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Scalable communication in 
a distributed organi...

Scalable communication in 
a distributed organization

For a globally distributed company, remote work is not about “working from home” per se, but about working in a way that is unconstrained by geography or time zone. Scalable communication is crucial for this style of work.

Lena Morita

May 19, 2020
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  1. @mirka Uruguay United States Spain (living in UK) Slovakia Romania

    Japan Philippines MY TEAMMATES BY COUNTRY
  2. @mirka HIGH-CONTEXT COMMUNITY • Common values and ideals • Shared

    history • Everybody knows each other • Similar cultural background • Running jokes and jargon
  3. @mirka EXTREMELY HIGH CONTEXT! MY PREVIOUS JOBS • 3-person, all-Japanese

    agency
 where we had a similar sense of humor and taste in music • 2-person agency with my significant other
  4. @mirka FOR AUTOMATTIC “WHY” REMOTE WORK? • Things can be

    built remotely (OSS). • When building for a diverse user base,
 it’s better for the workforce to be diverse. • Only way to hire from the global talent pool.
 “Talent and intelligence are equally distributed
 throughout the world. But opportunity is not.”
  5. @mirka FOR AUTOMATTIC REMOTE WORK IS… Replicating the co-located workplace

    experience Synchronous → Asynchronous
 Verbal → Written
  6. @mirka ADVANTAGES ASYNC, WRITTEN COMMUNICATION • Public by default =

    No silos • Newcomers have access to historical context
  7. @mirka WILL WE NEED TO RETRIEVE THIS INFORMATION? LIFESPAN •

    Zero — Calls, meetings • Less than a few weeks — Slack, chat • More than a month — Blog, wiki, or any agreed-upon, searchable repository
  8. @mirka WHO WOULD WANT THIS INFORMATION? AUDIENCE • Only a

    specific person (private) • Only my immediate team • Topic-based narrower broader
  9. @mirka PUSH OR PULL? MODE FEED
 Timely information that is

    mainly useful now. WIKI
 Evergreen information that is retrieved when needed.
 Anyone can edit.
  10. @mirka NOT MUCH SHARED CONTEXT LOW-CONTEXT COMMUNICATION • Takes empathy

    • Takes more time • Affords less “personality” But scalable
  11. @mirka HOW FAMILIAR IS MY AUDIENCE? TOPIC • Imagine being

    a newcomer, or yourself in six months • Hypertext is your friend
  12. @mirka DOES IT SUPPORT DIFFERENT CONTEXTUAL NEEDS? STRUCTURE • Provide

    a TLDR • Clear structure with subheadings • If you have an “ask”, be clear about it
  13. @mirka ARE MY EXPRESSIONS STRAIGHTFORWARD? RHETORIC • Be careful: Slang,

    acronyms, colloquial expressions • Restrain the impulse to be “clever”