10 Guidelines for Joyful and Effective Virtual Collaboration
The ability to work with anyone from anywhere in the world is one of the greatest opportunities of our time. Despite all the hype around the future of work, though, the struggle to find a flow with others remotely is real. There are a few signs you might need to check up on how you’re working with remote collaborators if:
⏰ You are alone in a virtual meeting that was supposed to start 10 minutes ago before realizing that you’ve used an old meeting link (again). Ugh!!
📝 You have an important (yet complicated) message for your co-worker / client / boss that is semi-urgent, but you’ve already written to them like a zillion times today. Should you:
Write them an email
Send them a Slack message
Call them
Text them
Write to them on in-house messaging software
Record a video message for them
Call them on Microsoft Teams
Call them on WhatsApp
Send a carrier pigeon
(you get the idea)
🤔 You’re not really sure what day of the week it is until Friday rolls around.
đź’» You feel less productive working remotely than working in-person
There's at least one person in your circle -and maybe yourself included- who works remotely quite frequently, or even every day. A growing number of people and companies have now decided to embrace this new, virtual way of working, where workers benefit from a better, healthier work-life balance and companies can cut costs, communicating with their employees in real-time, from anywhere in the world.
And just like companies and employees cooperate remotely, team members can collaborate virtually to effectively brainstorm ideas or solutions for a specific project or goal. However, although it might sound peachy, virtual collaboration is not all sunshine and rainbows, but it can be rather challenging if approached with the wrong strategy. So in this article, we'll learn more about the upsides and downsides of virtual collaboration and discover some tricks that can help you make remote working a real breeze!
The Zoom Blues: The Downside of Virtual Collaboration
Online collaboration has a lot of perks - that nonetheless come with a price.
If you get a clearer idea of what are the disadvantages of online collaboration, we can also approach virtual collaboration with a more strategic mindset that can ultimately help us effectively navigate and overcome any given issue.
As we know, working together in an office can be a great chance to interact with other coworkers while working remotely, on the other hand, can make it harder to really bond and even to effectively cooperate with other coworkers.
If you started working online during the early days of the pandemic, you can relate to “Zoom fatigue”: and that is so because the natural aftermath of zoom meetings and remote working, in general, is that we tend to feel more lonely, hence our mental health could be potentially undermined.
When there's not a strong connection among coworkers, team members feel less engaged in a project and less motivated to brainstorm ideas. On top of that, online collaboration faces cybersecurity issues, such as data or identity theft, as well as hackers, malware, and so on.
This means that there's always a slight chance of jeopardizing team's security. And ultimately, being online collaboration highly dependent on the availability of the internet and smart, connected devices, it goes without saying that without these, we cannot really get things done and we’ll likely lose track of any ongoing project or meeting!
That being said, let's now quickly review some of the disadvantages of working virtually:
Less effective teamwork
Isolation and low morale lead to less engagement
Unsafe for cybersecurity
This is an advantage
Dependent on internet availability and device efficiency
Freedom & Creativity: The Advantages of Virtual Collaboration
On the other hand, though, the list of benefits of online collaboration is virtually - pardon the pun - endless. For example, just like in any work-from-home, virtual collaboration can help you save precious time for your project or meeting, time that you'd otherwise spend commuting to meet your team members. And when you spend your and your team’s time more wisely and efficiently, you'll automatically get to boost your productivity, so you can get more done in your day.
But most importantly, what makes virtual collaboration a real game-changer is the use of online collaboration tools which allow you to communicate and cooperate with your team members in real-time, from anywhere in the world, so your team can become more connected than ever.
And with that, it seems quite clear that virtual collaboration can be also a great way to boost your team morale.
When you can communicate effectively with your team members, you generally tend to find it easier to create inventive ideas, share knowledge, and feel inspired by the other members.
And when everyone feels equally involved and motivated, there's also a good chance your team will be more engaged, happy, and productive. Ultimately, since virtual meetings allow you to engage with clients and colleagues from all over the world, you also get to expand your network of team members and reach out to other like-minded individuals that can help you with your project.
Let's now briefly sum up the most important advantages of virtual collaboration:
Helps you save time and resources
Increases productivity
Gives more freedom to the team members
Improves communication
Gives more space for creativity and sharing of ideas
Offers the chance of expanding your network
7 Guidelines for Joyful and Effective Virtual Collaboration
Collaborating virtually can be a real blessing - but it can be also a curse if we don't know how to make the most of its advantages. So how can we effectively help our virtual team overcome any obstacle and harmoniously share ideas across time zones?
Let's find out:
1. Turn video chat “on” in calls.
Communicating online can feel a little impersonal, especially when you don't get to see your co-workers face to face. So for this reason, try to stay in touch with your tribe through video conferencing as much as possible: this way you can observe body language, hear the tone of voice, and see what people are talking about.
2. Centralize your team’s content.
Another smart idea would be to centralize your content in one place, so you can have team communications, brainstorm ideas, and collaborate in real-time and completely hustle-free. When you use a tool that can allow you to store all your documents, collaborate centrally, and share documents with your team members with total ease: this way you won't need to switch from app to app, which can be rather confusing, especially if you're part of a rather big team.
3. Break the ice.
Communicating online can be rather stiff and distant if you don't really know how to effectively approach it. That's why it's important to break the ice and leave space for some casual communication- This way, you'll establish trust and make everyone feel more at ease. And when there's trust and openness, you're also paving the way toward a more united and supportive virtual group.
4. Ask for feedback from your collaborators.
Tightly interlinked with the previous point is the fact that groups work most effectively when member feels equally valued and supported. For this reason, try to remember to always acknowledge everyone's work and be ready to offer support in case an issue pops up, especially if you're in a leadership role. Always ask for feedback from your coworkers, exchange ideas, and don't forget that everyone's opinion is vitally important to the outcome of a project. And when everyone feels equally involved, you're also making meaningful steps toward a more cohesive and efficient team.
5. Make the most of project management software.
Vitally important to the success of a project is to invest in good project management software or tools. Such tools will allow your employees to successfully and instantly interact with each other and manage various projects at once. So I'd warmly recommend investing in at least one good virtual collaboration tool. The most used one is definitely the ultra famous Google Docs, which allows real-time virtual collaboration among multiple team members spread across different areas and time zones. However, you'll see that there are millions of software programs online, you just need to find the one that can suit your necessities.
6. Set up routines and stay organized.
One of the most common mistakes we make when we switch to remote working is to let routines, organization, and good-old-fashioned discipline go by the wayside.
As we said, one of the perks of online collaboration is that it allows workers to have a better work-life balance. However, poor planning skills can have the complete opposite effect and bring imbalance not only in your daily routine but also in your team! So try to have a healthy, well-established routine, and ideally, try to ask your coworkers for help to find ways to effectively replicate the organization and routine of working in an office.
7. Set clear expectations - and we open to negotiations!
If you're covering a leading role in your team, it's important to be consistent in managing expectations for work hours from your teammates. So try to set the working hours and make sure all your team members know when they need to be at the computer each morning and be open to negotiating the number of hours they should work. Just make sure everyone's working the same amount of hours!
8. Schedule regular meetings.
Consistency is key in all things, but especially meetings. Try to be as regular as possible when you schedule team meetings: they are vital to the success of a team because they allow you to ensure everyone stays on the same page and has a chance to check in with collective priorities on a regular basis.
9. Keep time zones in mind when scheduling meetings.
Thanks to the rising popularity of remote work around the world, you may be working with team members spread out across different time zones. Always make sure you consider how time zones impacts meeting times. This means that when you schedule group meetings, try to always agree on a time that could work for everyone so that none will feel left out or undervalued.
10. Be open to change.
Virtual collaboration is all a trial-and-fail process. With time, you'll finesse your skills on the matter but what is rather crucial to remember is to be open to changes and be ready to readapt in case something doesn't go as planned. After all, no-one can know in advance the outcome of a project; but you can surely plan things thoroughly! Create backup plans with your team members and be open to exploring different possibilities in case something unexpected occurs.