Coordination tax refers to the additional time, effort, and resources required to manage and synchronize work among team Coordination tax refers to the additional time, effort, and resources required to manage and synchronize work among team members who are not co-located. Butts in seats handle so many problems if you are a manager. In most cases, you can look out of your office to see what people are doing and return to your managerial tasks – whatever those are. If you are interested in attendance and who is leaving early and staying late, it’s got that one covered too. There are just a few problems. It’s an archaic way of managing people and doesn’t produce the best results. And by the way, no one likes it except micromanagers. Why do people still do it? Because it’s easy.
Supporting a remote or hybrid work environment is challenging, especially for managers who are used to butts in seats as their go-to strategy. But if you realize all systems are self-organizing, and can go with the flow, you just need to be aware of the dynamics of the new structure to coordinate things and make it work well for everyone.
Communication Overhead
If you are hybrid or remote you are likely to spend more time on communication (not necessarily a bad thing). More time may be spent on emails, messages, and virtual meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Misunderstandings can occur more frequently, leading to the need for clarifications and follow-ups. This is why it’s important to focus on outcomes rather than activities. There’s rarely confusion about what ultimately needs to be done. It’s the when and how that can hang us up.
Scheduling Challenges
Coordinating meetings and collaborative work across different time zones can be challenging, often requiring compromises and additional planning. Not everyone has to deal with multiple time zones, but this is the nature of asynchronous work. People are going to be doing their jobs at different times. Maybe you have early birds and night owls on your team in addition to those that work normal hours. As long as everyone knows the rules, people are getting pretty good with this. Companies should try to establish norms for meetings and collaboration that work for as many people as possible. There’s always going to be outliers, but you can’t please everyone.
Technology and Tools
Ensuring that all team members have access to the necessary technology and tools and that they are proficient in using them, can be time-consuming and costly. Older workers in particular may struggle with remote technology. In addition to learning the technology, it can be intimidating to be your help desk. Most younger workers were born connected to the internet so they are less likely to have issues with newer technology. Still, having online training, and in person events can be crucial to getting people comfortable with technology.
Information Sharing
Making sure that information is easily accessible to all team members can be more difficult in a remote environment. This might require the implementation of new systems or processes to manage and share information effectively. Team, Google Drive, Mural, and Notion can be great ways to share information. Find what works best for your team. The goal is to have things secure and easy to access at the same time.
Building and Maintaining Team Cohesion
Creating a sense of team unity and maintaining company culture can be harder when employees are not physically together. Efforts to foster team bonding and engagement often require additional time and resources. In most cases, this wasn’t happening when people were in the office full-time anyway. We are just more aware of it now. When possible, try to get together in person for team building. The goal is to make this intentional. Forcing people into the office every week does nothing for building and maintaining team cohesion. Creating intentional events and retreats is much more effective even if they are only done just a few times per year.
If getting together is logistically challenging, find ways to get to know one another over your online meeting platform of choice. Games, speakers, and other activities can help with team cohesion. Also, try to have some mutually agreed-upon rules for when the camera is on or off.
Task Management and Accountability
Keeping track of tasks, deadlines, and individual contributions can be more complex. This often necessitates the use of project management tools and regular check-ins which should have been used in the first place. Maybe you just had one person with a license for Microsoft Project, or you had your Kanban board up on a wall. These things need to become digital and easily sharable. Whether it’s Asana or Monday.com, find a tool that meets your needs with a distributed team. You may find things work better than they did when everyone was in the office.
Final Thoughts on the Coordination Tax
While hybrid and remote work offer significant flexibility and other benefits, the coordination tax is an important factor that organizations need to consider and manage effectively to ensure productivity and cohesion among distributed teams. When it works well, it’s not by accident. Companies that recognize they have to do things differently embrace the coordination tax and create new policies and practices around it. Those that don’t are trying to manage like it’s 2019 and forcing people back into offices that no longer serve anyone’s needs. At the end of the day, paying the coordination tax may be the key to survival for many companies.
