#Remote 6: What to Do When a New Hire's Honeymoon Is Over w/ Ryan Drawdy

WEBVTT 1 00:00:10.070 --> 00:00:15.949 One definition of the word honeymoon states that it is a period of unusual harmony, 2 00:00:16.030 --> 00:00:23.460 especially following the establishment of a new relationship. Don't miss the most important 3 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:32.340 word there, unusual, atypical, Non Standard. What is unusual should not 4 00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:39.210 be expected usually, and the degree to which the period is pleasurable or preferable 5 00:00:39.329 --> 00:00:46.009 to other periods does nothing at all to change its unusualness. Does a honeymoon 6 00:00:46.130 --> 00:00:52.719 period benefit or harmony relationship? It all hinges upon the two persons expectations. 7 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:59.840 Take it for what it is, a temporary, lovely window of time with 8 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:04.870 good vibes breezing back and forth across the frame like Crisp Autumn leaves in your 9 00:01:04.950 --> 00:01:11.189 set up well for whatever comes next. Expect that window to stay open without 10 00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:15.989 any snow, rain or barreling hot sunlight to get through, and you're going 11 00:01:17.109 --> 00:01:23.700 to feel angry and cheated. It all comes down to this. honeymooners. 12 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:30.859 Do not expect the forever great at the expense of the consistent good, or 13 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:49.439 you will wind up with a certain worst. Welcome back to remote a series 14 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.400 on BB growth about where remote cultures break down and how to make them stronger 15 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:57.599 than ever. My name is Ryan drotty. And I'm the director of culture 16 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.430 and people opps sweet fish media, which has been a fully remote team for 17 00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:07.989 the entirety of its existence. Today I want to talk to you about planning 18 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:15.099 and executing unexpected, frequent positive experiences for your work team. The idea of 19 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:20.819 the honeymoon phase is critical here. When a new person starts at your company, 20 00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:25.539 they're likely to feel a number of things. Excited, nervous, overwhelmed, 21 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:32.330 but exhilarated. Every day they're meeting new people, learning new concepts and 22 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:38.930 challenging themselves to adapt to their new work environment. They're being taught the values 23 00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:44.050 and ideals of your company, what ever they may be. It's a roller 24 00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:49.400 coaster ride for them, but it's fun. They're far more likely to convey 25 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:54.000 their positive feelings about your organization to their family, social media connections, etc. 26 00:02:54.759 --> 00:03:01.310 Then they will be at any point thereafter. Why? Mostly because they're 27 00:03:01.310 --> 00:03:07.229 getting all the good and none of the grind, as in a marriage. 28 00:03:07.669 --> 00:03:12.430 Any road blocks they face, for example trying to keep track of a day 29 00:03:12.469 --> 00:03:16.939 luge of new tasks that they're now responsible for, are easily overcome by their 30 00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:24.620 excitement and pride in their new workplace. But then in every yes, every 31 00:03:24.979 --> 00:03:31.689 case, the period ends and exhilaration fades. At some point they've learned the 32 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:37.849 basic building blocks of their new role. At some point they've met just about 33 00:03:37.849 --> 00:03:45.719 everyone they'll be interacting with. The unknown becomes known. Your theoretical values are 34 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:53.039 tested against the complications of real life work. Most important, their daily experience 35 00:03:53.199 --> 00:04:00.550 with your company becomes routine. Remote companies likely face the stage sooner than others. 36 00:04:00.509 --> 00:04:04.469 In a fit physical setting, there are plenty of environmental factors that you 37 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:12.460 have control over, the interior design, the setup of workspaces, small but 38 00:04:12.659 --> 00:04:18.899 consistently enjoyable perks like snacks and drinks. This control is relinquished in a remote 39 00:04:18.939 --> 00:04:26.610 environment. All you have left to delay the routine stage is your people in 40 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:30.689 the work itself. It took me a long time to understand that the routine 41 00:04:30.769 --> 00:04:35.810 stage was going to come for everyone, no matter what I did, what 42 00:04:36.009 --> 00:04:42.240 we did. I never intentionally measured the health of our company by the level 43 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.160 of excitement of our team members, but if I'm honest, I did it 44 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:51.480 anyway. I wanted to feel that every single person who worked at sweetfish loved 45 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:57.310 it as much as possible, forever and always, because it was just that 46 00:04:57.509 --> 00:05:02.029 special of a place. But by my informal metric, we had a one 47 00:05:02.069 --> 00:05:09.660 hundred percent fail your rate. Nobody stays in the honeymoon phase forever. It's 48 00:05:09.860 --> 00:05:15.779 never happened in any relationship with longevity. The first answer, as you've guessed, 49 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:21.930 was adjusting my expectations. Leaving the honeymoon phase. Isn't failure, then 50 00:05:23.930 --> 00:05:29.889 fine. But what then, except the routine shrug your shoulders, wash your 51 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:34.689 hands of the engagement levels of your people? Of course not. Here's the 52 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:40.519 good news. While you can't maintain the honeymoon phase at your company, you 53 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:46.360 can consistently shake them out of their routines in a good way. You can 54 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:51.670 do this by planning and providing regular positive experiences to your team every single month. 55 00:05:51.750 --> 00:06:00.269 If you can make them unexpected positive experiences, all the better, and 56 00:06:00.350 --> 00:06:02.269 I want to give you some examples of the kinds of things I'm talking about. 57 00:06:04.019 --> 00:06:10.980 Putting on impromptu virtual happy hours, sending gifts or messages to the employees 58 00:06:11.019 --> 00:06:16.339 significant other parent or other family member, asking someone in your company to lead 59 00:06:16.339 --> 00:06:21.290 a virtual class that lines up with their hobbies and their expertise. In our 60 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:26.209 case, we have a producer here who was recently certified as a yoga teacher. 61 00:06:27.170 --> 00:06:29.610 I reached out to her and I asked her to teach an hour long 62 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:33.759 yoga class to our company and we sent Yoga Mats and blocks to anybody interested. 63 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:42.480 You could plan a slack tournament. Ever participated in March madness? That's 64 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:46.709 the idea here. So far it's sweetfish. We've done two different tournaments, 65 00:06:47.110 --> 00:06:54.670 each with sixty four team brackets. The first one I listed out sixty four 66 00:06:54.750 --> 00:06:57.870 Disney movies and we voted all the way to the end to find out the 67 00:06:57.949 --> 00:07:00.860 best. Beauty and the beast, my personal favorite one, of course. 68 00:07:02.579 --> 00:07:06.660 We're actually right in the middle of our second one. Best TV shows of 69 00:07:06.779 --> 00:07:12.660 all time. As I record this. I'm holding out hope for Black Mirror, 70 00:07:12.819 --> 00:07:15.529 but I have a feeling I'll be disappointed. It's going up against friends 71 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:19.810 today. Reach out to me if you want to know exactly how I prepare 72 00:07:19.889 --> 00:07:23.930 and leave these tournaments, but for now I'll just say there are a lot 73 00:07:23.970 --> 00:07:27.529 of fun for a company and they might be even more fun for me to 74 00:07:27.649 --> 00:07:33.399 prepare. Another idea post a secret talent show. As I've mentioned in a 75 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:38.240 previous episode, we have a question of the day on slack every day here. 76 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:43.079 One day I asked if you were in a talent show and you wanted 77 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:48.149 to seriously win, what would your talent be? Then, surreptitiously, I 78 00:07:48.350 --> 00:07:54.110 messaged everyone who answered the question and ask them to record their talent on video 79 00:07:54.269 --> 00:07:59.540 for real and not tell anybody about it. Over the next two weeks they 80 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:03.740 sent me their videos and then one day I sprang the surprise on the rest 81 00:08:03.779 --> 00:08:09.259 of the company, share the talent videos and we had an award ceremony via 82 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:13.129 video conference at the end of the day. or You could send thank you 83 00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:20.009 notes or emails to every team member. I save this one for last because 84 00:08:20.410 --> 00:08:24.209 I have a personal experience to share with it. I've heard this idea for 85 00:08:24.449 --> 00:08:31.600 years from so many different sources. Send handwritten notes thank people, Blah, 86 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:35.399 blah, blah. It's always rolled off me. From being honest, it 87 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:39.720 felt small to me and I think that I got hung up on the delivery 88 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:46.389 method. Personally, handwritten notes, birthday cards, that kind of thing. 89 00:08:46.429 --> 00:08:50.429 They really don't mean very much to me at all, and so I tend 90 00:08:50.470 --> 00:08:54.190 to let that color my view of the thank you note advice. The one 91 00:08:54.190 --> 00:08:58.659 day I decided to try it, not handwritten notes, but one to one 92 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:03.659 emails with everyone in our company, or at least as many people as I 93 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:09.730 knew, contractors included. It was a simple, templated message with the subject 94 00:09:09.809 --> 00:09:15.490 line thank you, and in the bottom of the email I added three bullet 95 00:09:15.529 --> 00:09:20.809 points that were unique to eat recipient. The bullet point shared why I was 96 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:26.080 specifically grateful for that person, including a personal interaction we shared or strength of 97 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:31.399 theirs. I've noticed it wasn't about the medium, it was about the message. 98 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:39.350 Nearly everyone responded, many with comments like wow, I really needed this 99 00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:45.190 today, or this was so nice and unexpected. It was a good reminder 100 00:09:45.269 --> 00:09:48.389 to me that we shouldn't keep our appreciation in our heads, no matter how 101 00:09:48.429 --> 00:09:54.539 many times we've expressed it before. The last thing I'll say today is that 102 00:09:54.659 --> 00:10:01.139 you should plan a wide variety of positive experiences. I've experimented with all of 103 00:10:01.179 --> 00:10:05.779 the examples I just listed and it was important to me to have fresh ideas 104 00:10:05.820 --> 00:10:11.769 that people couldn't anticipate. As good as a benefit. Maybe at a company, 105 00:10:13.370 --> 00:10:16.250 if it's predictable, that means it becomes part of the routine. I 106 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:22.480 want to break up the routine at our company and leave as many positive impressions 107 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:30.080 on our team in as many ways as I can. The honeymoon may be 108 00:10:30.279 --> 00:10:33.720 over, that that doesn't mean we can't take a few day trips to the 109 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:46.629 coast. Hey, everybody, the logan with sweet fish here. If you've 110 00:10:46.669 --> 00:10:50.940 been listening to the show for a while, you know we're big proponents of 111 00:10:50.019 --> 00:10:54.539 putting out original, organic content on linked in, but one thing that's always 112 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:58.259 been a struggle for a team like ours is to easily track the reach of 113 00:10:58.419 --> 00:11:03.299 that linkedin content. That's why I was really excited when I heard about shield 114 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:05.409 the other day from a connection on, you guessed it, linked in. 115 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:11.169 Since our team started using shield, I've loved how it's let us easily track 116 00:11:11.450 --> 00:11:16.850 and analyze the performance of our linkedin content without having to manually log it ourselves. 117 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:22.320 It automatically creates reports and generates some dashboards that are incredibly useful to see 118 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:26.039 things like what content has been performing the best and what days of the week 119 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:31.159 are we getting the most engagement and our average views proposed. I'd highly suggest 120 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:33.549 you guys check out this tool if you're putting out content on Linkedin, and 121 00:11:33.629 --> 00:11:37.750 if you're not, you should be. It's been a game changer for us. 122 00:11:37.990 --> 00:11:41.909 If you go to shield APP DOT AI and check out the ten day 123 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:45.909 free trial. You can even use our Promo Code B to be growth to 124 00:11:45.990 --> 00:11:50.460 get a twenty five percent discount. Again, that's shield APP DOT AI, 125 00:11:50.899 --> 00:11:54.500 and that Promo Code is be the number to be growth. All one word. 126 00:11:54.779 --> 00:11:56.340 All right, let's get back to the show.