Hayden Brown, CEO of Upwork has said “ I can’t tell you the number of CEOs I talked to who are thinking, ‘I have to solve the diversity challenge in my business, and remote work is one of the tools …we have to let go of this very office-centric culture and incorporate people who are in a lot of geographies.”
This statement of Hayden Brown shows us that how remote work is becoming an important aspect in various companies. This work will provide a vast pool of employees to hire from removing the geographical constraint and remedying the lack of diversity. But most times people think that remote work is difficult in handling than the benefit it provides as they have various challenges mentioned below
Accommodating time zones
Has to work individually/alone
Difficult in creating an effective working environment
Facilitating effective online meetings
Effective team collaboration
Agile work is all about collaboration and teamwork. So even if companies want agile to be remote it needs a better collaboration. So today we will discuss the most important required point of an agile team in remote work.
Ask Questions
Asking a question is 90 % effective and one of the most important skills required to survive while working with remote teams as a scrum master. The technique in asking the same question in multiple ways will take this question-asking method to another level. If the team is unable to understand the question then praising in another way will provide an effective result while dealing with teams. In most cases, teams are confused while answering a question is due to they are unable to understand whether the scrum master is asking this for a team discussing or wants to know about one’s particular point of view. So asking questions specifying your requirement will clear their doubt and they will be able to answer better.
Direct Questions to Specific People
This technique will help in encouraging the silent members of the team instead of only allowing the louder person to participate. Asking specifically to every person will make them answer the question and express what they think or else it will surely make them tell you that they are not able to catch up about the discussion going on. So instead of going from the vocal ones starting with the silent ones will promote complete team participation.
Share Your Personal Point of View
Even being a neutral facilitator as a scrum master you can put on your point of view as a suggestion instead of being quiet or forcing your opinion to be the right one. You can always provide the opinion based on your experience as this experience will surely help out the team and increase the discussion within them. But it will be a better option to provide it in the end so that it will avoid influencing the decision of the team.
Suggest Something Ridiculous
It's necessary to bring out some ridiculous suggestions or questions to the team. Even if knowing the question is ridiculous if asked it will make anyone of the team members let you know that why it is not right with the reason. That reason is what a team requires to be discussed and work out, providing better suggestions and solutions.
Use Sense of Humour
Many will think that they don’t have the required humor. But that is not what is at all necessary and makes the team belly laugh. You only needed to make the team laugh a little and improve to lighter the environment. This will help to reenergize the collaboration within the team.
Insert Breaks
The longer meeting without a visual collaboration will always be tiring. Taking short breaks will freshen up the team. Having a schedule for a longer meeting including a 10-15 minutes break or asking the team if they needed a break when you see that the team has become dull will work out the requirements.
Change the Subject
When you see that the collaboration is becoming tiring and dull not reaching any conclusion. It is better to change the subject. You can ask the team that if there needs to be any different approach to be taken for the subject. Sometimes you can also insert a small retro as it is not necessary to wait for a sprint end to have a retro. If the meeting is getting stressful it is a wise decision to adjourn the meeting and continue the next day.
If these basics are followed you can see “That is a big perk. As people work remotely they are more mobile.”
About Advance Agility
We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium and large organization across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients, move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting human centric approach to business agility. Embracing the change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitor.
Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe Implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagilty.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are a good trainer or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.
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