Trouble managing distributed teams?

Working with distributed teams is not easy, we always juggle with questions like, “how do I track my work items? …. how can we run effective team meetings??…..what tools to use to communicate and stay updated at all times???” The three C’s in my statements – Collaborate, Coordinate, Communicate – are important drivers for running effective teams. There are a number of tools and techniques that empower teams to interact timely, exchange ideas, update sprint / project status and stay connected !! Simple email notifications are not enough.

There are excellent platforms available today to plan and communicate. But just having these excellent tools is not enough, using them effectively is the important aspect. To get started, first look for a basic tool that is available in your tools inventory. Most of us use MS Office products and if you are leveraging the Online (Office 365) edition, then you have the basic tools – you are lucky !! The Microsoft Planner is a good platform to get started. I have been using this platform for a while and found it as a good medium to connect with my distributed teams. I am always updated with their work status (irrespective of the time zones) and thats brings in transparency as well. I am notified about the changes happening on individual work items… and all of course in the Kanban style.

New Plan – Create a new plan, give it a name and mention the privacy options.

Once the plan is created, create swim lanes, add members and start creating tasks. The planner creates a group id for all the members and whenever changes are made to the tasks, notifications are sent to all the members.

Try using this cool planner. In your team meetings, start reviewing the task status in the Charts section and then filter the board per team member to review the tasks, get to issues, move them across the swim lanes. Encourage team members to update the status, upload attachments if any and complete the assigned tasks on time. It is really interesting…