Team members that don’t show their face ever, or 99% of the time when video chatting with the team used to be OK, before COVID. But in the age of COVID this shouldn’t be the new normal.

Team facilitation and communication with people’s faces visible can be 10 times more efficient and provide more information that audio alone cannot provide.

This can also be an early warning sign for team members who really like to work alone and not share information, not like pairing etc. That isn’t inherently bad, but in the age of COVID and remote collaboration, Agile and XP teams need to communicate with each other and pair with each other even MORE in the age of COVID, because there’s no longer an office water cooler or coffee machine to talk with others or gain information passively.

I’d have a 1-1 with each team member that seems to always have a great reason not to show their face and find a way where they could, even partially show their face every once in a while.

Some members might not even have a webcam (get a webcam) . Some will say their home is a mess (virtual backgrounds), some will find other creative reasons.

From a skill point of view, it is just another example of “getting our of your comfort zone” and learning new skills. In this case the skills are communicating & collaborating with the team.

Examples of “experiments” we can agree on with individual members:

• Show your face at least during online team retrospectives

• Show your face at least during daily meeting

• Show your face at least during pairing or 1-1 meetings

• Do one group presentation where you face is visible.

Is this micro managing? I can see it being understood this way. But if we treat this as a skill that’s required as part of the team we can prevent long term knowledge hoarding and “Bus Factors” in the team because, hopefully ,people will be more likely to share information with each other, and showing your face can be the first step in this direction, or the first sign that it’s going to be difficult.