How to Build Personal Connections in a Distributed Team
Techniques for Virtual Workshops — Part 2
In my previous post, I shared how to replicate the essential ingredients of an in-person workshop in the digital world. In this post, I’ll share a step-by-step playbook for a virtual workshop we used to strengthen personal connections in a distributed team.
When I worked in a typical office setting, it was a lot easier to bump into a coworker and strike up conversation in the halls or on the elevator. While this is one of the (few) things I miss from my traditional office days, I have discovered some creative ways to build these moments of connection with the distributed teams I support at Samsung NEXT.
In today’s fast-paced, always-connected environment where people seek immediate gratification of their needs, transactional conversations are the default, where we heavily rely on Slack, text and email with fewer opportunities for casual, organic conversations. A byproduct of this is that we rarely get to know more about the person with whom we are interacting. This may be especially true for distributed teams.
In today’s fast-paced, always-connected environment…transactional conversations are the default..with fewer opportunities for casual, organic conversations.
Do we just have to accept that our personal connections with our distributed colleagues will always be weaker? Is this a necessary sacrifice and a cold reality of distributed work? We don’t think so. We believe strong, authentic personal connections can be established amongst a distributed team if we create the right environment to foster them virtually.
The Setup
One of our newly formed teams based in California, New York, Florida, and Israel was planning to spend time face-to-face in our San Francisco office so they could get to know one another better. Unfortunately, the Coronavirus thwarted all of our travel plans and we had to cancel the trip. The team felt strongly this was an important exercise, so rather than postpone it, we got creative and designed something we could run virtually.
The Goal
First, we defined our goals for the virtual workshop: build deeper personal connections and define team norms. Team norms are extremely critical to define for any team so they have a shared operational compass. I’ll share more on how we defined team norms in my next post.
The Steps
We structured the virtual workshop to be done over 2-hours due to the 9-hour time difference across the team.
1. Pick a good time. Think about your team and where people are located. Try and pick a time and duration that fits. This may mean that instead of one day-long workshop, you might get better engagement if it was broken up into several shorter sessions.What we did: Due to a 9-hour time difference, we booked a 2 hour block of time. The first hour was focused on our first goal of strengthening personal connections. The second hour was dedicated to defining team norms, which I will share in my next post.
2. Prepare. Whatever tool you are using, make sure everyone has accounts and knows the basics of how to use it. As the moderator, you’ll want to prepare your digital workspace with all the workshop sections in advance of the actual workshop. It also helps to share in advance with your team so they can get familiar with the space.What we did: I arranged our whiteboard around a central “Main Stage” where group collaboration takes place. Around the perimeter of the main stage, I created individual frames for each participant to have their own space to brainstorm and build their personal profile. I made a profile template with placeholders for family photos, education, work experience, skills, favorite things, likes and dislikes.
3. Introduction. On the day of the workshop, you’ll first want to review the goals of the workshop with the team and do a walkthrough of the agenda. It’s also good to address any logistics and tool related topics. This helps get everybody on the same page.What we did: I started by reviewing the agenda, which was placed on the Miro board, and sharing a few tips on how to use Miro.
4. Start with an icebreaker. Do something to help the team get comfortable as a group.What we did: We did a simple one to get the team comfortable. I had participants order themselves silently by a certain criteria (e.g. height). For our virtual setting, each person moved a sticky note with their name along a line in order of their birthday. After the timer ended, we asked the team to write in their birthday. The team only had a few out of order. They now have a visual timeline of birthdays. :)
5. Allot time for everyone to work individually. Gives everyone time to think for themselves and prepare what they want to contribute for the next rounds of group engagement.What we did: I gave the team 15 minutes to complete their personal profiles using the template in their individual frames. They filled in their skills, backgrounds, likes and dislikes. This part was done silently.
6. Split the team into smaller groups to share. Creates a more intimate and comfortable setting to share and engage as a team more deeply.What we did: Using Zoom, we created 3 breakout groups. Each person had 4–5 minutes to share their profile in a more intimate group setting.
7. Plant intentional engagement. Even in a co-located setting, people may still need a push to engage, especially as a wider group that is getting to know one another on a deeper personal and professional level. This friction can be amplified in a virtual setting, making planned engagement all the more important.What we did: After rotating through the smaller groups, I brought the whole team back together. I asked each person to present the profile of another team member from their breakout group, as though they were introducing their friend at a cocktail party.
8. Build in Breaks! It’s important to have built in breaks to let people stand and re-energize.What we did: Our team turned their cameras off while away and back on again when they returned. This creates a clear signal of readiness as people come back together.
The Outcomes
This exercise allowed the team to gain a much deeper understanding and appreciation for each other’s backgrounds. We found step 7 to be extremely impactful. One of them went something like this:
“Meet my friend, Kate. She is a passionate data nerd, coin collector, and cat enthusiast who loves her husband and two young kids. She likes to read romance novels, watch The Bachelor, and eat spicy foods. She grew up in Orlando, Florida, went to school in New York and now lives in the Bay Area. She prefers working in loosely structured and highly creative environments. Kate does her best work in the evening so don’t try to schedule a brainstorming session with her in the early morning hours! Oh, and ask Kate about her recent vacation. She’s got a hilarious story to share!”
There were some hidden personal gems the team learned during this exercise, which likely would have never emerged while heads down working from our home offices. Additionally, the collective team profiles will not only be useful as a reference for team members to go back to, but can also be incredibly useful for new employees to ramp up and integrate. For that extra cherry on top, we all walked away loving this new-found way to come together, connect and work through problems as a team, despite being thousands of miles apart.
What’s NEXT?
As a team with extensive distributed experience, we strongly believe that many of the perceived “advantages” of an office environment just need a creative solution to accomplish the same goal in a digital environment. We have experimented with new meeting formats and have more innovations on the way.
In my next post, I share how we applied these virtual workshop techniques and frameworks to help our teams define team norms.
What tools or techniques have you used that helped to build distributed team cultures around the globe?
