Narrative Violation: Team collaboration can’t be done remotely. Absolute bollocks. A thread

1) Macro: Most of the world has been working remotely over the past 12 months. Many businesses have pivoted. We’ve developed 3 working vaccines. Most Governments have been co-ordinating remotely during the toughest period of their careers. Stock markets are up.

2) Micro: we @Hubble have innovated more in the past 12 months than in the past 5yrs. Going 0 -> 1 on a lot of initiatives under extreme uncertainty, as our market has completely flipped.

3) If you can find the right balance of asynchronous and synchronous collaboration, that’s where the magic happens. The holy grail of unique insights from silent thought and contemplation for an extended period of time + the benefits of white boarding simultaneously.

4) Writing matters. I think this is the most importantly skill for the next generation of work. Async is glorious if everyone can write well.

5) It matters because writing is the equivalent of “thinking and editing before you speak”. Most people at work are thinking and speaking at the same time. Meaning communication is prone to error, higher risk and time wastage.

6) This is why the Bezos 6 page meeting memo is such an effective mechanism to force deeper thinking, better ideas and better debate.

7) Tools matter. We use @NotionHQ for async memos, @googledocs for real time doc editing and commenting, @MiroHQ for whiteboarding @figmadesign for product testing, @SlackHQ for team comms and of course @zoom_us for calling.

8) Culture and guidelines matter. We explicitly discussed as a company that async means async. You publish comms within the deadline and you read / comment within a deadline. But it doesn’t have to be when your colleague slacks you. No expectation for immediate response.

9) This lowers the temperature and stress levels. Our team is trusted to manage their own work, in their own time - as long there are reasonable expectations for when things get done. Got to look after your kids this morning, go ahead.

10) We live in a working world where everyone wants everything ASAP. We all know not everything has to be answered within 5mins of sending. We need to stop measuring performance of our staff by how quickly they react to comms. It’s counterproductive.

11) Synchronous collaboration can happen too. You don’t need 8 people on a zoom call to riff off each other live in a Google doc.

12) I also prefer @MiroHQ to actual whiteboarding. Why? They live forever - I find myself going back to boards from 3 months ago, moving stuff around and getting new ideas. My handwriting also sucks on real whiteboards and generally pens and erasers go missing a lot!

13) Finally, for all the drama people are kicking up about not being able to be innovative.... how much time did you guys actually spend “innovating” at work? Most companies don’t actually do this, because innovation is expensive & risky. Find another excuse pls.

14) Of course, I love collaborating in person and there is genuinely no substitute for it. Also 70% of human communication is non-verbal so we are missing a lot of nuance from our colleagues.

15) I just refuse to buy into a line I’m hearing being repeated over and over again. We can’t collaborate because we’re working remotely. Absolute bollocks.

16) We can do BOTH. The future is not remote, it’s hybrid. With the right tools, culture and mindset businesses can make hybrid the BEST of both worlds, rather than the WORST of both worlds. Every business will have their own unique configuration that works for them.

17) hat tips to some peeps who directly / indirectly inspired me to do my first ever tweet thread on this topic. @RachCarrell @GabbiCahane @danmurrayserter @chris_herd @simonsquibb @mlitman @jessbutcher @BetaLucca1 @tomrossmedia @adepledge #futureofwherewework