Running Remote

🚀 Measuring the impact of async practices When adopting #async practices for your #remote team, you will want to measure their impact on collaboration and #meeting reduction. Here are some OKRs to track improvements in async collaboration and meeting efficiency, as discussed in the Running Remote community: → Increase Slack activities by X% (tracked via Slack admin dashboard) → Boost project management tool stats by X% (tracked via tool admin dashboard) → Audit meeting schedules & frequencies → Reduce average meeting time by X% (track paid minutes and meeting reduction) → Reduce monetary investment in meetings (calculate average cost using HBR’s tool) → Host workshops on "meeting hygiene" & async transitions Use qualitative feedback: → Collect feedback through surveys or Slackbot tools to measure satisfaction & productivity → Implement self-reporting to track team progress Thanks to Mikaila Read & Alexandrina Danifeld for sharing those examples & contributing to those discussions. How are you measuring async success? 💬 PS: For more ideas on implementing async practices, check out this article with resources and insights from the community https://lnkd.in/dm38t6fk

Three papers analyzed 1200+ US Return to Office policies, all presented at the Stanford conference this week. Summary findings: A) RTOs have no impact on *future* profits or stock returns B) RTOs are more likely after poor *historic* profits and stock returns C) RTOs are more likely in companies with older, male CEOs D) RTOs are more likely for companies in large cities with cheap office space E) RTOs lead to the exit of employees, particularly more tenured employees F) RTOs lead to reductions in employee sentiment (e.g. on Glassdoor) Collectively, they appear to be some mix of: 1) Driven by CEO personal views - CEO age and gender matter a lot 2) Policies to reverse/bury bad news - they happen after results turn bad 3) Headcount reductions/delayering - employees quit, particularly managers Source papers: - "Determinants and Consequences of Return to Office Policies" by Sean F., Andra Ghent and Vasudha Nair, 2024 Cornell and Utah research paper - "Return to Office Mandates" by Mark Ma, 2024, Pittsburgh research paper - "Return to office and tenure distribution" by David Van Dijcke, Florian Gunsilius and Austin L. Wright 2024 Chicago, Emory and Michigan research paper Thanks to Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and Hoover Institution, Stanford University for hosting

Here’s the reality: all three models are in a bit of a crisis. Full-time in-office companies, like Nike, Amazon, and Dell, are facing resistance. Some companies are using return-to-office mandates as a veiled layoff strategy, quietly forcing out employees who prefer flexibility. In structured hybrid setups, companies like Google and Microsoft are staying the course but with pressure to maintain high productivity. People struggle with hybrid/digital/synchronous meetings at the office and oceans of space create bad experiences. Fully flexible companies are seeing the long-term effects of isolation, as teams struggle to maintain cohesion and purpose. None of these strategies are sustainable as they stand today. But this crisis isn’t just a challenge—it’s an opportunity. The companies that evolve from policy to strategy will lead the future of work. By embracing flexibility, collaboration, and culture, they can rise through this crisis and make work truly work for everyone…again. What they all have in common is that they are (should be) investing in their workplace experiences and levelling up their employee value proposition. #FutureOfWork Thanks Running Remote & Egor Borushko for having me on your great Distributed Workplace Unboxed event where I Apple about the three beacons of employee experience in the Future Workplace, together with stars and friends like Brian Elliott co-presenting 2 minute individual slots, see example below. Thanks Carl Wilhelm Hagander for the kinds words and the great question. It seems there is a winning model currently 🤜🤛 For full youtube version see link in comments.

Earlier this year, we met Dart Lindsley, Strategic Advisor | People Experience at Google, at Running Remote in Portugal, where we were hosting Braindate by e180. I wasn't there, but my colleague Geneviève Ringuet thought that Dart and I would hit it off, so she connected the both of us. She was right. After a quick intro call, it was clear to me that Dart is one of our time's most thought-provoking leader in the sphere of business architecture/ design for humans to thrive. In his words: "Work and the workplace suffer from design neglect. My study of work suggests that the social and cultural environment in which we spend half our waking day five or more days a week is characterized by isolation, desolation, status and identity threats, and confinement." So when Dart invited me to become a guest on his 5 ⭐ podcast, I took it as an honour. I'm delighted to share this conversation on Unlearning with you all. Merci Dart, for such a thoughtful conversation!

Satellite images show workplace flexibility is good for the environment. After a wonderful week at the Stanford remote work conference (many thanks to Nick Bloom）, I want to share some new research findings about working from home. While I fully enjoyed the nice weather in Palo Alto, I was also following news about the astonishing damages by Hurricane Milton. Extreme weather is becoming more and more common, and fighting climate change is becoming more urgent. 🚨 Work from home could play an important role in this fight by eliminating greenhouse gases from long daily commutes. However, remote workers do make more smaller trips during the day for lunch, barbershops, grocery shops etc. Statistics show that total miles that people drive per year have increased back to pre pandemic levels and have stablized. So what’s the actual impact of workplace flexibility on the environment? We compare satellite images of greenhouse gases of most flexible US metropolitans and least flexible one. We find clear evidence that most flexible metropolitans have slower growth in greenhouse gas emissions after the pandemic. As examples in the picture below, the satellite images become more blue (indicating lower emission) for San Jose and San Francisco in 2023 than 2020. Also, most flexible metropolitans also have higher economic growth. Thus, their slower growth in carbon emissions is not because their economy is not performing well. Our study is available here: https://lnkd.in/eP4sWzvb I will tag a few people who I think may be interested in this here. Brian Elliott Dave Cairns Nola Simon Emelie Hagander Dr. Gleb Tsipursky Liam Martin Francis Saele Cali Williams Yost Kate Lister John Hopkins, PhD Phil Kirschner Nadia Harris Omar Ramirez Running Remote Sophie Wade Rob Sadow Amina Moreau Due to word limits, I can’t tag too many people. Please help tag people who are interested in this in the comments. 🙏

Quarterly team gatherings work, and are essential for #distributed teams. At WORKTECH in NYC on Monday, I noted that a lot of big firms allowed teams to get more distributed, promised funds for team gatherings in '21, then pulled the funds in '22 -- and wondered why engagement started lagging. Atlassian shared their findings that quarterly gatherings boost engagement for 4-5 months, moreso than random in-office encounters. Allison Vendt at Dropbox adds fuel to that fire with a whole range of benefits, including: 💥 92% say off-sites (or on-sites!) boost #trust! 💥 86% say they have a meaningful impact on their team's efffectiveness. Allison and team are also sharing their playbook: 1️⃣ Build an Offsites Planning Team, a small central team that cut 30% of the time everyone else had to spend planning events. 2️⃣ Create an "Offsites in the Box" toolkit 3️⃣ Launch an events calendar that gives visibility to everyone about upcoming events so you can plan overlaps, and know what's up locally 👉 Great work, check it all out -- link to the report in comments! Kudos to Running Remote for hosting a great lineup in Distributed Work Unboxed today! #gatherings #events #onsite #offsite

Only a few hours left before our virtual webinar kicks-off! ⏰ Unboxing 10 topics from enterprise experts, sign-up here 👉

I'm looking forward to participating in Distributed Workplace Unboxed by Running Remote this week! I’ll be discussing why Dropbox is thinking about the role of in-person connection differently in distributed work, how we’re bringing employees together, and what resources we have in place to support these efforts. This virtual event will cover a ton of insights on tackling the challenges large organizations encounter when transitioning to flexible work strategies, all via quick snapshots from some really amazing leaders in the space, including:  Molly Sands, PhD, PhD, Head of Team Anywhere Lab, Atlassian  Jessica “JJ” Reeder, Director - Remote Organizational Effectiveness, Upwork Kent Frederiksen, Vice President of Rewards, the LEGO Group Henrik Jarleskog, Head of Future Work, Sodexo Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO & Co-Founder, Flexa Nida Mehtab Gillio, Founder, Caryatid LLC Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy, Global Head - Zoho for Startups, Zoho Pattie Egan, VP Total Rewards & People Operations, GitLab Brian Elliott, Co-Founder, McElliott Advisors, LLC Lucas Montgomery-Davis, Global Lead, Distributed Experiences, Block Join us (for free!) here: https://lu.ma/7gu2jqc5 

The Scaling Transparency workshop by Running Remote, Adam Horne, and 📖 John Faulkner-Willcocks was an eye-opener! 3 things I learned: 1. There are practical ways and best practices for putting your "transparency" company value into action. 2. It’s important to highlight "why" and "when" transparency matters. 3. There are many resources at Open Org to make the above happen. This 👇🏼 could be a good starting point for anyone looking to enhance transparency at their company.

I'm thrilled to be part of Distributed Workplace Unboxed by Running Remote Join me tomorrow, October 9th, for⚡flash talks ⚡ from some of the coolest enterprise leaders tackling the challenges large organizations face when transitioning to flexible work strategies. I'll be sharing our latest insights about innovation on distributed teams 🚀 Here is who I will be on the stage with: Jessica “JJ” Reeder, Director - Remote Organizational Effectiveness, Upwork Allison Vendt, Head of Virtual First, Dropbox Kent Frederiksen, Vice President of Rewards, the LEGO Group Henrik Jarleskog, Head of Future Work, Sodexo Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO & Co-Founder, Flexa Nida Mehtab Gillio, Founder, Caryatid LLC Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy, Global Head - Zoho for Startups, Zoho Pattie Egan, VP, People Operations, GitLab Brian Elliott, Co-Founder, McElliott Advisors, LLC Lucas Montgomery-Davis, Global Lead, Distributed Experiences, Block Register here: https://lu.ma/7gu2jqc5