> A great way to approach this is to build trust incrementally. Small projects where responsibility is given to individuals to own work end to end with reviews and feedback. After a few iterations, everyone will get used to it.
Thank you very much for providing a useful practical advice!
> a company is not disciplined enough to communicate well, especially across teams. This may be the case if a significant number of business decisions are done in side conversations
this is a very very good point!
but I don't think that being remote or not make this
communication problem worse or not.
It typically does. Most people are used to communicating in-person, often by chatting in casual interactions. Once you go remote, especially on a distributed team, individuals who are used to chatting in-person often don't have the discipline to send messages out to every member of a team. They typically also don't do multiple notifications (for example my company cross-posts announcements in both Slack and via email).
It doesn't fundamentally or categorically make it worse, it just increases the importance of the communication discipline. So, if the discipline is lacking or slips temporarily, then you're more likely to pay the cost for that than with in-person work. I agree it doesn't exacerbate the amount or lack of communication, it just increases the dependency on good communication.
> Instead of saying "People are not cut to it" why cannot we say "People have not enough experience with it"?
I've been working exclusively remotely for around five years now.
Certainly there are skills that can be acquired and improved that will help you succeed, but I believe that there is also a significant element of "natural aptitude". Some people need the personal interaction of an office environment more than others to feel fulfilled. If they need that and don't get it, no amount of training or experience is going to change that.
There certainly is a level of experience needed but some people are just more social than others. I know several people who started working remotely and hated it after a while. I believe there are a lot of people who would do themselves a disfavor if they started working remotely because it goes against their own needs. For others it's perfect. It's good to know where you fall on the spectrum.
"The office" can be the building where you may have your desk, does it mean that the desk must be owned by the company you work for? or that everyone in the room must work for the same company to build a relation ship? :)
> One thing I find difficult in remote teams is the ability to ask a coworker a question quickly.
Why is it so important that your colleague HAVE to respond quickly? Have you ever considered that your colleague may need some time alone to finish her own task before she can answer your super important question? (sorry for the mood of my answer but it is so bad on purpose :) )
If I am stuck on something, and that something is in your realm, either for understanding or providing, then I might be stuck and unproductive until you answer.
e.g. I send you a message - I am trying to use 'xyzzy' which you provide. When I send it 'plover' I do not get back the response I need. Am I doing something wrong?
<crickets for 3 days>
WTF why can he not respond in a reasonable time frame? 1) on vacation, 2) sick in bed 3) over worked 4) a jerk 5) missed my email. In an office I can walk over and say WTF? Where I will easily find the new person who took his place, since he moved on to another job.
I am just reading your other comments and I am getting the impression that you don't want honest feedback but just confirmation that remote work is good.
I can say by experience that being in the same building does not imply that you are building a relationship.
Meetings are meetings, you still have to prepare, you still have to communicate well, you will have your turn to speak, if it does not work it is not because you are behind a webcam
I agree with you. I just think there are more reasons why a meeting would not be productive over zoom, especially if you're working with older, non-tech people!
this is a real issue even with in office presence; not everyone is in the loop and the solution, in my opinion, is not to keep everyone in the same room but to spread information in the company
But the people in charge are often oblivious to this situation, because it feels to them like everyone is in the loop. Mostly because "the loop" has been happening for a long time as a side-effect of people overhearing conversations.
Of course this problem also manifests when a company grows to the point where no one sits within earshot anymore.
Thank you very much for providing a useful practical advice!