Managing Decentralized Teams and Avoiding Organizational Drag

In today's global and remote work environment, decentralized teams are becoming more common. While this provides many benefits like tapping into wider talent pools and enabling flexible work, it also comes with unique management challenges. Teams that are distributed across geographies, time zones, and companies can easily encounter roadblocks that create organizational drag and slow productivity.

However, with the right strategies and systems in place, project managers can enable decentralized teams to thrive. In this article, we'll explore best practices for managing distributed teams while avoiding the pitfalls that lead to organizational drag.

Promoting Strong Communication Across Distance

When team members are dispersed, communication becomes exponentially more difficult. Absence of regular face-to-face contact can lead to misalignment, confusion about priorities, and feelings of isolation.

Managers of decentralized teams need to be proactive and consistent with communication. Some strategies include:

• Holding regular video conference calls to touch base as a team
• Sending out weekly status updates detailing individual contributions and project priorities
• Documenting decisions and processes in shared drives accessible to everyone
• Encouraging open channels of communication through instant messaging platforms

With robust communication protocols in place, distributed teams can avoid the organizational drag that stems from working in silos and not having visibility into the big picture.

Defining Clear Goals and Milestones

On remote teams, there can be lack of clarity around objectives because people are not regularly in the same room to revisit goals. When priorities become vague, team members may end up misallocating time and working at cross purposes.

To combat this, managers of decentralized groups must be very clear about goals, milestones, and individual responsibilities. Consider creating the following:

• A shared project charter that outlines business objectives, critical success factors, and scope
• Project plans with clearly defined phases, tasks, deliverables, and deadlines
• A RACI matrix that maps team members to specific deliverables and responsibilities

With abundant transparency around desired outcomes and who owns what, organizational drag caused by misalignment can be avoided.

Building Connections Through Virtual Team Building

Lack of facetime between distributed team members can lead to weaker interpersonal bonds. When people do not know each other well, trust issues tend to arise and collaboration suffers.

Bridging the distance gap with virtual team building activities is key. Remote games, contests, digital hangouts, and informal chat channels are great ways to foster human connection. Even small talk about weekend plans helps, as does hopping on quick video calls.

Managers should take the lead in cultivating a sense of community. The more decentralized teams genuinely like and know each other, the less organizational drag caused by coordination issues.

Standardizing Tools and Processes

When distributed teams use different platforms and processes, it becomes a recipe for confusion. One group using Asana, another Trello, meetings via Zoom for some, and Hangouts for others - productivity bottlenecks ensue.

Managers should define standard tools and processes for decentralized teams, such as:

• Project management: Asana
• Communication: Slack
• Filesharing: Google Drive
• Meetings: Zoom

Some process standards might include:

• Naming conventions for shared files
• Templates for status reports
• cadence for meetings and updates

Consistent tools and structured workflows remove operational ambiguities that remote teams often struggle with.

Monitoring Productivity with Key Metrics

Out of sight should not mean out of mind when managing distributed teams. Without being co-located, managers may have less visibility into day-to-day productivity and workload. That's why metrics are invaluable.

Key data that should be monitored:

• Individual task completion rates
• Adherence to project timelines
• Meeting delivery targets
• Tangible team outputs and deliverables

Armed with productivity metrics, managers can swiftly identify lulls and bottlenecks. They can then conduct morale checks, redistribute work, clarify expectations, and take other actions to counter organizational drag.

Fostering an Ownership Mindset

On decentralized teams, it's easy for individuals to operate as disconnected entities because they do not see their direct impact on others. This can breed a mindset of low accountability.

To inspire collective ownership, managers should:

• Reinforce how each person's work fuels overall project success
• Celebrate group accomplishments, not just individual ones
• Encourage team members to help unblock each other
• Model shared responsibility through actions and communication

When people feel part of something bigger than themselves, organizational drag created by misaligned priorities is reduced.

Conclusion

Managing distributed teams comes with unique hurdles but following the best practices outlined above allows managers to minimize organizational drag. Promoting robust communication, clarity around goals, virtual team building, process standardization, productivity monitoring, and shared ownership are key to unlocking the performance potential of decentralized teams.

As remote and hybrid work becomes more prevalent, the principles explored in this article will only grow in relevance. Managers who embrace them will position their dispersed teams for cohesion, productivity, and success.

How can managers build trust within decentralized teams?

Trust is the foundation for the healthy functioning of any team, but particularly for decentralized teams where in-person interactions are limited. Some ways managers can proactively cultivate trust on distributed teams include:

• Following through consistently on promises and commitments made to the team
• Communicating with transparency about plans, priorities, and expectations
• Making themselves available to provide support and mentoring
• Showing vulnerability and empathy in dealing with struggles faced by the team
• Creating opportunities for social connection through informal virtual activities
• Actively soliciting input and feedback from the team and implementing suggestions
• Setting clear ground rules for conflict resolution and upholding them
• Celebrating team member accomplishments and wins
• Discouraging political behavior, blame games, and gossip that erodes trust

The more managers can exemplify reliability, openness, compassion, and integrity in their actions, the more they build trust across distance and time zones. This accrued trust fuels the cooperation and cohesion vital for distributed teams to thrive.

What techniques can managers employ to motivate and inspire decentralized teams?

With decentralized teams, managers cannot rely on traditional motivation tactics like office perks, team lunches, or water cooler chats. They have to get creative with virtual motivation techniques including:

• Sending personalized congratulatory notes or small care packages when team members achieve milestones
• Spotlighting individuals who exemplify core values in team meetings or newsletters
• Scheduling one-on-one virtual coffees to get to know people and their passions
• Gamifying outcomes by setting up contests and leaderboards around goals
• Recognizing contributions publicly on the company intranet or social media
• Empowering people with choice and autonomy in how they do their best work
• Inviting guest speakers to share inspirational stories and lessons learned
• Being vulnerable and candid when sharing your own story of motivation as a leader
• Facilitating team building activities to united scattered employees around a shared purpose
• Engaging the team’s intrinsic desire to learn and master new skills
• Painting an inspiring vision of how the team’s work contributes to the company mission

The root of motivation lies in fulfilling human needs for connection, recognition, progress, and meaning. Managers who tap into these timeless drivers in creative virtual ways will keep dispersed teams fired up.

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