How to Implement Team Communication Strategies Remotely

Team communication is the foundation of any project’s success. This especially becomes challenging even for remote teams. Poorly planned projects can create conflicts between team members. Delayed feedback eventually leads to missed deadlines.

Ineffective communication can hamper the growth of a project.

Irrespective of a small or large team, it becomes extremely essential to strike effective communication, collaboration, and support among team members by organizations.

Why is Team Communication Important?

Did you know?

Communication barriers cost $62.4 million per year in lost productivity to an average organization!

This means that ineffective communication is a top concern for major top businesses.

Some signs and results of bad communication include:

• Poor acknowledgment
• Lack of trust
• Duplication of work
• Inefficient delivery
• Delayed deadlines
• Poor alignment on priorities

The above signs indicate one aspect—the need for fostering interpersonal relationships.

Failed projects determine the need for Effective Team communication strategies.

Communication plays a vital role because it facilitates information-sharing.

We need to keep a check on Communication barriers to correct them.

How do you analyze Team communication barriers?

Answer the following questions—

– Are you a bad listener?

Communication revolves around speaking and listening. Interpreting the right information to act upon it is a sign of successful communication.

When there’s a team, communication turns into chaos quite often.

Careful listening matters a lot in providing value and exceeding targets as a team.

– Are you over-emotional over a logical mindset?

Emotional conversations are ineffective as they lead to undesired outcomes. Communicating logically can help you with practical solutions.

They help you streamline the processes of a project phase and correct any disorganization.

Emotional decision-making can lead to regrets. It’s better to be mindful of our thoughts while taking decisions.

– Do you convey your thoughts clearly?

What leads to a dead-end is when you don’t convey your thoughts clearly. When you’re working remotely, confusion is bound to happen.  That is when conveying thoughts clearly lead to a positive change.

Holding back valuable thoughts and ideas can only cause hurdles in a project!

Best Strategies for Effective Communication

76% of employers consider effective communication to be mandatory. The progress reviews of 19% of employees are done through communication evaluation parameters.

With this in mind, it is obvious that seamless communication strengthens the bond among team members.

Communication problems can be resolved by implementing team communication strategies remotely.

1. Multiple Modes of Communication

(Source – leverageedu.com)

Remote work is the way to go post covid-19 crisis and SaaS products have come up with viable solutions to issues of communication and collaboration.

What we really miss out here is that a single communication channel isn’t enough for collaborating as a team and communicating.

91% of remote employees plan to work remotely across their whole career span. The only way to ensure success is to enhance their communication skills across all platforms possible.

The Solution?

A lot of companies are making use of multiples tools and mechanisms to avoid missing out on communication.

Communication and collaboration tools like Zoom, Slack can be integrated with your Project Management software to access everything in one place.

2. Add Humour to your Conversation

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The element of humor leads to great rapport-building among team members. A lot of IT sectors and B2B companies get immersed with formal ways of communication.

Breaking the barriers of admittedly dry conversations leads to boredom and disinterest in projects. This can lead to a project delay from a long-term perspective.

The Solution?

Break the ice by starting something funny to talk about.

Catch your team member’s off-guard by replying to their posts with hilarious comments.

Build healthy rapport even when it comes to hierarchies and cultural divides.

Ask questions that trigger their creative side with thought-provoking questions, like the most embarrassing moments, etc.

3. Timekeeping

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When working with remote employees and Freelancers, timekeeping cannot be missed out on. Timely work delivery becomes a challenge.  Team communication becomes effective when everything is communicated on time.

When things aren’t communicated on time, the billing, invoicing, and payroll system take a toll. Also, the return of investment is calculated according to the time taken to complete a project.

The Solution?

Using an automated time tracking software can ease all the above challenges.

One platform for better teamwork.

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This software comes with Time Management related features that enable Project Managers towards a better great accountability system.

Remote working doesn’t always revolve around tracking timesheets. It also means tracking progress, productivity, performance, and much more. All of these factors are dependent on time.

4. Multi-Lingual Communication

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Issues like linguistic and cultural barriers have created misconceptions between team members. Team leaders and Project Managers often fall prey to linguistic barriers and misunderstandings. This leads to confusion and delay in project priorities.

The Solution?

Make communication transparent by integrating translation apps for non-native speakers.

Let your gestures speak at times. Companies these days, resort to apps that integrate automatic translations.

After all, seamless communication is the way to go!

5. Feedback & Communication Sessions

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Lack of clear communication and feedback can take a toll on projects. During communication sessions, a unidirectional exchange of information can lead to drastic outcomes.

The Solution?

Feedback help in asking relevant questions towards the end of a presentation. Many projects are left halfway because of unclear communication and no response to feedback.

Never forget to ask your doubts, thoughts, suggestions, or any anticipatory foresight that can negatively impact a project.

6. Important Points of a Discussion

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Don’t get lost in confusion or cross discussions. This usually happens when Project Managers or Team leads take a briefing or stand-up meetings. Effective team communication gets hampered with disagreements that lead to literal debates.

The Solution?

After a meeting gets over, it’s vital to mail the “Minutes of the meeting” to all the team members. This helps in clarifying and reiterating what was discussed.

Retaining every bit of information during a meeting is important especially for executors. This is why a Project Manager takes note of every single piece of data that has been verbally exchanged.

Stand-up meetings/kick-off meetings are great practices to retain information and draw conclusions to further actions.

How are you with Team Communication?

Break those communication barriers!

Project management software like Orangescrum integrates Tools like Slack, Google Drive, etc. for better collaboration.