What Colocated Teams Can Learn From Remote Teams

In today’s distributed world it is increasingly important to embrace some form of a distributed workplace. Whether your team sits in the same room or in separate home offices around the world, there are certain practices you can follow that not only make your team more remote- friendly, but more inclusive, diverse and scalable. This talk takes a look at the practices of thriving remote teams — specifically their adoption of a written culture — and highlights that these best practices are beneficial to all teams, distributed or otherwise.

Transcript

1. What
   Colocated Teams
   Can Learn From
   Remote Teams
   Noelle Daley
   @elnoelle
   DevOps Days Zurich 2019
   

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2. Hello!
   My name is Noelle
   I live in Portland, Oregon
   I work at HashiCorp
   2
   

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3. My team
   3
   

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4. Hopes, dreams, fears
   Why it matters
   Written culture,
   autonomy, empathy
   4
   

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5. Who did I
   talk to?
   5
   Remote &
   partially
   remote teams
   Software
   Engineers
   Managers
   & directors
   DevOps
   Engineers
   

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6. Why do companies
   go remote?
   Cost effective
   Hiring
   Global users
   More sane pager rotations
   6
   

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7. Why are companies
   apprehensive?
   Bias that we work better together in
   person
   Tradition
   Change management
   Time zones
   Lack of trust
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8. What are the challenges of
   remote work?
   Information siloing
   Getting help
   Time zones
   Empathy
   Work-life separation
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9. ...these can be
   challenges for
   colocated teams too!
   

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10. Successful remote teams
    have to rethink

    decision making,
    communication,

    and trust.
    

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11. How do they do this?
    11
    1 Written culture
    2 Autonomy
    3 Empathy
    

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12. Written
    Culture
    Moving from an implicit to explicit culture
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13. Implicit Culture
    Implied
    Spoken
    Synchronous
    Explicit Culture
    Directly communicated
    Written
    Asynchronous
    

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14. Where does implicit
    culture break down?
    Going on vacation
    Getting sick
    Not being in the room
    Differing communication
    styles
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15. Where does implicit
    culture break down?
    Places burden of knowledge
    sharing on a select few
    Hard to learn from past
    experiences
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16. 16
    How do I shift to a written culture?
    

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17. If you’re making an
    important decision,
    slow down and
    document it.
    

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18. Document decision making
    RFCs
    Often used for product

    or feature releases
    Summarize changes,

    context, relevant links,
    abandoned ideas and
    implementation details
    

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19. Document decision making
    DACI
    Can be used for
    technical and
    process decisions

    Explicitly state roles
    for people making the
    decision
    

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20. “ Having a document where you can
    write up all the options, pros and cons,
    explicitly state roles for people involved
    in making the decision, and discuss it,
    has meant we actually are able to
    make decisions and have historical
    context for why we made them and
    what we considered when we did.
    20
    

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21. Document decision making
    Decision logs
    Include:
    - Date
    - Summary of decision
    - Relevant links
    - Point people
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22. Prioritize public,
    asynchronous
    communication.
    

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23. Make “right now”
    communication
    the exception, not
    the rule.
    

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24. Public, async
    communication
    Understand when to use group chat,
    email, or a video or phone call
    Group chat: urgent, immediate
    questions
    Public channels > private DMs
    24
    

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25. Public, async
    communication
    Email, RFCs: long form
    Express ideas at a time vs.
    thoughts at a time
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26. Public, async
    communication
    Notecards & post-its: IRL
    brainstorming
    Video or phone calls: building
    relationships, diagramming
    26
    

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27. Public, asynchronous
    communication helps
    move away from
    implied consensus.
    

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28. “ People talk about some work in the chat room
    and nobody objects. That leads people to
    assume everyone read that discussion and
    agreed. Decisions get made without
    people’s consent because they weren’t there
    at the very moment it was discussed…. ‘right
    now’ is rarely the moment to both have the
    discussion and come to a conclusion.
    - Jason Fried
    28
    Implied Consensus
    

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29. Autonomy
    Trusting people to do their best work
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30. Autonomy
    Allow people the flexibility to work
    when & how they work best
    Flexible hours
    Flexible environments
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31. Trust and autonomy
    allow people to take
    care of themselves
    and do their best work.
    

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32. Autonomy
    Allow long periods of uninterrupted
    time to get things done
    “Burst” style communication leads to
    better results
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33. Autonomy
    It’s okay to be unavailable
    Being unavailable should signal
    you’re working, not taking a break
    (but please take breaks)
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34. “ As someone with chronic mental
    health stressors, I’m sensitive to
    my surroundings. When I’m in the
    same space for a long enough
    time my thinking becomes limited.
    Changing up physical space
    helps me get out of my mental rut.
    34
    

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35. “ For people with families the flexibility
    that comes with being remote for a day
    or two and not having it affect your
    performance or perceived
    performance is important. When we
    were adopting my son it was critical
    that we had flexibility for court dates
    and social workers to come at any time.
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36. Empathy
    Establishing respect and connection
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37. Respect Boundaries
    Pay attention to working hours
    Use Slack statuses
    Use the appropriate
    communication channel
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38. Set aside time for each other
    

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39. Set aside time for each other
    

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40. In summary
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41. The things that
    make remote work
    work also make IRL
    work better.
    

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42. Written culture
    Communicate explicitly
    Empathy
    Respect & connect
    Autonomy
    Trust
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43. These changes
    pave the way for
    greater diversity
    and inclusivity.
    

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44. They ensure that people
    with different abilities,
    communication styles, and
    backgrounds can participate in
    decision making & culture.
    

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45. The more diverse we are, the
    better results we produce.
    

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46. Slow down
    Write it down
    Listen
    Trust people
    

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47. 47
    Thanks!
    Any questions?
    @elnoelle
    

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48. Further reading
    Atlassian DACI Playbook
    Noelle Daley, “What Colocated Teams Can Learn
    From Remote Teams"
    Jason Fried, Is group chat making you sweat? Signal
    V. Noise
    Christoph Riedl and Anita Williams Woolley “Bursty”
    Communication Can Help Remote Teams Thrive
    Behavioral Scientist
    

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