In today’s global work environment, teams can easily occupy more than two different time zones. Communication through this barrier can be demanding, that is, unless you already know its challenges and are prepared to overcome them. Canopy Group has both clients and team members across different time zones; as such, we have become more and more proficient at collaborating across the globe.
So, if you’re struggling with having team members across different time zones, here is some advice and best practices from experts to help your team overcome this hurdle.
/1/ Setting up meeting times. The easy part is overlapping work hours and checking for the most convenient times for all involved. The hard part is deciding who will have to bite the proverbial bullet and either stay up late, or wake up early. Rotating the meeting time so there’s always someone different working outside of office hours, shows you respect everyone’s time and helps build team cohesion. We love to use this tool to double-check the meeting times work for all parties.
/2/ Efficient and concise meetings. Making and sending a meeting plan to participants, helps everyone prepare for the meeting and understand its purpose. Additionally, during the meeting, it helps when everyone stays on track without deviating from the meeting agenda.
/3/ Asynchronous conversation. Understanding that you might only read the answer to an email you sent almost 24 hours later is key to this kind of exchange. Here are some good practices for asynchronous communication:
– Preparing emails 1 or 2 days in advance of when actions need to happen.
– Scheduling emails to be sent during your team member’s normal work hours.
– Clearly stating deadlines within your time zone and theirs.
– Specifying if an immediate answer is required or not.
/4/ Over-communication is better than under-communication. Encourage your team to provide a bit more documentation, project updates, context, and task instructions than they think is necessary. This reduces the need for follow-up questions and clarifications, ensuring that all team members (regardless of their time zone) have the necessary information to complete the task. Make the documentation easily accessible to everyone via a shared drive or folder, or attachments in emails, for example.
In summary, working asynchronously across time zones is largely becoming the norm. Whilst it comes with certain challenges (which can be largely overcome with a bit of good will and discipline), it also brings many rewards for those who have embraced this working model.