Crossing the chasm of Zoom

January 18, 2021

As I'm writing this, the vaccine is currently being distributed and it seems like life should start going back to normal by the summer. But for some companies, like Twitter, working from home will become the new normal. This post is for those companies that have embraced distributed work as the new normal.

The current way most companies are working is anything but normal.

Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, created “Distributed Work: Five Stages of Autonomy”

I have simplified and modified it to:

0 Not possible. E.g. Fire fighting

1 Co-located first, with a distributed capability

2 Distributed but synchronous (The chasm)

3 From co-located first to distributed-first

4 Fully Asynchronous

5 Outperforming

Most companies are stuck in the second stage, what I referred to as remote purgatory. Covid has forced us to stay at home, contending for space, and quiet with our family. We are still experiencing Zoom fatigue from all day calls. We have basically ported what we do in the office at home. We are constantly yelling, “Shushhh, I’m on an important call." Companies are measuring the wrong thing(code commits) in the hopes of measuring productivity.

Rather than adopt what we did at work to how we need to rethink how work is done at home from first principles. Here are some ideas Ideas for going from level 2 to 3 and start reaping the benefits of distributed work:

Create space for long periods of deep work
Meetings are the exception rather than the rule
Replace output measures and oversight with trust and transparency
Invest in the work from home experience
Increase empathy and compassion

Create space for long periods of deep work.

Cal Newport describes deep work as:

“Professional activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”

The goal should be that 50 to 80 percent of your time should be reserved for deep work and the rest should be meetings. It should give you pause if you find yourself questing what you will do with the free time?

Meetings are the exception rather than the rule

Meetings are on the default communication mechanism. Consider the opposite and create rules:

The Automattic rule: Meetings are only held if a similar outcome cannot be achieved over call, message, or email.
Formal agenda must be posted ahead of time.
Meetings recorded to avoid FOMO.
Real-time documentation so that people can read the output.

Replace output measure and oversight with trust and transparency

Measure what matters: Outcomes(e.g. Features delivered to customers) over output measures(number of commits). Many companies are tracking code commits to ensure the productivity of their workforces or hours logged into the system.

People should not have to start at 9 am and 5. They should own their time so long as they are achieving the desired outcomes.

Invest in the work from home experience

Companies are viewing allowing their staff to work from home as a cost-savings exercise. While there will be significant costs savings, be prepared to spend some of those savings on:

Increase our travel budget so teams can get together twice at least twice a year
Better setup: tools, desk, seat, audio, and video

Increase empathy and compassion

It's hard to separate work and personal life when the home is also the office. Consider employees holistically, not just in their work roles. Avoid sending communications outside “official business hours”. If your new working time happens to be later, consider scheduling your emails to send during normal business hours to remove the expectation of working all the time

Write at the right time. Simply ‘getting it off your chest’ can seriously affect someone else’s schedule. There may not be a perfect time, but there's always a wrong time.

Say no to Zoom | How does Linux and the OpenSource community do it?

August 24, 2020

Part 1: What do all day Zoom meetings and CDROMs have in common?
Part 2: How does Basecamp do it?
Part 3: How does Automattic do it?
Part 4: How does Linux do it?

It might seem odd to derive lessons for formal organisations from a self-organising volunteer activity, yet, the practices and skills found in Linux and open source workflows are invaluable when it comes to remote work, especially in times like these.

The open source system advocates trust, compassion and empathy as means for motivation and improved productivity. In its case, people have always been motivated, due to the system’s careful attention to initiative and incentive structures. What lessons can we take from these structures for use in our formal organisations today?

Work/Life

“As much as we want to retain work/life balance, we have to acknowledge that our work and home lives are being forced together in sometimes uncomfortable ways. The current situation isn't normal, and expecting normal productivity and complete focus isn't reasonable.” Stefanie Chiras, VP of the Business Unit at Red Hat Linux.

For many people, it's hard to separate work and personal life when their home is also the office. In these abnormal times, it’s important to consider employees holistically, not just in their work roles. They may be dealing with a great deal of stress that they can't just put down during work hours - this should be respected and understood. For example, avoid sending communications outside “official business hours”. If your new working time happens to be later, consider scheduling your emails to send during normal business hours to remove the expectation of working all the time. Go further, and encourage the team to take breaks during the day, not to eat lunch sitting at their desk, and, if possible, to go outside and get some fresh air.

Trust/ Tracking

“The very essence of open source teams is built upon trust.”

Everyone is accountable for what they need to deliver. Teams need to trust each other to get things done instead of dictating what the next task will be. Through trust, people are empowered, motivated to produce high-quality work.

This snaps the phenomenon of the “all-day Zoom meeting” into sharp focus; feeling secure over monitoring employees’ actions over the last 8 hours, opposed to their level of output over unmonitored hours of the day should raise some concerns.

Allow employees to work flexible hours so they have the chance to perform at their optimal moments. Early risers and night owls should each get their personal opportunities to operate when they work best. This flexibility on how, when, and where employees work, would likely improve their productivity and their loyalty to the company. Forcing everyone into all-day meetings would greatly inhibit this.

Output/Time

“The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organising teams.” 11th principle of the Agile Manifesto

Focusing on results. Output over time. Something we hear a lot, but hardly internalize. An entire day spent at a desk, in an office, or on a Zoom call, would not - by any means - reflect the amount of expected output. Rather, employees must know and understand what they are responsible for (as opposed to how many hours they should work) and know when they've done enough. A system like this, where priorities are communicated and clarified, and employees have the freedom to work through those priorities over a sensibly set time period, would eradicate issues of trust and lack of productivity.

This is how the open source community operates. Developers are not spoon-fed tasks, but simply communicate amongst each other what must be done, and what can be done. Their work is then left in their control, to refocus and prioritize.

So, What?

“The point of all this is to learn from those companies who have been working in a distributed modality for decades, and have not simply ported the pre-COVID method using online tools.”

Ultimately, the rules of remote work discussed in the previous two articles aren’t solely advocated by Basecamp and Automattic, respectively - they are widely accepted in the distributed world. We have all been forced to become distributed companies. The point of all this is to learn from those companies who have been working in a distributed modality for decades, and have not simply ported the pre-COVID method using online tools.

Say no to Zoom | How does Automattic do it?

August 10, 2020

Part 1: What do all day Zoom meetings and CDROMs have in common?
Part 2: How does Basecamp do it?
Part 3: How does Automattic do it?
Part 4: How does Linux do it?

The power of asynchronous communication

“You may still want to say it right now, but they can almost certainly hear it later.”

Automattic does not use meetings as a primary form of communication - after all, people should be occupied with their work. If everyone is working on different things, the only way to get them all to break at the same time, is to force them to stop what they’re doing! This is why asynchronous communication is so powerful - it encourages focus. Is forcing people to stop, or postponing their start, really worth what they’re about to hear?

However, Automattic won’t shun meetings altogether. Undeniably, there are situations where meetings are simply unavoidable, and sometimes, even productive.

Two tips to boost meeting productivity

A meeting should only be held in the case that the same outcomes can’t be reached via a phone call, email, or instant message.

Set the meeting to 15 minutes by default, and only make it longer if absolutely necessary (the shorter the meeting, the less time there will be for pointless small talk).
Set a specific agenda and desired outcome before going into the meeting, and only include those whose involvement is absolutely necessary.

Two Automattic-specific habits

“For the high flyers”

Post the agenda ahead of time, so that those who need more time to prepare, or don’t speak English as their first language, get the opportunity to prepare.
Rotate the call host and note takers so that each member of the team gets a go at it. And, when the host is someone in a different timezone, shift the call to accommodate their workday.

These are some ways to maximise meeting productivity in the case that they can’t be avoided. But ultimately, real-time communication encourages distraction, asynchronous communication encourages focus.

“Don’t take people’s attention, give people back their attention so they can spend it in much more profitable ways.”