3 good practices for managing a remote team

The challenge: manage a remote team efficiently

Implementing modern management techniques and working as a team is not always easy, and the compulsory teleworking that Nicolas' team will experience from March 2020 is putting his habits to the test. There are two problems:

• His team needs to maintain its cohesion
• Unaccustomed to remote digital tools, face-to-face rituals are the norm for Nicolas and his team

However, the demands of the various divisions with which Nicolas and his team work regularly are not decreasing and he must therefore find a way to continue to work effectively despite the distance. Ideally, he needs a tool:

• able to bring them together remotely as if he and his team members were in the same room, so that he manages as before, continuing to use the agile methodologies he is used to using;

• with which he can focus on the objectives to be followed, identify errors, blocking points... in other words, he wants a tool that can also serve as a project management tool.

He then turned to Klaxoon, and in particular its Board tool, which allows him to edit an infinite whiteboard: in the same place, he then arranges the templates that interest him the most and thus centralises all the information he wants to share with his team in one place.

The solution: build your own Board to make it a management tool and a personalised project management tool

In total, Nicolas uses 4 tools that he chooses to place on the same Board. 3 of these tools are automatically generated via templates from the template library: he then installs them with one click on his Board and they are ready to use! The last one, on the other hand, is one of his own creations.

With the Board, the choice is yours. You can install templates or do it all yourself... or a bit of both!

In his new organisation, these are the templates Nicolas uses to ensure the continuity of his activities:

A Weekly for the weekly meeting

Before he was confronted with the problem of managing despite the distance and the compulsory teleworking, Nicolas used to have regular meetings with his team, both to follow the progress of the projects in progress and to find out about the problems that his team members were experiencing.

For him, maintaining this ritual is an obligation!

He then turned to the Weekly template, which allowed him to give a framework to the morning synchronisation meetings he held every Monday morning for an hour.

The purpose of this synchro meeting is to review with the whole team the objectives they are pursuing for the week.

At the beginning of the meeting, he gives the team a few minutes to write down on a blue insert the clear and achievable objective that they intend to follow. In this way, he makes his team accountable!

Moreover, the Board has a playful side that Nicolas particularly appreciates, notably with personalised profile photos for each team member.

On Friday evening, the exercise is repeated, but this time with the aim of keeping everyone up to date on the progress of everyone's objectives (with green ideas), but also to identify potential blocking points (with orange or red ideas for the most urgent problems). It is the employees themselves who explain the problems they have encountered: this improves the responsiveness of the team, which can then work together to solve the problem!

A Kanban for project management

This second template, Kanban, helps it to maintain instantaneous and asynchronous information sharing.

Rather project-oriented, Kanban offers Nicolas' Board and his team a project management aspect.

In the blink of an eye, all members can see the different projects in progress and their progress. The columns "to do", "awaiting feedback" and "completed" distribute the information clearly and help to maintain a satisfactory and efficient visual management. The employees themselves spontaneously update this table as soon as they have information to share with others.

A radar to anticipate future actions

The third template he is installing is the radar. It aims to quickly inform about the different projects that are starting, those that are still in progress, and those that will arrive soon. This allows the team to coordinate better, but it is also a template that is useful when it comes to transmitting the progress of the team's projects to Nicolas' hierarchy. What's more, Board allows all the information it contains to be shared in just a few clicks: it's a real time-saver for Nicolas!

And a customised template to survey team morale!

Finally, because Nicolas attaches great importance to the well-being of his team in his management, he has created a very simple matrix where his employees can share their state of mind as well as their motivation or energy. This allows Nicolas to listen to his employees better, but also to avoid burn-outs and to take care of his team.

The result: what is the verdict on Nicolas' management-oriented Board?

Finally, Nicolas is perfectly convinced by Klaxoon and its Board solution.

It has many advantages:

• Before Klaxoon and face-to-face, part of his team was already remote, but not really integrated into the team. Thanks to Klaxoon and Board, all the team members are more united than ever and work even more efficiently remotely than when they were in person!

• These new uses are perfectly adaptable to a hybrid organisation with people on site and at a distance. Even today, Nicolas uses the same templates and the same Board whether he is working remotely or in person. The result is that there is no disconnect between these two working methods, since both use the same project management and management tools based on design thinking.

And Nicolas does not stop there! Following the success of Board with his team, he decided to go further by using Klaxoon to present his projects to his hierarchy, but also to easily integrate the other divisions he works with into his Board. To do this, he invites them with a simple link and they connect with Teams, or directly with the Klaxoon Live tool. With Klaxoon and Board, it's easy!

To learn more about the subject, we invite you to watch the webinar: