Cathy Knowlson

The challenge: Your team is divided by conflicting decision-making processes. How can you unite them towards a common goal? This is not an uncommon challenge. Communication is often listed as a primary area of opportunity for many organizations. To help lead an alignment effort: confirm the objective, create a one-team mindset rooted in safety and transparency, agree upon a workstream flow, ensure visibility, stay connected. Lastly, be open to manage change. Just make sure the change is mapped all the way back to the objective. Process can help remove emotional friction. With assuming positive intent, the conflicting decision-making can be smoothed out.

There are several tactics that can be utilized to lead a remote project team to achieve transparent communication which helps the team be successful. The most critical tactic, as I see it, is to stay consistently connected. Interpersonal relationships are vital to high-functioning teams. Being remote does not preclude this necessary team dynamic. Next, ensuring a culture that assumes positive intent and creates psychological safety allows for transparency. Once the foundational human connection, trust and safety needs are met, organizational tactics kick in. These tactics include: set collaboration times, shared communication channels, project visibility, working support sessions, and over communication and confirmation of understanding.