Slide 1

Slide 1 text

Managing remotely, while remotely managing Lindsay Holmwood
 @auxesis

Slide 2

Slide 2 text

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

Slide 3

Slide 3 text

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

Slide 4

Slide 4 text

! About me Currently at Envato leading distributed team of 15, 
 growing to 20

Slide 5

Slide 5 text

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

Slide 6

Slide 6 text

You Org Technology Practice

Slide 7

Slide 7 text

You Org Technology Practice

Slide 8

Slide 8 text

No management buy in? Don’t even bother.

Slide 9

Slide 9 text

Outsource Working from home Distributed

Slide 10

Slide 10 text

Distributed? • Geographical • Temporal

Slide 11

Slide 11 text

1. Starting out

Slide 12

Slide 12 text

You Org Technology Practice

Slide 13

Slide 13 text

All remote, or no remote

Slide 14

Slide 14 text

Create a level playing field

Slide 15

Slide 15 text

Hybrid is hard

Slide 16

Slide 16 text

Regular face to face catchups. Ideal: once a quarter

Slide 17

Slide 17 text

Regular face to face catchups. Likely: once a year

Slide 18

Slide 18 text

Establish rituals

Slide 19

Slide 19 text

Priming

Slide 20

Slide 20 text

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

Slide 21

Slide 21 text

Say silk five times.

Slide 22

Slide 22 text

Now spell “silk”.

Slide 23

Slide 23 text

What do cows drink?

Slide 24

Slide 24 text

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?

Slide 25

Slide 25 text

Priming to reinforce segmentation

Slide 26

Slide 26 text

Segmenters Create partitions between work and home

Slide 27

Slide 27 text

Segmenters Use rituals to reinforce boundaries

Slide 28

Slide 28 text

Establish rituals Wear shoes while working

Slide 29

Slide 29 text

Establish rituals Different devices

Slide 30

Slide 30 text

Establish rituals Walk around the block

Slide 31

Slide 31 text

Establish rituals Standing desks

Slide 32

Slide 32 text

Integrators Blend home and work life

Slide 33

Slide 33 text

Integrators Strong desire to blur the domains

Slide 34

Slide 34 text

Integrators Easily transition between domains

Slide 35

Slide 35 text

You Integrator Segmenter

Slide 36

Slide 36 text

You Integrator Segmenter

Slide 37

Slide 37 text

Integrators are more accepting of segmenters than vice-versa

Slide 38

Slide 38 text

Integrators need boundaries too, and strategies for disconnecting

Slide 39

Slide 39 text

Segmenters report higher levels of job satisfaction compared to integrators

Slide 40

Slide 40 text

How does this impact working remotely?

Slide 41

Slide 41 text

Remote working naturally lends itself to integrators

Slide 42

Slide 42 text

Integration is a slippery slope to burnout

Slide 43

Slide 43 text

Christina Maslach

Slide 44

Slide 44 text

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

Slide 45

Slide 45 text

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

Slide 46

Slide 46 text

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

Slide 47

Slide 47 text

Understand your relationships with work

Slide 48

Slide 48 text

Promote a culture of segmentation

Slide 49

Slide 49 text

You Org Technology Practice

Slide 50

Slide 50 text

Multiple internet connections Dongle with lots of data

Slide 51

Slide 51 text

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

Slide 52

Slide 52 text

Multiple internet connections Have backup equipment

Slide 53

Slide 53 text

Multiple internet connections Move to areas with NBN

Slide 54

Slide 54 text

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

Slide 55

Slide 55 text

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

Slide 56

Slide 56 text

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

Slide 57

Slide 57 text

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

Slide 58

Slide 58 text

Instant messaging Non-negotiable, primary comms method

Slide 59

Slide 59 text

Instant messaging Your lifeline to your team.

Slide 60

Slide 60 text

Instant messaging Scheduled do not disturb time

Slide 61

Slide 61 text

Instant messaging Announce start/stop

Slide 62

Slide 62 text

You Org Technology Practice

Slide 63

Slide 63 text

Ceremonies: Daily standup Rotate the facilitation responsibility

Slide 64

Slide 64 text

Ceremonies: Retrospectives Discuss and refactor practices

Slide 65

Slide 65 text

Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.

Slide 66

Slide 66 text

2. Growing the team

Slide 67

Slide 67 text

The basics Even more important!

Slide 68

Slide 68 text

The basics Bring in coaches to observe and facilitate.

Slide 69

Slide 69 text

You Org Technology Practice

Slide 70

Slide 70 text

Hack: Greet everyone to " check

Slide 71

Slide 71 text

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

Slide 72

Slide 72 text

Ceremonies: Daily standup Keep time boxed to 15 minutes

Slide 73

Slide 73 text

Ceremonies: Daily standup Walk the wall

Slide 74

Slide 74 text

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

Slide 75

Slide 75 text

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

Slide 76

Slide 76 text

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

Slide 77

Slide 77 text

Team design: Time zone coverage Record crucial meetings.

Slide 78

Slide 78 text

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

Slide 79

Slide 79 text

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

Slide 80

Slide 80 text

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

Slide 81

Slide 81 text

Google Quick Draw

Slide 82

Slide 82 text

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

Slide 83

Slide 83 text

Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.

Slide 84

Slide 84 text

3. Scaling to the whole org

Slide 85

Slide 85 text

You Org Technology Practice

Slide 86

Slide 86 text

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

Slide 87

Slide 87 text

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

Slide 88

Slide 88 text

Guilds Share lessons learnt with other teams

Slide 89

Slide 89 text

Feedback loops Keep refactoring your ways of working.

Slide 90

Slide 90 text

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

Slide 91

Slide 91 text

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

Slide 92

Slide 92 text

Thank you!
 (and questions?)

Slide 93

Slide 93 text

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

Slide 94

Slide 94 text

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

Slide 95

Slide 95 text

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)

Slide 96

Slide 96 text

Tracking your relationship with work over time

Slide 97

Slide 97 text

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!