Lessons from SME’s working remotely In partnership with:
About me – short introduction SKILLS
Tadeuš Dobrovolskij 80%
Operations management
70%
Strategy
60%
Finance
30%
Marketing
70%
Change management
tdobrovolskij 05-995-3452
MBA GPA 3.79/4.00, #1 in class Industries: ✦ VC ✦ Telecom ✦ Railway transportation ✦ Software development ✦ Construction ✦ Defense
Markets: ✦ USA ✦ Germany ✦ UAE ✦ Lithuania ✦ Egypt
Born in Lithuania. 12 years of professional experience, 6 years in consulting, where I met wonderful people throughout the world and helped big multinational corporations and small businesses alike.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tdobrovolskij/
About Empyrean Advisors – a brief overview DACH Vienna, Austria
North America (HQ) Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Empyrean Advisors started in the year 2016. The ancient Greek word Empyrean denotes the highest point in heaven. To us it means the realization and accomplishment of dreams.
The dreams of our clients are our mission.
EMEA Dubai, UAE
Australia & Oceania Sydney, Australia
Part 1: Understanding the problem
Two main challenge categories: people & logistics 28% Coordinating work
20% Managing time zone differences
32% Establishing trust
8% Holding people accountable
12% Dealing with cultural differences
Most companies struggle with people-related challenges (52%) in the remote work environment according to our study.
All humans share common motivators
SOCIOLOGISTS FIND 3 COMMONALITIES: NEED FOR ATTENTION AND APPROVAL People want to be a part of a team/community/family. We want intrinsically to get along and avoid isolation/exclusion. Rejection causes loss of identity and stress. People who have a healthy social life tend to live longer and happier. NEED FOR STATUS AND POWER Similar to chimps, humans want to get ahead within the hierarchy, attain more status. This drives us to achieve more, and, at the same time, causes people to fear a potential loss of power and control of resources. Depression usually accompanies those who experience such a loss. NEED FOR PREDICTABILITY AND ORDER Humans feel the need to explain their existence, find meaning and purpose. If life makes no sense, people feel anxiety and tend to lose motivation. Normally this need is being expressed through philosophy and religion, in work settings – mission statements and townhall meetings.
Remote work challenges human needs CHALLENGES TO GETTING ALONG Less human interaction erodes trust and creates a lack of support feeling. People feel lonely and isolated. Teams risk to become dysfunctional. CHALLENGES TO GETTING AHEAD Quality and speed of decision making decreases. People experience frustration with lower quality and and quantity of output. Less exposure means less recognition. DANGER AS THE PARADIGM SHIFTS
CHALLENGES TO FINDING MEANING Sudden shift to remote work creates uncertainty. People feel that they are losing control. Increase in messages can cause information overload.
Different leadership approach is needed
Cultivating approval ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
Be empathetic Show interest Include everyone Provide support Foster team interaction Create a family spirit
Achieving goals ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
Clarify roles Define priorities Provide tools Empower to act Build skills Recognize and reward
Providing meaning ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
Communicate Connect the dots Clarify expectations Provide feedback Focus on purpose Be the “rock”
Part 2: Giving attention and approval
Building trust is more difficult in a remote team Members of a Successful Team: Inattention to
1
Trust each other.
Avoidance of
2
Engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.
Lack of
3
Commit to decisions and plans of action.
Fear of
4
Hold one another accountable for delivering against those plans.
Absence of
5
They focus on the achievement of collective results.
RESULTS
ACCOUNTABILITY
COMMITMENT
CONFLICT
TRUST
Absence of trust means that the team is either fully dysfunctional or new.
Hofstede insights help with multi-cultural teams Power, community and uncertainty are perceived differently in the US 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Power Distance
Individualism
Masculinity USA
!
Uncertainty Avoidance UAE
India
Long Term Orientation
UK
Data on “Long Term Orientation” and “Indulgence” for the UAE are not available.
Indulgence
Hofstede dimensions are easy to understand
Power Distance
The extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
Individualism
The degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.
Masculinity
The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine).
Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory was developed by a Dutch social psychologist. It highlights the main cross-cultural differences and helps us understand people from other countries better. There are six parameters (dimensions) that are being measured, which explain how an average person from a particular country views and interacts with the world.
Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these. For more information go to www.hofstede-insights.com
Long Term Orientation How every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future.
Indulgence
The extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses.
The framework is widely used in: ✦ International communication ✦ International negotiation ✦ International management ✦ International marketing However, as with all generalizations, we need to be careful. Individual representatives can differ significantly from the average.
Part 3: Delivering performance
Processes are vital for a remote team High
Task Processes High
TEAMS WITH HIGHLY DEVELOPED PROCESSES By capitalizing on special knowledge and expertise of all their members, such teams are able to show remarkable performance even when spread out around the globe. These teams usually have also team building (socialemotional) processes in place. TEAMS WITH A LOW LEVEL OF PROCESSES These teams show a drop in performance even if their members are based on a different floors in the same building. As the distance increases, performance drops even further, because factors like cultural differences come into play.
Team Performance
About the research ✦ 80 software development teams ✦ 28 labs worldwide ✦ From 20 to 5500 developers per lab ✦ Each team up to nine members ✦ 392 managers, team leaders and members participated
Task Processes Low
Low Low
Dispersion
High
Teaching time management for max performance
Pomodoro technique Working on a specific task for 25 minutes straight and having a 5 minute break afterwards.
Getting things done Comprises of a framework defined by 5 steps: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, engage.
Ideal for people who: ✦ Are often tempted by distractions ✦ Tend to work best under pressure ✦ Tend to have a short attention span
Ideal for people who: ✦ Struggle with organization ✦ Feel overwhelmed by too many things to do ✦ Work well with high levels of structure
GTD is a simple framework that does wonders Record (“Collect”) every action that you need to take
No Is it actionable?
Trash Someday
Inbox YES No
“Engage”
Delegate
No
No YES
Specific date?
A single step? YES YES
Is it for me?
Projects
No > than 2 minutes?
Do it!
YES Additionally, you need to review your tasks frequently, e.g. once per week.
Schedule
Recognizing good work is critical for motivation Factors affecting job attitudes as reported in 12 investigations* Security
Hygiene factors
Status Relationship with subordinates Personal life Relationship with peers Salary Work conditions Relationship with supervisor Supervision Company policy Growth
Intrinsic motivators
Advancement Responsibility Work itself Recognition Achievement -40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
Factors characteri zing 1,844 events on the job that led to extreme dissati sfaction * - from “One more time� by Frederick Herzberg
10%
20%
30%
Factors characteri zing 1,753 events on the job that led to extreme satisfaction
40%
50%
Part 4: Providing meaning and purpose
Organizational health is more important than ever
1. BUILD A TEAM
2. CREATE CLARITY
A group of people who are ✦ collectively responsible for achieving a common objective Dysfunction at the top leads to a ✦ lack of health throughout the entire company
✦
1
BUILD A STRONG, HEALTHY, COHESIVE TEAM
2
CREATE CLARITY
Leadership team must be intellectually aligned and committed
✦
There can be no daylight between leaders around fundamental issues
Organizational health 4. REINFORCE CLARITY Organizational clarity must ✦ become embedded into the fabric of the company There must be a few critical, ✦ non-bureaucratic systems in every process for this purpose
4
REINFORCE CLARITY
3
OVERCOMMUNICATE CLARITY
3. OVERCOMMUNICATE ✦
Communicate to employees using various channels clearly and enthusiastically
✦
There is no such thing as too much communication
Communicate, communicate, communicate TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
1
Cascading communication:
Leaders communicating their decisions to their direct reports and having those direct reports do the same for their own direct reports.
Top-down communication:
2
Email announcements, meetings, social media, newsletters, town halls.
3
Upward / lateral communication:
Allowing employees to communicate with leaders through the executive hierarchy, ground-up.
Repetition is more than just a matter of communicating something again and again in the same way. Effective communication requires that key messages come from different sources and through various channels, using a variety of tools. The most effective means of communicating a message, even in a large and far-flung organization, is word of mouth.
Purpose
Purpose
Values / Principles
Values / Principles
Vision
Vision
Strategy
Strategy
Execution
Execution
“Ad ap tiv e”
“Te
ch nic al”
Flipping the pyramid builds a resilient culture
Part 5: Summary
Five steps to better distributed working BUILD RESILENT PROCESSES Standardized processes are paramount for a distributed team. Unlike in a traditional office, asking questions requires a substantial amount of effort.
FOSTER ACCEPTING TEAM SPIRIT Be empathetic and understanding. Know your team well. Involve everyone. Do not ignore small talk – make sure that people feel at ease.
UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGES Humans fear isolation and loneliness. It’s more difficult to build trust remotely. Performance could suffer due to low coordination and time zone differences.
EMPOWER, RECOGNIZE WINS Employees should be able to work independently. Provide tools and use a hands-off management approach. Track performance through KPI’s. Elevate status by recognizing good work.
PROVIDE PURPOSE AND MEANING Be a leader. Ensure that every task makes sense to your team. Purpose and meaning are more important than execution in a remote work environment.
QUESTIONS? E-Mail: tdobrovolskij@empyrean-advisors.com