How to build remote team in 5 days?

This is a complete guide showing how to build a remote team in an enterprise in 5 steps.

Remote work has grown 44% over the last five years and is an essential aspect of the modern workplace.

Each of the steps contains information on the scope and activities to be performed. Additionally, the guide is supplemented with tools dedicated to remote work in the enterprise. The guide contains a set of KanBo software templates dedicated to the process of remote work implementation and its continuation in the enterprise.

This guide will present how to build a remote team in an enterprise in 5 easy steps:

• Step one – brainstorming. A cross-functional dedicated team discusses how the change will work. Exchanging ideas, clearing concerns, and getting people on board.
• Step two – is time for discussing tasks, projects or initiatives that are in progress and finding relationships between them to create a big picture of what is to be done
• Step three– building digital twin. Cross-functional teams in the enterprise will be moving projects to the digital realm and creating the digital equivalent of daily work. By the end, cross-functional teams will have a mapping of all the current initiatives, projects, tasks in the form of KanBo structure
• Step four – enterprise and teams are ready to begin working remotely
• Step five– is time for reaping the benefits of all the hard work which cross-functional teams have done since the change. Enterprise and employee now working remotely!

Ensure business continuity in Emergency situations such as political conditions, pandemics and more. Build a remote work framework now and ensure business continuity.

The Driving Force Behind Changing the way how enterprise Work

Completely transforming the way how enterprise work is not an easy process and usually requires an extra push. What has to happen to make remote working one of the options for working in an enterprise? There must be a paradigm change!

One of the key elements of change is the catalyst. A factor that makes it necessary to introduce change with a certain urgency, reason, and timing. Once we have enabled remote working, how we, as an enterprise, know that the change has been successful?

Success can be measured by the impact of the change on the employees’ performance. A successful change would indicate a boost of performance due to the convenience provided by remote work. Employees can save time and budget by eliminating the need to commute and strike a better work-life balance. Whereas the business can continue even in emergency situations such as a pandemic outbreak or political states of emergency.

The catalyst for change can be a need generated internally as well as an external factor. An event that makes it impossible to perform tasks in a current way. It may concern one employee, a group, a team, a department as well as the whole company.

In short, the conditions for change include:

– The Why: Change catalyst – the reasons behind the change.

– The What: Description of change – the introduction of remote working

– The When: Urgency – real deadline or current reason or both.

Now that you have answered the What, Why, and When, you can move on to the How.

Start Building a Remote Team in 5 step

It should be borne in mind that a plan is only a roadmap or a set of processes. For the best outcome, the plan should be monitored and adjusted as the ongoing change is being implemented.

Here is a 5-step action plan, which shows how to introduce remote work in the enterprise.

Step one. Discuss How to Make it Work

During this time, you need to discuss in a cross-functional team, how the change will work by exchanging ideas, clearing concerns, and getting people on board.

In a situation where employees are unable to come to the offices and perform their previous tasks, remote working is a natural response. The key is to stay calm, there are many successful companies that work remotely. If they have succeeded, what’s stopping you?

As a leader of the change process, organize a videoconference with people who make key decisions, lead teams, manage or have influence on the operations of the enterprise as a whole. This meeting can include:

• Project leaders or managers
• Business department leaders or managers
• IT leaders
• Organization development department
• Internal Communications department
• Board Management of the company

So, who should present the action plan? The presenter needs to be someone from the organization. A person who is most involved in these activities and feels the need for change and understands the importance of the project – a stakeholder, a change leader. The success and speed of the entire operation depends on these first meetings to it is important to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Here are some tips to make the meeting a success:

1. Introduce the goal of change, in this case, the goal remote work for many internal teams. Discuss the fears associated with the change. Exchange ideas and input to take the operation forward.
2. Build a coalition of people who are supportive of change and work with those who have doubts. Through these conversations you will learn which support activities will be needed and who can be the ambassador of change.
3. This is a time to discuss how to make change work, not whether it is necessary. The catalyst of change should be understood by the participants of the meeting beforehand and there should be no more discussion about it.
4. At the end of the meeting, ask the participants to prepare a list of key initiatives, projects, tasks in which they are involved, and which should be implemented to remote work first.
5. Set a date for the next video conference.

Step two. Where are we now?

Now is time for discussing tasks, projects, or initiatives that are in progress and finding relationships between them to create a big picture of what is to be done.

Start the second step by talking about the progress of achievements and initiatives. Let everyone present their key tasks and tell you how important they are. At this point, look for and talk about the relationship between projects and tasks across the enterprise. This is not the time to present whose project is more important, but to show the situation as it is. Since it is not possible to meet up and discuss all this in person, encourage an open conversation about work and tasks that can block the execution, and what resources are needed for its execution. At this stage, let everyone take notes on their own as they will prove to be valuable in the coming days.

The discussion should serve as a reminder that work will look very different from now on. From that moment on, the word “collaboration” takes on a new meaning. Collaboration is no longer about discussing work over coffee or meeting colleagues in person. It all about sharing knowledge in an open and transparent way and trusting each other – no matter what the medium of communication. As a remote team, collaboration, trust, transparency, and responsibility are the only values that will bind you together and allow you to work in harmony to keep the business afloat.

Step three. Transferring your Work to the Digital Realm

During this step, you will be moving your projects to the digital realm and creating the digital equivalent of your team. By the end, you will have a mapping of all the current initiatives, projects, tasks in the form of KanBo structure.

KanBo maps your physical work to the digital realm to make it more accessible in a remote work environment.

In order to make your work more accessible to a remote team, it needs to be transferred to the digital realm. KanBo software will assists you in creating a digital twin on your physical work with its rich set of features and intuitive structure. Here are some KanBo structures that mirror real-world entities:

1. Enterprise Initiatives or Project Portfolio = Board Collection
2. Enterprise Initiative or portfolio project group = Board Group
3. Project = Board
4. Task = Cards
5. Enterprise Employees = KanBo Users

As you can see, KanBo software creates a reflection of the real-world to make the transition much easier.

This shift to the digital world is necessary for your newly launched remote team. KanBo software will allow you to create an action plan that suits your business and allows your team to work harmoniously. Remote work will unlock your team’s full potential and turn it into a self-organizing team that does the necessary work without the need for continuous control or rigorous supervision.

Step four. Kickoff remote work

Now you are ready to begin working remotely

Now that your projects and initiatives have been mapped to the digital realm in KanBo, you are all set to start work in a remote enterprise environment.

The shift to KanBo will always allow you to view all your projects and related information in its latest form. This creates a consistent picture for everyone in the enterprise, departments, and your team, to ensure that everyone is on the same page. The knowledge that is created is now placed in the right contexts, so it reaches the right people and there is no information overload. You can create teams by adding the right people to a given project you give them a place where they can freely collaborate and share their knowledge according to the context in a very natural way. Each project can be divided into stages according to your expectations, style of work, or project methodology.

By arranging the KanBo Boards and placing information there, you ‘furnish’ your new working environment. Only now, instead of furniture, you place all the knowledge there and set it up accordingly. It is knowledge and coordination, not furniture, that you will need from now on to carry out your tasks.

Step five. You are working remotely!

Step five is for reaping the benefits of all the hard work you have done since the start of change. You are now working remotely!

From this moment, work feels different. Your office is the virtual world of KanBo. Instead of rooms you have boards, instead of furniture you have accumulated knowledge.

You conduct discussions in the context of tasks surrounded by relevant information without wasting time finding it or chasing people that might have it. You add documents to tasks, contexts, and work on their digital versions so any changes you make are immediately visible to others. You find single instances or entire contexts of information using the KanBo Search function. Notifications come automatically and are visible in the notification center. You can keep track of key aspects that are relevant for you. Assign responsible people and co-workers, set deadlines and priorities and much more inside the KanBo board.

What about your personal work contexts? All the tasks that have been assigned to you appear in your MyBoard. MyBoard is an area that shows each employee’s personal work and allows them to manage it in their own way.

All this and much more can be achieved in one digital environment dedicated to remote work. Now everyone has the same picture of work and task completion – Available 24/7 from anywhere on any device

Conclusion

The 5-step action plan is optimized to introduce remote work in enterprise on a short notice. The combination of an agile change implementation method, a fully committed team and the robust remote work features of KanBo software make it possible to shift to remote work in a short period of time across the enterprise.