Not just another how-to-remote guide

Last weekend, I made the call to pivot my CS Mastermind event to an online event. That was before this week's meetings and government announcements around the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last weekend, this was just a decision based on the increased likelihood of attendees not being able to get to London, the possibility of public transport upheaval, and the personal financial impact of an event that simply wasn’t as viable as I’d have hoped it might be.

Pivoting to an online event was a pretty easy decision for me. The Mastermind format that I’ve built is very portable. Intentionally so. I’ve taken the opportunity to figure out a little re-tooling that will optimise how I run it as a virtual event, but really there’s very little to do. All the improvements I make now are just that - iterations on the form.

I’ve seen other events move into the virtual space over the last couple of weeks. Many have had to change their format. Offer less content. Become broadcast-only rather than interactive. Change dates. Change times. Change providers. Change, change, change.

Some changes are lamented. They are a loss. And I hope that, as the global crisis eases, organisers find ways to reinvigorate their business (and all those dependent on them), and rebuild something that is bigger, better and more nimble than before.

Other changes are, I am sure, for the better, despite posing some initial difficulties. Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better. But, if you can manage it, your business lives to fight another day. You’ll be better equipped to react, both mentally and practically. 

The same is true of the businesses choosing, or being pushed to, have their employees work from home. When I last stepped out of a permanent office location, nearly 16 years ago, it was pretty hard to make the transition. I had less than a week’s notice to get my home workspace sorted before I carried my big ol’ tower desktop and CRT screen out to the car and closed that office door forever. First, I lived alone (couple of hounds aside), and the transition from office-bustle to suburb-quiet was a shock. I like my own company, but I found the sudden extra 10 hours a day by myself was quite a leap.

Remote work is fairly rare now, but was almost unheard of back then. We were making this up as we went along. But we found ways to make inroads into the comparative isolation, and patch up the communications breakdowns. We constantly improved the processes, the practice and the tooling. We tried new tech all the time. The habit stuck with me.

We couldn’t simply transfer the way I worked in the office to working from home. It had to be different. And that’s the biggest argument I’ve often heard from businesses that claim working from home is not as effective as working from the office. They claim that <insert some standard office behaviour or protocol here> is significantly more difficult, or even impossible, when remote. It might be. Then the thing to do is behave differently.

As some organisations are forced to think-remote for the first time ever, I see an urge to prep and codify everything in a hurry. Everyone has rushed publish a how-to-remote guide. There’s a lot of good advice out there. You should read it. The harsh fact is, though, that no single guide will work for you. One size doesn’t fit all. And what works today could very well not work tomorrow. Sixteen years in, that’s the only truth I have. You have to pick what works for you, now, and be prepared to change. 

That’s why I’m not publishing a remote work guide.