At SixBerries we are working to build an inclusive, international organisation with the goal of helping early stage business all over the world execute on their vision. I’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing people with diverse backgrounds, who hail from different cultures and who speak different languages. This, however, poses a set of challenges that took us a while to negotiate and mitigate.

During the pandemic, more teams have had to work remotely. There has been a lot written about the mental health and physical challenges of working remotely. Today, I’d like to outline a few points on improving operational efficiency and communication in remote, multi-lingual and multi-cultural teams.

Have a quarter back

In American Football, the quarter back (QB) is instrumental in ensuring the offensive team is on the same page and that their teammates fully understand the play. With remote teams, it is important to have a QB. Usually, a project manager or Scrum Master will have a similar role but traditionally they are there to facilitate and provide information. With remote teams, this needs to be taken a step further to include deep understanding of the team members. This not only applies to their cultural backgrounds but also to social parameters. For example, it’s not only that a team mate is based in India but it is also important to understand if that team mate has a family who is also at home. How does that affect their work? Do they need to work on a slightly different schedule?

The QB will be responsible for these understandings, communicating that to the wider team and ensuring proper syncing.

Use written communication

I’ve found that when on a team with multiple people who do not have the same first language it is extremely challenging for all persons to fully understand things when using oral communication only. Our teams typically work together using English and while all team members have a very good standard of spoken English there have been many times where team members have struggled to explain a particular concept or team members find it difficult to understand the concept. This does get better the longer the team works together but it can be very frustrating to the team and can often be harmful to projects where requirements are not fully understood.

To mitigate this we’ve implemented a few things:

1. Record meetings — this allows team members to review meetings to confirm their understanding. Calls sometimes cover many topics and it can be difficult to always keep up so having recordings gives all team members the ability to revisit the conversation.
2. Summarise discussions immediately after the meeting — one person should be responsible for summarising the meeting. This will include a high level overview of the talking points and action items. It is then distributed in a shared channel for everyone to see so they can comment. Writing things down often helps people understand concepts better since, at least for our team, written English is better than spoken English.
3. Ask for confirmation — I often ask team members the question, “Does that make sense?” or “Do you understand?”. You often get the blanket “Yes” but then my follow up is, “Explain it to me”. It might sound condescending or rude but this practice is for the benefit of everyone. If anyone in the team does not understand the objective the entire team suffers. Taking the time to ensure all members of the team are on the same page is worth it.
4. Write out ideas in detail — it may seem like a pain but for teams without Product Managers/Product Owners (and there should never be a team without one!) taking the time to write out concepts in as much detail as possible is extremely important. Using diagrams to illustrate concepts is also handy. We use Miro for communicating concepts using diagrams.

Have a coffee or lunch with a colleague

In the good old days, aka, early 2020, we would have a coffee or even lunch with a team mate if we worked in the same office. However, with remote work this is not easy but it is still possible. A lot of communication and remote teamwork issues arise from people not understanding their teammates. Taking a break to have coffee or lunch and talking about anything but work is a great way for team mates to bond and remove cultural roadblocks. Many teams try to have collaborative events such as quizzes or game afternoons but individual team members need to connect on a one-on-one level. This is one crucial thing that many remote teams tend to forget.

Cameras on when possible

Zoom, Slack, Meet, Skype is now the common form of communication. With the term “You’re on mute” being the top phrase of 2020, calls are the standard meeting format. All of the tools listed have video capabilities and should be used as much as possible if bandwidth and the situation allows. This is because we as human beings are (mostly) social beings. We like to interact with other humans. Seeing your team members fosters that sense of camaraderie and helps to build connections with the team. I know some people are shy and there are reasons for not turning the camera on but being able to see a person gives helps with understanding since body language speaks volumes.

Conclusion

Remote teams are here to stay. They may not be appropriate for every situation or business but the arrival of the distributed workforce has been accelerated by several years. To build stronger remote teams requires work and process but hopefully the tips above will help you and your teams work better together.