a student once asked me if i have any suggestions for coordinating a distributed team that has a
12 hour difference between them i told her that unfortunately i don't have a magic wand
if your team members are spread across the whole world it is the reason they are
struggling to deliver anything while i don't have a magic wand i have some recommendations
and tips to help you manage this situation watch this video to find out what you can do
hey it's darya here welcome today i wanted to talk about distributed teams and how to coordinate them
it's been a while that teams started working remotely even before the
pandemic with easier communication tools it seemed that it makes sense to go look for
talent outside of your country region or city i worked several times with teams that were located
overseas even before the pandemic and to be honest it was an absolute pain in the end many teams are
struggling to coordinate when there is even a small time difference like a couple of hours
but when you have multiple people in different time zones or people with a 12 hour difference
it becomes impossible to manage it effectively but i have some ideas for you before i jump into the
rest of the video if you like this kind of content go hit that subscribe button below and like this
video if you'd like to get more actionable advice from me then subscribe to my newsletter
on my website and check out my online store hey i just wanted to jump in here and to say that i'm
super excited to see 5 000 subscribers on scrum master channel this is awesome we have achieved
this great milestone and i am extremely excited and thank you so much for watching this videos
thank you for commenting liking subscribing this really helps this channel and we've been able to
achieve this 5 000 milestone now on to the next milestone 10 000. let's get it done this year
let's put some high goals on our roadmap so to celebrate this 5 000 milestone i decided to run a
giveaway so stay until the end of the video where i'll explain what the giveaway is all about and
how to enter now back to the video let me tell you about the best solution to your time zone problem
so the best solution to the time zone difference is don't create teams that have such a huge time
difference and instead combine people into teams based on their location this is what i believe you
should focus on first before you go into other ways to manage the situation that i am going to
share with you later in this video but first let's talk about this particular solution creating teams
based on location there are multiple criteria we need to consider when we create teams like
team members skills their relationships with each other level of seniority etc etc i think the time
zone needs to be another criteria for building great teams it doesn't mean that the whole team
must be co-located with modern communication tools i don't think it's really necessary
but they need to have at least five to six hours of the workday aligned it means that during those
five to six hours the whole team is there and can work in parallel ask questions to each other
to get quick answers and have productive meetings in this case someone may be starting a couple of
hours ahead of everyone and someone will work a couple of hours later than everyone
it's not ideal but it's manageable with extensive communication this doesn't mean that people can
only have up to two hours time difference really rather their working hours are aligned with each
other for example i might need to start my day a bit earlier than i would usually do because
it allows me to have more hours aligned with my colleagues who are three or four hours ahead of me
now to other solutions okay with the most promising solution out of the way let me give you
some other tips on how to make your life easier when your team is spread around the whole world
number one working agreements i refer to this a lot in my videos and i think it only highlights
how important it is in so many different situations when your team is so spread out
you want to make sure that they are 100 aligned on how they communicate it has to be crystal clear
what tools they use and how and the more details you discuss in document the better that's the only
way to reduce the confusion and complexity here here are some questions that you would want to ask
what communication tools will we use for what situations for example we'll use slack for quick
questions we'll use a specific folder in our microsoft account to share all the documents
we'll use emails for when we need to include people from other teams in the discussion
we'll use a shared calendar to show when each of us is available then what do we expect from
each other using those tools for example set your availability to available once you start
working and two away when you've finished working or if you receive a message in slack
reply within an hour then who works at what hours what are our must be available hours
for example all important meetings must be scheduled in the time frame between 10 am and 3
pm est and of course discuss what other things the team might need to consider for example wednesday
afternoon is a no disturbed time when everyone is focusing on their work so messages in slack
can be ignored no quick response is expected or if you are running late have an emergency you
need to leave for or i take in a day off message to the whole team in slack as soon as possible
i know that these items might seem like something straightforward and of course everybody will do
this because it's just common sense but let me tell you people have very different expectations
around communication much more different than what you believe for example eighty percent
of the time when i start working with a new team when someone needs to leave or take a
day off they would message to me directly and not include anyone else in the team
so i would have to literally encourage them to send these messages to the whole team
as the whole team needs to know not just me or another example people feeling pressured to reply
to every email coming to them during the day within like 10 minutes which negatively affects
their ability to focus and to do work with many of my teams we had to set up boundaries around this
giving a more reasonable time frame to reply i even had to enforce disabling email notifications
and closing their email client because team members had difficulty staying focused
team agreements are extremely important even more when your team works across multiple time zones
if you need help with running a team agreements workshop i have a facilitation guide in my store
so you can grab this one and i'm gonna put the link in the description
number two communication as i mentioned a bit earlier extensive communication
is a must if you want to succeed what i mean by that is it's not about communicating obvious stuff
extensive communication is about communicating anything that may have an impact on your team
even if you're not sure they must know it that is the only way to create transparency in a team
when you are far away from each other this might mean that say i received a meeting invitation
from a manager of an adjacent team asking me to share some information about how our team
works seems like no one from the team needs to be involved and maybe they shouldn't but
this information is directly related to the team so i would share it with them as an fyi
and maybe someone would decide to join maybe not but at least i know that they know and when
for example this same manager approaches them with a question they already have some context
around our relationships with the other team i would recommend creating a specific place for
sharing information like this like a separate channel and slag where no replies are expected
it's just for your information channel here are a few other examples of the information
you might want to share important decisions made in meetings that the team couldn't attend
if that information is not strictly confidential which in most cases it is not hiring discussions
new projects or products other teams might be working on or that might be coming our way
learning opportunities whether provided by the company or not
say you're going to a conference why not ask if anyone else would like to join i have this video
on transparency where i share some more examples and additional information on this topic i'm going
to put the link in the description for you to go and watch it after this video number three team
building yes another thing that most likely will seem extremely obvious unfortunately it is often
forgotten or just put aside due to pressure and deadlines but if your team is fully distributed it
is an essential part of building rapport between the team members it is not necessarily a way to
help you coordinate work between team members or manage and track their progress but it's an
essential part of building a team that is actually a team and not just a collection of individuals
set some time aside for regular and yes i said regular team building activities every month by
weekly or even every week find a way to get people together chat get to know each other personally
i have made a video on five easy icebreakers you can use in your meetings that you can go and watch
so that can give you some ideas already here i'm talking about actual dedicated time to
team building now don't just set up a zoom call and ask people to join and have a chat as we know
this usually leads to stale conversations and very awkward silences especially if people don't
know each other well yet you need to create some structure around the conversations you are having
the easiest way to do so is to play some online multiplayer games or party games
there are so many options you can look into and people participating don't need to have
any knowledge about video games to enjoy these team building activities on their pc
if you're not familiar with the gaming industry here are some examples you can use right away
keep talking and nobody explodes this one is not only fun but it is also a great way to help people
build good communication between each other the jack box party pack has a collection of
awesome simple games that will help your team just have fun and learn a bit more about each other
if you don't know which one to start with try drawful 2 or quiplash the two popular games
from the back among us this one is more a game of deception where you need to identify the traitor
it can add an interesting spin on your team building activities use your words is a word game
that tests participants creativity and provides plenty of silly and humorous scenarios to explore
there are lots of other multiplayer titles with more focus on gaming and if your team is familiar
with video games they can be great additions to your collection of team building activities
for remote teams in conclusion these are my suggestions on how you can create a much better
working environment and coordinate a remote team firstly consider how you can minimize the time
zone misalignment maybe there is an opportunity to create subteams out of a bigger team for example
where each sub team has smaller time difference between team members and then organize regular
but less frequent sync ups between the sub teams whether the time zone difference is big or not you
need to create solid working agreements describing in detail what tools the team will use and how
what are the working hours that are aligned between everyone and how team members prefer
to communicate then create a habit for extensive communication in the team maybe even dedicate a
whole channel for the information sharing that doesn't require responses and to help nurture
teamwork and collaboration organize and run team building activities for your remote team and what
are some of the things you tried to coordinate work between people in different time zones share
your answers and ideas in the comments below i'll add the links to all of the resources i mentioned
below the video as usual okay as promised i'm here to tell you more about the giveaway to celebrate
the 5 000 subscribers on this channel i will be giving away two essential guides from my store to
two lucky winners so to enter the giveaway you do need to be subscribed to this youtube channel
one way to enter is to like this video and leave a comment down below or another way to enter is
to go to a link that i'm gonna put down in the description and subscribe to my newsletter and
to be entered into the giveaway that way so you can increase your chances if you do both
if you are already subscribed to my newsletter still click this link because
this way you will be entered into the giveaway more specifically and by the end of the next week
i am going to choose two winners one from the comment section on this video and another one from
people who entered the giveaway on my newsletter so you'll i'll contact you by the end of next week
to let you know how to receive your prize and all of the details are going to be down in description
i'm super excited to be at the 5 000 subscribers on this youtube channel now
and i'm excited for future growth thank you so much for watching for supporting this channel
and for learning something new with every video and i hope to see in the next one i
hope to see you in the giveaway so let's get to this next milestone now which is 10
000 subscribers super exciting and i hope to see you here and see you in the next videos as well