5 Conversations Managers Should Have To Help Teams Transition To A New Way Of Working

The remote work environment disrupts the old “butts in seat” management style. For many managers, the inability to see their employees every day will be a new and perhaps challenging experience. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Tori Tipton, an experienced organizational change management and HR consultant, about her workplace strategy experience, helping managers to transition their teams from traditional workspaces to agile work environments. She recommends managers have the following conversations with their teams to help transition to a new way of working:

1.  How are you?

Managers should check in with their team members to find out how they feel about the new work environment (managers should check in with their own feelings about it too!) Some team members may feel anxious or still have questions. It’s important that managers encourage their team members to talk, allow time for questions, demonstrate that they are listening, and respond where they can. These conversations will help move the team along the change curve towards acceptance.

2. Expectations Setting

Be sure to cover the housekeeping items and ground rules. Discuss what tools will be used and how they will be used, your expectations of team members and their expectations of you, as well as define boundaries. For example, define a team boundary such as “no work calls after 5PM” and expect everyone to adhere to them.

3. A Day in the New Life

Don’t assume that the new way of working looks the same for everyone. Ask team members to map out “a day in the life” of their new way of working, share it with the team, and discuss. This process will facilitate a valuable discussion and drive team understanding and alignment.

4. What If…

Get ahead of the new way of working and brainstorm “What Ifs” as a team. “What if I email, call, and text you and cannot get a hold of you? Do I escalate?” “What if my kid pops in unexpectedly during a meeting?” “What if we hire a new team member and they are not able to meet the team in person for 6 months?” Planning ahead for the unexpected will smooth the transition to the new normal.

5. Work Hard Play Hard!

Proactively create an opportunity for the team to be at work without working in order to build personal connections. Leverage technology to hold a virtual happy hour, ask team members to share their favorite room in the house, or introduce their pets to the team. It’s important to cultivate moments with a human factor while working via technology.

Some managers may continue to struggle with how their remote team members are filling their time. However, to transition to a new normal smoothly, managers should have these conversations to help identify where there is a lack of, where there are gaps, and then work as a team to proactively fills those in.

Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how our organizational change management consultants can help your organization transition to a new way of working. 

A special thanks to Tori Tipton, experienced organizational change management and HR consultant, for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.