How to Encourage Team Engagement & Collaboration Remotely
Utah-based virtual whiteboard app Lucidspark found that 75% of 1,000 respondents surveyed in September last year said collaboration was the thing that suffered most when working remotely. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time…other studies have found that the best creative work occurs when a team is in a state of flow or focuses its collective attention on a single problem together, known as ‘team flow’.
Remote work can make it harder to keep everyone engaged in solving a problem, brainstorming, team building, and more. For example, it’s harder to tell when a team member has zoned out during a zoom call vs an in-person meeting. Is it just that their screen is frozen, or is that their zoned-out face?
BUT…
As the world continues to trend towards remote work sticking around, instead of continuing to say what’s wrong with remote work & why it doesn’t work... we have to find solutions or workarounds.
When I see a challenge in the face of remote work, I also see an opportunity.
Although it can be hard to mimic that state of flow mentioned above, nothing is impossible. The foundation of engagement & collaboration is finding ways to keep your employees present during a virtual meeting. These tips below can help facilitate that depending on the goals of a meeting and the size of your business.
1. Send the Agenda Before the Meeting
Virtual meetings can be a great way to engage with your team but it’s easy to get distracted.
Let your team know the purpose of the meeting and what they can expect so they can show up prepared and ready to engage. Sending the agenda in advance also helps increase your productivity.
2. Take Advantage of Breakout Rooms
We all know how difficult it can be to get a word in when it comes to a zoom call that’s over 15-20 people. Realistically, even in an office...you would never have 15-20 people brainstorming altogether. Consider structuring your meetings around breakout rooms if you have a bigger team that you need to gather input. Both zoom and google hangouts have the capabilities to gather everyone into a big virtual room, separate into smaller virtual rooms, and then be able to reconvene as a bigger group once you’ve done some brainstorming.
This structure not only allows for virtual collaboration but you can prompt more intimate conversations and flow in smaller groups, while also feeling as though you’re still part of the conversations when those points get brought back to the rest of the team.
3. Give everyone a job to do during the meeting
One of the main reasons it’s easy for people to zone out during virtual team meetings is because we weren’t meant to be focusing our attention on a screen...we were meant to be in person, observing body language, energy, and more. However, one trick that you can use that will trick our brains into staying engaged is giving everyone a task or job during a meeting. For example:
Can someone be in charge of taking notes for the meeting?
Can someone be in charge of making sure you don’t go over the time set aside for the meeting?
Can someone be in charge of questions and unmuting folks that have them?
Can someone be in charge of coming up with action steps or next steps for everyone from the meeting?
These are just some examples, but depending on the size of your team, this may be a solution to keep your brain active, observant, and constantly working during a meeting instead of zoning out.
4. Incorporate Flex Time Before Jumping Into Business
Get the energy up before diving into the heavy business items during a meeting. In order to do this virtually, I have found that engaging with your team about things you know they had going on this week (in or out of work) can help really shake off the “I’ve been sitting at my desk at home for the past 2 hours and haven’t gotten up” blues. One of your team members had their son’s birthday party this weekend? Ask about how it went, tell them to share pictures!
It’s important to note that in order to find out this information, you have to ask about what your team or your co-workers have going on in or out of work. Take the time to do that and you’ll have the opportunity to really try and bring their energy up before your next team call.
5. Consider a Hybrid Model
Depending on the size of your business, the resources you have, and its capacity you may want to consider a hybrid approach. Even if you don’t have office space, local co-working spaces now offer great packages for businesses who want to offer more of a hybrid approach. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to a hybrid approach. The advantage of this being new territory is that you get to organize an approach that works best for you and your business.
For example, some teams that thrive on collaboration can be given mandatory times each week when everyone is expected to be in the office. This structured hybrid model is different from hybrid working, whereby employees can come and go to the office as they please.
By combining flexible hours with time slots for office attendance, you can grant some of that freedom that workers have enjoyed so much over the pandemic. This approach could also prevent the rise of a two-tier model, where those who are present in the office get ahead, while those who prefer to work from home get left behind.
Structured hybrid work could potentially also allow workers to travel outside of peak times—removing much of the pain of commuting—as long as they are present for the compulsory time slot for collective in-office working.
BONUS TIP: silence your notifications both on your phone or on your computer during virtual meetings.
Unfortunately, we often get distracted during zoom calls, which doesn’t contribute to being present and engaged. Next time you have a call, try turning off your slack notifications, email, chats, etc so that you can keep your focus on the meeting at hand.
Oftentimes, we’re missing a few extra steps, like the ones above to really focus on team engagement and collaboration remotely. Checking on the pulse of your team engagement is always a good idea. The more engagement your team has, the more likely they’ll feel more comfortable with giving feedback, taking on responsibility, and more!
As a coach for business owners, managers, and overall leaders from all different industries… if you feel as though you’re still struggling with these aspects of your business, and you may need more than just these tips, let’s chat.
