Teams within organisations are becoming more distributed as a norm, with remote working becoming common. Remote working is new, relatively speaking and thanks to technology, and more recently has had attention regarding what works and what doesn’t.

Juan Pablo Buriticá and Katie Womersley have together authored a very useful and comprehensive guide on how to work effectively as distributed teams. Juan is VP of engineering at Splice, leading a team of over 50 engineers across the U.S. and South America. Katie is VP of engineering at Buffer and coauthor of Atomic Migration Strategy for Web Teams, leading a worldwide team.

The article gives a detailed guide as to what can make an effective distributed team. Six aspects are discussed, which are all important considerations to foster a healthy team. Synchronous and asynchronous communication and tone of language are highlighted for their importance. Coordination is shown as crucial to include all members of teams who are spread across different time zones.

Ideas are given for effective collaboration, such as mentorship and glue work to reward collaborative behaviours, and face-to-face meetings every six months. The authors discuss how to best organise distributed teams into smaller and cross-functional teams for efficiency – and why. Effective operations are assessed with respect to quality equipment and environment standards, including hiring tips.

Lastly, culture is discussed regarding the importance of praising and understanding team members, including people’s needs and emotional states for the best growth and success of a team.

With the six key aspects in place – communication, coordination, collaboration, organization, operations, and culture – an effective, healthy and progressive team can be built – regardless of the distribution of members. Allowing organisations to grow and reach wider audiences and locations.

Read the article here and contact us for advice on scalable infrastructure and collaborative communication systems to use within distributed teams.