You have just been told to work from home. Now what?

Health risks caused by the Coronavirus has led to hundreds of conferences being canceled and many organisations are calling for their employees to please work from home.

It just so happens that I have put together a four-part guide about remote work. I’ve recently received a lot of questions about what to do, what set-up is needed and what mistakes to avoid when going remote. I’ve also seen an increasing number of questions from first-time remote managers and organisations. So I thought I would put the below overview together to hopefully answer a few of these questions.

Source: Twitter

Who is this for?

Is this your first time having to work remotely for an extended period of time? Is this your first time managing a remote team?

I’ve never worked remotely what are the five things I need to know.

1. Be intentional with everything that you do.
2. Clearly communicate what decisions you have taken and why
3. Be aware and empathetic to the fact that not everyone will do well or even enjoy this transition.
4. Ensure you set your team(s) up for success by laying out what is expected, what tools should be used and how, communicate often and clearly…
5. Focus on output.

Part one: Remote Work as an Idea 💡

👉 Read the entire piece here. Below are the bullet points you need to be aware of.

1. Remote Work Has Been Around for Sometime Now.

• Although it may seem like a 2020 phenomenon, the concept of working outside of the confines of your office has been around for quite some time.
• The technology available today just wasn't available 5 years ago, meaning that it’s far easier today to efficiently work from home.
• According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work , 99% of the knowledge workers (n=2500) would like to try remote working in their career. Well, I guess there is no time like the present.

As Chris Herd, Founder & CEO of Firstbase, puts it, “the 2020s will be the remote work decade.”

2. An Explicit Decision to Work Remotely.

• A handful of CEOs have specifically called out the complexity of trying to run a hybrid company. Some have even said that it is next to impossible.
• Opt for a remote-first approach whereby being remote is now the default. This will allow for everyone to be on the same level of playing field.
• Be clear about what you mean and it will save yourself a lot of unnecessary friction down the line. Remote will absolutely mean something different from one company to the other, from one generation to another and from one country to another. I go through the list of options and terms used here.

3. Be Intentional.

• Most companies don’t seem to be setting themselves up for success with little to no thought being put in the move to remote work. Set yourself up by preparing for this shift — an announcement without any processes, guidelines, and support will not do.
• Treat it as an intentional cultural shift (even if temporary).
• Regardless of your choice, be clear right from the outset which direction you are taking and why. Understanding what you are solving for or what you are aiming for will help you decide what solution is best for you and your team(s).

4. The Benefits of Being a Remote-First Company

• Higher productivity and happier employees
• Positive environmental impact — less commuting, fewer cars needed, fewer flights taken… you get the picture.
• More time to do the things you care about; less time spent commuting.
• According to the Predictive Index, remote work attracts new talent, but it also improves employee loyalty and retention.

Part two: Creating Habits, not Goals 🧭

👉 Read the entire piece here. Below are the bullet points you need to be aware of.

1. Don’t set Goals. Build Habits

• This might be tricky as you may not have the necessary time to get into new habits. That being said, if you focus on helping your teams and employees create new habits rather than achieving lofty goals the outcome will be more successful.
• Helping your teams establish new daily habits. The more you do them, the more you get into the habit of doing them every day, and the easier it becomes. So think about what those daily habits could be.
• Remote work is very much a new skill that needs mastering. You can’t declare that you will be remote-first/friendly (the goal) without creating the small milestones and habits that will support this shift.
• You might find that your employees are focused on learning new habits, skills, and using new tools that I didn’t have time to be distracted. They might even become more efficient.

What is a goal: Goals are the desired results toward which your effort is directed. Goals can be completed and have a definite outcome.

What is a habit: Habits are actions or behaviors that are regularly done so that they become almost involuntary. Creating a habit takes time, patience and consistency and is not something that you really ever finish. 🏃‍♀️Ask any athlete and they will tell you they are never done practising.

2. Five Times more Processes.

In a remote environment, you leave very little to luck. You will soon discover that a lot of what you do is intentionally orchestrated and heavily facilitated. Meaning that there will be a lot more process than what you may be used to.

• Explicit agreements and expectations.
• Write it all down.
• Set the default and stick to it.
• When exceptions are made, explain why.

3. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

Whether we like it or not, all teams are dysfunctional (because they are made of imperfect humans). Ensuring that your teams are functional and a cohesive whole requires “levels of courage and discipline that many groups cannot seem to muster.” A great place to start is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni and how to overcome them.

4. Build a Strong Team Culture.

A good culture is important in any environment and can be challenging at best. Add ‘remote’ and ‘distributed’ teams to the mix and it gets exponentially more complicated.

• Now is probably not the time to rethink your entire culture, but you may want to take this opportunity to think about what new behaviours and details you could be doing to lead by example.
• Don’t forget that culture isn’t a mission statement or a set of rules, but rather daily actions.
• You cannot rely on a few people to carry the culture of a company, it has to be a company-wide effort. Every employee who joins needs to feel a sense of responsibility for making this a success.

5. Day-to-Day Best Practices.

As a remote company you should easily be able to layout what the default is, what tools are being used and for what and what the company’s best practices are.

“Don’t try and mimic the office environment and get comfortable with asynchronous communication.”

Communications 📝

• Explain the concept of asynchronous communications and set it up as a default.
• Explain clearly which tools and communication channels should be used for what.
• Over-communicate.
• Use the collaborative and chat tools at your disposal instead of phone and text messages, or even email.
• Your default is to document and explain as much as possible.
• Don’t expect an answer straight away.
• Give a timeline for when you need a reply.

Meetings 💻

• For meetings, your default will now need to be video conferences. Calls might initially feel easier but if you set-up your videoconference up correctly, it shouldn’t be harder to dial into a video conference.
• Ensure your calendar invites are easy to use.
• You may want to think about having an open calendar which will make it far easier for your colleagues to set-up calls and meetings with you.
• Don’t create meeting agendas. Instead, share what you want the outcomes to be.

All hands/staff meetings ✋

If you weren't doing these already I highly recommend you do them weekly as in a time of change like this one your employees will want a recurring touchpoint with the rest of the company.

To be successful the following is needed:

• they need to happen systematically every week; same day and time (with a few exceptions).
• they need to be fully remote with everyone logging in on their laptop. If you have offices you may be tempted to do a hybrid meeting and have the core group of people join physically and have the rest join virtually. Don’t be tempted and don’t do it. It does not work.
• they are mandatory, and as such should not be scheduled over.
• they will start on time (always) and will be recorded.
• they will be facilitated to ensure they are as efficient as possible.
• they are followed up with an email that recaps the key points so your employees can keep track of what was discussed from one week to another.

Tools 🛠

This is a great list of fantastic remote work tools.

Part three: You May Want to Think About an Onboarding Programme 🦺

👉 Read the entire piece here. This part was initially focused on intentional hiring and onboarding your new hires. As this might not be exactly relevant here, I pulled out a few thoughts and suggestions around building a short yet efficient onboarding programme.

The more time you invest up-front, the easier it will be further down the line. An employee trying to onboard by him/herself will take up to 3–4x longer to onboard successfully.

“To be clear, instruction — telling people what steps to follow or what factual knowledge they’re lacking — can be truly useful: That’s why we have checklists in airplane cockpits and, more recently, in operating rooms.” [and] Learning is less a function of adding something that isn’t there than it is of recognizing, reinforcing, and refining what already is.” — The Feedback Fallacy by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall

Creating a remote work or work from home onboarding programme is how, as a company, you can set the tone for what is to come, what you expect from your employees, what they can expect from you and leadership… Here you will lay out a detailed plan of how you will set your employees up for success and give them all the knowledge they need to be able to hit the ground running.

I believe there are three levels within the onboarding process:

• Company onboarding: lay out what changes are going to happen at a company-level, clearly outline what will change and what won’t and explain how you have definite your remote work as a company.
• Team onboarding: as a team decide and define what tools and communication channels you will use, establish weekly check-ins, and take a moment to decide how you will hold each other accountable. The biggest change for teams working remotely is the shift away from presence to output. Make your expectations incredibly clear.
• Manager onboarding: ensure you have regular 1:1 check-ins, take the time to go over any needs your team member might have (not everyone has access to a quiet and efficient space to work with fast wifi, for example. You may want to suggest creating buddy programmes with some of the more junior employees.

Part four: Managing Remote Teams 🤷‍♀️

👉 Read the entire piece here. Below are the bullet points you need to be aware of.

1. Managing Remote Teams.

• Managing remotely (and/or remote teams) needs to be done in a way that is equal parts structure/process and spontaneity.
• Provide coaching not direction.
• Be empathetic and create space for empathy. This shift to remote work might be welcomed by some and dreaded by others. be aware of the geographical and lifestyle disparities that will exist on your team(s).
• Use active and reflective listening.
• When you are physically together in an office people can connect more easily, we can read each other’s moods and see the signs. And as a result, you can pick up on cues and ask the right questions. None of this is possible with distributed teams. So ensuring that there are spaces to hang out and discuss informally as a team is crucial.
• Say Thank You.

2. Create Efficient One-o-Ones.

To efficiently manage people who are not ‘sat next to you’ you are going to need regular check-ins that are both scheduled and spontaneous.

Some basic principles for efficient one-on-ones:

1. They should be brief (20–30 minutes) and regular (weekly).
2. They should be a priority and only pushed back, moved or cancelled if absolutely necessary.
3. They should be structured (with an agenda) but also be flexible.
4. I find them to be most productive when both parties have a list of items/needs they want to discuss. After all, it’s a two-way relationship.
5. This is not the time/place for feedback as feedback should be done immediately (or as soon as possible). See the section below about giving and receiving feedback.
6. Why not start with personal check-ins ad described above.

3. Fostering Collaboration.

• We are all different, work differently, have different needs and will react differently is important. Understanding what this means on a team is crucial. There are different ways of going about this — personality tests are generally a good way. But you can also just start with a manager blueprint or a personal README. I highly recommend doing the above as part of your onboarding programmes.
• Asynchronicity can really only work if you have transparency from all team members. You may want to use the In and Out concept to ensure transparency and understanding around availability. It looks a little like this: As each team members start their day and log into Slack they kick off with the below (thank you to Alicia Donovan Brainerd, a Senior Manager Front End Engineering at Salesforce for sharing her below process).

[IN]

🎯Goals: List of goals for the day

📞Calls: List of calls for the day

🥨Interrupts: Lunch/Gym/Obligations

Then when you leave for the day you post the following in Slack:

[OUT]

👋Leaving for the evening

3. Get Into the Habit of Giving and Receiving Feedback.

The main rule of feedback is to do it in person, in a timely fashion, be specific and use “I” statements. When you can’t do it in person, do it via video conference (avoid doing this over the phone).

The only real (and useful) thing we can do is share our own feelings and experiences. That’s it — share how things landed for you, how they made you feel, what your reactions are to certain things… And the best way to do this is to talk in “I” statements when you share your own experiences, do not generalize any of this. You can tell people where they stand with regards to you, but that’s it.

💡I recently discovered the Joel test for Remote teams which is basically a series of yes/no questions to help software teams measure their quality. It takes less than 5 minutes and will help you improve your team. I can’t suggest it enough to anyone either starting out or wondering how they are doing.

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