Whether it’s for business or social, video conferencing has never been more popular. And somehow, businesses all over the world are struggling to get things done.
Feel like you’re jumping from one unproductive virtual meeting to the next? Becoming increasingly tired of video calls? Staring at a screen, navigating constant interruptions and wading through a log-jam of meaningless chat is not the key to keeping your remote workforce engaged. “Zoom Fatigue” is setting in… here’s how to combat it to build a successful, productive, and efficient remote team.
A study by Atlassian showed that, on average, employees spend an hour a day in meetings, for a total of 31 hours/month. That same study also discovered meetings to be the number one “time-waster” at the office. Remote or otherwise, this simply isn’t sustainable. We all like to physically see our colleagues, but working remotely means that we need to adjust our management approach to something more agile in order to be as productive as possible - and video isn’t not the way to do this.
Video calls eat up time. You spend time catching up on the week’s events, being polite about Susan’s cat, waiting for Jerry to sort his microphone out, and sifting through various technical issues. Just like that, you’ve wasted a valuable chunk of work time. This is where Wundamail’s agile approach to remote team management comes in.
In the agile world, management is as time efficient as everything else, and is accomplished best through “daily stand up meetings”. Stand ups are short team check-ins that happen at the start of each day, designed specifically to navigate obstacles and promote progress. You ask three simple questions to every member of the team:
- What did you do yesterday?
- What are you going to do today?
- Are there any blockers to success? How can we solve them?
This way, the entire team (and its leaders) knows what everyone is up to in an instant. It’s a simple and effective way to eliminate roadblocks and hit targets. This template has even been adopted in the restaurant industry, whereby the staff have a ten minute briefing at the start of each service to go over specials, any particular groups or tables coming in, or any shortages or issues that have arisen. Again, everyone knows where they stand and are ready to face the day knowing exactly what they need to do.
Wundamail is designed to make the daily stand up as easy as possible. It automates this daily check-in, and sends it out via email, so everyone can see what’s going on at a glance. Everyone’s responses are collated into a single email, and sent out at the time of your choosing. Successful remote managers don’t check up on their teams, they check-in with their teams, and this is how Wundamail truly drives productivity. Instant accountability and efficiency- with no interruptions.
