How can you help new hires to a virtual or hybrid team connect and learn about the company culture faster? That’s a question we get a lot, and there’s no one simple answer. That said, one solution is to resurrect the idea of cohorts. How cohorts used to work By definition a cohort is a group of people banded together or treated as a group. It can also mean a supporter or … [Read more...]
Why Onboarding New Employees on a Hybrid Team is Tricky
When joining or bringing people onto a hybrid team, you encounter all the challenges associated with an office-based team, as well as many of the challenges that come with a fully remote team. There are also nuances because the new team structure will be neither of those things, but something new and often unprecedented. Specifically, our clients say that among their most … [Read more...]
Mindfulness Tips for Remote Teams
Whether or not you grew up watching The Flintstones, you can probably relate to Fred's famous "Yabba, Dabba, Doo!" scream at the end of his work day. We can all relate with Fred because, for better or worse, the workplace is associate with stress. But what if Fred worked remotely? What if instead of leaving the quarry, each day, Fred actually lived where he … [Read more...]
When Does Remote Bonding Go Too Far?
A few weeks back, we wrote about how showing your pets on Zoom meetings, or at least not hiding them like guilty secrets, can help the team bond and get to know each other. But can it go too far? Here’s the other side of that conversation. Apparently, some people make their pets too central to the process. A reader recently told me about his boss, a lovely lady who has taken … [Read more...]
Is Social Time Wasted Time?
It’s NCAA Tournament time again, which means nothing to 90% of the civilized world. But here in the US it means three weeks of drama, gambling, and well-intentioned foolishness. It’s also a good time to examine the role of creatively "wasting" time with social activities at work. First, we’ll start with the supposedly bad news. According to lots of studies done every year … [Read more...]