Worth it? Engaging interstate team members

When you’re an experienced Change Manager like me, more often than not you’ll be working on projects with stakeholder teams across the country in different cities and states! Engaging these remote teams can be a challenge, but absolutely possible. 

Whenever I’m thinking about remote teams, I focus on giving them “continuing connected experiences”. I came up with this phrase during COVID when everybody, even teams within your own city, were working virtual. 

So what is a continuing connected experience? 

It means switching on the five senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste) AND the opportunities to have informal and social interactions with colleagues and stakeholders and leaders to build trust and real relationships. 

Here are 4 ideas that you can flesh out to help bring your changes to life with even the most remote of stakeholder teams!

#1 Posted packs

Post a pack to them with physical copies of anything that’s occurred or will occur in the office i.e. flyers, printed training manuals, snacks, drinks, etc. This was really key when I was working on one major change that was affecting 1,000 stores across the country. We sent printed flyers, posters and Quick Reference Guides for local admin to put into the lunchrooms. I can tell you it was a production line getting 1,000 packs filled and posted, but our Communications Team was on it and we used our internal supply chain for dispatch saving on postage/courier costs. Co-hosting with my Heads of Change, I also used this same approach to run a whole day virtual team offsite for our 50 Change Team members across Australia and New Zealand. These packs didn’t just have a themed itinerary, but also cookies, tea and other goodies that matched the theme so everyone everywhere could have the same experience throughout the day.

#2 Virtual social events

You can absolutely run regular virtual team SOCIAL events (emphasis on the social) like breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea or even evening drinks (check your organisation’s policy). You could even ask a local Executive Assistant or admin person to arrange catering for the event and dial in between the locations. Failing that, you could do Uber Eats - I just recommend you cater the event to help get people there. It’s much cheaper than flying whole teams across the country.

#3 Fly away

Speaking of which, I do have to say there will be key times when you’ll need to fly stakeholders or even whole teams into a central location. Negotiate budget with your Project Manager or even the Operational leaders for you to fly to them, or they come to you on a regular basis i.e. monthly, quarterly. If a regular basis is too much, it might be at the start of the change for onboarding/briefing/initial meet and greet, and then at key points along the way like critical workshops, training or launch readiness. It might not even be the whole team, but key representatives like line managers or change champions. As much as organisations don’t want to spend money on travel anymore, nothing beats face-to-face and it’s still the most effective way to build trust, engagement, alignment and clarity. 

#4 Regular touchpoints

Between face-to-face events, you can have regular additional touchpoints through the week i.e. a weekly 1:1 or weekly wrap or walking meeting. Again, be sure there’s a social aspect to this. I like having a portion of the meeting being breakout rooms or 2-person conversations because then people get to meet each other in more of a social and relaxed setting before or after the formal proceedings of the meeting. Celebrate birthdays, congratulate achievements, share challenges or mishaps, and I always think teaching a bit of capability helps people to feel like it was worth their time and they want to keep coming back. 

Lata xx

P.S. We chat about these types of engagement ideas all the time in my Leading Successful Change member community. You can join LSC from anywhere across the world at any time and start building your confidence to lead change end-to-end: learn more and join here. Alternatively, you can:

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