Hard to know what to do when you don’t know what everyone is doing!

My son has a new video game called Fall Guys. It’s an online game where the goal is to finish an obstacle course with their ‘minion’ like avatars.  Every round has a unique challenge and if your minion doesn’t make it across the finish line in the first 20% or so, you are eliminated.

Each round has a series of strange obstacles to overcome while at the same time, bumping and knocking each other and trying to avoid a swinging hammer. My son’s pretty good at it.

One course I found particularly interesting, is called ‘Fall Ball’. It’s like a soccer game but your minion uses his head to hit the ball it into the net. You’re arbitrarily assigned a team, ‘blue vs red’. Your joint effort is to score as many goals against the other team before the time runs out.

Seems simple enough. It’s complete caseous! 

Fall Guys - ‘Ya, it’s a knock out!’

Everyone is running around everywhere, bumping into teammates and opposing players. My son starts to express (Yell!) his frustration at his teammates and their strategy towards the game. Let me remind you, THEY CAN’T HEAR HIM!

He becomes so distraught that he self-appoints himself as the goalie and runs his little minion back to defend the net. Once there it seems that another player, took it upon themselves to do the same thing and now I can see that his team is less affective on offence.

The stress that ensues becomes papabile as the time counts down. Finally, after failing to score, his entire team is eliminated. This usually ends with my son, throwing his controller on the sofa and storming off, yelling at teammates who can’t HEAR HIM!

This reminds me of some remote teams and the difficulty of working remotely without the normal communication that occurs daily in the office. 

People understand the goal however the obstacle course has changed. Roles and priorities may have shifted and sometimes teammates decide it best to ‘defend the net’ and in doing so frustrate their teammates. 

What’s important is to have some rules and understanding of roles and responsibilities and the priorities for the team. What are we going to do when we are all on our own. 

During particularly stressful times, it’s good practice to write them down and check in on whether the rules still apply or have shifted. They might have changed since you all started working from home again, or perhaps they’ve never been explicit to everyone.

Here are a few areas to consider when pulling together an "It's okay to..." list for your team.

Digital Communication Norms

We are all getting tired of video conference, but they’re still needed. Ask, is it important for teams to do all meetings with video on? Or should it just be on for the first few minutes to establish a connection? You may also want to think through the video conference rules and share tips with each other on what’s helping you survive ‘burn out’ on video. Review rules: Is it okay to have kids pop in, retrieve a package at the front door, or stretch and get a drink of water during a long meeting.

Psychological Safety

Given the economic climate, many people feel lucky to even have a job. This may make them feel especially hesitant to ask questions for fear of coming across as needy, slow, or annoying. Let them know it's okay to ask questions to gain their footing. Are we doing things well enough to support you while working from home? Can you list items that are taking energy from you or giving you energy while working from home. We all can learn on what is the preferred ‘style of play’ for everyone.

Work Styles

You may work with extreme extroverts, cautious decision makers, and assertive debaters. And often the work styles of those in the majority become the norm. With your new list, recognize that what's common may not be optimal for everyone. For example, make it okay for introverts to rely on the chat function in a video call to contribute to a meeting. Ask for team members time to reflect on topics discussed and respond later to points being made. 

The act of making a list is a simple exercise that has positive benefits and allows you to reinforce your culture even when the nature of work changes.

If everyone understands the rules of this ‘new obstacle course’ it’ll make everything less exhausting as we all try and push our ball into the net.