Diversity & Inclusion

How to Address Challenges in Geographically Distributed Team

As a lead architect at a multinational retailer, the author faced a challenge when the offshore team was unable to meet the sprint target due to a lack of detail in the solution designs provided by the onshore team. To address this, the author brought both teams together to discuss their challenges and find a middle-ground solution. The author also implemented cultural training to help bridge the gap between the two teams, and monitored the improvement of the new design template. The lessons learned were to bring people together to understand the root cause of issues, be mindful of cultural differences, and identify and monitor specific metrics.

Running Distributed Teams: A Human Connection Is Vital

When working with distributed teams, communication and cultural differences must be taken into account. Video calling has improved communication, but face-to-face meetings are still important for building trust and relationships. To ensure teams are in sync, it is important to prioritize tasks, over-communicate goals, and build relationships with team members. Investing time in building relationships will pay dividends in the long run and will help to eliminate miscommunication.

Choosing the Long-Term Well-Being of the Team Over the Small Things

This article discusses the importance of prioritizing relationships over projects and deadlines. The author shares his journey of understanding that this way of thinking leads to a deficit in the workplace and how it has made a difference in his day-to-day work. He also emphasizes the importance of focusing on outcomes rather than outputs and creating a safe space for team members to be vulnerable. He believes that this type of team will result in an outcome multiplied by the sum of each individual contributor.

Motivating a Team to Work on Less Exciting Tasks

When a tech lead expressed disinterest in a feature they were assigned, the team leader took a win-win approach to the situation. Through conversation, they were able to come to a compromise that allowed the tech lead to work on both features in parallel with more resources and access to knowledge. This enabled the team to achieve a successful outcome while also allowing the tech lead to feel more motivated and engaged.

How to Build Happy Teams

This article discusses the challenge of building or maintaining a culture of happiness in a team. The author outlines the actions taken to achieve this, such as getting to know people, connecting with them, and connecting people on the team. The author also shares lessons learned, such as the importance of focusing on people and making sure they are happy, and the need to listen to people and be genuinely interested in how they feel.

Does Remote Work Really Work?

This article discusses the challenges faced by a company transitioning to a fully remote team. The head of engineering had to ensure a smooth transition and maintain the same level of collaboration and quality. To do this, they created artificial points of contact between teams, made it mandatory for people to join meetings from their own devices, and focused on building relationships. The article also highlights the lessons learned from this experience, such as the importance of creating space to build relationships, accepting delays in responses, and handling people sensitively.