Wide Teams

The Narrating Your Work Experiment

Hans de Zwart recently finished an experiment in which he encouraged his distributed team to “narrate their work”—to issue frequent updates to the team about what they were doing. In this article, he discusses the results of the experiment. This article was originally posted on Hans’ blog, and he has kindly granted permission to reprint it here. A few months back I posted a design for an experiment on my blog. The goal of the experiment was to find out whether it would be possible to use a microblogging tool to narrate our work with the intention of making better performing virtual teams. Over the last two months, the direct team that I work in (consisting of 18 people) basically participated in the experiment in the way that it was designed: They posted constant, daily or weekly updates

Podcast #29: John Hawkins of 9Seeds LLC

Apr 27, 11 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode, an interview with John Hawkins, one of the founders of 9Seeds, a company that specializes in custom WordPress development. The 9Seeds team is fully dispersed, with every team member working from home. We talked about how 9Seeds came to be a distributed company, and why John intends never to set foot in a brick-and-mortar office again. Show notes: John Hawkins is @vegasgeek on Twitter 9Seeds LLC The Event Ticketing and Affiliate Manager WordPress plugins 9Seeds sponsors WordCamp conferences

8 Moments of Remote Work Zen

Mar 29, 11 • In Discussion, Experiences, Featured

For some remote workers, leaving the office behind is a choice to spend more time with family. For others, it’s a move to an environment more conducive to focus, or a way to travel the world while still making a living. Whatever your reason for working remotely, it’s good sometimes to reflect on the joys of living and working untethered to a desk. I asked eight remote workers to tell me about their moments of remote work zen—those perfect moments that make it all worthwhile. Here are their answers. —David Browning, co-founder of Two Guys —Sahil Parikh, Founder of DeskAway –Marieke Guy, blogger at Ramblings of a Remote Worker —Ligaya Turmelle —Jessica Dally, Project Manager at TechSoup –D. Keith Casey, Jr., Chief Stuff Breaker at Blue Parabola —Shane Pearlman, CEO of Shane & Peter, Inc. –John McCaffrey,

Podcast #28: Shane Pearlman of Shane & Peter

Mar 23, 11 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode I talk to Shane Pearlman of Shane & Peter, a fully dispersed software consultancy. We talked about recruiting the right kinds of people for a distributed team, and how to stay connected as friends as well as coworkers. Show notes: Shane Pearlman is @justlikeair on Twitter Shane & Peter Check out the Shane & Peter Lifeblog Redmine Adium Coworking Freelance Camp

Wide Links #19

Mar 18, 11 • In Links

The latest and greatest news and resources for remote workers, from all around the web. Set Up Remote Colleagues With the Apps They Need Using Ninite: Online Collaboration « Ninite has a selection of many of the most commonly used apps, including browsers, IM clients, media players, office apps, Flash, PDF readers, security tools, utilities and even some of WWD’s favorite tools, like Dropbox, Evernote and KeePass. The installer installs the most up-to-date version of the apps; running the installer again will update the apps to the latest version. iPad 2: The Best Tablet for Distributed Teams Just Got Better: Online Collaboration « I’ve talked about the importance of a “comms appliance” for remote workers; the iPad 2may just be the best device yet for that role. tags: communication videoconferencing ipad People who think

Podcast #27: Susan Tenby & Jessica Dally of TechSoup

Mar 16, 11 • In Interviews, Podcast

This podcast is a departure from the dispersed software development teams I usually cover. I interviewed Susan Tenby and Jessica Dally of TechSoup, a nonprofit focused on providing other nonprofits with the technology they need to better accomplish their missions. One way they assist nonprofits is in helping them to use Second Life, a massive on-line “virtual world”, to collaborate and build community online. I talked to Susan and Jessica about why TechSoup is a distributed organization, and why organizations are using Second Life to meet, network, and do their work. For someone who spends a lot of time doing remote collaboration, it was eye-opening for me to discover this whole new frontier of online interaction. After listening to this interview you may just be inspired to add a virtual world meeting space to your

Encouraging Involvement in Distributed Teams

Mar 14, 11 • In Basics, Featured, Practices, Tips & Hacks

One of the biggest challenges in remote work is simply making sure everyone has a strong sense of involvement. In this article Steven Baker, a veteran of dispersed agile software development teams, shares his experiences and recommendations for keeping the communication, camaraderie, and personal connections alive in a distributed setting. When you don’t occupy the same office for the same period of time every day with your co-workers, you can’t walk to your co-worker’s desk, or turn around in your chair to have a chat about what you’re working on. There is no water cooler to mill around get in the loop on what’s happening, and having lunch together is difficult. Differences in location, timezone, and working hours, can all combine to make you and the members of your team disconnected from each other. This

Wide Links #18

Feb 25, 11 • In Links

Been a while since I did one of these… here’s a fresh helping of remote-work related links from all around the web. What to Do When An Employee Asks to Telecommute: Online Collaboration « A telecommuting trial run isn’t a bad idea, as long as it’s not biased against success from the start. tags: wideteams Telecommuting is becoming more common in organizations of every size. It makes it possible to work with the best people for your projects, no matter where they are based. It can be an opportunity to keep your team happy and it’s a privilege you may be able to provide without a lot of work or expense on your part. Even if telecommuting doesn’t wind up working for all of your team and on all of the projects you work on,

Podcast #24: Derek Wade

Feb 15, 11 • In Interviews, Podcast

In this episode, a conversation with Derek Wade, a collaboration expert and Team Coach at Kumido Adaptive Systems. We talk about building “high-gravity” distributed teams, work-scapes, and the benefits of simple, free-form tools for collaboration. This episode is “back from the dead” — all of the audio from my side of the interview was lost, but I reconstructed and re-dubbed my questions so that I could share this interview. Show notes: Derek can be found at derekwwade.net, and is @derekwwade on Twitter. Slides for the presentation “High Gravity Distributed Teams“ The #lrnchat hashtag on Twitter I did a video demo of the Cardmeeting tool

5, 6, 7, 8, who do we appreciate?

Dec 13, 10 • In Practices

In a dispersed team it is more important than ever to make a habit of showing appreciation for a job well done. A quick article today since I don’t have a lot of time. If you’re a regular reader you know I’m a big advocate of practicing regular retrospectives in distributed teams. In one of the the teams I work with right now, he first item on the retrospective template we use is “appreciations”. We take time at the beginning of the meeting to recognize the efforts of members of the team who have gone above & beyond. Anyone can pipe up, and the recognitions can be for anything from fixing a nasty bug over the weekend to being extra helpful on Campfire. When you don’t see each other every day, it’s easy to forget