Page 245 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

224 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

be invited to his team’s holiday party was included in the festivities
and the holiday presents even though they weren’t physically there.
He encourages social network communication not directly related to
work. For example, his team has a sharepoint location called Fun and
Funny, where they can post stories, anecdotes, and pictures from the
Christmas party. “It’s a matter of making that space for the social
networking side of it and creating some personality behind the people
you don’t see directly, face to face, very often,” he told us. The key is
to build remote relationships as much as possible, and the trick there
is to facilitate personal interaction.
Sometimes the simplest things build a team and emotional com-
mitment to it. At LEGO there is a bucket of LEGO bricks at ev-
ery table, and people are encouraged to play with them. So they do.
During meetings everyone’s hands are in the buckets while they are
talking, and they are putting bricks together. Having a sense of play
increases community.
It helps to have a strong and beloved brand. “When people come
in,” says Zev, “they see the company through the eyes of themselves
as a child and the really positive experiences they had growing up.
LEGO has made a point of taking that positive image externally
and making sure that internally they mirror the same tenets like
quality and creativity. When people look at the company and want to
develop an emotional attachment, the corporate identity—our brand
internally—is really solid and strong.” So, folks at LEGO play games.
Collaborative communication builds community and trust. But
how to do that? “It’s easy to start off with a generic answer of keeping
communication lines open, and that seems like the obvious starting
point,” Zev says, “but what I’ve found to be really successful is taking
that principle and actually finding real-life tools to use to open com-
munication channels—especially the digital channels.”
The basic starting point for Zev’s team is video conferencing. Peo-
ple can get together and see each other’s faces during those hours of
the day when their times overlap. Having shared workspaces, which
are team based, is also important. Communication opportunities that
don’t depend upon being online at the same time gives everyone the