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Managing remotely, while remotely managing

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

Lindsay Holmwood

August 01, 2018
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  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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