The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #242 One Minute Commute- Remote Teams with Zack Grossbart
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by Wayne in Podcast
Wayne Turmel talks to Zack Grossbart, author of The One Minute Commute about how he manages remote teams of engineers and software programmers. We also discuss freebooters and long distance love affairs. Plus you meet my noisy roommate, Byron de Prorok.
Zack Grossbart in what passes for the home office for many workers. You can read more in my BNET blog post
My obnoxious officemate, Byron de Prorok. He puts in an unexpected appearance.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. We dedicate this episode to Sir Francis Drake. He not only managed remote teams and people in cramped quarters, but he kept the stakeholders happy. Talk about ROI…
3:11 The quote of the week is from Francois de Rouchefoucauld. Does distance blow out your team’s candle or blow up their bonfire? No, that’s not a euphemism for anything.
4:20 We are talking about managing remote engineers today, and welcome to Zack Grossbart. As an engineer working remotely himself, he didn’t have a resource like this to work from. Who knew he’d have missed his coworkers so much. He probably just missed the cool software startup office with the pingpong table.
7:33 Many remote managers become micromanagers in order to avoid unpleasant surprises. One of the biggest mistakes managers make is figuring that people will know how to communicate effectively with each other. The communication wall gets much bigger than it should be, and it’s not a technology problem.
10:30 People have to know how to get hold of you, and that includes both the obvious (phone, email, IM) and other tools like wikis and blogs that help span time zones. Also keep your statuses and messages up to date. Teammates need to trust and know each other, and those tools are great ways to do that. You can learn more in our “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” workshops.
14:24 Written communication can make or break your remote team. It’s both the best way to communicate what you know to your teammates, but also a way to demonstrate what you have done. If you can’t write well, you won’t be trusted or understood and work takes a lot longer.
16:40 Just because we can communicate at the speed of light, does that mean we have to work that quickly? How does a manager set expectations, or more to the point, help the team set norms and expectations. He’s a big fan of IRC which is a bit geeky but works nicely, especially for open source projects. Also, schedules are crucial- and stick to them.
21:49 Regular communication is an important factor in team communication. It can also save your sanity.
22:30 One of the biggest problems for remote workers is being able to turn things off and have some sort of life. You have to turn the computer and phone off. Yes, actually off. You can’t do your best work when your’e stressed. Try to make sure you eat lunch, for example. Really, when was the last time you really took lunch?
27:10 What are the signs of stress and strain in a team? How do you know when people are working too hard or not being effective? Use a 3-week plan to test and still get good grades.
Resources
The one minute commute blog in 15 chapters
WordPress Editorial Calendar project- an open source project
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