DISBAND THE CULTURE CLUB - Rethink Connection

There is a Culture Club forming that cites culture as the reason people need to work in a building. I challenge every member of this club to find a definition of culture that refers to a location, a building, or an office. You won’t find one.

This will be a Culture Club series of newsletters as we explore what needs to be eradicated and replaced to build a thriving culture in a distributed workforce. Last week, we looked at hiring and how it contributes to the culture.

This week, we will explore how you keep a remote or distributed team connected. You can only have a thriving culture when employees are connected, have a feeling of belonging, have a shared sense of purpose, and know they are important and valued members of a team.

Connection

Those who say that employees working remotely are not connected to their colleagues and experience long periods of loneliness do not have a remote problem. They have a leadership problem. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how leadership needs to evolve to have a thriving remote culture.

Connection must be intentional. I could go into a busy office, surrounded by people, and feel isolated, lonely and certainly not connected.

Regular contact

Leaders must maintain regular contact with all team members regardless of where they are located. In addition to the random contact that happens, leaders must make scheduled contact at least bi-weekly.

Contact must be meaningful and have context. By this, I mean leaders can check in with employees about how a particular project or task is tracking and ask if any support or additional resources are needed. There can be a conversation about milestones, risks, issues, and opportunities. The leader can determine if the work is engaging for the employee and ensure that the work has a purpose for the employee.  The leader ensures the employee can see how the work is contributing to the achievement of team and organisational goals.

That conversation is in the context of a progress and status update of work being undertaken.

A totally different conversational context is the one in which the leader checks in on the well-being of their employees. That should be a dedicated conversation. It can include informal discussions about the weekend, the sports results, the kids' birthdays, the past or upcoming holidays, and so on. However, the focus is on the employee’s mental and physical well-being.

I have heard leaders have a project conversation with a team member and then, during wrap-up, ask, “Oh, and by the way, how are you feeling?” It is an afterthought and is likely to receive an answer of “Okay.” Important questions should never start with “Oh, and by the way….”

It is probably the only time the leader asks their employees how they are feeling, and they do it when there is little or no time for exploration and an open and honest conversation. This is often because the leader fears that the response may indicate that the employee is not okay, and the leader does not feel equipped to deal with that situation.

Leaders must understand that they are not expected to be medical practitioners, psychologists or psychiatrists. Their role is to help their employees find the help that they need and then keep on checking in to see if they are improving or need additional assistance.

A lack of leader connection with employees does not uphold a culture of care, compassion, empathy and respect.

Team connection

Leaders must also encourage and foster connection and collaboration between team members. They can do this by setting a positive example and promoting a culture of collaboration. Regular team meetings should be held, and team members should be encouraged to support each other where they can. Leaders can assign projects and tasks to more than one member of the team.

At Menlo Innovations, all work is done in pairs.

“Each pair of developers shares a keyboard and a monitor. High-Tech Anthropologists® work as pairs on field observations and software design. Quality Advocates validate together. Pairing is the quickest way we've found to share knowledge throughout the team, eliminating towers of knowledge and bringing new team members up to speed.” 

This also builds connection, teamwork, rapport, and mutual respect.

Communication

Communication is critical to keeping everyone connected and on the same page.

Asynchronous

Most remote or distributed teams use asynchronous ways to communicate and collaborate as the default. The old meeting-centric way of working no longer works when employees are distributed and possibly across time zones.

At Atlassian, the default is written and asynchronous communication.

“We default to written and asynchronous communication because working hours vary so much from team to team. But that doesn’t mean we never talk in real-time! We use meetings to kick off new projects, brainstorm ideas, and reach decisions. The goal is to preserve as much time as possible for the deep work that is best done asynchronously, like coding, researching, and status updates.”

You must decide when it makes sense to use synchronous or asynchronous communication. There is great guidance from Ryan Knott writing for TechSmith, so I am not going to replicate that here. You can read Ryan’s advice for yourself.

Technology

The right technology is critical to enable effective and efficient communication and collaboration.

There are plenty of tools out there to select from, so it is important to determine what the needs of your workforce are. Talk to your employees and find out what is needed. Engage them in the selection process.

Keep abreast of the industry so you can keep ahead of the curve. For example, Google introduced Project Starline back in 2021. It is a technology project that helps people feel like they are together – even when they are in cities far apart. You can read about the latest advancements in this technology project here.

Microsoft Mesh connects your workforce with avatars and immersive 3D spaces.

Meta has Horizon Workrooms - an immersive virtual office where you can meet teammates, brainstorm ideas, share presentations and get things done, whether you're wearing a Meta Quest headset or joining from a 2D screen. 

Slack has Donut for more effective collaboration. One aspect of the platform is the virtual Watercooler. Donut will post topics that inspire more productive collaboration in the Slack channel of your choosing. It also has Intros that introduce teammates for different purposes via a direct message in Slack.

Principles

There must be principles around communication and collaboration for remote and distributed teams, especially when they may be in many time zones.

How long do you have to respond to an email?

If I receive a phone call from my boss at 2 am in the morning, do I have to answer it?

If there is something urgent that needs my immediate attention, how will that be communicated to me?

What communication channels will be used for certain types of information?

Co-create these principles with employees so there is skin in the game and everyone knows what is expected of them 

These are some examples of principles.

·       I should know that if I send an email to Anwar, who is in Delhi, I can expect a response within 48 hours.

·       If I receive a phone call from a colleague during my working hours, I am expected to answer it. If it is outside my working hours, I can respond to it in my working hours if the caller has left a voicemail.

·       Respect your colleague’s time zone.

Gathering

Having a remote or distributed workforce does not mean they never get together in person. The key principle is that it should be intentional with a specific desired outcome.

Atlassian has this as a guiding principle.

“We work great together online, but we gather in real life to build personal connections. In fact, there’s a whole team available to help plan. Whether it’s a large team offsite, or an intimate social gathering for locally based Atlassians, our goal is to make gathering in person easier, more equitable, and more epic.”

The report, Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian, reveals that they hosted 1,600 team gatherings over the past year, with an average of 16 attendees at each. Atlassians have attended 5,000+ social gatherings in their local areas.

Their approach to team connection:

“Teams at Atlassian get together a few times a year for what we call intentional team gatherings. These events take place at one of our 12 offices and tend to be 3-5 days long. Managers are encouraged to prioritize forging relationships, sharing meals, and advancing important projects.”

What they learned:

“Team gatherings lead to an average 27% increase in feelings of connection, and this boost lasts 4-5 months. In contrast, our research shows that sporadic office attendance has no impact on team connection.”

Whereas Atlassian has offices and allows employees to work anywhere (within parameters), GitLab is an all-remote company and has no offices anywhere in the world. It does, however, recognise the value of in-person interactions.

“Humans are social creatures, and research has shown that there is value in in-person interactions. While there are tremendous advantages to operating a 100% remote company, leaders should consider being intentional about planning in-person elements, even if they’re optional for team members.”

Summary

Let’s disband the culture club once and for all. Let’s acknowledge that culture is not created by collocating in an office.

Culture is not determined by the location from which you work, and it needs good leadership to thrive.

A thriving culture does not result from hiring for culture fit, nor will it thrive without connection and collaboration.

Allowing employees to determine the location in which they do their best work will create a thriving culture. Companies must provide employees with what they need to work from wherever they are happiest and productive, whether that is in the office, at home, or a co-working space. We must rethink and evolve leadership that enables a thriving remote culture.

We must hire for culture-add and have an onboarding process and a learning and development program that makes everyone feel valued, included, and have a sense of belonging and purpose. We must ensure everyone is connected and we have a collaborative workforce.

We must intentionally build a connected and collaborative workforce that is led by great leadership.