How to Drive Innovation and Collaboration in Remote Teams
Get Grantify’s expert help on driving innovation and collaboration in remote teams, the first in our Innovation Insider series.
The advances in remote working have been a boon for smart, ambitious businesses keen to grow in spite of challenging economic and political conditions.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced businesses to make a rapid transition to remote working, reshaping the way we work. The initial results were surprisingly positive, for example, Oracle improved productivity by 20% to close its monthly books within 24 hours for the first time.
Fast forward a few years, and many larger companies are now issuing RTO (return-to-office) mandates calling employees back to five day weeks in the office, including Barclays, Dell, IBM, Boots, Salesforce, and even the UK civil service.
Amazon is among the latest and most high profile to ask workers to return to full time hours in their offices, citing a need to strengthen their culture of rapid collaboration and invention.
Reaction has been mixed, with many pointing out that remote teams can still work productively and collaboratively, not to mention the fact that many skilled workers prefer the flexibility and autonomy of remote working - as many as 36% of employees would prefer a fully-remote role, according to research by Zoom.
As a remote-first business ourselves, we’re living proof that with the right processes and culture, remote working is no barrier to innovation and collaboration.
Here are just a few of our insider insights.
Collaboration is key to growth in all areas of your business.
Fostering collaboration between teams is an investment in invention and innovation - original thinking flourishes when different perspectives and roles are brought together.
MIT research concurs; finding that to innovate, leaders need to be exposed to new ideas from every level of the organisation, and nurture the most promising ones to success. Much of this dynamic energy used to be created organically in meetings, or around the watercooler. Remote collaboration requires deliberate connection to be purposefully embedded.
We’re a remote-first business with a global heat map of talent across the UK, US and Philippines. To promote collaboration, we use the latest digital tools and platforms, combined with helpful guidelines around their usage.
Slack is a key company-wide communication tool, allowing us to stay connected, and quickly share thoughts and ideas that only require simple answers. Slack also connects with useful services like Google Drive, so we can collaborate in shared documents, in real time. For anything more nuanced, nothing beats jumping on a call and speaking to colleagues. Daily stand-ups keep work moving smoothly, and we run regular sessions for any cross-channel communication between teams.
Productivity platform Notion is also a Grantify favourite. We use it to organise client workflows, keep track of hundreds of tasks, and store important business documents in one accessible place.
But our collaborative energy isn't limited to our in-house teams - we’ve built relationships with hundreds of external partners to create a powerful network of amazing people and resources.
From commercial partnerships that deliver exclusive offers and perks to help clients scale rapidly, to working with organisations to create fresh and exciting employee benefits, we collaborate inside and outside of our business with like-minded organisations.
The rewards are an energised workforce and engaged clients, inspired for growth.
Too often, companies pay lip service to inclusion, without any meaningful investment. But we’ve found remote working to be a powerful way to embed inclusive working practices at the heart of our company.
Outside of the constraints of an office environment, our neurodiverse team members can manage their time and control their environment in line with their unique needs, free from the need to mask in accordance with the social norms of an office setting.
It also makes scheduling more workable for those with caring commitments, removing lengthy commutes that keep team members away from their homes for longer, and further away from the needs of their families and even pets.
Communication is tightly aligned with collaboration, which can be a real challenge when working with teams in different time zones and working schedules. The key is not to get hung up on the technology itself, but the intentionality behind its usage, and allowing some freedom between teams.
Consider establishing norms among your teams so that everyone can engage comfortably, in accordance with their roles and cultural norms per territory. Take the example of life sciences multinational Merck, which has created acronyms for their digital communications like “Four Hour Response (4HR)” and “No Need to Respond (NNTR), to empower team members to tier messages appropriately.
Individual teams can also establish their own norms — e.g., to use or not use Slack, Google Docs, or Whatsapp groups.
But even for a remote-first business like ours, nothing replaces the alchemy of bringing people together to celebrate and socialise.
Earlier this year, we took an all-hands trip to Rome for in-person interaction and planning. The trip was an amazing success, bringing together remote colleagues, many meeting for the first time, to learn more about how Grantify works as a business, and how our individual roles help grow the business.
If a company-wide trip isn’t feasible for your business, even a day or an evening spent together will foster the key social connections needed to establish high-performing, innovative teams.
Being a remote-first company has empowered us to move quickly, scale rapidly and make big decisions as we go.
It’s also helped us tap into amazing talent and new markets across the globe, which in turn, feeds our ingenuity and fuels our mission as a leading funding launchpad for innovators.”
Rewarding success and amplifying these successes across remote teams boosts can help to incentivise collaborative efforts.
Key Grantify initiatives include:
- Quarterly People Celebrations during our All Hands meetings, both in-person or online.
- Spontaneous shout outs on Slack to share positive employee news, from promotions or work anniversaries, to birthdays and new baby announcements!
- ‘Gratitude Corner’ in our biweekly team newsletter, creating the opportunity to publicly say thank you to a colleague and recognise their valuable contributions.
We also have regular inter-departmental meetings where we mix teams for fun, engaging activities to promote company cohesion.
And it’s not just about your internal teams - collaborating with clients and partners can invigorate your internal efforts too.
Grantify’s ‘52 Weeks, 52 Winners’ campaign is a dedicated, year-long celebration where we share the inspiring work of our clients, and highlight their readiness for investment next steps.
In our monthly ‘Winner Dinners’, we bring together clients and friends to share inspiring stories of innovation and courage, and foster community among founders over a relaxed dinner and drinks.
Innovation isn’t something you can inject into your business - it’s an ongoing commitment to culture and recognition, baked into your operations and processes.
Remote-first companies are already operating flexibly and have the advantage of being able to respond nimbly to new opportunities and unearth fresh ways of responding to some of our most pressing problems.
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