Organizations have been forced to work remotely. It is a process of doing, inspecting, and adapting to bring your team a level in which collaboration through video calls becomes effective. The Dutch Best Practice User Group (BPUG) session "To Collaborate Through the Screen", shared creative ideas to do that in the best possible way. I participated in the session with interest as I have worked in a distributed Agile team in the past 8 years. In addition, most of the stakeholders were also remotely located in various parts of the world. What was a major change for others, is daily practice for me. So, I wondered: Is it really that difficult to make that transition to remote collaboration in an Agile team?

Employees in organizations that used to work together at an office location daily will find it more difficult to make the switch to remote working. It can definitely be hard to make that shift in the way of collaboration and communication with your team members. The physical presence of your teammates, which gives an extra dimension to collaboration, makes individuals feel more connected with each other, with the work and with the organization. How can we create and experience that connection in an Agile team through our screens? Below are a few suggestions.

Organizing digital collaboration requires good preparation and a clear structure during meetings. It must be clear in advance what the purpose of the online meeting is, how long it will take and what the role of each team member is. Put sufficient time into this as proper preparation is crucial because you have less opportunities to improvise less in a live online meeting. You can use the Scrum framework to organize the work, as many Agile teams do. That already gives you a head start because the Scrum-related meetings are set in sprints. This provides peace of mind and clarity so that all team members know what is expected of them. In that respect, it does not matter whether these take place offline or online.

In my blog called "We are all Agile brainwashed" I wrote about showing leadership where you have to be keen on signals that you perceive through non-verbal communication. As a team manager or Scrum Master, it is important to actively nurture the connection with all team members so that you notice whether someone is upset or is experiencing issues. While that is easier in the office, it is much more difficult to read a person's body language from behind a screen. The daily stand-up meetings are a good tool to pick up signals, but it has become difficult when we can only see shoulders and head. If possible, ask your team members to point the camera in such a way that they can also be seen standing up and therefore all do the Stand-up meetings while standing. What's in the name?

A concern in digital collaboration is being able to conduct conversations in groups in which more depth is needed. You miss the dynamics and team bond with non-verbal communication such as body language. Small noises such as a laugh or an understanding “uhumm” are also not audible, because we have agreed to be on mute when you are not speaking. The larger the group, the sooner we will be forced to use the mute button. In smaller groups you may be able to be more interactive in video calls without sound suppression. As a means, you can divide a larger group into smaller groups with targeted assignments in order to provide more dynamics, better connection and depth. The use of a "break-out room" can facilitate this to a great extent. This will go a long way, but the lack of each other's physical presence cannot be completely overcome.

During the BPUG session, some nice suggestions were made for social online activities for teams to continue to support teambuilding. Agile teams already have a daily meeting in their agenda by default. That is routine but chatting at the coffee machine or watercooler has disappeared. Stretch the Daily Stand-up by an extra 15 minutes for free-form conversations. These can be about work, related to the organization or about personal experiences. If the Stand-up meeting is not yet scheduled in the morning, move it to start the day together with a virtual coffee. Exchange small talk and have conversations about the virtual office.

As a bonus here are a few more suggestions from the BPUG session for online team building events. For example, plan themed meetings where teams can learn from each other and that supports personal development. The Friday afternoon drinks, so cherished by the Dutch, can easily be held online. Provide elements of FUN with a Pub quiz, a game of online Catan or a Bingo. Of course, there are great prizes to win!