Remote Indian IT Workplace Challenge #1 — Trust
The article published last week concluded with a question –
It was easier going all-remote with the people who you have met, known, and worked with before. Can you continue doing so effectively with the new people who will join your team remotely in the future?
I recently watched a movie on Netflix called “My Octopus Teacher” in which a filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world. It is a beautiful story of trust between a human and a wild animal, a trust earned over a period of about a year.
There’s a lot to learn in the story besides the lesson that humans are not the only sentient animals and need the respect, and care which they deserve. Just as the elusive and shy octopus, our team members working remotely are hidden away in their dens and camouflaged behind their display pictures on Zoom calls, they are hard to observe. They are just as wary of strangers as is the animal. The story teaches 3 important lessons which leaders can apply to establish trust with their remote team members.
1. Be Consistent and Visible
“The glue that holds all relationships together–including the relationship between the leader and the led–is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” — Brian Tracy
It took several months for Craig to establish trust with the animal. He visited the den each day and let the octopus observe him do his thing consistently for many days before the first physical contact was made. The story proved that with persistence, and consistency you can earn the trust of even a wild animal known to be shy and non-social.
As a leader, just as you expect to observe your team, allow your team to observe you as well.
- Experts agree that all types of non-verbal cues combined — especially body posture — have 4.3 times the effect of verbal cues. So, switch ON your video during the meetings and avoid emails/text for communicating anything sensitive or something which might trigger emotions
- Create in public — Allow your people to observe you do your job. You may think that they wouldn’t understand the bigger picture, or how strategy is created. They might surprise you. Best-case scenario, you might receive valuable feedback or a trained successor who will help you grow in the future.
- Check-in with your people one-one consistently.
I would highly recommend Discord and Sococo to increase your visibility while you work. At Trantor, we have started using Discord informally. I have created a virtual office in which I try to keep audio and video ON most of the time, allowing people to drop-in for impromptu conversations. People respect the availability status and don’t barge in just as they wouldn’t in a physical office setting. So, I try to keep my status current. Occasionally, I screen share while working, allowing people to observe me create.
- Discord (Freemium)
Seamless audio and video communications are at the core of Discord’s user experience. You can re-create public space in your office virtually on Discord channels allowing chance encounters and collaboration. Having always-on video streams from your office onto Discord can allow people to engage with virtually located peers as well.
How a UC Berkeley Student Helps Recreate a Campus Experience on Discord https://blog.discord.com/how-a-uc-berkeley-student-helps-recreate-a-campus-experience-through-discord-97dee43d81bb
- Sococo ($$$)
With virtual floor plans and online meetings, Sococo is the closest that you can get to a real office space in the cloud.
2. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose
After months of bonding with the animal, Craig had reached a stage where the octopus had started following him. Then in one such episode, while she is following Craig, he accidentally dropped a piece of equipment which startled the animal. Having lost the trust, she darted away swiftly and did not return back to her den. It took him several weeks to track her new location and regain the trust.
Trust is a two-way street
There’s been an awful lot of surveillance technology since the pandemic https://turtler.io/news/16-worst-and-most-extreme-ways-employers-are-spying-on-their-people. As a manager, it is tempting to observe what your people are doing all day long. Any time you start correlating day-to-day activity with productivity, you lose trust fast. You will probably get conformance but will be left wondering why you are not getting the results that you expect from your smart and creative IT workforce.
A good leader knows better to lead by clearly communicating the vision, setting clear expectations, and holding her team accountable for results rather than for demonstrating activity alone.
Hoshin Kanri (X-Matrix) is a tool often practiced in Lean Manufacturing. I have found it extremely helpful in clearly communicating the goals and connecting them back to the KPIs. Try using it to communicate the vision and setting accountabilities with your people.
3. Don’t jump to conclusions
Generally, octopuses are not social creatures, which makes Craig’s relationship all the more compelling and surprising. With patient engagement and analysis, Craig was able to understand behavioral aspects of the octopus like never seen before.
Riddled with Cognitive Biases, and stereotypes, leaders often observe events and quickly jump to conclusions about people. It was a “simple” task given to a new developer in the morning. By the evening, the developer reported that he faced challenges while trying to complete it. My immediate thought was, the developer does not know his craft. I thought I’ll show him how things are done. After an hour, I realized the same issue. The developer proved to be one of my most dependable guys. This was only one of the many humbling experiences which I have had over the many years leading Indian software engineering teams. By questioning your own assumptions and structurally thinking about your conclusions, you avoid making impulsive mistakes which can erode trust and respect with your people. One such mind tool that I have found helpful is called The Ladder of Inference.
Sometimes known as the “Process of Abstraction,” this tool helps you understand the thinking steps that can lead you to jump to wrong conclusions, and so helps you get back to hard reality and facts. — read more
Although the challenges to establishing trust in the remote environment are plenty, there is hope as learned from the lessons taught by the movie. I would love to hear about what has worked well for you and what hasn’t. Please do share your experiences in the comments.
Next week, I plan to address another challenge — Hiring. So, stay tuned.
Vibhor Mahajan is the Head of Product Development and Innovation at Trantor. His job at Trantor is to establish trust with new challenging accounts, solve novel challenges, and scale the engineering teams. He provides consulting and thought leadership to help establish consistent and sustainable software engineering delivery.
