#Remote 1: Stop Trying to Control Everyone's Remote Experience

WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.789 --> 00:00:13.710 What would it be like if a life coach followed you around everywhere? Grand 2 00:00:14.269 --> 00:00:18.149 for the most part, he wakes you up at a time you've committed to. 3 00:00:19.109 --> 00:00:23.179 No alarm needed. If your energy flags, he knows just what you 4 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:28.940 need, the right snack, the right exercise, the right supplement. When 5 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:32.060 you sit down to that book you've been wanting to write, he doesn't let 6 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:37.210 you quit after the first paragraph. Better yet, he encourages you, gives 7 00:00:37.250 --> 00:00:42.210 you positive reinforcement. You're good at this. He says you were born to 8 00:00:42.289 --> 00:00:48.009 be a writer. These words are going to change things. You don't need 9 00:00:48.049 --> 00:00:53.079 to develop habits. He is your habit former. You don't need to make 10 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:57.640 many choices. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what 11 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:00.359 book would be most stimulating for you right now. He knows which of your 12 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:04.870 favorite restaurants you haven't ordered from in a while. You can look over your 13 00:01:04.909 --> 00:01:10.430 task list for the day when you make your coffee. He'll rank and prioritize 14 00:01:10.469 --> 00:01:14.750 them for you. Do this one first, save that one for the afternoon. 15 00:01:15.670 --> 00:01:19.739 Remember, she said you didn't need that from you until Thursday. So 16 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:25.900 far, so good, or at least so far so efficient. But then 17 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:29.819 what if he follow as you to your favorite dive bar that night. Order 18 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:34.170 this drink. He says. It has the optimal level of bitterness based on 19 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:38.530 your workload today. Invite Megan, he says, and ask her these three 20 00:01:38.569 --> 00:01:44.290 questions about her trip to Paris. Otherwise you may fail to Glean as much 21 00:01:44.290 --> 00:01:49.000 wisdom as you could from her trip abroad. Play this song, he says, 22 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.560 dragging you over to the jukebox. You love this song. This song 23 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:57.599 elevates your mood. Why don't you try a little dancing, he says. 24 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.349 It widens your capillary's and it's the dancing that sets you over the edge, 25 00:02:02.469 --> 00:02:07.510 because he's crossed a line. Don't tell me to dance, you think to 26 00:02:07.549 --> 00:02:10.030 yourself. I know how to dance, I know who my friends are, 27 00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:15.150 I know how to have fun. I always have. I don't need you 28 00:02:15.229 --> 00:02:19.979 to teach me. He even second guess all the rest of it. Did 29 00:02:20.020 --> 00:02:23.539 he really need to breathe over my shoulder like my father at the keyboard this 30 00:02:23.699 --> 00:02:28.539 morning? Have I learned anything at all from him? Or the encouraging words 31 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:34.009 all a sham? But no, they were not. In the life coach 32 00:02:34.210 --> 00:02:39.050 is no con artist. He's a perceptive, caring person with experience and perspective 33 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:46.120 and charm and energy, and he should have gone home at five o'clock. 34 00:02:53.719 --> 00:03:04.629 Hi Everyone, and welcome to remote a new series on B tob growth. 35 00:03:05.550 --> 00:03:08.229 My name is Ryan Drotty and I'm the director of culture and people opps at 36 00:03:08.229 --> 00:03:13.180 sweet fish media, which has been a fully remote team for the entirety of 37 00:03:13.219 --> 00:03:17.500 its existence. You may be wondering how in the world you stumbled upon some 38 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:22.659 kind of strange art house monolog in the middle of a podcast for be tob 39 00:03:22.819 --> 00:03:28.969 marketers. Don't worry, this isn't an accident. In this series I'll be 40 00:03:29.050 --> 00:03:32.050 distilling some of the most important discoveries I made as a director of culture at 41 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:38.009 a remote company and sharing them with you. Some of these discoveries came through 42 00:03:38.009 --> 00:03:43.400 some pretty cringeworthy mistakes I've made. Almost all of them came about through prolonged, 43 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:49.080 half blind experimentation. For those of you a bit newer to the distributed 44 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:53.400 game, I hope I can save you a few months or even years of 45 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:58.469 trial and error through this series. So how about that story at the top 46 00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:02.909 of this episode? Well, here's why it's relevant to you. Most of 47 00:04:02.990 --> 00:04:08.949 us who are leaders in a remote work environment feel like every last second of 48 00:04:09.069 --> 00:04:15.300 our team's experience with our company has to be designed and controlled. This is 49 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:20.139 at best misguided and, at worse, paternalistic. More specific to the analogy, 50 00:04:20.779 --> 00:04:25.449 your people need a coach to help them get better at their jobs and 51 00:04:25.569 --> 00:04:29.730 to help them learn how to maximize their time in a remote environment. They 52 00:04:29.730 --> 00:04:32.490 also need leaders who will put structures in place for them to have fun, 53 00:04:33.290 --> 00:04:39.720 connect with their teammates and bring their whole selves to work. But they don't 54 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:44.800 need you to tell them what they already know very, very well how to 55 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:47.560 do what they like, how to like what they like and how to be 56 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:57.110 themselves. The takeaway for remote organizations here is this. Everyone should participate in 57 00:04:57.189 --> 00:05:03.189 enriching your remote culture in ways that go beyond their normal job responsibilities. No 58 00:05:03.670 --> 00:05:09.540 one person or leadership team should hog all the fun, although they do need 59 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:14.459 to invite others to join it. As a remote team, every single person 60 00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:17.660 who works with you has something unique to contribute to the flavor of your workplace. 61 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:24.129 In some office settings, you couldn't prevent that uniqueness from making itself known 62 00:05:24.250 --> 00:05:29.769 if you tried. However, drawing out personality from every person on your team 63 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:33.410 in a remote setting is not at all guaranteed, and people can easily work 64 00:05:33.449 --> 00:05:39.360 in a vacuum, get their tasks done and never truly engage at all but 65 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:44.439 the secondary environment of their organization. What are we saying here? That one 66 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:47.600 person should drive remote culture or that everyone should dry of it? Well, 67 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:53.790 the answer is both. You need someone to create and maintain the apparatus for 68 00:05:53.870 --> 00:05:59.350 your company culture. They need to create meetings, Virtual Happy Hours, parties, 69 00:05:59.389 --> 00:06:03.819 slack channels and more. But if that person is the only one planning 70 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:10.300 and leading the content of that apparatus, you have failed to engage your workforce. 71 00:06:11.779 --> 00:06:15.819 Somewhere there's a nice, juicy pie made by the remnants of all your 72 00:06:15.860 --> 00:06:20.449 zoom calls, and everyone should contribute an ingredient. To put it simply, 73 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:29.529 no one should plan everything, but everyone should plan something. At sweetfish we 74 00:06:29.649 --> 00:06:33.560 have a monthly meeting called NSL club. The NSL is short for our second 75 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:40.600 core value, never stop learning. NSL Club is entirely a culture play. 76 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:45.759 Each month we have a theme and everyone shows up ready to share something they 77 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.829 know or learning about their theme. The theme could be anything from Happiness to 78 00:06:49.990 --> 00:06:55.829 disability to credit card debt. It does not have to be business related, 79 00:06:56.550 --> 00:07:00.990 it just has to help everyone else on the team learn more about life faster. 80 00:07:01.100 --> 00:07:05.060 But here's the kicker. Someone new picks the theme every month. I 81 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:10.540 can see the idea for a monthly theme based on feedback from our team, 82 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:14.939 who wanted in a cell club to have a more narrow focus. Before I 83 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:18.810 told people to just show up and share anything they were learning. At first 84 00:07:19.129 --> 00:07:23.250 I thought of coming up with a pool of themes and my own choosing. 85 00:07:24.009 --> 00:07:27.569 Then I came to my senses and realize that if I let a different person 86 00:07:27.689 --> 00:07:32.040 pick a topic they're passionate about and present on it in the meeting, then 87 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:36.959 they'll care infinitely more about NCL club, and a little heard emoji between that 88 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:43.360 person and sweet fish will just get a little bit bigger. This concept applies 89 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:46.990 to plenty of other things too. I used to plan every company party. 90 00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:53.110 Now I ask other people to contribute their ideas. I asked most of our 91 00:07:53.149 --> 00:07:58.230 team wide thought provoking questions on slack, but I'm working on giving other people 92 00:07:58.310 --> 00:08:01.899 more of a voice there too. Keeping People's mind sharp in your org is 93 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:07.459 vital, so is keeping their hearts in it. You can do both if 94 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:11.500 you first set up the spaces in a way people will find interesting. Then 95 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:16.089 invite those people to personally contribute a part of themselves to those spaces. If 96 00:08:16.209 --> 00:08:20.089 you do it right, your team members will put a lot of thought into 97 00:08:20.129 --> 00:08:24.290 how to share the essence of who they are with the rest of the team, 98 00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:28.839 and they'll do it in a way that everybody enjoys. Oh and it'll 99 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.439 make your job easier too.