Agile Remote Work
In agile organizations and agile teams, close cooperation and the possibility of direct and rapid exchange are important factors for successful work.
Many companies have therefore created physical premises in recent years in the form of project-specific meeting rooms, which make working together as pleasant and effective as possible.
If this spatial proximity is missing, organizations and teams with agile working methods face great challenges.
The specific values and collaboration processes that underlie agility require special attention in the transition to the decentralized remote work that has become necessary.
Special attention must be paid to guiding values such as “trust” and “team spirit”:
Trust
Trust is the essential basis for creating and promoting team cohesion and team spirit.
By exemplifying agile values, trust is built up within the team and thus a positive, common achievement of goals is promoted. The development of an agile mindset creates freedom to use methods effectively and to be able to actively participate in common work.
Especially in the context of virtual collaboration, it is even more important to trust, rather than to control each other.
Teamspirit
A noticeable team spirit is in direct interaction with the exemplification of agile values and the strengthened team cohesion.
A dedicated space, in which an honest and trusting interaction with each other is possible, allows the team to grow together, learn together and work successfully.
Remote work in particular actively promotes the team spirit and consciously creates platforms for personal exchange. Social distance and little personal interaction can easily lead to a loss of team spirit.
The agile values serve agile teams as orientation, especially in setups that require remote work – regardless of spatial or technical design and the capabilities of the corporation.
Respect
Respect and value different personalities, contributions, and strengths within a team.
- Transparent cooperation, open error culture and recognition of the various talents and different abilities promote respectful interaction in the team.
- In virtual cooperation, respect for one another contributes to a creative and collaborative result.
Courage
Be courageous, act purposefully and openly share your own opinion.
- Regardless of hierarchical levels, it is important to establish clear communication and to encourage open discussion even about controversial issues.
- In remote cooperation, it is important not to be afraid of opposing impulses and contribute to creative ideas. Specific formats together with the right IT tools and platforms may be used for this purpose.
Focus
Focus on the overall goal and the steps necessary to achieve it.
- A clear definition of the goals to be achieved and the tasks required creates a concrete focus, leads quickly to optimal results and effective usage of working time.
- During virtual collaboration, the focus can get lost with the increased number of appointments, possible distractions from outside and constantly incoming e-mails. It helps to make oneself and the team more aware of the focus every day.
Openess
To create an environment in which transparency and honesty are given a safe space.
- Creating a setting that encourages open communication – both project-related and personal – learning from each other, daring to built something new together and being open to change.
- Virtual collaboration represents a change in the way we have been working up to now, which requires a certain openness to experimenting with new formats, methods, tools and processes.
Commitment
To commit to a goal and engage in finding ways to achieve it.
- Sense & purpose, as well as the concrete added value of a project or the task, is defined and communicated. Answering the question “Why am I getting involved here?” is an enormous intrinsic motivation factor.
- Achieving this goal is also the guide for daily activities in the virtual working world. It supports focused as well as time-efficient work and motivates to overcome challenges on this path.
With our unique approach to remote working, agile values and a clear understanding of roles, even large workshops lasting several days, such as a Program Increment (PI), planning with more than 100 individuals is possible.
