Work time is also a social time and important for encouraging professional relationships. In the office, these social moments happen at the coffeemaker or in the hallway.
- Reach out. In remote teams, you have to be proactive about creating social moments. It can be adding 5-10 minutes in meetings for weekend catch-ups.
- Set a schedule. Standardizing some expectations for socializing can reinforce the framework: Everyone shares a picture from their weekend on Mondays, or eats lunch together on video on Thursdays. Let the team decide on these schedules.
- Get meta. Regularly review how well (or not) your team is socializing. When teams get busy, they may stop casual interactions. Make time for fun, and make time to review and understand how that fun helps you as a team.