From the experts who brought you The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate comes the proven and practical guide for leaders to consciously design teams, define and create their desired culture, and encourage and nurture employee engagement—all from a distance.
Team design and culture are often presented as separate concepts when they are in fact intertwined in the remote work setting. Using the 3C model of communication, collaboration, and cohesion, leaders will be given the tools to overcome challenges, such as proximity bias and deteriorating social connections, to create an environment where everyone can contribute and add value equally, regardless of location.
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Chapter 1
What is a Team, and Why Does It Matter?
Kris has recently been promoted to project manager of a software development team that works remotely, mostly from home, across three countries. Several of the team members have worked together on past projects, but many are new to the company. She has six direct reports, but each works on their own tasks and seldom interacts with their teammates. Although the work gets done, she doesn’t feel they are a team so much as a bunch of people who all work through her. Even though tasks are completed, and deadlines met, she wonders if there isn’t something missing.
The last few years have changed how we work. When working from home exploded, a lot of leaders focused on just keeping the organization going. Can people meet deadlines and do good work when they aren’t co-located? Will people put in the discretionary effort and communication efforts that have always been hallmarks of great teams? Can we keep the (figurative) doors open and stay in business until we go back to the office?
Those concerns were (and are) important, but they focused on immediate problems—putting out fires, as so many of us call it. Although it is easy to stay in fire-fighting mode, as leaders, we must put down the firehose and look to the future. When and where do people need to work to create great results? Can we collaborate effectively in new ways we haven’t yet thought about? Although a two-year pandemic forced some of those questions on us, we can’t let the need to look forward and be proactive and intentional be a one-time pandemic-related response.
One of the most common questions we hear across organizations is this: “How do we create a ‘one-team’ workplace when we aren’t in close proximity to each other all the time?”
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About the Authors
Praise for The Long-Distance Team
"Following on their theme of “leadership first and location second”, Kevin and Wayne provide a roadmap here for designing and building (or rebuilding) teams that work well in any environment, whether collocated, remote, or hybrid/flexible. And while they are clear about the challenges and nuances of long-distance teams and how to excel through them, their advice on team- and culture-building is practical and actionable for any situation. It’s really the guidebook on “team first and location second”, and every team leader should learn it."
Rob Simmerman
Sr. Operations Director, NAES Corp
"I truly enjoyed reading this book because it speaks of creating a deeper dialogue on what moves us as people, how we connect to each other and what makes it fun doing stuff together and not on your own….all things that I believe people have missed over the past couple of years and have come to appreciate once they did not have it anymore. It does require determination though as creating teams, culture, engagement puts a lot of emphasis on leaders investing some good old “blood, sweat and tears” into this….but with your book I think you are giving us a great guide how to do this!"
Ton von de Grampel
Chief Human Resources Officer, Redevco B.V.
"Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel have written a remarkable book. While it’s filled with valuable insights and practices around team design and performance, it’s also a deeper guide to creating purpose and meaning. But don’t expect a collection of lofty philosophies. This is a practical book with highly actionable ideas designed for leaders who want to build something that will last. I can’t imagine a more important book at a time when it was more needed than this one."
Jim Huling
Author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution
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