How to communicate effectively when working remotely?
The following are my notes from the interview with Wayne Turmel, co-founder of the Remote Leadership Institute for Peoplebox.
Has the communication dynamic changed?
Somehow it has changed. But not in everything. We send the message, we hope that the message has been received, interpreted and that people take action. We still need to make sure the communication goes both ways. What has changed are the tools we use to communicate. The mindset is the same as always, the outcome is the same as always. What we need to change is what goes in between. We need to be more aware that we do, mediate, and mitigate with technology.
The first rule is: “think about what you need to do as a leader or as a team and then think about how you are going to do it.”
The first rule is: “think about what you need to do as a leader or as a team and then think about how you are going to do it.”
Do you think that remote communication has distorted the normal pace of conversations or has it humanized it?
It has changed. Technology makes it possible for us to have conversations with people who are on the other side of the world, in another time zone.
Let’s remember that we want our message to have been received, interpreted, but it turns out that with email you don’t know if the message was received and you don’t know how it was interpreted. Since the majority of communication takes place via email, slack, other text messages,… we need to be more aware that certain tools do the job for which they were designed very well. We should not use a means of communication just because it is our preference.
We should not use a means of communication just because it is our preference.
Also, let’s remember that we work best with people we know, like, and trust. One of the first steps to trust a person is to show us their face.
Regarding the so-called Zoom Fatigue, how much is too much?
The fact is people have never found a technology that they weren’t able to spoil. As soon as someone invents fire, someone else comes along and burns down the neighbor’s house. Every communication tool has unintended consequences.
There are people who need to have their webcam on in every meeting, all the time. Zoom Fatigue is real. Sitting staring at a screen trying to look at 12 different faces, trying not to look like you’re not paying attention and being vigilant of what people see is very exhausting. We need to be aware of when the time is right to use a tool and when it is not.
If we are in a meeting with 20 people, we don’t need 20 webcams on. Certainly the active speakers should have them on.
One-on-one conversations are ideal meetings to have the webcam on. Those one-on-one meetings, should they be one hour long or should they be 2 sessions of 30 minutes each? Shorter, more frequent communication seems to work better. Long meetings where everyone talks about everything tends to be very draining and soul-killing.
Shorter, more frequent communication seems to work better
But let’s not lose sight of the following 3 types of people:
- The ones who prefer to be left alone.
- The ones who prefer to be left alone, but shouldn’t be.
- Those who desperately need human contact and need to be in constant communication.
If the company policy is “we are only going to communicate this often”, on average it may work but we all have our own individual work style, communication style, and we all have different needs. Furthermore, if such a policy is imposed on workers without consultation, we would be creating unnecessary problems. A good example is that managers tend to spend time with the problem child. “But of course, since the other one is doing well, I will only meet with him once a week!” But he may be thinking “excuse me, when do I get some help? when do I get some attention? when do I get some coaching?” So, by incurring in this case, it is very possible that we are leaving landmines that we are going to step on in the future.
How important are one-on-one meetings?
They are critical. They just are. And it doesn’t matter if you are building pyramids or software. Because not everyone is willing to share in a team meeting. What happens is that many assume that the tool is going to solve everything when there is not a tool that is 100% correct for each situation. You need a spectrum of communication tools in your tool kit. These range from going for coffee together to using email. We have to understand what the purpose of this communication is, how important it is to know that it was received and that they understood and interpreted it correctly.
Team meetings are also important. Sometimes you want the communication to be between team members and not just with the manager.
Do virtual meetups and happy hours help?
If what you’re trying to form is a real team, yes. Having a set of people reporting to the same manager is not a team. A team collaborates with each other and the sum is greater than the individual parts. It is important to have those meetings to talk, not only about work, but about family, etc.
Having a set of people reporting to the same manager is not a team. A team collaborates with each other and the sum is greater than the individual parts.
The trap managers fall into is that they want to treat everyone the same when in reality what they should be doing is treating everyone equally. So, to generate the same level of trust, the same level of information, some people need a lot of communication, some people need less. Some people need face-to-face meetings, some people just need a way to track it using some kind of report.
Synchronous or asynchronous communication?
There is a meme that says “I survived another meeting that could have been an email”. Guess what happens when you don’t read your email, you get invited to a meeting!
When we talk about conversations that don’t require a meeting, we have different channels for certain topics that allow people, wherever they are and whatever time zone they are in, to add value to the conversation by giving them time to gather the information they need.
Asynchronous is critical, but you have to have a balance. Sometimes you may be in a slack thread that seems to be going nowhere and you need a meeting to finish it. There’s a reason Slack integrates with Zoom! Note that to call a meeting you do not have to be the manager.
Top 3 tips for managers
- As a leader, as a communicator, understand what you’re trying to achieve and then apply the right tool for that task. Be mindful of what you use. Although you have to have a conversation that is not going to be pleasant, you have to use the appropriate tool.
- We have to get good at using the tools. 80% of people use only 20% of the features. The most important factor for the adoption of a tool in the team is does my manager use it? So if you still resist using Sharepoint or still attach documents instead of uploading them to a Drive, why are you surprised that people don’t use shared drive?
- At the beginning, err on the side of two-way communication. An email in itself is not communication, it is data transfer. Did the recipient receive the message? Did the recipient understand the message? Is the recipient going to take any action? Did the recipient get upset because of the message? Many times managers send a communication and end up saying “if you have any questions, let me know.” Do you think your team trusts you to come to you with those questions? Or did they try to get ahead by assuming things? Managers need to include the feedback mechanism. If they send a message, they have to follow up accordingly. Use a list of follow-up items in one-on-ones, show it in shared calendars so that the other person can prepare their questions. And let’s not forget that it is important to foster a climate of psychological safety so that no team member feels that they are going to ask questions and then be seen as a fool or that the manager is not going to treat them as inferior because they could not understand the brilliantly crafted message.
My Thoughts
I am in favor of remote work for n reasons. These tips by the specialist are something I recommend keeping in mind when showing ourselves in our remote work environments.
I must admit that this interview has become one of my favorites on the subject, because many managers fall into the trap of not paying attention to those who need it, imposing the number and frequency of team meetings and also almost always ending with the classic “if you have any questions, let me know” or “my doors are open” when in fact they don’t make an effort to create an environment of psychological safety for each team member. As leaders, we must be careful not to leave those landmines.
Thank you for reading!
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