5 Levels of Distributed Work: Are We There Yet?
Which level are you? Your company? Image Credit: Wood Coasters Info
This article was inspired by the podcast #194 - The New Future of Work Sam Harris interview with Matt Mullenweg. Additional references below.
“It is hard to kill a city,” remarks Geoffrey West, “but easy to kill a company.”
Cities can survive a nuclear bomb, but companies have a mean life of only 10 years. What best practices are you deploying to ensure the longevity of your business?
Matt Mullenweg is the founding developer of WordPress, which incidentally is used by 36% of the web. WordPress has over 1,200 employees in 75 countries stretching across 10+ time zones. Now, more than ever, Mullenweg believes a distributed workforce is an essential framework for most companies. He prefers the term “distributed” rather than “remote” because the definition of remote implies not being connected.
Worry not, WordPress has a conventional org chart: a pyramid organization structure. But teams and projects have a flat architecture—meaning that every team has a representative from each department, eliminating bottlenecks caused by seeking feedback and approvals by finance, legal (aka “sales prevention departments”), HR, and so on. Teams are typical no larger than 20 people, all residing within two time zones. Say goodbye to expensive offices, long commutes, and exposure to health issues.
It’s important to note that, of course, distributed work is not the panacea for every industry...yet. Obviously, it is difficult to implement a distributed work model at restaurants and bars where ambience is a social magnet. Nonetheless, even industries like hospitality are being asked to adopt new business models to mitigate shelter-in-place disruptions. By now, we’re all familiar with food deliveries like Sun Basket, DoorDash, and InstantCart. A recent local example of distribution innovation is Humble Sea Brewery. Due to the shelter-in-place mandate, owner Frank Scott Krueger pivoted his business to provide two full e-commerce experiences and a shipping department—all within a 24-hour sleepless day (tune in next week for a full story on how local businesses are pivoting). In essence, Humble Sea has moved from Level 1 to Level 2.
So what are these 5 levels of distributed work?
According to Mullenweg, the coronavirus era is an uninvited opportunity to look at every aspect of your life and business that requires a physical location. Which level is your business at?
Credits: Joel.is
Level 1: Non-Deliberate Action
At this level, everyone in the company is required to be in the same physical business location. This accounts for roughly 98% of the world. This level/model harkens back to the days of factories. But it does not sit well for knowledge workers who exceed 1B of the total workforce
Level 2: Recreating the Office / Classroom Online
In the shadow of C19, most businesses and schools are adopting technologies to enable productivity through email, web conferencing, messaging, e-commerce, etc. Great, but, they are just refashioning their in-office behaviors and calling it online. They frame their activities in synchronous manners, requiring their employees to be online from 9-5pm. They even use antiquated terms & memes like telecommuting. Zoom meetings have too many attendees, there are no clear outcome-based agendas. Employees are checking and responding to emails on average 70 times a day. Slack becomes a ticker tape of trigger happy opinions by the highest paid manager, or by people with too much free time. That pointy head boss is a constant pain in the...
Level 3: Adapting to the Medium
Welcome to a new era. Employees are taking advantage of the new “cloud” medium, sharing and collaborating on documents (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc). In a virtual meeting, one person is taking notes for everyone, screen sharing in a visible and collaborative manner while others are silently chanting “zooooOm.” By default, meetings are no longer than 15 minutes, with clear upfront goals, expectations, and next steps. Written communication are clear and articulate. There is a cultural aversion to “jumping on calls.” We are approaching serenity.
Level 4: Asynchronous Communication
At this level, we have tamed our reptile brains which think we need to immediately respond to everything. We are becoming human again. People who meditate know how to separate impulse from thought, how to take a breath before reacting, and know that most things in life and business...can wait.
At this level, our activities become asynchronous: everyone can design their days based upon what they produce, not how they produced it. Mullenweg has a great example of how refining asynchronous activities worked well for the Japanese relay team in the 2016 Olympics. The Japanese were no match for the Jamaicans in an all out sprint. So the Japanese team focused solely on the baton handoff, shaving critical seconds off each transition. They won Silver. Think of each of these four baton runners as a team in a different time zone. Each runner has her own task, but knows how essential the handoff is for the next runner, and for the entire team. When businesses tap into global talent pools, in different time zones, they can achieve more in a 24 hour cycle than a traditional Level 1-2-3 business.
Companies that truly practice asynchronous communication have stepped out of the industrial revolution, and no longer conflate presence with productivity, or hours with output, as one might on the factory floor. –Steve Glaveski
Level 5: Nirvana
At this level, every employee has the ability to design their day and environment to fit their productivity, health, and wellness. Surf when the conditions are right. Do yoga when your body and mind need it. Add a goat. Break bread with your family and friends. In the middle of a web conference, turn off your microphone and video, then practice those dance moves! Everyone is now working at a higher level.
Conclusion
Remember the earlier comment about most things in life and business can wait? Well this is one of those moments. Breathe. Move up a level. We will share with you what local businesses are doing to rise up to the next level. Breathe.