicating with one another, they’re more likely to have an active brainstorming session.
Consequently, you can do a few things to make your employees feel comfortable talking to one another. First, create an open and inclusive culture within your organization. When they don’t feel prejudice against them, they are more likely to voice their ideas. Second, encourage employees to share their thoughts and allow them to be heard. You can provide training on practical communication skills too, in order to hone your virtual team. Third and final, make yourself accessible to employees and motivate them to come to you with any questions or concerns. By taking these steps, you’ll create a more collaborative environment within your company, leading to improved morale and increased productivity.
2. Know your track and set a finish line.
It’s essential to know your track when working with a remote team – that is, to clearly understand the project at hand and what needs to be done to complete it.
What goals do you hope to achieve? What are the deadlines? Once you have a clear picture of the finish line, you can start setting up collaboration strategies to help everyone stay on track. Perhaps you’ll set up regular check-ins or create a shared document where team members can leave comments and suggestions.
By setting a finish line and communicating it clearly to your team, you can encourage collaboration with your remote team and ensure everyone is working towards the same goal. This will help keep the project on track and avoid misunderstandings or setbacks. In addition, by regularly checking in with your team and getting feedback, you can ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards a successful outcome. Ultimately, by taking the time to establish a shared understanding of the project and its goals, you can nudge your team in the right direction.
3. Be each other’s support system.
One way to encourage collaboration with your remote team is to be each other’s support system. This means being available to answer questions, provide feedback, and offer help when needed. It also means being understanding and flexible when things don’t go according to plan. You can create a more positive and productive working environment by being supportive of each other, ultimately leading to better collaboration.
If you are having trouble collaborating with your remote team, reach out to your support system for help. Surely, you can overcome challenges and build a more successful team with proper support.
4. Mix up the teams from time to time.
This could mean pairing up team members for specific tasks or assigning new roles for a project. For example, if you have a team of writers, you could pair them up with editors or designers to work on a specific project. This ensures that everyone has a chance to work together and helps prevent anyone from feeling isolated. In addition, it can help to create a more diverse and innovative team dynamic.
By encouraging diverse collaboration, you can help your remote team members get to know each other better and build relationships that will improve communication and collaboration.
5. Celebrate team milestones.
Milestones are an essential part of any team’s journey. They provide a moment to pause and reflect on all that has been accomplished and a chance to set new goals for the future. When it comes to collaboration, milestones can be even more significant. They allow team members to celebrate their collective achievements and reinforce the importance of working together towards a common goal. Commemorating wins, whether big or small, can cultivate the feeling that they achieved this win as a team, thus motivating them to collaborate more.
These occasions provide a much-needed opportunity for connection and bonding, helping to create a stronger sense of team spirit. So, if you want to encourage collaboration with your remote team, celebrate those milestones along the way.
Are you looking for your remote team?
By following the tips outlined in this article, you can encourage collaboration among your remote team and help them feel like they are an integral part of your company. With a little effort, you can create a work environment that is conducive to productivity and creativity.
However, collaborating with other people requires plenty of skills. You can’t just hire a qualified Virtual Assistant (VA) or Virtual Medical Assistant (VMA); you need excellent ones. You can pick from a roster of outstanding VAs and VMAs at your convenience by scheduling a free discovery call with us!
Read more: 5 Business Statistics Why You Need a VA this 2022
