Managing remotely, while remotely managing

Learn more:

When work takes over your life (podcast) – WorkLife with Adam Grant

https://www.ted.com/talks/worklife_with_adam_grant_when_work_takes_over_your_life

36 Great Tips for Online Meeting facilitation (infographic)

http://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Online-meeting-facilitation.pdf

Banishing Burnout: Six Strategies for Improving Your Relationship with Work –Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter (book)

Template “My Relationship With Work” survey (make a copy and fill out every month)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zDC7wzeNqy5K07CVSfNVneqqhHeTzQGQRKBNkFmR_KA/edit#gid=39816133

Transcript

1. Managing remotely,
   while remotely
   managing
   Lindsay Holmwood

   @auxesis
   

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2. ! About me
   Worked in and lead
   distributed software
   engineering teams
   for 8 years
   

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3. ! About me
   Lead teams with
   follow-the-sun
   coverage
   

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4. ! About me
   Currently at Envato
   leading distributed
   team of 15, 

   growing to 20
   

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5. The journey

   0. Fundamentals
   1. Starting out
   2. Growing the team
   3. Scaling to the whole org
   

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6. You Org
   Technology
   Practice
   

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7. You Org
   Technology
   Practice
   

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8. No management
   buy in?
   Don’t even bother.
   

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9. Outsource
   Working from home
   Distributed
   

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10. Distributed?
    • Geographical
    • Temporal
    

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11. 1. Starting out
    

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12. You Org
    Technology
    Practice
    

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13. All remote, or
    no remote
    

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14. Create a
    level playing field
    

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15. Hybrid is hard
    

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16. Regular face to face
    catchups.
    Ideal: once a quarter
    

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17. Regular face to face
    catchups.
    Likely: once a year
    

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18. Establish rituals
    

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19. Priming
    

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20. “exposure to one stimulus
    influences a response to a
    subsequent stimulus, without
    conscious guidance or
    intention”
    

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21. Say silk five times.
    

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22. Now spell “silk”.
    

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23. What do cows drink?
    

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24. If a red house is made with
    red bricks, a blue house is
    made with blue bricks, 

    a pink house is made with
    pink bricks, a black house is
    made with black bricks, what
    is a greenhouse made with?
    

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25. Priming to reinforce
    segmentation
    

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26. Segmenters
    Create partitions
    between
    work and home
    

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27. Segmenters
    Use rituals to
    reinforce boundaries
    

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28. Establish rituals
    Wear shoes
    while working
    

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29. Establish rituals
    Different devices
    

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30. Establish rituals
    Walk around
    the block
    

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31. Establish rituals
    Standing desks
    

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32. Integrators
    Blend home
    and work life
    

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33. Integrators
    Strong desire to blur
    the domains
    

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34. Integrators
    Easily transition
    between domains
    

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35. You
    Integrator Segmenter
    

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36. You
    Integrator Segmenter
    

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37. Integrators
    are more accepting of
    segmenters
    than vice-versa
    

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38. Integrators
    need boundaries too,
    and strategies for
    disconnecting
    

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39. Segmenters
    report higher levels
    of job satisfaction
    compared to
    integrators
    

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40. How does this impact
    working remotely?
    

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41. Remote working
    naturally lends itself
    to integrators
    

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42. Integration is a
    slippery slope to
    burnout
    

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43. Christina Maslach
    

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44. 6 contributing factors
    1. Workload
    2. Control
    3. Reward
    4. Community
    5. Fairness
    6. Values
    

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45. 6 contributing factors
    1. Workload:
    Too much
    Too complex
    Too urgent
    Too awful
    

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46. 6 contributing factors
    1. Workload:
    The amount of work to complete in a day
    The complexity of my work
    The intensity of demands from customers
    The firmness of deadlines
    The frequency of surprising, unexpected events
    The opportunity to settle into a comfortable groove
    The frequency of interruptions in my workday
    The proportion of my work time spent with customers
    The amount of time I work alone
    The amount of time I work with other employees
    

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47. Understand your
    relationships with work
    

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48. Promote a culture of
    segmentation
    

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49. You Org
    Technology
    Practice
    

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50. Multiple internet
    connections
    Dongle with lots of data
    

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51. Multiple internet
    connections
    Don’t skimp on quality
    (fast upload a must)
    

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52. Multiple internet
    connections
    Have backup equipment
    

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53. Multiple internet
    connections
    Move to areas with NBN
    

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54. Increase the size of
    your hiring pool
    Parents re-entering the
    workforce
    

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55. Increase the size of
    your hiring pool
    People priced out of
    major cities
    

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56. Increase the size of
    your hiring pool
    People with caring
    responsibilities who
    can only work part time
    

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57. Have a second
    monitor
    See screen + video at
    the same time
    

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58. Instant messaging
    Non-negotiable,
    primary comms method
    

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59. Instant messaging
    Your lifeline to
    your team.
    

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60. Instant messaging
    Scheduled do not
    disturb time
    

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61. Instant messaging
    Announce
    start/stop
    

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62. You Org
    Technology
    Practice
    

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63. Ceremonies:
    Daily standup
    Rotate the facilitation
    responsibility
    

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64. Ceremonies:
    Retrospectives
    Discuss and refactor
    practices
    

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65. Leadership
    participation
    Show endorsement.
    Build empathy.
    

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66. 2. Growing
    the team
    

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67. The basics
    Even more important!
    

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68. The basics
    Bring in coaches to
    observe and facilitate.
    

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69. You Org
    Technology
    Practice
    

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70. Hack:
    Greet everyone to " check
    

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71. Hack:
    Ask questions in the negative
    “Does anyone disagree?”
    not
    “Do we all agree?”
    

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72. Ceremonies:
    Daily standup
    Keep time boxed to
    15 minutes
    

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73. Ceremonies:
    Daily standup
    Walk the wall
    

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74. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    How many time zones?
    How much time zone overlap?
    

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75. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    Add people in new time
    zones in pairs.
    

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76. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    Beginning &
    end of day standups.
    

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77. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    Record crucial meetings.
    

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78. Team design:
    Antipattern:
    Forcing everyone to work
    at exactly the same time
    

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79. Team design:
    Antipattern:
    Communication in physical
    spaces that excludes
    remoters
    

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80. Team design:
    Antipattern:
    Activities that exclude remoters
    (use of whiteboards)
    (in-person icebreakers)
    

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81. Google Quick Draw
    

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82. Team design:
    Defining question
    How would this decision
    make me feel if I was not
    working in the office?
    

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83. Leadership
    participation
    Show endorsement.
    Build empathy.
    

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84. 3. Scaling to
    the whole org
    

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85. You Org
    Technology
    Practice
    

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86. What does it take to
    make distributed
    teams a first class
    citizen in the
    organisation?
    

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87. The executive and
    management working
    remotely at least 2
    days a week.
    

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88. Guilds
    Share lessons learnt
    with other teams
    

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89. Feedback loops
    Keep refactoring your
    ways of working.
    

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90. Permission to halt #
    Make it culturally
    acceptable to halt
    meetings that aren’t
    remote friendly
    

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91. Feedback loops
    “What got us here
    won’t get us there."
    

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92. Thank you!

    (and questions?)
    

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93. Thank you!

    (and questions?)
    Liked the talk? Let @auxesis know.
    

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94. Stock photos from
    Fonts
    Junction from League of Movable Type
    Fanwood from League of Movable Type
    

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95. Learn more
    ◦ When work takes over your life (podcast)

    WorkLife with Adam Grant
    ◦ 36 Great Tips for Online Meeting facilitation (infographic)
    ◦ Banishing Burnout: Six Strategies for Improving Your
    Relationship with Work (book)

    Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter
    ◦ Template “My Relationship With Work” survey (worksheet)

    (make a copy and fill out every month)
    

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96. Tracking your relationship with work over time
    

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97. Tools for remote working
    ◦ GroupMap

    Excellent retro + meeting facilitation tool
    ◦ Mural

    Collaborative online real-time white boarding that
    doesn’t suck
    ◦ Trello

    Go wild and create a Trello board for all your
    meetings!
    

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