Distributed Teams are never easy. It doesn’t matter if you are separated by one flight of stairs or 12 time zones. Forming and maintaining a cohesive, collaborative team that can support one another, consistently deliver, and continuously improve is always just a little bit tougher when you are not in the same physical space.

The pandemic has offered all of us plenty of “opportunities” to find ways to improve how we form and function in a distributed way. But here’s the thing, even when you’ve been doing this stuff for years, it is tough. Experience can help guide you and show you some things to try to avoid, but each team is its own puzzle.

In this episode of the podcast, Mark Kilby has joined me to utilize the Five Lenses of Humane Management to talk about distributed teams.

There are three important things you need to know before you listen.

1. Mark Kilby and Johanna Rothman wrote the book “From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver”. If you are looking for a tips on what makes distributed teams work, this book is an amazing resource.

2. Mark and I are on a distributed team together with two other people. Collectively, we bring over 70 years of experience of not only working on teams, but in coaching others on how to do it well.

3. We are struggling mightily

During the interview, Mark and I unpack some of the things we’re experiencing in the forming storming stages of our distributed team. We share some of the insights and struggles we’ve had along the way. This interview is intended to offer a kind of retrospective/case study on challenges that even seasoned pros have when working remotely. For those of you who are having similar challenges, we want you to know that you are not alone and hopefully, one of the takeaways you’ll get from this interview is that even when you and your distributed team are struggling, there are probably some amazing things happening, you just need to keep an eye out for them and appreciate them.

Links from the interview

From Chaos to Successfully Distributed Agile Teams by Mark Kilby and Johanna Rothman
 https://amzn.to/3bPVDkT

The Five Lenses of Humane Management Interview with Jim Benson https://bit.ly/3a2FBIe

Lean Agile Visual Management https://www.modusinstitute.com/lavm

Contacting Mark:

Web: www.markkilby.com

Twitter: twitter.com/mkilby

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby/