How can you help new hires to a virtual or hybrid team connect and learn about the company culture faster? That’s a question we get a lot, and there’s no one simple answer. That said, one solution is to resurrect the idea of cohorts. How cohorts used to work By definition a cohort is a group of people banded together or treated as a group. It can also mean a supporter or … [Read more...]
Do You Trust the New Team Member?
When the pandemic hit, one of the more surprising things we learned was how well teams maintained existing relationships and work processes. People who were co-located and teams that functioned at a high level managed to keep it up when they were dispersed. Trust was a big part of that. But two years in, many teams have new members, and some are being completely reformed. Do … [Read more...]
What is Collaboration, Anyway?
When we talk to the leaders in organizations about what work will look like in the future, we hear a lot of similar concerns. They worry about the culture of their organization, and how remote and hybrid work will change things. There’s some concern—although far less than at the beginning of the pandemic—about task completion. Will people have the energy, focus and ability to … [Read more...]
How to Find the “Right” Answer through Collaboration
One of the big challenges we hear about hybrid and remote work is that “collaboration is difficult.” One CEO I spoke to said, “My people just come up with better answers when they can work together physically.” That led to an interesting discussion: What does it mean to come up with the best, or right, answer? What makes it "right"? Before you can make a great decision … [Read more...]
The Invisible Killer of Remote Teams
When we think about remote and hybrid teams, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. First of all, everything that negatively impacts a traditional team can cause havoc. Things like a lack of alignment, or micromanagement, or unclear objectives create problems no matter where people work. But there’s one factor that's lethal for remote teams that usually isn’t a problem … [Read more...]