The current situation, we all live in, is requiring a new way of working – remotely and from home.
The first time I worked fully remotely and from home was in 2016, when a colleague infected me with the "Hand-Mouth-Foot" disease. It was a good exercise 😊 – as I learned everything worked and I was able to lead my project fully remotely from home…
Therefore here my recommendations on the best and most productive ways to do home office:
- As a video conferencing tool, I can recommend “Microsoft Teams” – included in each Microsoft 365 Packages, it is usually very reliable and stable.
- Video Conference – I believe it helps to actually see people and not just listen to their voices, therefore use the video function as long as your line permits it.
- Daily Stand-Up – Usually I am not a fan of this agile habit, but when everybody is remotely, it is very good to have a daily checkpoint with everyone. I am doing it either at 8 or 9am in the morning with my teams.
- Collaboration Spaces – I would also recommend having a collaboration space. E.g. Confluence. But also, Microsoft is offering interesting solutions. Collaboration spaces make the sharing of information much, much easier….
And then, this is probably key, you need to really trust your team members. They will not stop working just because you can’t see them all the time. To me, that’s the key thing to learn for us in the next weeks and months: To trust each other. And to create a team atmosphere remotely for example by sharing small stories of our daily “remote live” that makes it easier for everyone. – Even virtual celebrations – Prost! - Take Care