How do you prepare your team for the aftermath of COVID-19?

Table of contents

• Introduction
• The greatest challenges of teleworking
• 1. Connection
• 2. Communication
• 3. Planning
• 4. Mental health
• Turning the crisis into an opportunity for your teams
• Shift into 5th gear
• Conclusion

Introduction

Do we know what the post COVID-19 world will look like? No! It's an unpredictable situation that changes every day, causing teams to reinvent themselves from week to week. What's more, with the new reality of telecommuting, you can no longer leave your team-building efforts to chance. You need a strategic plan for your most precious asset: your team.

At Hubu, we find that it's in moments of adversity like these that our true nature comes to the fore. Our saboteurs, more commonly known as impostor syndrome, are more present than ever. We ask ourselves questions like, "How long will this last?" "Is it going to come back like it used to?" The hamster goes off in our heads and this creates insecurity and anxiety. But we're all going through the same thing. We're all in the same boat. This "collective" adversity is a moment of "shared" vulnerability that becomes the opportunity of a lifetime, to make your team a priority (once and for all).

In this shift that affects us all, Hubu has decided to reinvent itself with the TeamTalk game. TeamTalk is your ally in generating sincere and constructive team conversations. In the form of a card game through which gifts are exchanged, TeamTalk facilitates inclusion and enables all team members to express their voice and make their colleagues shine. Having completed the game with over 20 organizations, this article draws on our experience. We share with you the greatest needs of teams and the best strategies for preparing your team for the post-COVID-19 era.

The greatest challenges of teleworking

During our TeamTalk tests, we asked participants the following question:

Here are the main challenges:

1. Lack of human contact: being alone, laughing, being close to people, chatting over the coffee machine.

   • This evokes our great need to connectionThe human being is a social being and will remain a social being, COVID-19 or not.

2. Communication challenges: too many channels, lack of clarity, remote locations complicate communication.

   • If the clarity of the communication was important before, it's a must now.

3. Distractions: crying children, constant noise, unsuitable office, lack of equipment.

   • Teleworking is becoming the norm, and you owe it to yourself to make it so. plan to keep the team productive.

4. Disconnection between work and home: falling into bulimia, not being able to get away from work, no longer taking time for oneself.

   • The aspect of personal/work life balance and the mental health is an issue that will lead to success in your teams.

These responses highlight 4 main themes: connection, communication, planning and mental health. Now let's explore some strategies you can put in place, today, to meet these needs.

1. Connection

Right now, teams' greatest need is connection. This confirms that humans are sociable animals who find happiness in their daily interactions with others. Without these interactions, they feel deprived and lonely, and therefore less motivated.

At Hubu, we believe that connection thrives on small, everyday gestures that help build trust. History proves us right. Here are just a few examples, the Christmas truce during the First World War. During this truce, English and German enemies celebrated Christmas together. A Christmas where the connection between 2 enemies was made.

How did such a strong connection come about between 2 sworn enemies? Through a series of small gestures that made all the difference for a moment:

• Do not attack each other after 9:00 PM or during mealtimes.

• Return prisoners instead of executing them.

• Responding to the chants of the enemy clan.

• Cease fire to recover wounded in "No man's land".

This example illustrates that it's in the little moments that connection happens, hearts open and empathy takes over. Now, what can you do in concrete terms to foster connection in your team? The magic is also in the little things that make a difference:

• Call a colleague to see how he's doing;

• Send a positive text message to a colleague (not work-related).

• Visualize the context of your colleague's personal life.

• Putting ourselves in the other person's shoes to better understand their point of view when we disagree.

• Make you feel we're listening and available.

• Keep your promises (let the boots follow the chops).

• Addressing things when they need addressing.

• Celebrating a colleague's birthday.

2. Communication

The second greatest need for teams is to establish greater clarity in communications. If you're like most organizations, you've already set up internal communications such as Zooms calls and emails to the whole team. Keep it up... because the results of our TeamTalk game reveal just how much your team appreciates transparency in these communications.

However, the challenge lies in clear communications. Here are 3 strategies to simplify your communications and increase their clarity:

1. Validate communication to avoid misinterpretation.

   • Between the intention of a communication and what the receiver understands, there's sometimes a world of possibilities. Be sure to validate with the receiver what he or she has understood before going any further. You can ask the following question: "Could you explain to me what you have understood?" This technique will save your team valuable time and mistakes.

2. Define a single communication channel.

   • Avoid communicating on multiple communication channels (Slack, text, email, Messenger). In many participant responses, this was a major irritant. Focus your energy by choosing 1 or 2 channels (at most). Ideally, give them a clear intention.

3. Prioritize video over text messages.

   • During our tests of the TeamTalk game, we asked teams to give feedback to their colleague and send it in video format. The reason we asked for video feedback is simple. With video, we have access to 100% of the communication (verbal, non-verbal and paraverbal). On the other hand, with a text or e-mail, we lose some of the non-verbal. What's more, the challenge of video is even greater, and above all more rewarding once it's been produced.

3. Planning

The third greatest need for teams is to have structure in teleworking. Yes, telecommuting can be profitable for your team (by saving time and travel), but it can also be a major irritant. For example, noise, crying children, unsuitable workspace or inaccessible files.

After reading a few articles on the subject, the most effective solution to the inconveniences of telecommuting is simply to give it structure. In other words, plan ahead. When business returns to more normal levels, many of your team will be back in the office, but many people will continue to work from home.

Here are some concrete actions you can take with your team to better structure and plan this aspect:

• Establish a teleworking policy in your organization, with precise schedules.

• Survey those who like / dislike working from home to define the team's needs.

• Offer a budget to adapt their home office (2nd screen, keyboard, mouse, standing desk, etc.).

• Provide the right technological and collaborative tools (Trello, Asana, Zoom, Slack, etc.).

• Allowing more flexible working hours to consolidate family life and work.

4. Mental health

The fourth greatest need for teams is to get away from work and establish a better balance between personal and professional life. In addition to work-related factors, your employees are confronted with a number of personal issues: anxiety, uncertainty and a sense of powerlessness in the face of the current situation (all of which are evident in the participants' responses). We see that this need can become a real physical and mental health issue for your team.

If you want to make your team a priority, your responsibility as an employer is to provide a safe space where things can be said. This goes back to theme #1, building connection through trust. Why not set up a self-help communication channel to address these doubts?

You can also help your team by offering them alternatives to get moving, take their minds off things and get away from work. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Organize a weekly walk or workout on Facetime to get some fresh air at lunchtime.

• Organize a yoga or meditation session on Zoom.

• Organize a cooking challenge to share favorite recipes.

• Organize a Team Building on Zoom.

• Set up a "team minute" where you share feel-good messages with them every week.

• Send a word of encouragement to a colleague you perceive to be struggling.

Turning the crisis into an opportunity for your team

It's often said that it's in the toughest times that the greatest leaders rise. As captain of your team, isn't this an opportunity to let your players shine? Can you our TeamTalk activity isn't this a great opportunity for your team to get closer together and connect?

We're convinced they do. The statistics don't lie. After joining more than 20 teams, 98% of people say they want to play TeamTalk again.

Shift into 5th gear

We have built a program called Stronger together for work teams aiming to create an organizational culture in which people feel like family. Like us, if you realize that connection is the key to getting organizations into 5th gear, find out more about our program here.

This program, which we are currently selling at a discount for a limited time, includes several nice surprises. One of them is the contribution of one of our collaborators, Sébastien Sassevillea diabetic athlete who has run across Canada, climbed Mount Everest and covered several kilometers in the Sahara desert.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we would like to return to the nature of our raison d'être. "Ubuntu" means "I am because we are". Which means sharing our humanity, showing kindness, being generous and obeying an inner duty to support each other on this journey we call life.

This is the essence of Ubuntu, and we believe we can use this philosophy to transform how we live, how we work and how we lead our team, starting today.

Because We Are