Dominique Grelet works in the forefront of technology. He is also gaining expertise in working with a decentralized, remote team. Each of his team members is based in a different city or even country (think time zones). “They are too far away to smell!”
Two years ago, Dominique Grelet was promoted from his position as CEO of blueKiwi, a start-up software vendor, to Group VP at Atos where he created and leads the Center of Excellence in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Internet of Things.
Grelet shares what he learned from this total corporate DNA shift: from an entrepreneurial venture to a global organization of more than 100K employees, from a product business to disseminating expertise, and from leading a local team to managing a decentralized one.
Tip 1 – Be prepared for a remote work
The workforce of the future will include network groups within large organizations.
Denise Dampierre (DD): What does your team do and how does that relate to remote work?
Dominique Grelet (DG): Â In a sense we are frontiersmen pioneering the Big Data expanse, leading the way for Atos in conquering client territories in Big Data, Data Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence.
Our mission is to succeed in the initial exploration and customer acquisition and then to transfer to local teams the product development and customer satisfaction expertise we created. Our reach is global. As such our team of 15 Big Data experts are located throughout Europe, the US, and even India.
The future of the workplace. That is at stake here.
Centers of Excellence, such as ours, beg questions around the massification of organizations, for Atos and for other organizations worldwide and across different sectors.   With size, companies build power, expertise, negotiating strength, and the ability to reduce costs.
At the same time, there is a limit to this massification.
- How can we structure the large groups so that they are more nimble and able to deliver beyond results and margins?
- How can we create organizations within these large groups where people have a sense of belonging?
- How can we encourage bonding and closer interaction between people who work together?
The future of the workplace. That is at stake here.
Tip 2 – Connect the remote teams to the corporate purpose
DD:Â How do you create a sense of belonging with a remote team?
DG:Â Â In these network organizations you realize that some people have been working together for years on the phone, but they have never met.
I create opportunities for us to know each other. The team itself only meets together once a year for a two-day workshop to start the year off right. Yet every month, I invite one or more of my team members to present their projects to my own hierarchy.   These guys are motivated by learning, growing, and being recognized as key contributors in the organization. Sponsoring them within the company enables them to see themselves as part of something bigger and as contributors to the rest of the organization.
Tips 3 – Be purposeful in meeting regularly one-on-one
DD: How do you define “team”, especially when they are remote?
DG: Obviously there are different dimensions to a team including the common purpose (see above) and the person to whom you report and more.
Every week I connect one-on-one with each team member, either over the phone or in person.
When I managed local teams, we did not structure one-on-ones as intentionally. We crossed each other in the hallways and found ways for a quick exchange. With distance, we have the obligation to structure.
Regular, planned one-on-one meetings is a practice I will retain when leading local teams again.
Regular, planned one-on-one meetings is a practice I will retain when leading local teams again.
Tips 4 – Schedule availability time
DD: How to you encourage distant team members to work with each other?
DG: It is part of my mission to get these experts to collaborate.  As explorers in uncharted territory, the recipes do not yet exist. We need the best of everyone together to create them. I try to make sure we build on each other’s’ strengths.
How? I make sure people talk to each other. It’s basic stuff.
That’s why I intentionally make myself available.
I heard the story of when Bill Gates and Warren Buffet were planning to meet. Bill Gates proposed a date three month hence because his schedule was so packed. Warren Buffet responded that he could meet anytime.
I intentionally make myself available. I choose not to attend all the meetings so that I am available for discussion.
I make sure to have free time to answer a request coming from my team. I see in my organization some people having their day fully packed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with 30-minute calls. I choose not to attend some meetings so that I am available for discussion.
DD: Is your team aware of your purposeful availability?
DG: I am not sure! I had not thought about it that way. Still, I schedule buffer into my calendar.
Tips 5 – Encourage local face-to-face networks
DD: You have found ways to generate qualitative exchanges during various kinds of meetings. How do you foster helpful informal communication?Â
DG: People need networks. I see this all the time in the building where I have my office:Â networks outside of the direct team start to form.
If people do not have the personal interaction with their team, they will create it with someone else. We have “coffee-machine” time with locals which is as it should be since our job is to disseminate knowledge.
If people do not have the personal interaction with their team, they will create it with someone else.
There are pluses and minuses. We have a global mission with the mandate to seek input from diverse sources. The person in Washington, DC is plugged into one set of customer needs and his interactions with people within the organization. The people in the UK or France will have a different focus. Our team has sensors everywhere.
As a group, we don’t have a “gossip time” or a structured, unstructured time.
Tip 6 – Build micro-teams
DD: As you mentioned, remote teams will probably again surface in your future. What might you do differently?
DG: A next time, I would develop local hubs, a series of sub-teams. It provides a means to interact with peers and a sense of home where one can trust and support each other.
Clustering mitigates the effect of dispersion and enablies us to benefit from enriching the wider group.
This would enable a movement back and forth:Â going out into the global corporation, returning to regroup and share before heading back out. Clustering mitigates the effect of dispersion and enablies us to benefit from enriching the wider group.
Tip 7 – Choose leaders with technical and team-building skills
DD: Considering your preparation for managing a remote team, what would you share with someone embarking on such a role?
DG: I had no formal preparation for managing remote teams and did not even realize at first that I would not see my team every day. It came with several months of working with them and realizing that I probably don’t see the often enough
Transmitting remote team management skills had not been part of my thinking, but now that you mention it, this could impact our decision!
I learned by talking to peers. This is also not the first time working with remote teams; it is the first time with such dispersion.
When I discover a remote team need, I make up the solution as we go.
We do have a process for transmitting missions from one person to another within the group and for identifying potential successors. Transmitting remote team management skills had not been part of my thinking, but now that you mention it, this could impact our decision!
Thank You
With humility Dominque Grelet reminds us
- Even in the latest technology, work progresses through people
- We all need a sense of belonging, especially when forging forth into something new
- Team building does not happen; it is nurtured
It was a delight to learn from Dominique Grelet as we both have a passion to nurture teams and constructive communication.
What is your remote team experience? How do Grelet’s comments apply to your situation? Please share in the comments.