building culture in remote teams
TRANSCRIPT
BUILDING CULTURE IN REMOTE TEAMS
Michael Overell – CEO, RecruitLoop September, 2016
What You’ll Learn
How world-leading remote teams build and maintain culture
Practical tips for engaging your remote employees
The tools we use as a remote team
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Hi, I’m Michael Overell
CEO & Cofounder of RecruitLoop
Former McKinsey consultant
Married to an HR Director (we eat culture for dinner)
Australian in the Bay Area
@mboverell [email protected]
Our Distributed Team
25 people
9 countries
1 physical office
Our Community Our Global Community
Why Should You Care?
63 million US employees (43% of the workforce)
will experience remote work in 2016
– Forrester
San Francisco commuters wasted 75 hours sitting in
traffic in 2015 – Inrix Traffic Scorecard
Because, talent…
Many companies are getting this right.
Your competitors?
499 employees in 50 countries
Powering 18% global websites
172K internal messages sent in the last week (~350 pp)
Wordpress.com
But… Remote work is easy
to get wrong.
Professional isolation
Communication & Coordination
Timezone issues
Synchronous v asynchronous
No water cooler
Second-class citizens
Trust & Management Perception
“If I can’t see you, I don’t know what
you’re working on.”
Design Your Remote Culture
Step 1: Define the objectives of your remote culture
We can be more productive and happy at work, than if we were constrained to a single office.
We can perform at a higher level, with stronger talent, than if we were constrained to a single location.
As individuals
As a team
Values
Processes
Tools
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2
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Step 2: Create the foundations to deliver it
Our remote values
Transparency Bias to transparency, in almost any situation. Share what you’re working on, where you’re working from, and how you’re feeling.
Bias to over-communication. This helps with transparency, and also avoiding silos or isolation.
Do what you say, get shit done, deliver to deadlines and goals.
Trust each other, and that we’re all working towards the same goals.
Communication
Accountability
Trust
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Our team processes 2
Daily Weekly Monthly
Quarterly
Group chat > email
Video > phone call
Shared calendars, agendas & actions
Daily status updates
Fun & foolery
Team meetings – sales, product, marketing, success
1:1s
Project updates
All Hands (recorded)
Strategy sessions
Off-sites & events
GOOD NO GOOD Asynchronous, open
communication Internal email
Transparent targets, activities, focus
Team silos
Local = remote Us vs them
Human connections Faceless coworkers
Our remote ‘stack’ 3
Communication Collaboration Coordination
Group Chat
Video Calls
Docs
File Sharing
Calendars
Project Management
Status Updates Shared Email
Our remote ‘stack’ 3
Communication Collaboration Coordination
The ‘command center’ – automated notifications
Group chat
Email killer
Water cooler
5 people on this call are in the same room
Project management
Task lists
Meeting agendas
Meeting templates
Transparent notes
Actions
3 daily questions:
Today I achieved…
Tomorrow I will...
Any blockers
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Face Time Matters
Learn from other remote ‘Leaders’
