Creating togetherness: the importance of human relations in remote teams

23rd of May 2022 
By Cláudia Pedra and Amanda Rubio

When Stone Soup Consulting was created 14 years ago, we decided to have an entirely remote community. It was a brave decision, driven by the benefits of finding the best people all over the world. But the challenges of remote work were looming. How would we deal with the lack of context? Or not being able to observe all the important non-verbal communication that goes on in an office? We accepted the challenge and never looked back.

The first years of building a community are never easy. We tested many different techniques to build a strong, vibrant, and engaged community. It wasn’t simple and it took us a couple of years to find our stride. Working with people all over the world, that you have never met, creates challenges when building a sense of togetherness – to feel close and connected to your colleagues.

So, we introduced several things in the community: videoconference in all meetings, check-ins before starting meetings, weekly updates about projects, shared knowledge meetings. We promoted hang outs and informal gatherings, we invited people to share their diversity and personal characteristics, their challenges, and problems. Teams were invited to connect and create common ground. We also tried bridging professionals of the same area of work. But that wasn’t enough. The community asked for more. They wanted to meet in person, get to know each other, share not only professional stories but personal ones. Speak and laugh together, without the connection failing or the screen freezing.

It was clear that our community missed face-to-face meetings and the free time together, the space where many interesting conversations take place. So, over the years, we have introduced some face-to-face meetings, normally by country in small to medium sized groups. We encouraged people to speak more bilaterally, and in person when possible. But in a company where your colleague in a project can be 5000 kms away, even those gatherings were not enough. As relational beings, it is still tough to work for three years with a person that we never saw standing.

A company with no offices

Launching a remote community had other challenges. Clients and other external stakeholders reacted with suspicion about a company with no offices. It was not clear how people could work in a professional way from home. They also feared that it meant never meeting with them in person and losing the opportunity to connect at a deeper level. In fact, until the pandemic hit, the connection was a non-issue. What we learned with our internal community was crossed over to client relation and we were able to have a good balance between remote and face-to-face meetings/ workshops. And relationships with clients have always been very good.

So, we continued progressing and added more things. We made our ethics and diversity and inclusion stances clearer, and we created commissions to follow up on the policy implementation and continued to discuss important improvements to how we relate in our community of consultants and clients. What we learned through this work, led us to new changes and to a more integrated process.

Celebrating diversity in the workplace

But developing a connection with those that you see through a screen has some additional challenges, as the pandemic made evident to all. People miss being human together. Celebrating diversity in the workplace helped us a lot. It helped us be aware that all should receive feedback, communication must be fluid and that all people should feel appreciated and valued in their diversity. It helped us create a better workplace that welcomes all, and where people can find what they most appreciate, be it autonomy, personal or professional growth, enjoyment, inspiration, or anything else.

The sense of purpose and belonging is fostered through our Theory of Change, that drives us to help organisations and entrepreneurs enhance their social impact through efficient management and strategy. Our consultants are facilitators for change and could actively see the impact they drive, so the purpose is evident, as well as their contribution. We also streamlined the concept of flexibility and encouraged a good work-life balance. Hoping that this would help in developing healthy relationships.

The need to overcome isolation

However, no one was prepared for the isolation experienced during the COVID19 confinement and the impact on mental health. Just like everyone all over the world, our community members felt overwhelmed. The training of working remotely never prepared us to do so with family crowding the house, the inability to breathe fresh air and the horrible statistics every day, showing how millions were dying. And the loss of loved ones in the process. There is no videoconference that can substitute an embrace and embraces were severely missed.

More than ever community members were striving for human contact and so came the idea of bringing the community together, spread in different places all over the world. This is more than a community event or retreat: it is a necessity. People are in dire need of speaking face to face and smiling in agreement. Although Stone Soup links us, the encounter is more about connecting. About finding our togetherness. That means having lots of unstructured time to appreciate organic moments and let relationships soar in a natural way.

The value of togetherness

By reinforcing our togetherness, we also expect to strengthen our Theory of Change, corporate culture and business model. We will build on our intellectual and social capital and increase our community’s’ involvement in fostering Stone Soup’s culture. We believe this will, in turn, increase the community’s capacity to facilitate change, improve our efficiency and reach our mission goals.

Being together and connected also needs a special place, and so Biovilla was chosen. As a community driven, sustainable project, it made sense to hold our community retreat there. The surroundings will hopefully inspire us in our mission to drive positive societal impact, showcasing the connection between social and environmental ecosystems. Being together in-person will

We intend to continue to work and improve, promoting well-being of all our members. So that in years to come, we hope to look at this encounter as an important milestone in terms of togetherness, with all the wonderful benefits it entails.