Working out Loud: what it is and some best practice.

On Monday the PM announced much stricter social distancing guidelines and we could be headed for a full lockdown. The world of work has had to progress 10 years in the space of 10 days and many businesses are having to very quickly adapt to fully remote working and collaboration.

At the moment many organisations are in ‘survival mode’. We simply have to deal with urgent issues such as employee safety, key technology and client requirements, not other ‘important stuff’.

Rainmaker has always believed that work is about outcomes, not time or location. We have worked remotely for a decade and transformed many organisations to working in the same way. Ensuring that remote teams are aligned and motivated is vital. This highly collaborative and transparent way of working we call: Working out Loud.

Working out loud

Current in-office work practices do not directly translate into remote working practices. Keeping everyone across email chains and in the loop with one-on-one phone conversations or meetings is not easily manageable and sustainable in the longer term. The ways of working within the company need to evolve.

Tools and approaches need to be put in place that not only support flexibility in location, but also in availability or time of day.  Creating effective ways of sharing thoughts, ideas, approaches and information that are light touch and easily accessible to everyone at any time is critical.  Providing the ability to work around the challenges mentioned above, as well as trying to reduce peaks in load on VPNs and internet bandwidth are also important considerations. But it’s not about tools.

It’s about transforming working practices!

Top tips for keeping your remote workforce socially connected and effective:

• Daily stand ups: A great way to set up the day, check in, discuss blockers and priorities.
• Video and Screen Sharing (eg: Google Hangouts): Useful tool for stand ups, meetings, quick (or long) catch ups and reviewing work real time; Aim for ‘cameras on’ to preserve the face to face contact!
• Transparency: Creating an ongoing dialogue in well planned and implemented Slack channels means you can see what your colleagues are doing no matter where you are or what time you’re working.
• Co-creation: Real time content collaboration means sharing everything, even an early idea. Be brave.
• Make it fun: Carry on conversations as if you were sitting in the middle of your teammates. Keep a sense of humour (while being respectful!).
• Maintain trust: Trust is one of the most important factors of successful remote working.
• Happy families: Enable your employees to work around the needs of their families. Kids are at home now, some people may have illnesses to deal with. Be flexible.
• Exercise: Encourage your teams to get up from the keyboard. Walk the dog, play with the kids. Take part in virtual social exercise programmes, there are tons.

More information about our solutions can be found on: Working out load

If we can offer any advice and support, please get in touch.

Jan Joubert, CEO, Rainmaker Solutions, jan.joubert@rainmaker.solutions