6 keys to team-building when teleworking

Table of contents

• Introduction
• People want to be seen and heard.
• Key #1: Staging
• Key #2: Introduction
• Key #3: Intention
• Key #4: Presence
• Key #5: Listen
• Key #6: Vulnerability
• Create an unforgettable experience
• Conclusion
• Video

Introduction

Having experimented with over fifty virtual team building activities since the start of the pandemic, the Hubu team has identified the right ingredients for building trust and cultivating more meaningful relationships within remote teams.

Putting human relations first makes all the difference! We've learned that team cohesion is like love! It's not something you acquire overnight, and both parties need to feel it before it really exists. In reality, team cohesion is a garden to be tended, requiring time and effort on a daily basis, especially when you're not physically together. It can only be achieved with positive intention and positive action on a daily basis.

People want to be seen and heard.

Whether face-to-face or virtual, one of people's greatest needs is to be seen and heard. How do you do that virtually? It's a bigger challenge, of course, but by practicing self-discipline, active listening and empathy, we can make a difference for our colleagues.

In this article, we share with you 6 keys to implement in your videoconference calls to foster team cohesion with your remote team. There's a lot of material in this article, but the important thing is not to try to implement everything with your team right away. Rather, it's about taking small steps, or small bites, to make the changes last.

Key #1: Staging

The first key to building good remote team cohesion lies in the staging of your conference calls. Remember, people want to be seen and heard. How can you build a relationship if the sound or visual quality is mediocre?

Creating the right environment for a good meeting is just as important as the meeting itself. In a face-to-face meeting, we have control over the environment, light, noise and comfort, as in a conference room, for example. In virtual meetings, on the other hand, you're the only person on your side of the screen. You have a share of the responsibility for making the collective experience the best it can be.

Here are a few ideas for creating the right setting:

How can we see and hear you?

• Light. Set up your desk facing a window so that others can see your face. Avoid having your back to the window, otherwise people will only see a shadow.

• Camera. Turn on your camera and place it at eye level. Seeing others is human, it allows us to feel connected to each other and to be more present together. When you think about it, our bodies are the source of all forms of communication. In fact, 93% of all communication is non-verbal. Without a camera, we miss out on the power of facial language.

• Noise. Avoid noisy places. If you find yourself in a noisy place, mute your microphone.

• The equipment. Ideally, you should have a good microphone, good headphones and a good Internet connection.

• Name. Rename yourself with your first and last name in calls with people who don't know you. This allows people to call you by your first name.

How can we see the others?

• Monitors. Get a second screen so you can put the others in a mosaic layout of faces, so you can see everyone. If you need to consult a tab on your web page or your e-mails, use the other screen so you can stay present with your team.

Key #2: Introduction

A strong introduction will always set the table for more presence and commitment from your team. In the first few minutes of the call, foster the relationship before the task. Again, this satisfies the social need to be seen and heard. For our part, in our virtual team building, we've sometimes made the mistake of skipping our introductions. The immediate result was less openness and less impact.

• Music. Start your call with music. This creates a favorable environment for connection.

• Check-in. Start with a personal check-in "How are you?", "Is there anything new in your personal life?" Expressing yourself at the start of a meeting allows everyone to connect and feel seen and heard. It also sends a message to the rest of the team that people come before work.

• For small groups of less than 6, give everyone a chance to speak in turn.

• For large groups of more than 6, use the sub-group function to give everyone a chance to express themselves.

• Use the notion of disclaimer from Simon Sinek (warning). This is used to share a disclaimer or statement with the group to eliminate misperceptions among your colleagues. Here are some examples of disclaimers:

• "I'm currently with my 4-year-old at home and may be disturbed for a few minutes."

• "I just wanted to let you know that I have an amazon package arriving in the next hour, so I may be gone for a few minutes."

• "My camera isn't on, because I just had surgery on my face."

• "If I look down sometimes, I'm not texting, it's simply that I'm taking a lot of notes during our session."

• "Sometimes I sweat a little from my face in the afternoon because, with the sun, the temperature in my office is very hot."

• Put check-in on the agenda. If it's never planned, it'll never happen.

• Silence. Start with a minute's silence. Sometimes we jump from one Zoom meeting to another without taking the time to settle down and prepare. The intention of a minute's silence is to clear the air. One minute to breathe, create mental space and ask if everyone is ready to begin.

Key #3: Intention

To be at your best, you need to build your presence and your intention. From our experience with virtual teams, these are 2 fundamental points to build to increase team cohesion. It's also worth noting that one goes hand in hand with the other. Here's a quick definition of each zone. What zone are you and your team in?

True connection (Collective): When we take an active part in the meeting and all the members present know why.

Individual performance (Egocentric): When we arrive at a meeting prepared, but without any concern for being truly present to others during the meeting.

Excessive participation: When we camouflage our lack of preparation for the meeting by excessive participation or presence without listening to others.

Non-productive loss: When we prioritize other tasks during a meeting and we're not there with intention.

Does the whole team know what the meeting is about?

• Purpose. Clarify the purpose and intention of the meeting. At one of your next meetings, do the test of asking everyone for their intention. Ask them, "Why are you here, what is the intention of this meeting?" Then ask them to write it down. Then everyone reads their paper. You might be surprised at how little the answers line up.

• Agenda. Plan a meeting structure and agenda, and send it out ahead of time. This keeps the meeting aligned with the intention. It also allows participants to prepare in advance, and to have start and end times prepared in advance.

• Roles. Make sure everyone's roles are clearly defined.

• Preparation. Do people come to your team meetings prepared? There's nothing worse to undermine team cohesion when some members are prepared and others unprepared. That's why we always start with a group alliance. For example, what do participants expect?

Key #4: Presence

Before teleworking, there were many opportunities to build trust between colleagues. For example, going for a walk at break time with a colleague, door-to-door executive discussions or a team dinner. Now, the only way to build relationships with your team is virtually. That's why we need to redouble our efforts to be more present in all virtual moments.

Presence is found in small gestures:

• Punctuality. It's just as important to be on time virtually as it is in person.

• Watch. Challenge yourself to look at the camera when you speak. The eyes do a lot of the talking, and it's easier to read non-verbal cues.

• Commitment. Avoid being distracted by your environment, e.g. your technology, your pen, and commit to being 100% present for the speaker.

• Silence. Silence speaks volumes. Silence tends to make people uncomfortable, but it's a sign of retreat, reflection and realignment. Learn to make room for silence.

• Energy. Make your meetings shorter, with breaks in between, to protect the energy of the meeting.

• Non-verbal. Pay attention to other people's non-verbal cues (blinking, nodding, body position) and end the meeting when the average person starts to drop out. Remember that less than 10% of communication is verbal...

• Chat. Watch out for the chat tab. The converse tab is good for interacting in large groups, but can become a source of distraction. What do we do when someone writes in the chat? We turn our attention to them...and stop paying attention to the person talking. Once again, it's important to set rules for yourself.

• Space. Avoid interrupting your colleagues. Some speakers tend to take up too much of the floor, so it's important not to take up too much space. No meeting inside the meeting.

Key #5: Listen

Communication skills have become the key to building relationships, especially in virtual mode. Think about it for a moment: listening is the basis of all human relationships.

Be generous and practice active listening:

• Empathy. Acknowledge and validate the other person's emotion and adjust accordingly. For example, if the person is sad, adjust your tone so they know you understand they're sad: "I can see it's hard for you right now." Follow up with, "How can I support you?"

• Curiosity. If you feel a judgment emerging, make room for curiosity. Use these statements to be more curious: "Tell me more." or "Can you tell me more?"

• Opening. Pay attention to everyone on the call. It's easy to forget the quiet ones, or those who don't have their cameras on.

• Unity. One thing COVID-19 has taught us is that we are all interdependent. We're all in this together. Be forgiving if someone is having trouble with their screen sharing or technology.

• Please note. Consider the group's emotional state and adjust your own accordingly. Be more concise in your interventions when you see that some people are starting to drop out.

• Encouragement. Leave room for everyone to express themselves and participate. People want to be seen and heard.

Key #6: Vulnerability

Telecommuting has many advantages, but on the relational front, we all found during COVID-19 that it was more difficult. One reason for this is that we're less vulnerable in the virtual world than we are in person. In fact, that's why it's so hard to make a human connection with others virtually. In person, human connection is strong, because vulnerability is higher. Here are two ideas for fostering vulnerability and connection:

• Human. Put the human element first, with person-centered exchanges at the beginning of the meeting. Don't go straight to the agenda. Imagine arriving at a team meeting in person on Monday... Do you take the time to say hello to your colleagues or tell them about your most memorable experience of the weekend? Yes, so take this time in virtual mode too, and encourage exchanges! Ask the question: "How are you really doing? Be authentic, speak from the heart, just be yourself!

• Moments. Create moments of vulnerability through recognition, good deeds and feedback. It's crucial to create off-work moments the way you used to have them at the coffee machine or during lunchtime.

Create an unforgettable experience

If these strategies appeal to you and you want to create an unforgettable team-building experience, we've got just the idea for you: the TeamTalk experience.

Success doesn't happen by chance. Great teams succeed because they care about each other. They care about each other and aspire to unity, or a concept called Ubuntu, which means "I am because we are". The concept of Ubuntu is taken from the African proverb: "Alone we go faster, together we go further."

TeamTalk is your ally in generating sincere conversations, booster team performance and commitment. The game is based on Hubu's 6 fundamental principles:

1. Connection. We're all connected.

2. Vision. We are committed to the same vision.

3. Responsibility. We're stronger together.

4. Communication. We generate conversation.

5. Safety. We courageously embrace the imperfect.

6. Confidence. We see the good in everyone.

Specifically, we offer 3 options for the TeamTalk experience:

• Hosted by Hubu

• TeamTalk with animation by the Hubu team, turnkey experience from 1 hour to 3 hours where we will give your team an unforgettable experience.

• Certification by Hubu

• Option for coaches, consultants or managers who want to use the tool with their teams or groups, deepen their knowledge of the tool and benefit from our experience with over fifty teams.

• TeamTalk game

• Purchase physical or virtual game to play in person or virtually with your team.

If you have any questions about the TeamTalk experience, you can schedule a call with a member of our team who will be happy to listen.

In conclusion

To conclude, consider the following question: "To what extent am I there, behind my screen, but in reality I'm not really there in my own right?" If everyone can increase their level of presence by even 1% or 2%, your team's cohesion will rise exponentially. That's the law of marginal gains!

In reality, it doesn't matter whether you're virtual or face-to-face, if you act virtual as you do in person. In the end, it may be easier than it looks.

Remember, people want to be seen and heard.

Video

Here's the interactive workshop for this article, as well as aparticipant's booklet.

Hubu: Because We Are.