Why Connection in Remote Teams Must Be Designed, Not Accidental (And How to Do It)

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Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: When people don't say anything, trust me, they've made assumptions. And assumptions are the lowest level of knowledge. They're planning, without the conversations. They're just saying, you know what? I can't see any sense of progress here. It doesn't look like there's any plans for me here. And because they don't know, they're not gonna ask you to find out. They're just gonna make their plans, plan their exits, plan something for themselves. So I would say if you're not communicating on a deeper level, then it's a red flag.

David Rice: Welcome to the People Managing People podcast. We're on a mission to build a better world of work and to help you create happy, healthy, and productive workplaces. I'm your host, David Rice.

My guest today is Adora Ikwuemesi. As you could maybe tell from the audio quality in that excerpt at the start, this episode was recorded a little differently. Adora and I met at a conference back at the beginning of May called Running Remote. It's a two day showcase of all things remote work from best practices to new studies and new technology. Adora was speaking at the conference, presenting some research she'd done about remote engagement, looking specifically at a group of employees in Nigeria. I wanted to sit down for a deep dive with her on the topic.

So between sessions and networking hours, we found a shady spot out of the Texas heat and had the following chat. Forgive the birds and the background noise, but hey, such is the challenge of recording live and in person. So without further ado, here's my chat with Adora.

Thought you conducted a qualitative study of 24 remote workers in Nigeria, and I'm curious, what initially inspired you to deep dive into remote engagement research and what surprised you the most about what you found?

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: I'd say I was an employee a long time ago. I've been running my own business for 15 years, but there was a time I was disengaged myself, and I've always been curious, especially when I became a manager. I was of work. I was curious. I've experienced disengagement myself and I was curious about what made people engaged at work and then the pandemic hit and we all had to work remotely and I.

We've been pursuing the subject of engagement without much, and now we have to work remotely. So I thought, you know what? It would be good. I was just embarking on a doctorate research and I knew I wanted to study engagement, but then because we were working remotely, I thought it would be very interesting to study engagement in remote work because it would be very relevant and.

Even though at the time it wasn't clear if we were going to continue working remotely or go back to the office, I knew that this would be game changing if I could gather some insights and help people who are working remotely understand engagement in remote work, et cetera.

David Rice: Now, the framework that you created, it identifies seven key drivers of remote work engagement. Can you take us through that a little bit? And I'm curious, which driver do organizations most consistently like overlook or, and why is it so critical?

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Okay. The thing is like the good things. I knew that by studying engagement, it's not anything that we've not heard about, right?

So these seven drivers, they're probably not areas that we have not, we're not familiar with, right? Like things like leadership, things like work, the way work is designed or the environment, however. Remote work is a different context. Okay. When we work in the office, it's a different work environment.

Remote work is characterized by three main characteristics. One loan working, you are working alone. Two, there's a reliance on technology, like you need technology to be connected. And thirdly, but nowhere least is the fact that, it involves autonomy and. Of people actually work at home. So looking at those factors, it's a different context because when we're in the office is a standardized environment, right?

But when, if 80% of people are working from their home, it means that your office is different from my office, it's different from her office, it's different from Tom's office, Sarah's office. So we don't have a standard office. I may have a dedicated space. With a desk, a fancy chair, and you on the other hand, may be working with in the same room with your sister, or you might be sharing or sitting on the floor.

Exactly. Or if you are like some of the remote workers that you know I work with, you might share a room. You might live in a very noisy environment. Yeah. You may not have a nice desk or you might just be using the table in the kitchen. Yeah. And then of course you might be in a city that has power outages, like in Africa where it's prone or the internet connection may not be great.

So that in itself changes the context, the environmental context, and that was very key for the study. So when we talk about the factors, we talk about seven factors, right? Some of them we already know. In fact, all of them we already know, and I'll just run through them. Lifestyle benefits, it's a factor.

What do I mean by that? People love working remotely. The flexibility is a benefit. And if you take it away from people will not be happy. So that's an obvious one. 'cause when you look at the debates online, that people are like I don't wanna return to the office. If they make me return the office, I'm quitting.

So I think that's an obvious one. Leadership and management. Hey, come on, good. Leadership is essential. If your leadership cares, if you feel like, you have good HR management practices, good policies, those are obvious, those enhance engagement because some companies started working remotely by accident.

So they didn't have policies. Some leaders, some of the reasons why you're getting the return to office mandates because the leadership doesn't trust the employees. They think they're not working. So things like that. So leadership and management is another driver. Another one is relationships and communication.

That's very key because one of the things that gets cuts off when you start working remotely is the connection, the human connection. Even though people tend to say, nah, work is work, but working remotely, disconnects, and when you're in the office, connection happens by accident. It happens all the time.

Ah, you just walk in by past each other. Hey, hi. You catch up when you working remotely. To be conscious, you have to be very intentional about it. So relationships and communication, that was, one of the drivers. Another driver, a very key one was work design. The way work is set up, whether it's meaningful, whether it's purposeful, and whether it's fun.

You talked about surprising. One of the most surprising was fun. I couldn't believe how frequently people mentioned fun work. I was like. Isn't work, just work. But people having fun at work with other people was very key. So fun work, I would say for me, was the most surprising. I couldn't believe how many times people mentioned another key factor, which is, I would say obvious now is the environment.

I remember I already mentioned that remote work is a different work environment anyway, so environmental factors, and when we talk about environmental factors, I. Immediate environment, which is your workspace. So that's your, the ergonomics, your chair, but also things like heat noise. Which people don't really consider.

Yeah. And even the environment, the national context, the country, because in the Nigerian context, power outages were an issue. The infrastructure. And how does this affect engagement? I want to work. They've just caught off to pacify. So no matter how motivated and energized I am, I mean someone talk to me about having to join a session with a torch lights, right?

Yeah. Imagine having to do a zoom session with a torch lights. That's not something that happens in a certain environment. It may not happen in America, but it has happened to people who have to face power outages. So the environment, that is another big one. People, and I would love to see more, obviously research.

Yeah. In that area, because environment plays a really big issue that I would say that people tend not to mention. How many factors have we done now?

David Rice: You mentioned the power outages. Yeah. And I think, I'm from Florida originally. Yeah. And you have like hurricanes and it'll knock the power out for three weeks. Oh wow. Exactly. Have, after a few days, when you get the stuff cleaned up, you wanna start your life back.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yes.

David Rice: But now it's you talking about two and a half weeks before you're gonna have electricity.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Exactly.

David Rice: Before you gotta run off a generator. Exactly. And exactly. There's only certain things that you can run.

And if you're choosing between. Your laptop in the fridge. Yeah, exactly. And so there's this real tension that it creates inside you. The stress levels are so high.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yeah. So another one I would mention are personal factors. And this is one that we need to look at. And when personal factors, like your own individual context from your level of digital competence, like how good are you working digitally? Another one is your personal drive.

Like one of the CEOs I interviewed told me, he said something that stuck with me. He said, some people are great, but they're not great on their own. Yeah. Something came out from the research discipline, self-discipline. So people's ability to be self discipline really affects them when they're working remotely.

So if you are someone who struggles with and discipline. Working remotely can be quite a struggle. Yeah. So that one came up and the good thing was like, I saw it in other research, right? And it was good to see it play again because some people said, yes, this is an issue. This affects my. My engagement at work, and I would say the last or not least, was obviously technology. Technology binds remote work. Without technology, you cannot connect.

You need collaborative tools. The better tools you have to collaborate, the better you would help communication, which helps connection. And then you know, with technology, like I said, there is also a relationship because the environment affects technology. With power, internet and things like that. And then the tools, hardware, software. So those were the key drivers. And just like I said, I think the surprising ones were fun When you manage people. The thing is like when you're young, of course you understand fun, but somehow there seems to be some kind of a media when people get, and management, you're like let's get the work done. What are these people talking about?

David Rice: Get it done and go home.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yeah. But you know what? I saw how important it was for people to actually enjoy work. Like people like to, they are more engaged in things that they enjoy.

Or has meaning to them impact that, that type of thing. So yes, that was something that I would say, be more intentional about in a remote setting. Be more intentional. It won't happen by accident, so it has to be designed. Connection Has to be designed. Yeah. Not by accidents.

David Rice: Some leaders get sucked into kind of thinking that engagement is really just it's about communication frequency in particular. But in your research, what have you found engagement truly feels like? Yeah. For people and for promote employees in particular.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yeah. What I would say is that frequency, the quality is better than quantity. What I did find was that. People felt it was important to be engaged. They felt it was important, so no one said no communication. I think the key thing was the quality of the communication.

You might be communicating with me frequently, but it's like you're micromanaging me because you're always checking. So that's a different kind of communication, like hey, what's the status? Where are you now? But then like I had a meeting just last week and I have one of the project managers, great guy, and we hadn't met for a while 'cause it's a remote team.

That particular project team. And he just went into the agenda and I'm like hey. We've not spoken for a while, all of us. And I said no. Before we start, can we just check in on everybody? And I was asking, so I asked everybody one by one, and what has your high for the year been and what has your low been like?

Just random. I said, I'll stop first. And I started like that. So it was supposed to be a one hour meeting? Yes. We went past the agenda. We ended up spending two hours, but guess what? That 30 minutes spent checking in with everyone. I found out so much things that I would never, yeah, and guess what?

The meeting people's discretionary effort was higher. They voluntarily contributed much more. And then after the meeting I got like text messages, people saying, Hey, thank you. Like that, like even I was dreading the meeting like but the quality of the meeting was so much better. Yeah. So those are things like connecting with people on a personal level and it helps you with context because I found out things that.

I would never have found out. And it allowed me, the human elements, like people need that and some people have, they just need someone to share things with. We don't even realize that we want to share. Like people were not expecting to share, but they shared so much because I guess some of their struggles, they hadn't voiced it out to anyone yet.

So it was like an unexpected, I don't know, maybe therapy session. I didn't, we didn't plan for it, but it was a product meeting. And I see from the responses after. I don't usually get text messages after from my team members saying, Hey, thank you. And like I could see that it was worth it. Yeah.

David Rice: You talk about the importance of conducting an engagement audit.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yes.

David Rice: And for HR and people ops leaders, what are the essential early warning signs of disengagement that they should be looking for in a remote team?

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yeah, a disconnection. Yeah. It's so easy to be like. Coming back again to the conversation when people say work is work just when people haven't spoken for a while, you don't even know what has happened and transpired and when, spoke a meaningful conversation it's not about the status reports Hey, where are we on this project? It's about all the unspoken activities and sometimes people don't ask questions because you feel like when you hear the answers, you might have to solve it. You're like, I'm not gonna ask that. Yeah, exactly. So people just like, how you doing?

Fine. And that's why people respond that way because people don't wanna get involved. But the truth is that if meaningful conversations are not having, that is a red flag, right? Because of the lowest level of knowledge they're planning without the conversations. They're just saying, you know what?

I can't see any sense of progress here. It doesn't look like there's any plans for me here. And because they don't know, they're not gonna ask you to find out. They're just gonna make their plans, plan their exits, plan. Yeah. Something for themselves. So I would say if you're not communicating on a deeper level.

Then it's a red flag. Don't think that because you're not communicating everything is fine. No if you don't know anything on a deeper level, that's a red flag because it will just shock you. One day it will come out and you'll be like, oh, I didn't know. And that's how it goes.

David Rice: Yeah. One thing leaders struggle with is sustaining engagement over time, right?

Yes. Yes. And based on your framework. Yeah. I guess I'm, what strategies kind of separate organizations that get short term engagement bumps Yeah. From their efforts. Yeah. Versus those that have more lasting change.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yeah, I think so. It might just seem like we're, what's the word now? Like we're flogging the same issue.

There's transformational change and there's like transactional, right? And transactional can be things like, of course you might get high engagement because maybe there's a financial reward or something like that, right? But the truth is that real engagement comes from lasting connections.

It comes from lasting relationships. It comes from open communication and shared experiences, right? So if you don't intentionally create. The forum for open, honest, human conversations. You are never really going to have engagement. That is true. And then, also, when we talk about engagement, we talk about authentic people bringing their whole selves to work.

Like people need to feel connected. And what does connection mean? It's about feeling. It's an experience. People go to experience that they're seen, that they're heard. Okay. And that they're valued. So when people don't have that experience, then they feel disconnected.

David Rice: Yeah.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: So how do you make people feel seen?

How are you doing? Like, how was your day? How has your year been? And really wanting to know the answers.

David Rice: Yeah.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: And then people's voice needs to matter in those meetings. Someone is not speaking up rather than saying, okay, that's a good thing. Bring them into the conversation. And then being valued.

Are you recognizing them? Are you praising them for the progress that they've made? So being seen, being heard, and being valued, those three things are very key for connection. And I would say that leaders, the more you practice that and practice makes perfect. And that helps us.

David Rice: There's some discussion, I think because it was, somebody brought it up in your session even about, okay, cultural differences in remote work. Of course. Did you wanna uncover any insights? That would be particularly valuable, for global organizations managing remote teams that are across different regions and countries.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Yeah, I don't understand the context. Okay. And just like you said, when you are working globally, there's some problems that people encounter in a global environment that you could never know.

I remember a situation where even like I had an employee leave and he returned the laptop. And I was, at that time, I was really cross at the state of the laptop and I made a statement and I was like, this person must have been using it on the floor. Like it was so scratch. It was so rough. And then it did occur to me that, that was the context.

I couldn't Why? Why is you, do you know where this person is actually working? Do they actually have a space to work? Maybe they're sharing a room, maybe she's literally on the floor. Sometimes we take it for granted. Everyone doesn't have a dedicated desk, a dedicated office.

David Rice: Yeah.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: So understand the nuances.

I know that, like everybody's circumstance is different, right? Especially younger people. We talk a lot about gen Z, this Gen Z, that I'm like, I don't wanna hear any conversation about this. Their context is different. They're not in the same, they don't have the same issues that you may have.

They don't own their own homes. They don't own their own spaces, and they're young who wasn't clueless or, when I was young, I was disengaged at work. I don't know why we pretend like we were really like responsible. I wasn't responsible. I didn't consider myself responsible, and I admit it freely now.

But I think, we need to mentor, we need to help people, we need to guide people. But don't act like you were all like responsible when you were younger.

David Rice: You just had it all together.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Nah. You didn't have to. We all passed around at work and Yeah. So those kind of things, context matters. Yeah.

David Rice: If a company could do only one thing starting tomorrow Yes. To immediately start improving remote engagement based on your research. Yes. What would you tell 'em to do first?

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: I would say connect. I would say connect by design, not by accident. Ah, that's what I would say.

David Rice: That's a good answer. Hey before we go, there's always two things I do on every podcast episode.

Okay. First thing is I wanna give you a chance to, tell people about where they can connect with you and find out more about what you're doing.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Oh, fantastic. The best place to connect with me is LinkedIn. So you can search for me, Adora Ikwuemesi, and you find your LinkedIn. That's the best place.

David Rice: So the second thing that we've to finish every episode. Yes. I have a little tradition. You get to ask me a question. So go ahead and ask me anything you want.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: I see. What keeps you engaged at work?

David Rice: It's a lot of things. It's, but it All right. So I'm a naturally fairly driven person. I would say I, I have a lot of pride in my work and I wanna be, I'm very driven by the idea that maybe I can create something new or just something that will like cheer people off or be useful or even inspire one of my colleagues. But if I'm really honest, yeah. It's a lot of, how do I put this? It's a lot of childhood psychological trauma about financial insecurity that drives me

of. Not having, not being able to provide for my family or myself, that is my childhood we didn't have a lot. Yeah. And and there was some insecurity there on finances. It was a big issue and like my parents' relationship. So what of the things that I saw shaped my perception and, I'm being very honest, open here, and vulnerable.

Sure. It's, that is a, I have to look at that and say to myself you can go easy. You can stop getting out of like flight or fight or panic mode. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to kill to survive. You know what I mean? Yeah. You just, you can just be you and it's okay. But it's hard. It's hard to turn that off because that's a difficult, that's a thing that's always in the back of.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: It's always there and our childhood shapes us whether we admit it or not.

That is it. Fear or love the two sides of the same. The same coin. Yes. Yes. That was a big question. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

David Rice: Thank you for giving me some of your time today to tell us a little bit more about your work.

Dr. Adora Ikwuemesi: Thank you. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. Thank you, David.