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Building a remote culture that enables your team is no easy feat. If you succeed you’ll unlock the agency and autonomy that comes with a well managed remote operation. If you don’t succeed you end up burning out from bad habits.

In this biweekly podcast you'll hear, from both Alix and guests, all about remote teamwork from a zillion different angles. It'll be focused on fresh perspectives, and always include suggestions for you to put new practices into place.

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Episode 3 | Decision-making for remote teams with Sharon Moorhouse

E03
/
April 5, 2023

Does decision-making tie your team up in knots? Is it sometimes unclear when, where, and how decisions are made?

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about the episode

Does decision-making tie your team up in knots? Is it sometimes unclear when, where, and how decisions are made?

With decision-making in remote spaces, the devil’s in the detail, and it can be hard to strike the balance between having the right people involved without getting bogged down in endless meetings and conversations.

In this episode, Alix sat down with Sharon Moorehouse, former UX Operations at Shopify and now Partner Enablement Program Manager at Tines. Sharon has lots to share about how to structure decision-making processes; include people effectively; and build trust and consult teammates without wasting their time.

*This interview was originally recorded as part of the 2022 Remote Culture Intensive, a course for remote teams to rebuild their culture, together.

You can find Sharon (and say hello) here.

our key takeaways

1. Balance the need for speed with appropriate consultation

In lots of organisations (particularly early-stage or small ones), change happens quickly and you need to make decisions fast. It can feel like you’re easily left behind.

So how do you keep moving quickly without moving alone? And when you involve people, how do you avoid over-consultation that slows things down without increasing the quality of the decisions you are making?

2. Understand the ‘blast radius’ of decisions

Sharon likes to think of decisions as having a ‘blast radius’. This is a way of exploring how different decisions effect different people. Using that check, you can consult the right people at the right level of intensity based on how they’ll be affected.

If a decision will have a big impact on them and their work, consider having a 1:1 or group conversation so you can hear directly from folks and also make it clear what is going on, when, and how. If it’s a smaller impact, think about creating more light touch, optional ways for people to engage.

3. Remote work creates better documentation but makes building trust harder

Remote work means we’re more likely to create digital paper trails as we go. This is great for when you’re trying to catch up on what’s happened and why a specific decision has been made.

But sifting through documentation by yourself is less likely to build up trust in the decision or the decision-makers. So take some time to think about how you can build up trust within your team, and in decision-making more generally.

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Get your free Remote Ready starter kit.

Discover the 5 states of remote (and which one you’re in)

Find out the #1 dynamic that holds teams back

Get a sneak peek of our signature course

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.