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Roger A Revell
Consultant, United States
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Remote/Hybrid Work and Team Development
How do you believe remote/hybrid work has changed or will change our understanding of team development (i.e., Tuckman)?
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Richard Neilson
Business Consultant, United Kingdom
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Hybrid Teams Getting Stuck at the Forming and Storming Stages I am seeing teams that are now mostly transitioning to hybrid working or, at least some variant on this model. They are struggling to become Real Teams again, and certainly are not high performing in this pandemic world. Those subtle interpersonal behaviours and signals that happen when face to face are very difficult to experience and interpret at the best of times, and certainly so, when communicating via Zoom or Teams.
Some people can be either unskilled, guarded, or even unwilling to reveal true feelings, using verbal language only, and the limited facial signals that we give out can be easily missed or misinterpreted. In the absence of other ways to signal our thoughts and feelings non verbally the current situation 'ties our hands' and hinders the communication that is so necessary to develop true team effectiveness.
Unless teams can learn ways to 'Storm' constructively in this remote or hybrid world, without damaging relationships, then they will be handicapped and limited. I don't have any any answers yet but I do think we need to acknowledge this is new territory, and I suggest that some form of 'team working reset' is necessary. I am finding even team roles and expectations need to be restated and agreed again, even within established teams.
I am currently encouraging one team to use the RACI tool to encourage discussion about who does what, and why and to what standards. Also I suggest they revisit 'team charters' and the company values and behaviours again, just to focus minds and to encourage involvement in these fundamental conversations that were so much easier to have in the old days.
What I am also seeing are people in previously effective teams jumping up the Ladders of Inference, leading to mistrust, disappointment and disillusionment. We need to rediscover or find new tools to enable effective team building and team development.
Any other thoughts out there?
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Michelle Cockburn
Manager, United Kingdom
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True Hybrid Team Forming is Hard to Achieve @Richard Neilson: I agree with your summary of problems with hybrid teams at the Forming and Storming Stages and think that the extent of the problems which follow depend on the TYPE OF ROLE:
- In processing roles there is a clear drop in quality of work and less ability to deal effectively with instances of queries which do not follow the prescribed processes entirely.
- For non-administrative teams it is much harder to get high quality team discussions going to solve problems and team members often assume they can do everything just as well on teams, not realising how much is lost when you don't regularly have everyone in the room.
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Nicola Rovetta
CxO / Board, Italy
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Individual Commitment Matters More in Hybrid Teams I believe that remote teams will have to rely more heavily than in the past on individual attitude and commitment.
With less or only digital feedback from fellow members, the relationships are more superficial and have less impact.
We should add individual coaching to approach the full effect of regular physical 'on-field' development.
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Roger A Revell
Consultant, United States
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Hybrid Forming and Storming of Teams @Richard Neilson: You've targeted the stages that I believe will be most difficult in the remote/hybrid environment. I frequently talk with new employees via Zoom who have not met in person any of their team members. To my thinking, seeing but not being actually physically present with other team members is inadequate contact for F/S. Thanks for your comment.
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Eddie Amanam
Consultant, Nigeria
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Remote/Hybrid Team Development is the New Normal In our times, everything we knew previously is changing or being modified. HRM over the years have seen dramatic changes that have given us many new posture and we are adapting and adopting as appropriate. The classical team development process already had challenges we were coping with despite inherent advantages. No doubt COVID added further team management issues too.
Remote/ hybrid Team Management should be condoned as the situation warrants. It misses key advantages of in person team development processes, inherits all disadvantages, and perhaps adds absence of personal touch and real time experiences.
Nevertheless, digital meetings with remote teams will no doubt save considerable cost. Management could be expressing fear whether the task will be delivered on time with desired efficiency and speed, but there is no need for such fear.
When tasks are accomplished we should commend the remote team, after all every team is successful if the tasks are understood, accepted, delivered in high quality with sense of efficiency time and cost. That's what every organization prays for after all - high performing teams - near or far.
As Neilson puts it 'they are trying to become high performing teams again'. Those conditions were prevalent with all teams during the pandemic down times. Happily, a new normal of remote working spirit developed and online training platforms developed as well to up skills across board. Statistics support the view that working from home was welcomed more than previously and it saved the situation. It promoted work life balance more, strengthened family bonds, and resulted in quality contributions.
We should embrace this remote/ hybrid team development process as a new normal. Come out of our classical comfort zone and accept the new normal that is saving cost and is being perfected to stay.
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Benedict Chukwurah
Manager, Nigeria
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Remote/Hybrid Team Development Remote/hybrid working is likely to take a great toll on team development in the future. It might find a fertile soil to thrive where team members have been together for some time before remote work was activated—otherwise, team development will be a tall order.
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Anonymous
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New Teams versus Existing Teams For new teams team development became harder, but for old teams it is an opportunity to know your team mate's personal life better and as a result develops understanding among team members..
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Formation of a New Remote Team My experience is that forming (and managing) a motivated and successful team from scratch without any personal physical contact is really hard - almost impossible.
So I recommend to look actively for an opportunity to at least meet each other once in person at the very beginning of a team's formation. It will help enormously. After that you can proceed in a virtual or hybrid way using various tools like Skype, Zoom, Teams, email, etc.
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Roger A Revell
Consultant, United States
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Face to Face at Least Once @Jaap de Jonge: I agree. Over almost 50 years of helping teams, I believe things are learned/observed in a face-to-face meeting. Among the employees I have Zoom meetings with, those who haven't actual...
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Daniel Jennah
Director, Reunion
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Remote/Hybrid Team: A Relational Challenge @Richard Neilson: I do not have any counter thoughts to what you say. You're right to say that it is not easy to deal with team work when we are less and less working in team conditions. We still have...
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John Henry
Project Manager, United States
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Same Rules for Virtual Teams and Face to Face Teams Having worked on virtual teams for nearly 10 years now, I think the rules are not significantly different with virtual teams than face to face teams:
Honesty- say what you mean, mean what you say...
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Roger A Revell
Consultant, United States
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Embrace the Change @John Henry: I like your approach, John. The outcome (in person compared to hybrid/remote) is the same; the processes may be a bit different. Thanks for your insights!...
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