distributed teams | TechWell

distributed teams

Person pointing at a globe Collaborating with a Highly Distributed Team

Being distributed can cause challenges for team collaboration, such as insufficient communication and a lack of visibility. However, advancements in tools, technology, and best practices have helped to lessen some of those challenges. Here are four ways to make collaborating with distributed teams more seamless.

Owen Gotimer's picture
Owen Gotimer
Hand holding a globe 5 Steps to Successful Remote Project Management

As the workforce gets more distributed, project management is becoming a challenge. Managing a group of people sitting in the same office is hard enough; the increasing trend of remote work is making everything even more complicated. But if you take these five actions, you can have successful remote project management.

Vartika Kashyap's picture
Vartika Kashyap
A remote employee's laptop open at a coffee shop 8 Mistakes Managers Make when Working with Remote Teams

When managing a remote team, usual practices apply, but there are some additional considerations you should think about. You need to be sure not to make any blunders that would affect the productivity and happiness of your staff. Here are eight common mistakes managers of remote teams make that you should try to avoid.

Antony Garlton's picture
Antony Garlton
Woman working remotely at a computer Agile Collaboration on Remote Teams

The first value in the Agile Manifesto is “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools,” and for many teams, being located in the same place facilitates these interactions. However, being part of an effective, collaborative team is less about location than it is about motivation and good practices.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Hand drawing connections between multiple site locations on a map Creating a Cohesive Culture in a Distributed Organization

When organizations are distributed across multiple locations, it brings questions about how much each location should have a unique identity relative to the larger company. While a theme of “we are one” is common, it’s better to embrace the differences and work toward being a cohesive group that celebrates diversity.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Globe with locations plotted on it For Distributed Team Success, Think Differently about When

For distributed teams, activities usually get scheduled based on constraints such as availability and time zone, but people don’t often take into account when the most effective time to meet would be. Neglecting people’s work tendencies and schedule preferences could make it harder for the team to be successful.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Two people meeting and shaking hands How Face-to-Face Meetings Can Heal Team Conflicts

When distributed teams have a conflict, it's easy for one team to place the blame entirely on the other and even start to think of them as disagreeable, incompetent, and worse. This fault-finding can be especially bad when the parties have never met. Face-to-face meetings can make all the difference in improving trust.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
Remote workers in a video conference Can Remote Workers Ever Really Make Effective Agile Teams?

As the Agile Manifesto states, agile teams should value individuals and interactions, and traditionally, this implies being in the same room. While technology makes collaboration at a distance more viable, some feel that collocation helps with delivering quickly. Can remote workers ever make effective agile teams?

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk