#Remote 3: One Thing All Remote Companies Should Do Every Day

WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:14.949 You can live your whole life without being found. As a newborn, you 2 00:00:14.990 --> 00:00:21.149 can speak without being understood. As a child, you have confounding pictures in 3 00:00:21.230 --> 00:00:27.260 your mind without the language to express them. For some teenagers, the most 4 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:34.219 truthful label is the word private. Desires hidden from parents, fears hidden from 5 00:00:34.259 --> 00:00:41.369 peers, perspective, hidden from themselves. It takes a dedicated, stubborn person 6 00:00:41.570 --> 00:00:47.329 to see and understand a child. Then there are the rest of us. 7 00:00:48.570 --> 00:00:55.640 We have the ability to learn and never unlearn self censorship. We can stand 8 00:00:55.640 --> 00:01:00.240 in a group of people disparaging some core part of our identity and say nothing. 9 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:06.109 We can mirror the next person we see. We can want things and 10 00:01:06.469 --> 00:01:11.670 never ask for them. You can live your whole life without being found. 11 00:01:12.510 --> 00:01:19.780 This is the truth. You can play Solitaire every night from age twenty to 12 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:25.140 ninety, and let this be a passing comment to your closest friends. You 13 00:01:25.219 --> 00:01:29.819 can love someone who won't love you back. You can hate the hand your 14 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:36.849 dealt and never complain. To be found is to be discovered and not tossed 15 00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:42.010 back to the dirt. To be found is to be worth asking questions of. 16 00:01:42.329 --> 00:02:01.310 To be found is to complete the mission. Welcome back to remote a 17 00:02:02.109 --> 00:02:07.389 somewhat new series on B tob growth about where remote cultures break down and how 18 00:02:07.430 --> 00:02:12.750 to make them stronger than ever. My name is Ryan Drotty and I'm the 19 00:02:12.789 --> 00:02:15.460 director of culture and people ops a sweet fish media, which has been a 20 00:02:15.539 --> 00:02:21.139 fully remote team for the entirety of its existence. Today I want to tell 21 00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:23.939 you about the one thing that helps our own remote culture stay connected more than 22 00:02:23.979 --> 00:02:30.409 anything else, asking a question of the day. At sweet fish we ask 23 00:02:30.490 --> 00:02:36.650 a question of the day on slack. We're big slack users. Every business 24 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:40.849 day on our random channel, one person asked the question in bold letters, 25 00:02:42.250 --> 00:02:46.439 then usually answers it themselves. After that, the rest of the team drops 26 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:51.400 in throughout the day to answer it as well and to respond to other answers. 27 00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:54.879 It's an extremely simple practice that a lot of remote teams used to have 28 00:02:54.919 --> 00:03:00.069 fun together and get to know each other. I can't imagine what work at 29 00:03:00.069 --> 00:03:04.229 our company would be like if we didn't have these virtual conversations every day. 30 00:03:05.349 --> 00:03:07.590 It all comes back to engagement, which is, of course, the end 31 00:03:07.629 --> 00:03:13.659 goal of any company culture, but it's especially challenging in a remote environment and 32 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:20.500 remote companies. There's no break room, there are no halls, no watercoolers, 33 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:28.090 no chance encounters. You don't accidentally enter the same virtual conference room as 34 00:03:28.129 --> 00:03:32.569 someone else. This means the interaction that team members do have must be entirely 35 00:03:32.930 --> 00:03:38.530 intentional and or designed. Sure, individual people can reach out to each other 36 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:44.439 to talk at any time, but leader should also create spaces where more organic 37 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:49.759 conversation can happen. That's where the question of the day, and really the 38 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:55.550 random slack channel in general, come in. Communication platforms like slack or virtual 39 00:03:55.669 --> 00:04:00.229 break rooms, among other things. But the question of the day is more 40 00:04:00.469 --> 00:04:06.990 than a space, it's an invitation for everyone to enliven that space. My 41 00:04:08.150 --> 00:04:11.740 goal each week is to make sure between three and five questions of the day 42 00:04:11.740 --> 00:04:15.579 are asked. At first, I intentionally didn't ask questions on a couple of 43 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:21.180 specific days each week, usually Monday and Friday. Monday, I reason, 44 00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:27.889 was a day for reacclimating and catching up on any weekend messages. On Friday, 45 00:04:28.170 --> 00:04:31.689 people have one foot out the door. Recently, though, I've started 46 00:04:31.730 --> 00:04:36.769 asking questions every business day, even if the engagement is slightly lower on certain 47 00:04:36.769 --> 00:04:41.959 days. It seems best to consider each work day as a single unit and 48 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:46.519 to provide what team members need for that day. That includes socialization and a 49 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:50.839 place to take a break from work. I don't feel particularly strong about doing 50 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:56.509 it every day, though. For some companies, skipping a particularly stressful or 51 00:04:56.550 --> 00:05:00.589 important day might make sense, and sometimess it's nice to not rush answers to 52 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:05.149 a particular question. Sometimes you might want to stretch the question out for two 53 00:05:05.149 --> 00:05:12.019 days instead of one so more people will answer. As for where to ask 54 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.819 the questions, you already know I use slack. If you're a slack user. 55 00:05:15.899 --> 00:05:20.100 That's my recommendation, but I assume there are many other viable options. 56 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:25.490 As long as the platform has the following three things, it should work just 57 00:05:25.610 --> 00:05:31.290 fine. One, visibility to the entire team, to a good amount of 58 00:05:31.370 --> 00:05:38.439 traffic. Three, and easy way to reply to other people rather than to 59 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:43.000 simply drop your answer in and leave. What types of question should you ask? 60 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:47.720 Like any other get to know you conversations, questions of the day should 61 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:54.670 range from highly entertaining to highly meaningful. I've asked the question what's the Best 62 00:05:54.750 --> 00:05:58.910 Wi fi name you've seen? Pretty fly for a Wifi is the answer, 63 00:05:59.029 --> 00:06:02.029 in case you're wondering. But I've also asked, on a scale of one 64 00:06:02.149 --> 00:06:06.980 to ten, how strict were your parents and what makes you really angry. 65 00:06:09.420 --> 00:06:15.060 That last question received a nice hybrid of silly and serious answers. Social Justice 66 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:20.009 issues and abuses made people angry, but so did mouse sounds and disingenuous instagram 67 00:06:20.170 --> 00:06:26.250 influencers in general. I think you should keep questions on the lighter side. 68 00:06:26.250 --> 00:06:31.730 Questions of the day should be attractive, fun and engaging, but I don't 69 00:06:31.730 --> 00:06:35.959 think you should be scared away from asking the hard things. A few months 70 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.720 back I sent a survey to our team about how they felt working here and 71 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:45.959 got responses like these. I think sweetfish does a great job of creating a 72 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:51.509 comfortable work environment, especially compared to the American normal. Sweet fish media has 73 00:06:51.509 --> 00:06:57.670 a great culture of belonging. I feel like part of the sweet fish family 74 00:06:58.509 --> 00:07:00.819 because of the culture that was built in this company. I have felt extremely 75 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:05.620 welcomed. I personally feel I hold the values that sweet fish and bodies and 76 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:11.579 truly enjoy supporting my coworkers in any way I can. I feel confident that 77 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:14.980 we would never get our people to say those kinds of things if we didn't 78 00:07:14.980 --> 00:07:18.329 lean into the hard stuff in their personal lives, both on slack and in 79 00:07:18.449 --> 00:07:24.649 one off conversations. In the last episode of remote I talked about trust, 80 00:07:25.370 --> 00:07:28.610 and I don't think trust can happen if you don't prove to someone that you 81 00:07:28.649 --> 00:07:33.279 welcome every part of them into your organization. Here's a list of possible questions 82 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:38.480 you could ask to get your wheel spinning, although simple Google searches will give 83 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:41.800 you more than enough ideas for questions. And, by the way, I 84 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:45.509 use an APP I recently heard about called party queues, to get a lot 85 00:07:45.550 --> 00:07:50.430 of ideas for our questions. What's your secret to not getting sick? Is 86 00:07:50.550 --> 00:07:56.389 a hot dog a sandwich? What are your for favorite ways to exercise? 87 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:01.579 Would you rather have the ability to read twice as fast or to activate slow 88 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:07.540 motion in life? What's your favorite food? What TV show are you watching 89 00:08:07.579 --> 00:08:11.660 right now? What Book Are you reading? What's the best movie you've seen 90 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:18.129 in the last month? Caffeine is now an illegal drug. How Does Society 91 00:08:18.290 --> 00:08:24.050 Change? Share a video of your crib so we can see where you work. 92 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:30.560 What is your most embarrassing moment from high school? What's the most interesting 93 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:35.440 thing you've read or seen this week? If you were given a one minute 94 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:37.840 add slot during the super bowl that you couldn't sell, what would you fill 95 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:43.269 it with? Another thing to consider is who asks the question of the day. 96 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:46.710 That's sweet fish. This is usually me about ninety percent of the time, 97 00:08:48.629 --> 00:08:50.389 but I have to be honest, I think that percentage is way too 98 00:08:50.470 --> 00:08:54.470 high. I felt the need for a while to ask other team members to 99 00:08:54.509 --> 00:09:00.460 come up with questions more regularly. In theory, anyone can jump in any 100 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:03.899 day and ask the question. In practice, I find myself asking it first 101 00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:07.740 thing every morning, before most people have time to get going, and I'm 102 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:11.370 on the east coast, so it's before anyone else that's fur their west. 103 00:09:13.009 --> 00:09:18.929 I'd like to be more proactive about scheduling question askers. I just haven't yet. 104 00:09:18.970 --> 00:09:22.570 If any sweetfish people are listening, I'm sorry about that. I want 105 00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:26.440 to get a better system in place in the next month. You have my 106 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:30.919 permission to hold me accountable. What else can the answers to the question of 107 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:37.480 the day be used for? A Lot. I use them for our, 108 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:39.669 in case you missed it, document at the end of the week and then 109 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:43.309 later at the end of the year. In case you missed it, is 110 00:09:43.389 --> 00:09:48.190 basically an internal newsletter that I put out every Friday, capturing all of the 111 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:54.340 big announcements from the week in one place. Any exciting news about sweet fish, 112 00:09:54.980 --> 00:10:00.259 and it's also where I capture a lot of the fun, hilarious random 113 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:05.539 stuff that happened on slack and put it into one document. I also use 114 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:11.090 the answers to capture people's unique personalities and interests, secret agent style. We 115 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:15.929 like to give gifts around here for things like awarding a personalized gift to the 116 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:20.289 person who lives out our values the most each month and call it values champ. 117 00:10:20.169 --> 00:10:26.360 But we also like to give gifts at random intervals, just because to 118 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:30.919 really make a gift while someone you have to know them really well, and 119 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.720 what better way to know them than to pay close attention when they talk about 120 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:43.230 themselves? Question of the day helps you do that. For all his secrecy 121 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:46.470 and fear of being seen, he was touched that we had observed him so 122 00:10:46.750 --> 00:10:52.580 closely and with such love. He loved that we knew him. This is 123 00:10:52.740 --> 00:10:58.299 one reason people need to believe in God, because we want someone to know 124 00:10:58.539 --> 00:11:03.889 US truly all the way through, even the worst of us, Tim Crider, 125 00:11:05.210 --> 00:11:11.129 from we learn nothing. Questions in work and in life are an invitation 126 00:11:11.330 --> 00:11:18.960 for others to show themselves unfiltered and uncompromised. The right questions add layers. 127 00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:24.720 Two answers from previous questions. No one wants to bury themselves for half the 128 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:30.200 day at work, so don't make them. Tell them you want them to 129 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:33.230 bring every bit of who they are to bear in their work. Tell them 130 00:11:33.389 --> 00:11:35.230 you care about them.