1. How to deal with cultural divide- internal advocacy within distributed teams
@czajkowski

2. Working remotely can be challenging
Problems we Encounter
Working remotely can be challenging
There are challenges daily to being distributed that you wouldn't nomally think about if you worked in an office.
Chances are on day 1 in an office you met the team chatted with people and were hand held setting up your enviroment.
When you work remotely it can be a different story entirely
@czajkowski

3. Problem: The World is Round
timezones -
Team meetings are not rotated for time zones, so it's a good mid-day meeting for US contributors (the majority) but evening for EU and very early for APAC.
@czajkowski

4. Solution: Make Flexible Hours
People either need to adjust their schedule to attend, or risk feeling isolated for never making it to the meetings
@czajkowski

5. Problem: Information is Social
Watercooler effect
Conversations happen in the office and you often miss out on hearing new infomration!
Many people feel cut off when they're at home if you make decisions offline and over a conversations in the canteen.
@czajkowski

6. Solution: Talk online
Remember to include people and always bring decisions online to make people feel included.
If conversations happens in your HQ in one timezone often it leads to disucssion and chatter, you need to make sure all of your organisation are up to date at the same time. OR discussions spread out of control
@czajkowski

7. Problem: Neverending meetings & Connections
Poor connection s
Wrong tools!
No set tools to use! Many people turning up to meetings not on time!
Explaining something via a white board to those in person but not visable to those dialled in
@czajkowski

8. Solution: Be consistent
Pick a tool and stick to it, use a headset for those dialing in. Include them in the meeting, don't make them feel like an after thought
@czajkowski

9. Embrace Differences Distinguish Cultural perspectives
Build self awareness
Recognise complexity of cross cultural communication
Avoid Sterotyping
Respect Cultural differences
Be adaptable in chosing communication strategies – Be flexible!
Avoid cultural insensative language and behavior – Think twice!
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@czajkowski

10. Advocate internally Pride
Employees want to share the work that makes them proud. It's core to their identity and sense of meaning in life.
Internal reporting achievements, at team or staff meetings. Even when you're not online!
Showing people what you work on encourages others to contribnute and get involved. New projects internally can often become core to a project!
@czajkowski
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11. Celebrate Achievements
Recognition
Recognition can take many forms, including acknowledgement from managers and executives.
Sharing the blog post you wrote
Getting a shout out from your manager or higher up in the orgnaisation makes a person feel appreciated!
THANK YOU!!
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@czajkowski

12. Reward with Opportunity
Advancement
Acknowledging people with training opportunities, inviting them to lunches with executives, gathering high performers together, and promoting leaders all demonstrate that employee advocacy is valued.
Rewarding people for their outstanding work encourages others to want to show their work and advance their careers
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@czajkowski

13. Improvements Onboarding Documentation
Weekly/Monthly Highlighting the work done
Show and tell what is being done in the various teams
Mentoring
Support – virtual lunch
Face to face meetings - real life offline!
@czajkowski

14. Acknowledge Couchbase Meet new employees each month at lunch
Monthly town halls with Bob
Transparency
Team get togethers
Always improving, always reviewing
Monthly reporting of team activity
Show and Tell!
@czajkowski

15. Thank you
Laura Czajkowski
@czajkowski
@czajkowski