Distance Working:10 ways to make working across distance work for you

We’ve collated some of the best tips on distance working – are you doing everything you can to make this important long-distance relationship work?

CommunicationMembers of geographically-dispersed teams have different sets of circumstances. Without that daily communication you get in an office, awareness of context can be lost – and conflict can arise when you don’t understand where the other person is coming fromCreate a shared “place” (homepage, database, Dropbox folder) for the team to create a ‘picture’ of their circumstances: deadlines, criteria, away times, equipment available, etc.

From Professor Cramton's paper, "Information problems in dispersed teams." (1997)

Buy a SMART Board® – or several

With a SMART Board interactive whiteboard or display, dispersed teams can actively collaborate – everyone can see and share information and contribute to discussions, regardless of location. With unlimited digital whiteboard space, the ability to write notes over any application, options for saving your work and integration with Microsoft® Exchange, SMART solutions are great for boosting productivity. See our case studies.

ClarityAnother brand of communication issue: sending a list of deliverables and expecting your long-distance partner to know what to prioritise, or suggesting that you ‘hope to hear from someone soon’ but expecting an immediate response. The English language is a funny thing: a bit of clarity can go a long way. Make it clear what’s important.Create a shorthand with the team to highlight important tasks and suggest deliverables that require a quick response. Add this shorthand to your homepage or database.

From Professor Cramton's paper, "Information problems in dispersed teams." (1997)

Feedback and praise

Working different hours with people in locations across the world can mean losing the human touch.

Good work deserves recognition, and if someone starts to deviate from the task or is not working to an acceptable level, quick, tactful feedback is key.

Don’t forget that your team are people.

Meet face-to-faceThis might seem counter-intuitive, but some actual face-time will make relations much easier.If this is not possible, at least include information in your team’s database that personalises members – potentially set up a Pinterest board that members can pin un-work-related interests to. Team-building is just as important across distance as it is locally.Give team members the benefit of the doubt in the face of ambiguous information – because you know them.

From Professor Cramton's paper, "Information problems in dispersed teams." (1997)

TransparencySelective emails lead to assumptions of understanding and the team’s perceptions being skewed.If your team are working from limited perspectives on a project, how can the project come together?

Copy all members of the team in on emails, but distinguish between primary recipient and CCs so people know what they should action. Draw up a set of guidelines in the homepage, and make sure all team members are aware of these so that they don’t feel overloaded.

From Professor Cramton's paper, "Information problems in dispersed teams." (1997)

Encourage innovation

Establish guidelines with your team, talk them through, then make it clear they can – and should – be changed.Innovation keeps businesses fresh, your team members sharp and your productivity and efficiency improving. Don’t let things stagnate.Make sure all team members feel they can suggest changes and call out practices that are not working for them.

Deal with silenceIt can mean anything from agreement to indifference, technical issues, not received, not properly read, miscommunication…

Don’t jump to conclusions about silence, and don’t deal with this over email.

Video-conferencing, using SMART Boards for a data conferencing session or even a simple phone call can clear up conflict quickly.

From Professor Cramton's paper, "Information problems in dispersed teams." (1997)

Create a mapIt might seem a bit obvious, but you need to work out what the distance is between you and your team members – ‘physical distance’ is geographic; ‘operational distance’ is the separation due to technology and daily work process issues; ‘affinity distance’ is differences in culture and lack of personal relationships.

Plot your team members’ distance from each other – you can then see where you need to focus your efforts.

From Karen Sobel Lojeski and Richard R. Reilly, Uniting the Virtual Workforce. (2008)

Contact Mark FritzEvery team needs strong leadership, and Mark Fritz is the perfect man to advise on making this leadership more effective.Mark is an international speaker who talks regularly on the power of ownership in leading across distances and cultures.

“To successfully lead people across distances and cultures (and still have a life), you need to move from managing by activities to leading by outcomes.”

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