Remote/Hybrid/On-site: How to maintain culture, and inclusion in meetings? What works??

What inspired this conversation?

• SoM and SHC IT merger before COVID also shifted culture and work experience
• COVID work experience and positions that stayed remote after the RTO happened, their experience as a FT remote person

Culture should not be taken for granted - it takes a village to keep it healthy.

What are people doing to keep culture alive?

• Use of creative tools that empower creative brainstorming (Miro, Figma commenting, Slack, good Zoom hygiene, polls)
• Anchor days for hybrid teams (Wednesdays is a popular choice.)
• Getting really good at using tools and willingness to collaborate virtually - making the commitment to do it well because it's important.
• Hybrid meetings should always start with 5-10 minutes to do round the room updates to get everyone talking and to build human connections, imitates the social experience of chatter in the room before the meeting really starts.
• Trying to make standing meetings happen on the on-site days to get the human connection without Zoom.
• Arrange for occasional team lunches on the campus instead of at SRWC, to reinforce the connection with the Stanford campus energy and university culture.
• Periodic casual get togethers like potlucks, team walks, things that happen during the work day but without involving a screen!
• Reinforce the expectation that name and face should be shared in Zoom - show video as much as possible so people can put a face to a name.
• UIT and TDS CIOs have monthly AMAs. This reinforces a culture of openness and transparency.
• Budget for at least bi-annual on-sites for everyone. Plan around an all-hands meeting or major event where they can mingle with more than their immediate team. (Several groups do this if they are all or mostly remote.)

Challenges we encounter:

• For mixed meetings where people on site are in the room collaborating and the Zoom attendees have a harder time engaging with the room conversation, or are distracted/multi-tasking
• Those who have been at Stanford for a long time, it's easier to connect and keep the culture alive because you have those relationships that pre-date our hybrid time. But for newer employees, who do not have those relationships, it becomes a real issue to connect remotely. It's really hard to know how Stanford things are done. We do not talk enough about how to bridge the distance and build relationships.
• Long commutes are very tough on positions that need deep focus time - remote and hybrid have enabled more time for productivity for developers in particular.

Tips to build relationships:

• Sign up for IT Mentoring program - maybe new staff could automatically be assigned a mentor for the first six months?
• Donut program and IT Connect slack channel
• Volunteer for the IDEAL IT programs
• FMS senior staff have monthly "senior chitchats" where their calendar has spaces set aside for individual staff to grab some time to chat about whatever is on their mind. Great opportunity especially for newer staff to get facetime.

How do we make sure our remote and hybrid staff are recognized and known for their contributions?

• It's up to the remote staff to make sure they speak up and actively participate, their work is known and transparent too.
• Weekly shout-outs for what work is happening and accomplishments were done, highlight the impact.
• Encourage a culture that the team can talk about what they have accomplished - be able to tell the story of what you did, realize that self-promotion is part of career growth.
• We as managers and leaders also need to be mindful to encourage that storytelling and promoting our team members' successes and lessons.
• Keeping a record of what's been done helps - reinforce transparency and knowledge sharing. Also makes performance evaluations easier!