Why Remote Work Thrives in Some Companies and Fails in Others

Remote workers should be working in harmony, but people often don't know what others are doing and how everything fits together.

• Create formal processes that simulate the informal way; for example, stopping by a colleague's desk or eating lunch together. These interactions serve as course corrections.
• Managers should clearly articulate the mission, assign roles and responsibilities, create detailed project plans, establish performance metrics. They should also document all that and make it available offsite.
• Managers should model and enforce the processes until they are completely incorporated.

Remote workers who rarely meet with their teammates face to face tend to focus on tasks and ignore the team. A culture is vital to foster engagement and sustain performance over the long term.

Establish trust. Affective trust (based on feeling) is tricky to build virtually.

• You may need to bring team members together for short periods.
• Rituals, such as #toasts feed the culture and provide recognition for employees. Otherwise, schedule regular informal calls as a group or one-on-one.