One of the biggest challenges that has risen during the pandemic for software teams which were suddenly forced to go full remote, is how to keep the team spirit and team cohesion high. This is something that can be seen as a cross-cutting concern for employees and for managers alike, for different reasons. In some cases, employees feel more prone to share their thoughts and to collaborate when being in the same room, as opposed to being fully remote. Again, this is somewhat of a personal preference but, it’s undeniable that if you can simply walk over to your colleagues desk and ask something, sync on progress or simply chitchat to relax and switch contexts, it makes having a cohesive team a lot easier. Managers and alike, also like to have cohesive teams as it increases mission sense and purpose, keeps employees more engaged with the company and one another, and is likely to lead to more effective teams in the long term. So, how can we build this cohesion while staying full remote?

There are some ways we can go about it that are both inexpensive and effective to onboard new people and cement existing collaborations:

• if covid allows, try to have at least one office day; while people got pretty used to not needing to commute, one day per week can be nice to not stay completely out of touch, it’s a good enough measure of compromise for most people and allows for some nice, in-person chats during the working day;

• host “chill” Zoom sessions: in the middle of every sprint, we have a “coffee break moment” where we discuss our interests, weekends, what we have been up to recently outside of work and generally chat about trivial and relaxing stuff which is a nice way to foster camaraderie while staying full-remote;

• with your more direct team: go to the trenches and “fight the fight”. When there’s some serious bug, a hard task, a complicated meeting, etc, it’s really good to engage in long-lasting Slack calls to vent out frustrations, exchange ideas, keep eachother’s spirit’s high and to solve though problems together. I believe that engaging in such activities while staying full-remote is a great way to build both trust and a sense of team cohesion as we now have a group of people who, while being full-remote, are all collaborating together on a larger scale problem, affecting all of them, even if indirectly. I think these moments truly bring people together and they can be the best moments where a group of colleagues really starts to feel more like a team, and, while it’s desirable that such occasions are rare, if, and when they do happen, try to fully exploit them and use them to grow your sense of team cohesion. These types of “war stories” are what makes for great professional experience and growth, and, it’s also the type of memories you will cherish and take with you, moving forward. It’s part of the reason why I love this job!

On a different note, and to wrap this up, I think besides the suggestions above, when possible, assessing your colleagues hobbies and interests can also be a great way to keep teams and people engaged while staying full remote and can help to make people feel like part of the team, even while far away: as an example, I actually hosted a cooking show via Zoom where I cooked some nice portuguese food for all my colleagues to try and replicate, had a lot of fun, and it’s definitely the kind of activity that can be relaxed, fun and help in bringing people together!