Discover the power of what a fully distributed team can do for your organization
Many are saying that we’re entering a new dawn of work culture; that unforeseen circumstances have fast-tracked the vision of remote work into a reality. While we believe accelerators have played a part, we would say that the sun has been up for a while regarding the future of work being married with digital capabilities.
WillDom believes this because we’ve been living and breathing the power of what fully agile teams can do for the past nine years. The entire business model of WillDom was born from this concept, and we’ve seen the biggest companies in the world not only adopt, but see great success in what remote technical teams can do for their digital transformation efforts.
For those companies starting to invest in a digital work model, or even those who already have this in place, here are a few key learnings on leading fully distributed teams:
- Trust Should be a Baseline, not Earned: One of the biggest perceived challenges that business leaders and managers have with remote work is trust. Without an overseer, are people actually being productive and getting their work done? While many believe that trust is earned and built-up over time, we at WillDom think (and, as a result, act) quite differently. What we believe is that technologists are passionate about their craft, and that translates into their work ethic. These professionals get to work on the most innovative projects on the planet, helping organizations with critical digital transformation efforts. By providing ultimate trust in team members, it empowers them to take control of their projects and responsibilities, and not have to worry about who’s trying to look over their digital shoulder.
- Your Tech Stack is Never Finished: Most organizations (especially those that are completely digitally based) know that technology and how it’s used is critical in fully agile teams. Developing workflows and processes is the lifeblood in providing a seamless environment for remote workers and teams, but it can also be a limiter to what organizations can achieve with its technology. Companies need to be constantly curious about new and innovative technology, and how that might be incorporated into their stack. By keeping a narrow focus on their stack, organizations could miss out on how some of these new technologies could revolutionize business processes. It used to be said that companies need to modernize or die. I believe that’s been upgraded to companies need to innovate or die, since the competitive landscape has risen dramatically due to technological capability.
- Change Your Mindset from “Have to” to “Get to”: We’ve all probably heard this at some point for a number of different things, but traditional, legacy companies should really take this to heart as they’re moving towards fully agile systems. While the need to innovate may have come a bit quicker and unexpected as they would have liked, once they get past recognizing and addressing the challenges that come with a digital framework, they’ll realize that the benefits far outway the challenges. By opening itself up to distributed teams, what organizations are able to accomplish is limitless. For example, the talent pool opens up dramatically with being able to work with top professionals all over the world.
Many companies are entering a time of unknown — the challenges of adopting a digital model, how their team will respond, in what ways this will impact business processes, and goals. Once organizations start this shift, they’re going to see incredible benefits and more opportunities, and the mindset will shift. In leading fully dedicated teams, it’s important to establish trust at the beginning of the relationship, and not make team members earn it. Finally, be constantly curious about how technology can further enable your organization, instead of being locked-in on your current stack.
Do you need any help or further insight on how to lead a fully distributed team? WillDom has been doing this for nearly a decade, so talk to one of our WillDom team members to learn more. We also invite you to visit our website where some of our technologists have discussed their experience working in an agile team.
Originally published at https://connect.willdom.com.
