Summary: Office Optional: How to Build a Connected Culture with Virtual Teams by Larry English

• Virtual work and culture are becoming more prevalent and popular in the modern world, but they are also more complex and demanding than traditional work and culture. How can we create and sustain a successful virtual culture in our organizations, and how can we leverage it to achieve our goals and fulfill our potential? In this article, we will review the book Office Optional by Larry English, which is a guide to help readers create and sustain a successful virtual culture in their organizations.
• If you want to learn more about the book and how it can help you or someone you know who is interested in virtual work and culture, read on. You will discover some of the best practices and tips to create and sustain a successful virtual culture in your organizations, and how to overcome the common challenges and pitfalls of remote work. You will also find out how you can get a copy of the book and access more resources from the author.

The lifting of pandemic-era restrictions paves the way for millions of workers to return to their offices. For many employees, however, this is not an attractive prospect. And considering that talent is scarce, employers must think twice about ordering people back full-time.

In this article, Larry English argues that building a strong virtual workplace culture is indeed possible. He shares applicable tips for managing a remote or hybrid workforce, from screening for cultural fit to clarifying core values.

What’s inside?

You and your remote workers can build a strong virtual culture and increase your competitive advantage.

Recommendation

Consultant and author Larry English believes in building a strong virtual culture as workplace norms shift in the wake of the coronavirus. Researchers predict 73% of teams will include remote workers by 2028, but few companies make building and maintaining their culture with all workers – including virtual ones – a priority. Many don’t even talk to new hires about culture, says English. He shares applicable tips to help you manage a remote or hybrid workforce, from screening for cultural fit to clarifying your core values. Leaders at all levels can benefit from this accessible step-by-step guide to fortifying your culture.

Take-Aways

• Building a strong virtual culture hinges on trusting your workers.
• Align your virtual culture with your core values and operating philosophy.
• Invest time in screening new hires to make sure they fit your culture.
• Create a training program to spread your culture, and appoint cultural ambassadors.
• Encourage vulnerability to strengthen virtual relationships.
• Use internal and external feedback to assess your corporate culture.
• Enhance your virtual culture by investing in a collaboration tool.
• Become a better virtual worker by adopting healthy habits.

Summary

Building a strong virtual culture hinges on trusting your workers.

Remote working is the future of work. Researchers predict that by 2028, 73% of teams will have virtual workers. Companies with remote teams should proactively create a connected culture. When you create a positive company culture, you do more than make work more enjoyable – you gain a big competitive advantage. A Gallup survey shows that companies with cultures that foster employee engagement see nearly 60% more revenue per worker than average.

“So what is culture? Its the personality of a company. It defines the environment in which employees work and includes both the spoken and unspoken rules for how things get done in a company.”

A positive virtual culture requires trust. Employers may worry that their remote workers will underperform, but, in reality, remote workers often work harder than office workers. You don’t need to micromanage employees who work from their homes. Instead, check on their progress regularly so you discover any problems early. Treat remote workers as responsible adults, giving them autonomy and flexibility, rather than overburdening them with rules about how to structure their time.

This policy will contribute to their happiness and, in turn, they will feel a greater sense of loyalty to your company, thus building the foundations of a positive culture. Companies that have cultures rooted in trust see several benefits, including a 50% decrease in turnover rates, better stock market performance, and increased worker productivity, innovation and engagement.

Align your virtual culture with your core values and operating philosophy.

The culture you create reflects the rules – both official and unspoken – that your company embraces. Before you create a virtual culture, reflect on your current culture. Ask why you provide the services or products you offer and what core values inform the decisions people make at your company. Examine your traditions – which can encompass anything from how you celebrate wins to what leisure activities team members enjoy together. All these things reinforce your culture and values.

Everything you can physically see embodies and reinforces your culture. For example, employees may dress comfortably and casually for work if you have a more laid-back company culture. You likely have unwritten rules that reveal your culture. For example, perhaps you let employees who are going through personal hardships work fewer hours because your culture is supportive. For insight into the nature of your culture, analyze the behaviors or types of people your company rewards, and reflect on who gains promotion and who doesn’t. Make sure your culture aligns with your operating philosophy – the principles that guide your company’s operations.

“We treat our culture as seriously as we do our business strategy. Just like you would innovate on new business offerings, we do the same with our culture.”

After you identify and redefine your culture, start adding in virtual components. Everything your company does, from the way you conduct sales calls to the collaboration tools you use, should align with your core culture. Try to be flexible. Understand that remote workers will have different distractions – children interrupting, doorbells ringing – than office workers. Prioritize moments of human connection among your remote workers. For example, you might create space for informal chats before virtual meetings and encourage – but not require – people to turn on their videos.

Invest time in screening new hires to make sure they fit your culture.

Consider which aspects of your virtual and core cultures you can and can’t teach, then hire people who already possess the cultural aspects you value but couldn’t teach, the intrinsic aspects of your culture. For example, teaching someone to be kind isn’t easy, so if you and your culture value this trait, screen potential hires to make sure they act with kindness. The teachable aspects of your culture, by contrast, might include certain skills and a core of knowledge about work-related topics, such as delivering projects to clients or working from home more efficiently.

When you interview potential employees, spend half your time determining whether they have the skill level required for the position and half the time determining whether they fit your culture. To screen for cultural fit, first share anecdotal stories with candidates, so they understand the nature of your culture. Then, try to learn about their decision-making processes by asking situational questions, such as, “Talk to me about the last time you made a big mistake.”

Choose team members to act as stewards of your culture, and make them responsible for assessing whether a potential hire will fit. Don’t skimp on the time you spend recruiting. Introduce candidates to your team, so you can see how they interact with others in a group setting and how they develop an understanding of your culture. Pay attention to warning signs that candidates are not cultural fits. Try to determine if any of their qualities directly oppose the cultural aspects you value?

Create a training program to spread your culture, and appoint cultural ambassadors.

Few businesses train workers in their culture – more than 60% of companies don’t mention their culture when onboarding new employees. If you want your workers to embody your culture, teach them about it. Consider creating a culture curriculumhighlighting the cultural traits you prioritize, such as diversity or collaboration.

“If you want a great culture, you have to actually tell your employees what your culture is and what it means to live up to it.”

Make both in-person and virtual learning methods available to workers, since people have different learning styles – some may prefer learning at home, while others prefer learning in a group. Hire leaders who embrace your cultural values in their own lives to serve as role models. Consider investing in mentorship programs for new leaders to guide them as they learn to adopt your culture.

Enable employees to share your culture by inviting a select group of people from varying career levels to serve as cultural ambassadors and share your company culture. Make ambassadors responsible for identifying charities your company can support, organizing internal events such as hackathons and providing feedback on decisions that could affect your culture.

Encourage vulnerability to strengthen virtual relationships.

Virtual relationships can develop into strong connections, just as in-person relationships do in the office, but remote connections may require extra effort. Create strong relationships by making an effort to be vulnerable and encouraging team members to do the same. When people display vulnerability, it triggers oxytocin production in those around them, increasing cooperation and feelings of empathy and trust.

Consider bringing more of your personality to work: Perhaps you could craft a clever auto-reply or share small details about your life to help your colleagues feel a greater connection with you. Leave time for people to chat about non-work topics before virtual meetings to encourage distant team members to get to know one another. For example, the virtual call’s facilitator could spur conversation by asking a lighthearted question that prompts people to share details about themselves before the meeting.

“Vulnerability is the secret ingredient and shortest route to building any strong, collaborative relationship, whether your relationship is strictly virtual or in person.”

Be mindful that misunderstandings can cause conflicts during remote meetings, since people have more difficulty interpreting one another’s tone of voice or body language in virtual communication settings. Proactively manage conflict by taking extra time to connect with people. If you suspect that someone is upset, check in via video chat or phone call. Occasionally host in-person meetings when possible to reinforce your virtual culture. Decide how often you’d like your team to meet in person – if doing so is feasible. If you don’t have a physical office space, consider cost-effective free spaces, such as coffee shops or restaurants.

Use internal and external feedback to assess your corporate culture.

Use all available metrics to measure your corporate culture. Figure out how frequently you’ll gather feedback on your culture and which sources you’ll draw from to make sure you have at least one quantifiable metric you can study over time. External sources – such as web platforms like Glassdoor that allow people to rate their employers – as well as internal feedback systems that use anonymous employee surveys are potent forms of data.

“Great culture cannot exist without feedback – otherwise, you get off track, parts of your culture get lost during growth periods or grow stale over time, and employees feel unheard.”

Use apps to collect employee feedback more rapidly and regularly. For example, using the Japanese app Niko Niko, employees can share their moods by choosing an emoji. When employees leave or are let go, take advantage of the opportunity to conduct detailed exit interviews since as workers tend to share negative feedback more openly when they’re leaving.

Enhance your virtual culture by investing in a collaboration tool.

Take time to enhance your culture by finding the best collaboration tool to facilitate internal communication and cooperation in your organization. If you don’t invest in a collaboration tool (for example, Microsoft Teams), your virtual culture may suffer. Employees can become frustrated if they lack effective methods for connecting with one another and streamlining their workflow.The right collaboration platform builds your virtual culture, creates community, connects new hires to your culture, breaks down silos, facilitates multigenerational collaboration, creates greater transparency, improves employee engagement and collects data on how people collaborate.

“Culture building never stops. Once you have established a solid culture, you will want to continue to nurture and grow it – otherwise its greatness will not last.”

Make sure you have the appropriate change-management practices, guidelines and rules in place when you introduce new collaboration tools. Then encourage enough people to use the tool to justify your investment.

Become a better virtual worker by adopting healthy habits.

To become an effective, high-performing remote worker, take these steps:

• Establish boundaries – Contrary to popular belief, many remote workers work too much. Set and honor boundaries between your personal and work life.
• Choose your workspace carefully – Work somewhere with minimal distractions. Be sure family members or roommates know not to interrupt you when you’re working.
• Schedule time for breaks – Take time for activities, such as exercising midday, that bring you energy and refreshment.
• Create your own schedule – Figure out the times of day when you are most productive and work during those hours.
• Don’t isolate yourself – Take time to connect with your co-workers, either virtually or in person.
• Stay present and focused – Don’t try to multi-task during conference calls; give meetings your full attention.
• Build relationships – Get to know your teammates virtually.
• Build your culture – Nourish your company values and live them authentically; share ideas on ways to enhance your company culture; and hire or provide referrals to potential employees you view as good cultural fits.

About the Author

Larry English is the co-founder and president of the management and consulting firm, Centric Consulting.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Crap, We’ve Started a Virtual Company
• Chapter 1: Remote Work 101: It’s All about Trust
• Chapter 2: Digging Deep to Discover Your Virtual Culture
• Chapter 3: The Most Important Parts of Your Culture Can’t Always Be Taught
• Chapter 4: How to Hire Culture Amplifiers and Virtual Work Superstars
• Chapter 5: Scaling Your Culture with a Cultural Training Program
• Chapter 6: Separate but Connected: How to Build Strong Virtual Relationships
• Chapter 7: Impactful In-Person Meetings, Unforgettable Memories, and Deep Bonds
• Chapter 8: Continuous Feedback, Continuous Culture Improvement
• Chapter 9: Crappy Collaboration Tools Can Sink Your Culture
• Chapter 10: The Secrets to Becoming an Outstanding Virtual Team Member
• Conclusion: Building Culture Never Ends
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Centric Consulting Culture Awards 2008-2019
• Notes
• About the Author

Genres

Applicable, Well Structured, Concrete Examples, Leadership, Non-Fiction, Business, Business Culture, Money

Review

The book is a guide to help readers create and sustain a successful virtual culture in their organizations, based on the author’s experience of running a remote consulting company for 20 years. The author, Larry English, shares his insights and stories on how to build trust, relationships, and collaboration among virtual teams, and how to overcome the common challenges and pitfalls of remote work. He also provides practical tips and tools to help readers recruit, hire, train, and manage virtual employees, and to scale their virtual company without losing its culture. The book covers topics such as:

• How to define and communicate the vision, values, and goals of the virtual company, and how to align them with the employees’ personal and professional aspirations.
• How to create a virtual environment that fosters creativity, innovation, and productivity, and how to choose and use the right software and hardware tools to support it.
• How to establish and maintain a high level of trust, communication, and feedback among virtual team members, and how to resolve conflicts and handle difficult conversations.
• How to celebrate and reward the achievements and successes of the virtual team, and how to provide recognition and appreciation to the virtual employees.
• How to balance the work and life demands of the virtual employees, and how to promote their well-being and happiness.

The book is a valuable and informative read that offers a comprehensive and realistic guide to virtual work and culture, based on the author’s expertise and popularity. The book is well-written and well-organized, using clear and concise language, as well as diagrams and illustrations, to explain the concepts and techniques. The book is also honest and relatable, showing the benefits and challenges of virtual work and culture, and providing testimonials and case studies of real people and companies who have adopted it. The book does not present virtual work and culture as a perfect or easy solution, but rather as a flexible and adaptable one, that requires commitment and consistency. The book is not only informative, but also inspiring and empowering, as it shows readers how to use virtual work and culture as a source of competitive advantage and employee satisfaction.