Remote Agility - Work out-loud

Working remotely is different than working co-located under any circumstances. While people sit behind a computer, they are missing the chats in the team room, or the coffee breaks in the kitchen that help team members align and clarify questions. For this reason when working remotely you need to compensate by working out loud and sharing information, knowledge, impediments and achievements within the team.

Working out loud is important because you create transparency over your work and people know at all times what are you working on, if you have anything blocking you or you are close to achieving your work commitments. This will increase trust and more autonomy for you will follow.

Another important reason to use this approach is that working out loud connects you to the right people when you need it, so you build better relationships and increase team collaboration.

How to do it?

• update your working status on your team's chat whenever something important happens so that everyone can see that
• at the end of the day type up your achievements and let your team know in the chat
• inform others about any impediments in advance, not only when things are already crashing and burning
• provide your updates in your team's daily meeting
• update the team board whenever something important changes
• reach out to your team and ask if someone needs help
• keep conversation active with your team mates on agreed communication channels
• make sure people understand you also need some time to focus on work and agree on some signals and rules (status in your chat client, different colors of meetings in your calendar, "call-me-only-if-the-house-is-burning" rule...)

Do you want to read more on Remote Agility - Good Morning My Remote Team - Goodbye My Remote Team

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