Understanding The Difference Between Working Together And Interacting

by Eric Samson / Oct 31

It is important, first, to discern two different aspects of this question: how to keep people working together, and how to keep people interacting with each other. Although the two aspects complement each other, they can both use the same tools, but very differently.

The working together part is pretty simple: online document-sharing programs (Google Apps comes to mind, but many other solutions apply, of course) enables workers, wherever they are located, to be constantly appraised of other team members’ work and optimize their own. Encouraging workers to broadcast what they’re working on (whether via a Twitter-like system, IM status or what have you) is also key.

Which brings us to the interacting with each other part. This gets tricky: there is no better way to build team spirit easily than actual face-to-face communication around the photocopier, coffee machine or water cooler. That’s where jokes and gossip are exchanged, and where people more often than not end up talking about what problems they’re encountering in their work.

Setting up a forum and encouraging its unbridled use has shown tremendous results: we even had, at crunch time, one of our forumers start a “Stay Awake Contest” thread, where people would post quick status updates, talk about snags they were experiencing, exchanging advice and words of encouragement, etc. This turned out to be a 2000+ post thread, where people would sometimes just take breaks and talk for a while before going back to the grind, and whatnot. Close to a hundred people, each working from his or her own home, keeping each other abreast of their progress and helping each other out.

Holding “meatspace” get togethers (no work, but, by Jove, make them fun, not “team-building retreats” or such filth) is paramount, too: people who joined the team ended up participating a lot more in the online forum and various activities after they had met their peers In Real Life and socialized with them.

All in all, the only important thing to remember is that people need the right tools (don’t expect someone to follow online discussions on a tiny cellphone screen), the right connectivity (no wifi or 3G, no dice) and the right incentives in order to work as a team. Encourage your nomads to chime in often, regularly and with meaningful updates. Soon enough, you’ll have real camaraderie in your workforce – and that can only lead to improved productivity.

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