Week 8 Topic - how my team is working

This week I will talk about how my remote team is working, in correspondence to my week 6 topic which was how to work in a remote team.

My remote team consists of three of us: Sam (the team leader), Evan, and myself. Evan and I are more so supports and do things “behind the scenes” in correspondent to the leader/ editor.

We all make decisions by consulting one another and putting each other’s opinions in perspective. We seek advice in each other and never make a final decision without us all agreeing.

The only frustration of working in a remote team is that we all have different schedules and time zones, therefore we all reply at a different time. When we need a decision or an opinion on something, it may not come to a resolution straight away, but only when everyone has looked at the message or on our group to do list on Trello (our online to do list).

This however, is not all bad, as it means every single one of us can go on and alter things when we have time to dedicate towards the group report. It is at our own convenience, which makes it allot less stressful as it means we can all work together in our own time. Although, some things do take time, which is why we do our best to plan ahead and look at what we have to do for the following week.

 With all that been said, my team is very chilled and open to ideas. I believe this is so because of our forward thinking and the fact that we work well together. 

Week 6 blog post - working in remote teams.

The pros and cons of working in remote teams and how to get around obstacles that may occur.

Working in remote teams allow communication to proceed no matter the different time zones or the different schedules people have.

A disadvantage is not being able to communicate vertically and whether your teams works well together. Having the wrong team members is also a big disadvantage. 

These disadvantages can be overcome by setting up certain tools like Trello or google documents, allowing everyone to access documents and plan for a task. It shows when they should be done and who they should be done by. This makes a good process to get the team working as a team and having the ability to prioritize time and tasks. Good processes make it easy to get work done in the absence of all else. It provides structure and direction for getting things done (Foster, W).

It is important to have structure for team meetings. A helpful way of doing this is by using certain tools, like iDoneThis app. This helps to stay on top of what everyone is getting done on a day-to-day basis, helps eliminate blocks as they come up and keeps everyone up-to-date on what everyone else is up to. 

Ground rules for communication are also essential in a successful remote team. An example of a great ground rule is to keep up to date, not only on personal tasks but the tasks of members of your team. This can be achieved by gaining a habit of daily feedback to improve and/or develop efficient cooperation within the team.

In the little time, I’ve been working in a remote team, I have learnt the importance of feedback and support. A random check-in with someone in the group who may have some input or greater knowledge than I on a certain subject is one way to gain feedback and support.

Appointing a team leader has been the most important key. By keeping the team motivated to complete tasks, our team leader has provided great structure within the team and has been one with the most experience and one with the greatest devotion to the team.

The rest of the team is a support to the leader. As the leader needs helpers to get things done. The importance of proper support and trust within the leader will lead to a functioning remote team.

Reference:

Foster, W. How to work in a remote team. Retrieved from http://www.zapier.com