Before remote work was a viable option for many teams, we already made many mistakes and communication errors in the office or in face-to-face teams. But the moment we isolate ourselves even more and the shared physical environment disappears , these errors can be magnified and become a real headache. If you can solve communication problems on your team remotely, you will save yourself a lot of other problems. Throughout this article I will talk about the most serious errors that you have to solve or avoid. These are the 5 communication errors that can destroy the productivity of your remote team. Go for them!
Not being clear and concise
One of the first communication techniques that we must perfect to the limit , especially in remote teams, is to be clear and concise when we communicate. Nothing leaving things in the air.
This has two fundamental aspects. The first, the message. If my project colleague comes to me and tells me something like “ we have to have this ready by Thursday ” and it is not a task with a fixed and specific person in charge, what does he mean by “ we have?” Are you suggesting that I do it but you don’t want to be bossy? Is she going to do it ? In the end everything remains up in the air and the task remains to be done, or uncertainty is generated in the team because it has not been specified who does the task.
The second fundamental aspect is the tone. This is especially relevant in communication in remote teams. When someone from your team communicates with you in person, there are many elements that give you clues about the tone of the message. Your voice, your body language … But all these valuable elements are lost in written messages. Following the previous example, your superior may tell you “ we have to have this ready by Thursday because we are very late . ” In person you will know if the person is angry with you, or with the company, or if they are not angry and are simply describing the situation in a friendly way. But reading in an email or message “ we have to have this ready by Thursday because we are very late ” can be interpreted in a thousand ways by the recipient. Are you blaming me? Are you angry ? Does he say it in a nice way? Are you being passive-aggressive ? The receiver may interpret it incorrectly, or create uncertainty because they do not know what the tone of the message is.
So let’s not assume that the receiver will understand what we mean. Make sure your message conveys exactly what you want to say and with what intention , do n’t be afraid to put in more information , it won’t be too much.
Not choosing the appropriate communication channels or not standardizing them
What communication channels will we use at all times ? Of all the tools available to make video calls, which one will we use? At what point is an email preferable to a call?
As you see, on the one hand we must establish what tools will be used for each moment, and also which of all the tools that exist on the market will be the one we will commonly use . At my old job we had up to 3 tools to make video calls: Skype, Slack and Google Hangouts (now Google Meet). It was a disaster asking all the time what tool we were going to use today and where we had to connect. Finally we decided to choose one and forget about the rest.
Communicate as if you were still in the office.
Virtual communication has largely replaced face-to-face communication. We are already masters at making video calls or chatting on Slack or Teams with our colleagues .
But the new remote world requires us to generate some new habits when communicating. There is already a lot of talk about the fatigue caused by too many video calls, or the anxiety caused by being continuously available to the entire company because we always carry our phone with us, or because we spend a lot of time in our new office: our home.
Remote work is the ideal environment to bet on synchronous communication and solve these problems. Synchronous communication is a way of communicating in which messages are not transmitted in real time. Something similar to what we do with emails, but also carried out in voice messages, video messages , or leaving notes in project management tools like Trello or Clickup.
Interruptions and abuse of meetings can kill our productivity. If we transfer all this communication to the tools that allow us to communicate asynchronously and we reserve conversations in real time for what is strictly necessary, our productivity levels can be catapulted because we enter state of flow without any type of interruption .
An example of these tools is Loom, a platform that allows you to record videos from your screen and your camera at the same time to make asynchronous presentations . You then share that video with your team through an automatically generated URL . This is a good way to inform the status of a project without calling them to a meeting and without spending an hour writing a huge email. And then each member will watch that video at the time they think is appropriate, without interrupt your schedule.
- You may be interested in: Synchronous work, the teleworking revolution. Complete guide with advantages and tools
Do not give feedback in remote teams
One of the biggest problems in companies today is the lack of feedback and recognition. In fact, many employees leave organizations because they do not feel recognized. A better salary offer is something very tempting but also scarce , which is why many of the voluntary departures in companies simply occur wishing that the new work environment is better than the current one.
If the lack of feedback was already worrying when we worked in person and when we had many opportunities to value and recognize each other face to face, now that physical space and communication have disappeared is limited to what is fair and necessary, the scenario is even more worrying . With teleworking, the few opportunities in which the value contributed by the workforce was recognized casually disappear .
Using systems and tools to recognize and reward employees for their achievements, or to indicate their areas of improvement and work on them is more important than ever. Because before you could still capture some feedback in a meeting or through a casual conversation with your superior. But from home you have stopped capturing the little feedback you received . An employee who feels recognized will not lower their performance and the chances of them leaving the company will be even reduced.
A tool to give and receive feedback continuously in the company is Zeppelean. It is also gamified and turns feedback into a game of collecting cards. You can find more information about her on her website.
If you prefer to do small team feedback sessions, you can opt for a weekly or monthly game. DigiKudos is a game where a pleasant and fun space is created to open up about certain positive or improvable aspects of our company and our team. It is also perfect for remote or mixed teams (where one part of the team works remotely and the other does not) . You can find more information about DigiKudos here . Or even try a free demo.
- You may be interested in: Strategies and tools to create a feedback culture in remote teams
Not working on ties between team members
In the previous point we mentioned the importance of improving feedback between team members, and between staff and their superiors. Something similar happens with team building. The moment casual chats in front of the coffee machine or water machine disappear, employees need tools and ways to socialize and create bonds with each other. The Feeling of belonging to a team is very important for a company, since it fosters collaboration, a good work environment and culture. All of this helps everyone push toward a common goal . On the contrary, if employees do not create emotional ties among themselves, they feel like mere mercenaries, and teleworking can enhance that feeling of isolation. For this reason it is very important to carry out team building activities with the team.
The problem with traditional team building is that it is expensive, we need a lot of resources to carry it out, and it used to be focused on face-to-face activities that are complicated to replicate with a totally or partially remote team. But we can also do virtual team building activities. Here we have some examples of simple and very economical activities that we can carry out on a video call:
DIGIKUDOS
DigiKudos is a remote team building game to give and receive feedback from the team. In turns, each player must give the feedback that the two cards indicate randomly.
In this way we create a safe and fun space to recognize the efforts of others , to build trust among the team and to find areas for improvement. You can find a demo of the game at this link! Remember that it is a demo version with limited content , that’s why random cards tend to repeat themselves. The full version has much more content. You can find more information and price of this game here .
The best thing is that we don’t need to complicate our lives to play. We only need the team to make a video call, and for the facilitator to share their screen with the open game. Therefore, it is perfect for playing both in person in a meeting room and remotely. Or even in a mixed environment where half the team is remote and the other half is in the meeting room
DIGICREA
We are used to activities to get to know each other better, activities to disconnect from the work day and fun activities that generate bonds between the teamBut what if the remote team building activity also serves to create innovative ideas that we can apply in our work environment to improve it? That is the key to DigiCrea. When you press the button, four animated cards appear randomly. We will have 10 minutes to generate ideas among all the members that meet the conditions indicated in the cards. We can all play at the same time, or compete in teams to see who comes up with the craziest and most useful idea . & nbsp ;
If you want to have more information and know the price of this game, you can is find it here.
DIGIRETA
Get the team to know each other better or discover curiosities about them in a fun and enjoyable way. In turns, each person decides whether they prefer a random TRUTH or DARE card. TRUTH letters encourage telling personal anecdotes or confessions. The CHALLENGE cards contain a fun test to do in front of the webcam. Laughter is guaranteed !
You can find a demo of the game at this link!
You can also find more information and price of this game here.
The positive thing about these team building activities is that they are very simple and very economical. The fact that it is so simple, so accessible and so economical also allows us to carry out many more teambuilding activities compared to what we did before , when these activities have only been done once. or twice a year .
Not respecting schedules and time zones
We cannot think that everyone is always available to us. Just because we are teleworking does not mean that we are available 24/7. We may have established a schedule where everyone must be available, or each person may have established their own schedule without taking into account the schedule of the rest because they are committed to asynchronous work . Whatever the case, we must respect the established schedules and methodologies for communicating.
As for time zones, if all team members work in the same country , there will not be much problem regarding this matter. Butworking remotely also allows you to hire the best talent or the talent that adapts to your needs without distance being a problem. So if you are working with people from other countries , take into account their time zones. In this context, the asynchronous work that we have mentioned in the previous points becomes very important . < /p>
And these are the 5 communication errors that can destroy the productivity of your remote team. I hope that knowing them helps you avoid them, and that the solutions we indicate can help you.
Do you want to start with something quick and easy to avoid or remedy communication problems ? Try one of the GamiTeams games!