INTRODUCTION
README–
A Guide to Remote Works
IT CAN TAKE some people a lifetime, but for Michael Judge, it took less than three months to see through the mirage of corporate life and spot its main culprit: bad management.
After graduating with a degree in physics from the University of California, San Diego, in 1985, Michael headed to the optimistic land of Silicon Valley to work as an engineer at a start-up video card company. It didn’t last long. But he did leave with an insight that would one day manifest as a box-office sleeper, turned cult classic, turned cultural milestone—Office Space.1
The movie hit a chord with the American public—surprising given the mainstream hypothesis that people watch movies to escape their mundane lives, not relive them. We believe that Office Space gave people a mirror to understand their work lives, including what frustrates them—like the infamous manager popping up unexpectedly in their cubicle (yet again) to ask for that (incredibly unnecessary) TPS report.
So, what does this have to do with Remote Works? Isn’t this a book for managers and their teams?
OK, please don’t put down the book yet! Yes, this is a book about work.
And yes, we believe that management is incredibly important.
We’ve taken the brief from Michael Judge. Bad management is a real problem. We believe there’s a better way—and that bad management caused by the shift to remote work can be prevented. We want to help you avoid becoming one of the Bobs!
HOW TO READ REMOTE WORKS
There are many ways to interact with Remote Works. We present concepts in various ways because we know that each reader learns differently.
Think of us as your asynchronous remote work coaches. We are here to guide you and help you strengthen your remote work muscles. We are not here to tell you what to do in a step-by-step guide, expecting you to do everything we say (in the correct order).
We believe great remote teams come in all shapes and sizes. Regardless of whether you work at a start-up or the largest multinational organization in the world, these principles stay the same because they are focused on the team level. Ultimately, they require customizing remote work principles to your team’s unique personality. Only you know that best.
It is up to you to choose your own adventure. So if you find yourself in chapter 8 thinking to yourself, “Oh no . . . not another table,” feel free to skip the table and read one of the real-life stories from our experts instead. (Or go ahead and fill out the table. You may be surprised by what you learn from it.) Whether you prefer learning by doing, learning through others, or learning by self-inquiry, we have you covered!
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Ready to get started? Here is what you can expect while reading Remote Works:
1. TL;DR: Each chapter starts with a section called TL;DR, which stands for “Too Long; Didn’t Read,” highlighting three to five skills you will unlock by reading the chapter. Think of this section as an anchor; it can help you navigate the book if you prefer to skip around. Plus, the TL;DR is a remote work best practice for documentation. Whether writing up notes or creating a project plan, the TL;DR is a way to summarize content up front for the audience. They can then choose whether it makes sense to dive into the details. (What can we say? We love to practice what we preach.)
2. Exercises and How-tos: You’ll find several interactive exercises that you can do solo or with your team. Anytime you see an exercise starting with “RW” (shorthand for Remote Works), it’s something we’ve created especially for you. You can do the exercises directly in the book (grab a pen!) or access more online resources at remoteworksbook.com.
3. Spotlight Stories and Experts: We interviewed more than 30 remote work leaders about their experiences. We highlight their stories as “spotlights” throughout the book. You can learn from others by seeing how they’ve approached similar situations. Since we frequently quote and share stories from our experts, we give their name and occasionally their company. You can find a complete list of our remote work leaders at the back of the book in the “Experts” section.
4. Reflection Questions: After each concept, you’ll find reflection questions to help you apply the learnings to your work life. We recommend that you continue to muse over them, perhaps on a long walk or during a shower. (Come on, this is where we all do our best thinking. Warning, though: the book is not waterproof!)
5. Ali’s Advice and Tam’s Tips: We end each chapter with a bit of real talk, where we share direct, no-filter advice for becoming a pro remote manager and teammate. It’s what we wish we’d known before we started managing remote teams and projects.
6. Glossary: We reference tools and companies across the book, which we know may change over time. Rather than explaining these in depth in the chapters, we’ve created a glossary at the back of the book.
7. RW Journeys: Sometimes, learning together can be more fun. Therefore, we’ve developed an RW Journeys guide to facilitate small groups reading, reflecting, and learning together. We recommend this for learning and development and human resources teams as an alternative approach to management training.
8. RW Student Case Study: Remote Works can bring a fresh voice to the classroom. Professors can use our book as a part of their curriculum and assign the case study as practice.
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OK, that’s a long list! We know we threw a lot at you, but there is one thing to remember: this is a book we hope you continue to refer back to, time and time again.
SEEING YOURSELF AS A REMOTE MANAGER
As we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, Remote Works is focused on you: the manager.
First things first. Let’s define manager because you likely already have a definition.
Traditionally, a manager ensured that others complied with the when, where, and how of working. These traditional managers usually had functional expertise, like finance or sales, and were given a host of people responsibilities, like delegating tasks, mentoring, and providing performance feedback.
But remote has changed all of that. Now that employees are distributed and have more control over their workflow, it no longer makes sense to have one type of manager. Many of the jobs previously on the manager’s plate, such as delegating and reporting to other stakeholders, can be replaced by remote best practices, such as documentation, asynchronous updates, and a culture of transparency.
In remote, we all become managers, at least over our workflow and environment. Remote requires a new level of autonomy and mastery, which we will discuss later.
As we reflected on our remote experience and that of other remote companies, we found that management roles in remote include four different personas: the People Manager, the Project Manager, the Cultural Leader, and the Strategic Leader.
The People Manager is likely the most similar to the traditional manager but takes on a more relational role in remote. You ensure that each team member realizes their human potential at work and can successfully navigate the organization.
The Project Manager plans out the dependencies and milestones for projects and processes. You know what needs to happen to keep tasks moving and can help unblock obstacles when a project gets stuck. We believe that every remote worker needs to be a skilled project manager.
The Cultural Leader leaves a mark on the organization. You champion team norms, promote cultural events and rituals, and help others connect their work to the organization’s goals and mission.
Lastly, the Strategic Leader challenges internal thought processes, prioritizes team objectives, and makes sure you’re using the tools effectively to reach your team’s goals.
The roles and responsibilities of a traditional manager are spread across multiple personas in remote, creating a network effect. Rather than going to one manager for all your work needs, you’ll build relationships with multiple people, creating a deep sense of connection in a virtual environment. For example, you might go to one manager for professional development and another for feedback on a project.
Ultimately, everyone has multiple managers and becomes some type of manager persona.
Tamara, aka Tam, most often filled the role of a Project Manager or Strategic Leader during her career, managing complex partnerships, deal processes, and acquisition integrations. Earlier in her career, Tam loved playing the part of a Cultural Leader, organizing social events and inviting speakers to join team meetings. (Once upon a time, she was referred to as “very Google-y.”)
Ali steered organizations as a Cultural Leader and Project Manager, developing managerial skills in others and building community. As the companies she worked for grew and changed, so did her role. At DuckDuckGo, this meant shifting into a Strategic Leader role to up-level their People Operations department2 while managing five internationally distributed teammates as their People Manager.
Enough about us. What’s most important is that you start seeing yourself as a manager in your organization. We hope you can immediately apply the lessons from Remote Works—whether you’re managing a single project or a team of two, 225, or an entire organization!
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What have you gained from remote work? What has your team gained?
2. What are three ways you can celebrate the benefits of remote work?
3. What might be missing in your approach to remote work? What is your team missing?
4. What are three ways you can fill those gaps remotely?
A CAVEAT ON “REMOTE” MANAGEMENT
One last housekeeping item before diving into the good stuff. We assume you picked up this book expecting to learn about remote work (and we promise you will). But as a warning, it will cover more than just best practices for remote and hybrid. We believe remote fluency will be a requirement for any job in the future. Regardless of whether you’re managing a fully distributed team or simply want to give your team more flexibility and keep the office, the same core skills apply. (Though, we would be liars if we didn’t state our personal preference that offices should be optional.)
Some of the management best practices we cover may sound familiar—because they are evergreen. We’ve taken the wisdom of management best practices from “the before times” and reimagined them for the remote world. You’ll learn how to apply motivation theory and usher your team through the phases of team development.
Ultimately, remote work puts a microscope on your management abilities. You have to be more intentional. You can’t expect your team to be waiting nearby for eight or nine hours per day if you have a last-minute request. You can’t forget to agree on deliverables and timelines because you can rely on a quick check-in by the coffee machine. You need to not only plan but consider others in your plans. Your words and actions have consequences.
Otherwise, you’re leaving the benefits of remote work on the conference room table—such as true flexibility, freedom, and focus.
So before you read any further, we want to highlight a few core beliefs that we believe are nonnegotiable for making remote work actually work.
1. Managers must lead with intentionality.
2. Managers must build trust.
3. Managers must respect employees’ autonomy.
If you believe in those principles but your organization does not, you’ll fight an uphill battle. If you don’t believe in those principles, you might as well throw this book out the window or kindly gift it to someone who cares.
Enough with the warnings. Let’s build our remote management skills!
ALI’S ADVICE
The business world has been using manager and leader all wrong! It’s time to unlearn the definitions you grew up hearing and challenge the shared vocabulary at your company. A single person cannot do it all, and there is no one way to be a manager. Be honest with yourself about your responsibilities, your influence, and how you can inspire your team.
Challenging assumptions is key to a remote state of mind, which we’ll cover in the next chapter. Once you question one thing, you can question nearly everything. The redesign is where things get fun!
You can use this book to change your work and your life. As you read, think through the skills, knowledge, and steps required to design a successful remote work team.
TAM’S TIPS
The poet E. E. Cummings once published an article of encouragement and counseling in a small Michigan newspaper, and I believe his wisdom applies to remote work: “To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.”3
Remote work gives you the freedom and flexibility to design a life that fits you. No longer are you subjected to the winds and influence of a nine-to-five traditional work culture.
Take this as an opportunity to ask tough questions and rethink what it means to manage and be a professional. No one else is going to do it for you. (But we’ll be there to help.)