Intra-team collaboration analytics & refinements

What is the meaning of team bonding? 
Team bonding is the term used to describe all activities that seek to build team motivation, trust, boost cross-team collaboration, and instill a common sense of purpose. It also seeks to promote knowledge sharing, agility, and grow resilience. 
Team bonding circles around regular synchronous communication routines, such as status meetings. They reduce the need for ongoing, ad hoc guidance from the team leader, as well as engaging in asynchronous communication among team members.
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What are good team bonding activities?
‍To check if you’re engaging in good team bonding activities, look at the time spent on meetings. The time dedicated to intra-team status meetings should be at around two hours a week per employee.

So, if you have a team of five:
5x15 min daily status meetings + 30 min weekly/1 h bi-weekly.
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A team bonding activity is also classified on the basis of attendance – at least 80% of all team members need to participate.

How do you bond with your team virtually? 
Bonding with your team in a remote setting can seem challenging at first glance. Especially, if your business operated in an in-house work model prior to the pandemic. After all, many intra-team work initiatives or productive interactions take place naturally when we’re all based in the same office.
However, if you design your remote teamwork around the right practices and tools, it’s possible to maintain effective team bonding, boost employees’ intrinsic motivation, and create a sense of community.
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Distributed teams require a different collaboration model, team habits, and rituals to thrive.

These include:

• Regular daily status checks,
• Weekly or bi-weekly knowledge sharing sessions,
• Weekly or bi-weekly 1-on-1 meetings with the leader,
• Quarterly talent and performance 1-on-1 meetings with HR.

If you observe these activities, you’ll see a boost in business contribution from team members, as compared to their levels prior to routines’ introduction.

How do you do team bonding? 
‍As mentioned in the section above, effective team bonding comes down to regular synchronous communication routines. Effective team bonding initiatives will strengthen cross- and intra-team relations and boost your employees’ motivation and productivity. It will also reduce the time leaders dedicate to 1-on-1 interactions, such as providing guidance via asynchronous communication channels.

Work habits for a leader and a team – key elements
To assess whether you’re creating the right work habits for your leaders and team members, it’s worth being aware of the following:

• Daily routines – they are the daily meetings you observe for your team, such as daily stand-ups. They should last about 15 minutes a day (a total of 75 minutes per week).
• Weekly routines – these routines are twice as long as your daily’s (i.e., 30 minutes), and allow your team to discuss the most important issues they’ve encountered throughout the week.
• Details on routines (e.g., length, frequency) – to monitor the effectiveness of your routines, you should calculate their length and frequency. This way, you’ll know you’re dedicating the right amount of time for each meeting type, and that you’re not skipping any of them.
• Percentage of people in a team involved – to count a team bonding initiative as effective, at least 80% of your team members need to be in attendance.

Team status & bonding meetings – which metrics should you track?
Monitoring routines gives you insight into the number of regular intra- and cross-team meetings employees take part in throughout a given period. To assess how effective team bonding initiatives and what influence routines have on your employees, consider the three metrics below:

• Average routine time, i.e., how long your weekly and daily meetings last. Do they last longer or shorter than the recommended time (described above)?
• Number of daily and weekly meetings, i.e., how many meetings are there per day and week. Do all scheduled meetings take place?
• Percentage of the team involved. How many intra- and cross-team routines have at least 80% of all invitees in presence?

Start off by looking at all recurring meetings in the team calendar. Next, categorize them into weekly and daily routines. Assess each event on the basis of the three metrics above. As a result, you’ll gain insight into how your team bonding and status meetings impact your employees.

1:1 analytics and refinements

What is 1-on-1?
A 1-on-1 is a meeting between an employee and their direct manager. It functions as a dedicated spot in the calendar when both sides can engage in an undisrupted conversation, and the leader can offer their guidance.

‍What is the purpose of a 1on1 meeting?
‍1:1 meetings are the foundation of your team's health. They give your employees individualized attention from the leader and act as a safe space for coaching, mentorship, and collecting/offering feedback. Employees can use their leader’s undisrupted attention to explain their point of view, or even display their vulnerability. That being said, it’s a perfect time for managers to show compassion and take steps to resolve any tensions.1-on-1s are especially important in turbulent times. They’re the only mechanism for giving and taking constructive feedback and discussing long-term development plans. They give team members the feeling of care and empathy needed to thrive in a demanding, dynamic environment.

‍How often should you have 1-on-1 meetings?
1-on-1s should take place once a week for each employee. Each meeting should last a minimum of 30 minutes. The key is to hold 1-on-1s regularly, as team meetings (either status or boing ones) can’t replace them.If you don't have time as a leader and you have to give something up, then give up some team meetings, but never compromise on 1-on-1s.

‍Can 1-on-1s replace status updates?
‍While 1-on-1s are crucial for your team’s health, you should also check in with your entire team regularly. Status updates and knowledge-sharing routines help reduce ad hoc support requests and prevent you from being drawn away from other work.

‍How do you conduct a 1:1 meeting?
‍Here is a list of best practices worth following:
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‍1. Make sure you have an equitable approach
Your team members should feel that you acknowledge their need for guidance. Remember that employee seniority isn’t the same as employee awareness. All new team members (not only juniors!) need more attention before they reach their optimal productivity levels. In most cases, they’ll need extra guidance during the first six months of working at your company.

‍2. Allow for vulnerability
‍1-on-1s should be based around transparency, which also means that your employees might use them to vent and share their d dilemmas. This is particularly common during turbulent times (for example, when you introduce new ways of working, reshuffle your team setup, onboard multiple new members, or revisit your entire strategy). Use 1-on-1s to mitigate any tensions and show compassion.

‍3. Don’t drop team bonding & knowledge exchange meetings
Rather, treat 1-on-1s and team meetings as separate beings. Make sure that you don’t compromise longer weekly or bi-weekly team rituals in favor of 1-on-1s and daily status check-ins. Team bonding & knowledge exchange maintain your team’s sense of belonging and safety, and promote peer-to-peer learning. All of these factors are essential for keeping your team’s intrinsic motivation high.

‍Topics worth covering in a 1-on-1
Below is a list of areas worth discussing during your 1-on-1s with employees. Most often, they pertain to the following: performance, engagement, goals, professional development objectives, team leader feedback, and team cooperation.Let’s look at some common questions for each:

‍Employee performance

• Which tasks do you feel you waste the most time on? 
• What time of day do you find yourself most productive?
• What would help you better organize and execute your work?
• Are there any blockers that are keeping you from completing your tasks?

Employee engagement

• What makes you feel most motivated about coming into work everyday?
• What do you enjoy the most/least about working for our organization?
• Do you feel that your work contributes to the organization’s success?
• Do you feel that you have the right career opportunities within our ranks?

Goals

• How well do you feel that you’re progressing on your goals?
• Do you need any help with your goals (OKRs, KPIs)?
• Are there any blockers keeping you from reaching them?

Professional development objectives

• Do you feel that you’re on the right career path?
• How do you evaluate the quality of training?
• What skills, in particular, would you like to develop?
• Which tasks/projects did you enjoy working on the most recently?
• Which responsibilities do you enjoy performing the most/least?
• Do you feel that you need more time for individual coaching than what you’re currently receiving?

Team leader feedback

• Do you find these meetings helpful?
• Is there anything else I could do as a leader to support you?
• Are the takeaways from each of our 1-on-1s clear to you?
• Do I help you understand your role within the team and how it contributes to organization-level goals?
• Do you feel that I support your professional development objectives?

Team collaboration

• Do you feel that our team meetings add value? If so, how?
• Are there any team members you appreciate working with the most? Why?
• Do you feel that your team members offer you enough actionable feedback?
• How do you feel about giving feedback to other team members?
• Is there anything we could do to work even better as a team?

Practical insights about work habits for a leader and a team

• Ongoing guidance. To assess whether all employees have enough ongoing guidance, you look at the total number of interactions between the leader and the employee. Next, check which interactions were arranged by the leader and how often they happened for each team member. Apart from calendar events, make sure to look at the number of emails and messages. Do interactions happen daily, weekly, or monthly?
• 1-on-1 routines’ frequency. Check if your 1-on-1s take place each week.
• Meeting length. Apart from 1-on-1 frequency, you should also check how long they last.
• Percentage of people in the team involved in 1-on-1s. Check whether all team members had their weekly 1-on-1.

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