Collaboration

LESSONS IN COLLABORATION FOR A COVID WORLD

Gillian Magee, head of programme delivery at AstraZeneca, passes on her tips to make collaboration work in our new normal

Collaboration is a core requirement for e ective project management, but it has been made more challenging in the past year. We can’t rely on co-located teams sparking o one another. Jumping on a train or plane to attend project workshops or to meet team members and stakeholders is impossible. I’ve spent a little time considering how we’ve tried to support high-quality collaboration while dealing with the inability to meet face-to-face. Here are the four biggest lessons we’ve learnt.

LESSON 1 Make the time to pass the time

This might sound obvious, but it can be easy to miss, and it takes e ort and discipline to maintain in the longer term. At AstraZeneca, in ‘normal times’ we follow the Swedish tradition of fika – an informal gathering with co ee and something to eat at least once a week. During lockdowns, we have put in place virtual fikas – some small and some larger for whole o ces. People share cake recipes, tips on getting a good cup of co ee at home and Netflix recommendations. This has helped disparate teams to feel connected.

Use the team members who are great organisers to make sure there’s a rota for engagement and a range of events, from the very informal to guest speakers. Di erent types of events will work for or appeal to di erent people, so don’t expect everyone to attend everything, but make them appealing enough that you get a good attendance. Ask people what works and what doesn’t. Change it periodically to keep it fresh. This has been really useful in getting new team members onboarded, as it helps to maintain our culture and connectedness.

At the beginning of project meetings, allow time for a proper check-in. Let’s face it – most meetings can cope with a five-minute delay to the start of formal proceedings. If it’s a larger meeting, use some real-time technology to take the temperature and to understand people’s priorities for the session. You also need to be prepared to flex the agenda in response to the feedback and/or follow up on it afterwards. If someone is quiet, check in with them outside of the meeting.

LESSON 2 Rethink how you collaborate

Longer team meetings or project sessions cannot just be turned from in-person, day-long events into an online version. If you can use a facilitator to run the session (a project manager or analyst from another project or team can be great), so that you can genuinely participate, so much the better. We have found that you can’t expect high-quality collaboration for more than about two hours. Even within that time period, we break it up into plenary and smaller group sessions. If a longer time frame is needed, we plan the sessions over the course of a few

Meeting face-to-face for a co ee and something to eat,

fika-style, is a good

practice to adopt once we’re back in the o ce

days, giving people time at the beginning of the new sessions to recap on the progress in the first couple of sessions.

When it comes to managing senior stakeholders, normally I’d rely on a quiet co ee periodically with them to understand their priorities and worries. This has historically allowed me to steer projects more e ectively, addressing niggles before they become issues. For my senior stakeholders now, I’ve scheduled regular check-ins, usually fortnightly, for us to chat about progress and what’s coming up. I’m going to carry this on when we go back to more o ce-based working, as it’s been good to have a little more structure.

Even if your project isn’t agile, frequent stand-ups (virtual or real) can help to keep people connected and build team spirit.

Finally, being a project professional can be lonely. Use your network to develop the support for the days when you want to bounce ideas o someone outside the project. A di erent perspective can help with problem-solving.

LESSON 3 Use the technology, but don’t be a slave to it

Having back-to-back Teams/Zoom/Skype meetings is exhausting. We typically allow five or 10 minutes at the end to let everyone regroup before their next meeting. Outlook allows you to automatically schedule meetings that finish early. A brief break allows people to be present and to collaborate more. It’s hard to engage if you’re gasping for a cup of tea and have been tethered to your laptop for hours. Ideally, block out time so that individuals aren’t always on calls if they don’t have to be.

Collaboration software is coming on in leaps and bounds and is essential. Of course, there are the meeting platforms, and we have used Microsoft Teams to allow us to share project documentation as well. We also use Jira for many of our projects, including for the creation of Kanban boards, tracking of detailed requirements and testing and RAID management. We have our PPM tool, which is used for consistent reporting across the portfolio and financial tracking. To aid in collaboration, we use Slido a lot in meetings, especially for temperature checking and fun quizzes.

I’m a big fan of ThoughtExchange – a tool that allows you to crowdsource information about priorities. And we’ve just used Miro e ectively for a strategy planning session. If bringing in a new technology, give people time

to become familiar with it. We o ered a mini training session on Miro prior to the strategy session, which was worthwhile.

Sometimes, a plain old phone call can be better for having a chat – people can be more open. Find out what works for your team and how they prefer to connect. We also ensure that they’ve got the hardware to make collaboration at home easier.

LESSON 4 Make the global local

Our project teams are nearly all truly global – from Kuala Lumpur to Guadalajara, Gothenburg to Sydney. Collaboration across time zones, cultures and languages takes huge e ort and commitment. This isn’t any di erent to preCovid times, but we’ve put more e ort into the collaboration as a result of the pandemic – and we’ll be keeping a lot of these new methods once life becomes a little more normal.

First, understand where team members are located – this is not always obvious. I made the mistake of assuming a colleague with a strong US accent was working in our o ces in Delaware or Maryland. So, I arranged meetings at 6pm UK time, thinking that I was being helpful. He’s actually based in Cambridge, England. I had inadvertently encroached on his evening with his family. I should have checked in and not made an assumption.

For team meetings, we try to find a slot for regular catch-ups that work for most people and be creative to meet the challenges. One of my current projects has team members in Chennai, Gothenburg, Macclesfield, Wilmington and Guadalajara. We o er team members in Chennai the opportunity to time-shift to enable collaboration, which means that we have about three hours per day for collaboration. To support them, we ensure that there is wider support in place – covering travel to the o ces out of hours, catering and shift premiums. This does cost money, but if it’s important to the project, it is worth it. If you can’t have overlapping time, schedule two or more separate slots so that all team members can be engaged in sessions.

Use collaboration sessions carefully – particularly if people are logging on early or staying late, don’t be disrespectful of their commitment and give them notice to allow them to plan it into their lives. Only schedule meetings if engagement is needed. If it’s a straightforward information cascade, then find a di erent way (a Teams chat, an email, intranet posts or a recorded meeting are all possible and allow people to find things out without needing to flex their working hours). Don’t allow sessions to overrun and cancel them if they’re no longer required.

Spend time to understand the local situation – is that area in lockdown? Do they still go to the o ce? How is the weather? This can be a lot more serious than just a bit of drizzle in the UK. My colleagues in Chennai were struggling with cyclones and lockdown last year. We ensured that the teams working with Chennai team members got good updates on the cyclone and it was part of the leadership team briefings on a daily basis.

Some e ort to understand language and culture goes a long way. Our working language in most countries is English. As a native English speaker, I’m therefore hugely privileged. Given that privilege, it takes only a little e ort to learn a little of the language and holidays and culture of the team members I’m working with. At the very least, it will mean that my project plans will take account of important religious and national holidays. But, more importantly, it means I can genuinely connect with the wider team. And, for when we can all travel again, I’ve learnt a new skill.*

Use collaboration sessions carefully – particularly if people are logging on early or staying late, don’t be disrespectful of their commitment and give them notice to allow them to plan it into their lives

The pandemic has turned fika into a virtual event, but it can still work well

*Disclaimer – my Swedish is still VERY ropey