To help you build a conscious culture in a fully remote team, we asked ten experts from various fields, including marketing and operations, for their best tips. From fostering culture through the Shaka platform to hosting open conversations and team-building activities, these leaders share their insights on how to create a purposeful culture despite the physical distance.
- Fostering Culture Through the Shaka Platform
- Communicating and Connecting Intentionally
- Building Togetherness With Calls and Mentorship
- Cultivating Culture Through Digital Mindfulness
- Reiterating Benefits of Remote Work
- Establishing Relationships in Remote Teams
- Promoting Open Dialogue Among Members
- Solidifying Core Values From Day One
- Displaying Compassion in Your Workplace Culture
- Hosting Open Conversations and Team-Building Activities
Fostering Culture Through the Shaka Platform
We organize casual virtual coffee chats, where team members can connect on a personal level and build relationships beyond work. We also have vibrant virtual communities focused on various interests, such as book clubs or fitness enthusiasts, where everyone can share valuable resources and support each other’s well-being. We love organizing entertaining challenges that relate to hobbies or skills, ensuring everyone gets involved and fostering a genuine sense of camaraderie. Through these initiatives in our platform, Shaka, our aim is to build a supportive and thrilling culture that truly values connection, well-being, and a lot of fun in our remote work environment.
Olivia Daley, Marketing Coordinator, Shaka
Communicating and Connecting Intentionally
Creating a conscious culture with a remote team is all about intentional communication. Regularly communicate your company’s purpose and values, and how each team member’s work contributes to that purpose. This can be done through virtual team meetings, one-on-ones, or even in your internal communications. Also, create spaces for team members to connect on a personal level, like virtual coffee breaks. A conscious culture is built on shared purpose and connection, no matter where your team is located.
Lou Reverchuk, Co-Founder and CEO, EchoGlobal
Building Togetherness With Calls and Mentorship
In our company, we prioritize building a sense of togetherness by emphasizing regular one-on-one calls and implementing mentorship programs. These initiatives allow us to maintain a strong connection with each team member, ensuring they feel supported, valued, and connected to the larger vision and purpose of our organization. Our focus is on personal and professional growth.
Loren Howard, Founder, Prime Plus Mortgages
Cultivating Culture Through Digital Mindfulness
The key to cultivating a conscious culture in a fully-remote team lies in developing digital mindfulness. This involves consciously using technology to communicate and connect with your colleagues, rather than allowing it to dictate your behavior or emotions. This could mean starting every virtual meeting with a moment of collective mindfulness, where everyone shares how they’re feeling or what they’re grateful for today, creating a sense of unity and mutual understanding within the team. This strategy encourages conscious interaction and paves the way for a more authentic, compassionate, and purpose-driven work culture.
Bayu Prihandito, Psychology Expert, Life Coach, and Founder, Life Architekture
Reiterating Benefits of Remote Work
At QBench, we like to re-articulate the organizational positives of being fully remote continually. The single biggest one is the ability for all employees to live their best life, and that means choosing where they want to live and how they want to live. This genuine commitment reminds everyone that we are not cynically trying to avoid an office lease, but we believe everyone has genuinely benefited from our commitment to this approach. That creates buy-in, which compounds into a great culture where people are actually living the lives they want instead of one prescribed by a commute or an office location.
Trevor Ewen, COO, QBench
Establishing Relationships in Remote Teams
Creating a conscious culture in a fully remote team is indeed a challenge, but not an impossible one. Since casual social interactions aren’t naturally present as in a physical office setting, we intentionally make efforts to build relationships. We make it a point to engage in non-work-related discussions that help in fostering a bond among the team members. We hold semiannual company retreats and quarterly leadership off-sites, which serve as platforms for us to interact, collaborate, and connect on a personal level. We also heavily use video services like Zoom for regular meetings and catch-ups. This allows us to maintain the “face-to-face” element of communication, which is important for building strong relationships. We consciously work at fostering relationships to build a culture of purpose and camaraderie in our remote team.
Amar Ghose, CEO, ZenMaid
Promoting Open Dialogue Among Members
Creating a conscious culture for a remote team is no simple task. The key to success lies in implementing practices that foster communication and understanding among members. Promoting open dialogue is a top tip for achieving this. This means allowing everyone on the team the opportunity to voice their opinions, ideas, and work-related concerns without negative reactions or judgment from other members. Beyond openly welcoming and reaffirming diverse viewpoints during team Zoom calls, empowering less bold team members to share opinions through anonymous feedback forms can also be beneficial.
Carly Hill, Operations Manager, Virtual Holiday Party
Solidifying Core Values From Day One
The key to creating this is to ensure that all team members know the organization’s core values from day one. These should be spelled out in any onboarding process. Beyond this, the values should be posted somewhere that is regularly accessible. In our case, they’re on our company wiki. All of our team members clearly understand why we’re doing what we’re doing and their purpose in relation to the greater mission of the business.
Tom McCarron, Co-Founder, Algebra Digital
Displaying Compassion in Your Workplace Culture
For me, it’s important that I’m always gentle with myself and approachable to my staff. I know that many of us are still getting back on our feet after the pandemic, and the strain of working remotely presents a unique challenge to people’s mental health. I always take it easy on myself and my team when they don’t get things right the first time. We are all just the same people, continuing to figure out the best way forward. We foster connections beyond the professional level, which makes us better workers, entrepreneurs, and better human beings overall, through empathy and compassion. Even if my team is distributed and international, fostering compassion in our workplace culture relieves the pressure and stress associated with occupational burnout. This way, we can collectively continue to learn and grow together.
Samantha Hawrylack, CEO, SJ Digital Solutions LLC
Hosting Open Conversations and Team-Building Activities
During these meetings, I encourage open and honest conversations about the company’s values, mission, and goals. I make sure everyone understands how their work contributes to the bigger picture. I also allow team members to share their ideas and experiences, and I actively listen to them. You can also add virtual team-building activities or social events that align with the company’s purpose. This could be anything from virtual volunteering to hosting online workshops or book clubs. These activities help foster a sense of community and reinforce the shared values that define our conscious culture. Building a conscious culture takes time and effort, so the most important thing is to stay consistent with these meetings.
Johannes Larsson, Founder and CEO, JohannesLarsson.com
