Because actual face-to-face communication is completely absent from the remote work experience it is helpful to over communicate. Gwen Moran explores the need to over communicate in a story she wrote for Fortune and published on April 6, 2020 “3 ways to manage conflict when you work remotely”.
We’re completely on board with Gwen when she notes the emotional factor remote work brings to the foreground:
“... when you get a Slack message from your boss asking to set up a time to chat, the emotionless text leaves much to the imagination. “And then you respond ‘sure,’ and they don’t respond. All this stuff starts playing in your head,”
So how should remote work teams keep in mind the “emotionless” aspect of text on a computer screen? What buffers should they put up to ensure team morale remains high as possible? One option is to run a tips campaign within their web application. VisualSP’s solution can be used to deliver pre-scheduled tips to anyone using the team’s web application(s). Our Tips Campaign use case offers a template you can use, regardless of whether your team is using our free or our paid version.
Tips needn’t be technical. They can be published to inspire the team to keep going during tough times like the present. Team leaders need to be sensitive to morale and do what it takes to keep morale as high as possible. VisualSP’s editor can be used to automatically show tips at specific times. Don’t be afraid to use this feature (Auto Show on Load) whenever an opportunity arises to build enthusiasm, or reinforce hope for a better outcome than the one represented today.
Getting back to Gwen’s example, if the leader of a remote team keeps the “emotionless” aspect of text on the computer screen in mind, then the leader might want to send an additional message, for example, “it’s no big deal” or “we do need to talk”. People like clarity. Either of these messages fills in the blank resulting from “emotionless” and helps the recipient prepare for the meeting to come.
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