Offshore

For many of us, it is or was current modus operandi. 

I'll start with the most challenging: daily inspection & adaptation. Because one of the teams is 5-6 or more hours ahead of the other one(s), my solution was to have the most eastern team run their standup at a time convenient for them (say 9:30 am their time), update Slack with their situation and continue with their days.

At 9:30 our time, we would go through their notes and have Slack call line open for them to join (as both listeners or contributors) and to align (or realign) progress status towards goal, discuss problems they may have gotten into since their 9:30 standup, and so forth.

Once our business ends usually around 5 (given it's already late evening in Asia), we update Slack with our current situation for them to be informed and able to run their daily scrum knowing what we did.

Not perfect, I know, but works pretty well.

what pointers do you have for keeping communication and engagement of scrum high when the team is split up in these different locations.

Why would it be low? Did the team self-organize this dislocated model, or was it inflicted on them by higher-ups?

If it is more a case of the latter, then they may appreciate a servant leader who advocates their compromised position to management, and who puts transparency in place over impediments and issues of disempowerment which are beyond their control.

Why would it be low? Did the team self-organize this dislocated model, or was it inflicted on them by higher-ups?

The decision for offshoring was outside of the team's control and now we are just trying to establish the best way to use scrum in this scenario. As a Scrum Master, I have already conversed with management about the impediments this will cause and that outcome could be compromised. 

The part I am interested in the most is how to make the two teams still feel like they are 1 as this does not appear to be something that will be changed.

Have any of you had experience managing scrum within this scenario and what pointers do you have for keeping communication and engagement of scrum high when the team is split up in these different locations.

What are you doing to build trust within the distributed team?  While not a trivial topic, it is even more challenging when people are not face to face.  If you have the opportunity and travel budget to bring everyone face to face for the first few Sprints, do all you can to do so.  

Facilitation of events with distributed teams also takes a lot longer, so plan on setting aside the appropriate time.

Have you presented the teams with this challenge, and asked them for ideas?  Might they prefer video, as an example?