How to create community while working remote
I wrote this up before our first week of working from home (WFH) at Intuit, and shared it with my QuickBooks teammates. A lot of it’s based on my time in gov and working with distributed teams. I also asked folks on our team to contribute — look for the 🎩 hat tips. (And yes, we like our emojis and gifs…)
TL;DR — A few tips and tricks for creating a sense of belonging and togetherness through a welcoming, inclusive work environment when people are remote and/or when being in person physically isn’t feasible.
As people are working from home more, we’ve got an opportunity to double down on how to create meaningful connections while doing our day to day jobs. And in thinking about it, the reality is that we’ve all been remote at some point to someone in the company (e.g., Mountain View is always “remote” to our teammates in Tucson, Reno, Boise, and other places).
Optimize your online presence
- Make sure everyone (who’s comfortable doing so) turns on their video. 🎥
- When you’re not speaking, go on mute. 🔇
- Use Gallery View on video chat. See the sample above for what it looks like in action. By maximizing the number of people on screen at once, it makes it feel like the team is together, as opposed to one person talking. #BradyBunchView 👩🏿👩🦰👨🏾👴🏼
- Jumping into a conversation can feel tricky on video. Designate one person to monitor the video conference chat feature. If someone feels like they’re having a hard time jumping in, have them “raise their hand” in chat and the person monitoring can let folks know, “Elsa has something to say.” 🗣️
- People have full lives at home — and not everyone has a quiet place to do work — so if you see a kid, a cat, a dog, or something else wander into the screen…say hi. 👋 #BringYourWholeSelfToWorkFH
Create virtual spaces to gather
Virtual hangouts 🏖️
Put a time on the calendar for your team to say hi and catch up each morning, afternoon, or end of day. These are less “project updates” and more recreating that feeling of catching up in passing in the office, or by the espresso machine in the break room.
Set up virtual coffees ☕
Now’s a great time to set up virtual coffee (or tea, or your beverage of choice) with coworkers. You can reach out to folks directly to set up time, or if you haven’t tried the Donut app in Slack, there’s no time like the present. Donut selects two people who don’t know each other well, creates a group DM between them, and tells them to meet for coffee, lunch, or donuts.
Have “lunch” together 🥪
You can set up time with a teammate, a group, or a team to have lunch together — just put time on the calendar and send everyone a link for the video chat. Grab your food and catch up!
Create a virtual water cooler 🥳
Create a channel on Slack with a video chat link that’s live/up all day. (You can use your team’s #general channel — whatever you call it in your neck of the woods — or create #teamname-watercooler if you don’t want to clutter #general.) People can pop in and out of the channel all day to say hi and chat about whatever.
Make things fun!
How might we introduce some of the silly, fun, cool stuff that makes Intuit a great place to work? Those things we might normally do in the office, but can recreate online. Ideas include:
Selfie challenges 🤳🏿
Someone posts a challenge (lunch, workspace, view from their window, etc.) to the team channel, and everyone posts their photo replies. From Michelle Bandy: “Show us your pets, your WFH perks, your coffee mugs, your home office/couch, etc.”
Brady Bunch challenge 👩👩👧👧
As mentioned, we should be encouraging folks to use Gallery View (aka Brady Bunch view) on video. Take screenshots of these moments from meetings and post them in your team channels.
Celebrate birthdays or special events 🎂
Just like how you would decorate someone’s desk at the office, recreate it online — have people write or doodle on a piece of paper and hold it up to the camera!
Threaded topic conversations 🧵
People post a starter question in the channel (my go-to: “Favorite lunch as a kid?”) then folks reply with their answers.
Kid/pet/random WFH wandering into meetings 🐈
People end up taking screenshots and “awwww-ing” over them as they’re posted in channels.
Kudos 🎉
Many teams already do kudos channels (#teamname-cheers-for-peers), and this is a great time to double down on the idea to recognize their peers for going the extra mile while WFH.
Virtual Social/Happy Hour 🥂
Invite the team to bring their favorite beverage of choice. Want music? (Of course you do!) You can crowdsource [Team Name] Happy Hour + WFH Playlist and include a Spotify link for everyone to contribute songs to.
Communicating
From 18F, an in-house government design and tech shop (full blog post):
- Proactively communicate. As Kate Garklavs, a content designer who lives in Portland, puts it: “Because I’m remote, I’ve taken to sending short, proactive progress updates to my teams (“Hey, all — wanted to let you know that I finished writing XYZ and sent it to so-and-so for approval — should hear back by Friday.”), even when daily standups aren’t required. By sending these short updates throughout the day, I hope to keep folks in the loop with regards to what I’ve been up to.”
- Assume people are working asynchronously. We never assume that people are available the minute that we need them. We use Slack to communicate, which ensures all of our communication is documented and searchable for coworkers who might be checking on things later in the day. Writing everything down — even conversations we have verbally — ensures all team members are informed and up-to-date.
- Be patient. Unless a decision needs to be made immediately, we give people time to respond to queries because they might be working on a different schedule or in a different time zone.
- Keep records. As Dave Cole, a developer who works in Philadelphia, says: “Even after meetings, what’s discussed and decided should be summarized into…notes for those who were not present or just to keep a record for the future. Good practices for remote teams and between teams overall.”
Staying energized
🎩 Hat tip: Shrisha Radhakrishna for this section
- Some people working at many of our large campuses enjoy walking around, taking the stairs, and closing their Apple Watch rings. When WFH, remember to take breaks (it helps to schedule them on your calendar!) and get a few steps in by going outdoors if you like.
- Many of you may have kids, a pet, a partner, or others that are also at home. This is a great opportunity to bond with them in ways that you ordinarily wouldn’t do.
- Do not book yourself back to back. Make sure you’ve scheduled a break for lunch and those requisite coffee/tea breaks.
Accessibility
Closed caption on Present mode in Google Slides
Want to automatically have what you’re saying appear on screen? This is super helpful especially when it’s hard to hear what’s being said. When you’re showing a deck simply: 1) Click Present. 2) Hover over the bottom of the screen and click CC. 3) As you speak, your words appear at the bottom of the screen — woot woot! (ProTip: When we’re back in the office: if you’re presenting in a room where the bottom of the screen isn’t visible due to Very Tall Humans, you can change the setting so it’s at the top.)
PowerPoint closed caption
In the Slide Show menu, check the box for Always Use Subtitles, and there are settings for changing the language and things like that. 🎩 Hat tip: Josh Harrison for this one!
Agenda
For large team meetings, make an agenda before the meeting and summarize what happened in the meeting in a follow up email. This is helpful for deaf/hard of hearing who are struggling to hear or follow or to follow an interpreter who is struggling to hear due to overlapping voices, accents, jargon, and/or the sound quality issues. 🎩 Hat tip: Sarah Margolis-Greenbaum
Announce who is talking
It can be difficult to keep track of the speakers, especially when a conference room is used. As a courtesy, say your name before you begin speaking. For situations like standups or status updates, it can be helpful for whomever is currently speaking to pick the next person to talk — as people/teams may politely wait on or accidentally interrupt each other trying to determine who’s speaking next. 🎩 Hat tip: Ted Drake and Juanita Dickhaus
Choose a simple background
Distracting backgrounds can be problematic for colleagues with Attention Deficit Disorder. Avoid sitting with your back to a window, open doors, or televisions. 🎩 Hat tip: Ted Drake
Other resources 📚
- 18F’s best practices for making distributed teams work (18F, Oct. 2015)
- How to get people to actually participate in virtual meetings (Harvard Business Review (HBR), Mar. 2020)
- Tips on managing a remote workforce (HBR), Mar. 2020)
- Best Practices for Working Remotely (Udemy, Mar. 2020) 🎩 Hat tip: Jeremy Sulzmann
- 5 Ways Science Shows Us How To Work Better Virtually (Forbes, Mar. 2020) 🎩 Hat tip: Brent Rinne
Kara’s passion for creating impact at scale has brought her to many exciting places, including the Super Bowl, Oscars, Women’s World Cup, and the Obama White House. She served in the first class of Presidential Innovation Fellows, reimagining the relationship between government and the people from a technology perspective. Kara currently champions small businesses and the self-employed, and focuses on the work about the work, as Chief of Staff on the QuickBooks Online Platform team at Intuit. According to her 2nd grade report card, “Kara likes to talk. A lot.” Twitter: @KaraDeFrias
