Time Zones Series: The Process
The globe
Working across time zones doesn’t have to be terrible. I'm going to lay out a process to make it human. I am happy to hear your feedback on this.
Have a kick off.
Have a face to face meeting if possible (when we are allowed to) for the kick off. If not, then try to find a time when you can meet to do introductions and drive alignment on the mission of the project.
Discuss working hours.
Each person should share the working hours that they keep and how flexible/non flexible they are. There must not be any judgement. Everyone has lives and their time should be respected.
Come up with a work agreement.
The work agreement should have at least the following:
Decide what times can be used for meetings.
Decide how long it will take to respond to messages.
Decide what asynch collaboration methods you will use be it spreadsheet trackers, google docs, slack, email, etc.
Check in often on how the work arrangement is going.
Things change so check in with everyone to make sure things are still working. If things need to be adjusted, you might need to get everyone together again to make those decisions.
I hope these principles work for you and help you run a productive cross time-zone team.
If you have other tips that have worked for you, please share on LinkedIn and Facebook.
