Ideas for managing relationships with colleagues in other cities (e.g. LA to NYC)? It’s so much harder to build/maintain good rapport when you can’t drop by for facetime and so much comm is by email

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Call me crazy, but I’m a huge fan of talking on the phone for rapport building. I manage an entirely remote workforce, we do 90% of our comms electronically (Slack, iMessage, email, etc...), but if I’m ever feeling “disconnected” or if some bad/tough/direct news/feedback needs to be delivered, I pick up the phone

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Agree, pick up the phone, and not just when you need something from them.

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Slack + Giphy should soften any relationship.

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I was sending daily She-Ra gifs to an acct colleague enduring a tough time with our difficult client. While it didn't fix the client, it did give her the love and respect in a tough time!

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For me, Slack helps make up for the lack of drop by conversations in other cities. Both private chats and channels.

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Oh interesting. We don’t have slack :/

Imma ask for it now tho

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Video chat. It’s annoying but it really helps so much. Also put gifs in everything pls. I need more laughter

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I’ve worked remotely with colleagues for most my 14 years at Edelman. Main recommendation is to ensure you have 1:1 time to talk and not just communicate through typical massive dramatic emails or calls. Chat casually with common purpose... empathy... remove the typical Edel stress from the relationship.

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Video chat helps a lot, even if it’s just a check in. People love to be seen and heard and it’s easy to feel overlooked in email

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My group uses Microsoft Teams as a chat (similar to slack but infinitely better). So I an in constant chat communication with my remote freelancers and NY office members. Agreed that phone calls help... a ton! Versus writing long emails OR chats. Just like you would walk over to someone’s desk to get an answer, you should start calling. I’ve been working with remote teams for over a year and there are people I consider friends now that I havent ever met in person

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Infinitely more archived and searchable by your employer, you mean.

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We are constantly working with folks in other offices. Using Google Meet or Hangouts really helps so you can see folks. If not possible I agree with the phone stuff. Too much misunderstanding in email. Get to know each other first by phone before you shift too much to email.

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Plent of Skype video calls helps

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Video calls instead of email is a good start.

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Slack, MS Team, texts, and video calls - plus sometimes just send some something funny and not always work related to keep building rapport.

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MS Teams is archived and searchable by employers, though, so it’s not the best for casual conversations.

I don’t know if this is remotely possible without knowing the full extent of your situation (bad pun, everyone groan) but is there any opportunity for in-person time? Even if it’s once every month or three or six, having at least one face-to-face check-in to bond and witness the other person’s body language and facial reactions can help relieve some of the assumptions for how they communicate virtually. I worked in a satellite office for 5ish years and always felt more at ease after in-person time. Helped assuage assumptions, build empathy and strengthen working dynamics. There are obviously ways to build this via slack (+1 for that platform) and other tools that bring more of that relatability into the mix, but having in-person time is also really critical.

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I have some time zone challenges with our global teams so we are in running whatsapps! Email is great but texting really gets you somewhere when it’s urgent.

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I’ve been on remote teams where the team only talked by conference calls and chat - things became challenging and I think it was because we never knew what each other looked like! I made an effort to ask to video chat with people I was closely collaborating with and I think it helped our overall productivity. Seeing is believing.

Also, do phone calls like drive-by check ins. Many time I’ll call someone and say “just saying hello. If I were in the office, I’d walk by so just doing the same.” You just need to set the expectation really early that these are totally optional

In the 20+ years I've been working in the industry I have only had 2 local clients. Nothing beats in person meetings, perhaps schedule quarterly in person meetings. But on a regular basis we use status meetings as a way to interact. This is a great opportunity as long as they are productive and not redundant and boring.

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