Self limitation does not come natural to us. Neither does self isolating or change. In some ways it is a form of grief. Therefore over the upcoming weeks we can expect to go through the five stages of grief for the changes we are being forced to make. We can also expect our colleagues, team members, and family members to travel the curve at different paces.

At the same time as people are traveling the above curve, those working from home are likely being introduced to or introducing another change. We’re likely trying figure out new technologies, new routines, new processes, in short, new ways of working. As you figure out these new ways of working, here’s a few things to keep in mind:

Don’t Assume Remote Working is just F2F working, but apart

It will be easy to try to recreate the face to face (F2F) office environment, rituals, and dynamics when your team is remote working. This won’t work. Discuss as a team the rituals and aspects of your office life which were positive and why. The why is important because that is the piece you need to focus on recreating virtually. Often in F2F contexts there is a lot of informal check-ins occurring, this is tough remotely. You may need to consider multiple ‘stand-ups’ or checkins a day at the beginning to help with this. Lastly, pay attention to your introverts, they likely have huge amounts to offer this conversation.

One Size Fits All Rarely Works

If you believe the adverts and the twittersphere all you need for remote working is Zoom, Teams, or HangOuts. Not true. This tools can help with video calling and some aspects of collaboration. But none of them do everything you will need. Some of the tools will be dictate to you by your IT department. Some you will already be using. Don’t go looking for the silver bullet. You will likely need several. Therefore with your team, discuss what tool you will use for which task. Communication is the key.

Oh and one more thing. The single most important thing to learn about remote working is likely to manage your notifications extremely well. Seems silly, but it is essential.

Think about the Layers

Successful change is never just about the idea or new technology. It’s always about how everything around the idea comes together. The Courageous Change Framework helps to unpack the layers around the idea:

Besides figuring out notifications, my biggest learning in years of remote working is that I never communicate enough with my teams. I think I do, but I don’t. It is the key.

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T