What is Inclusive Distributed Work??

And how can it ensure your organization thrives in the future of work?

How 2020 Impacted Where & How We Work

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the Great Resignation and the Quiet Quitting movement — organizations were challenged to redefine how they approached the employee experience and defined company culture.

These challenges also led to accelerated changes, which included:

• Investing in people and planet. Organizations strengthened their commitments through investments in ESG (environmental, social and governance) and social impact initiatives, as well as company-wide DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programming and protocols to support performance;
• Offering flexible work options. By providing greater flexibility to employees to work where, when, and how they choose, organizations were able to increase their talent pool beyond traditional abilities, backgrounds and cultures;
• Empowering managers. For those managing distributed teams, organizations offered tools and training to help them lead remote teams in a way that supported psychological safety and performance;
• Enabling learning and development. Companies continued to prioritize opportunities for career advancement, learning, mentorship and sponsorship to up-skill individual contributors and boost employee engagement;
• Supporting work-life balance. Leaders doubled down on access to well-being initiatives and mental health resources to mitigate burnout for distributed teams.

From working with hundreds of HR, People and Talent leaders through our work with Inclusion in Progress , I've learned that distributed work can be a game-changer when approached intentionally and with inclusivity in mind.

Distributed Work Evolved Company Culture

Pre-2020, company cultures were built and maintained through...

Shared values,

Shared priorities,

Shared attitudes,

Shared work styles,

Shared worldviews,

Or shared perspectives.

That sense of identity was reinforced in the day-to-day actions and behaviors of the people around you, leading you, and working alongside you for the same organization.

This shared set of norms and behaviors could either...

1?? Reinforce the feeling of connection to your company;

-or-

2?? Become the reasons that prompted you to leave.

Now, as organizations like yours navigate distributed work environments, you're being asked to evolve your company culture and employee experience initiatives yet again.

Which means leaving behind...

?? Outdated ideas of what a workplace should look like,

?? Outdated ideas of what work means and where it fits in our lives,

?? Outdated ideas of one-size-fits-all employee perks and benefits,

?? Outdated ideas of the "9 to 5" workday and rigid schedules,

?? Outdated ideas of productivity measured solely by hours worked,

?? Outdated ideas of work-life balance as a luxury rather than a necessity.

This has placed greater expectations on Human Resources, People leaders, and DEI practitioners to meet a growing list of expectations from their distributed, multicultural workforces.

Which also brings a series of pressures — and questions — for forward-thinking leaders as we navigate our fourth year post-pandemic.

Giving distributed teams the agency to do their best work is not only in their best interest — it’s good for business.

Four years after the pandemic shook up the way we work, employees now expect flexible work options from their employers.

In order to make distributed work effective, however, leaders like you need to:

• Empower their teams with a shared sense of company culture beyond the four walls of an office;
• Rethink the purpose and design of physical work environments for in-person, co-located and fully virtual collaboration;
• Create opportunities for teams to deepen relationships within and beyond their immediate teams;
• Regularly design and reiterate new practices for sustainable distributed work that enables well-being and performance.

That's where my team and I come in.

Our Why Behind Inclusive Distributed Teams

So why am I so focused on supporting organizations with Inclusive Distributed Work??

Because being able to work with and lead distributed teams saved my mental health.

Here's my story...

2008:

I had just graduated from college.

I had student loans to pay off.

I was eager to prove myself in my first job.

I said "yes" to every opportunity possible.

I didn’t know my limits...

Until I experienced burnout.

I was hospitalized and diagnosed with clinical depression. I spent nearly two and a half years in recovery. I had to accept that my mental health management would be a lifelong journey...

2010:

I moved to Spain with a one-way ticket.

I was an immigrant on a student visa.

I had limited access to career opportunities.

I faced discrimination and xenophobia.

I was still stumbling with the language.

And I needed to get creative to find work as a non-EU citizen...

So I started a portfolio to apply for a Master's degree.

I used eLance and o-Desk before they became UpWork.

I even side hustled as a singer, food tour guide, and English teacher.

That first taste of setting my work hours, choosing where and who I worked with, while learning to find treatment and tools for my mental health conditions, opened up a whole world of possibility for me...

2024:

Today, I'm an advocate for distributed work and mental health.

I'm an immigrant living with neurodivergence.

I'm comfortable delivering work in English and Spanish.

I run a remote team and work with clients from everywhere.

Through our work, I've been afforded opportunities to advance and advise others in 35+ countries, across generational and cultural differences, while supporting our teams' experiences with autism, depression, anxiety, cPTSD and ADHD.

So I know from our research, our client partnerships, and our teams' lived experiences that...

1. Distributed work works to increase diversity and expand your talent pool.
2. Distributed work works to break down barriers and empower individuals to thrive in their own unique way.
3. Distributed work works to enable teams to collaborate and connect while contributing their best work to your organization.

I'm passionate about Inclusive Distributed Work? because it became my lifeline, a pathway to opportunity, and a catalyst for positive change for myself and those I work with.

And working with teams from around the world, I know that organizations benefit when they're structured to bring out the best in their people...

No matter where they come from or where they choose to work.

What is Inclusive Distributed Work??

As a distributed teams consultant and the founder of Inclusion in Progress , I help leaders reduce communication barriers and enable collaboration using our Inclusive Distributed Work? framework because...

Distributed = remote / hybrid / in-office

-and-

Distributed = global + multicultural

Here's the thing:

Even before March 2020, our teams were already distributed.

Today, the success of your distributed teams depends on enabling collaboration across difference, geography, culture and time zone — so you can:

?? Avoid costly attrition due to misunderstandings + inefficiencies

?? Strengthen your flexible work strategy to attract + retain top talent

?? Improve teams' communication + collaboration

?? Increase profitability + global market share + scale

Inclusive Distributed Work?: An organizational optimization strategy that ensures individual contributors can access the advantages and benefits they need to advance and perform at their highest potential — regardless of where they come from or where they choose to work.

Step 1: Enabling Individual Performance

Inclusive Distributed Work? begins with understanding and addressing the unique needs of individuals within the organization.

We partner with companies to identify what employers must provide to create a psychologically safe environment for individual contributors at home or in a shared physical workplace.

Some of the things we look at can include:

• How to enable flexibility and autonomy for distributed team members;
• How to identify individual work preferences, personalities and communication styles and share it with their managers and teams;
• How to measure individual needs regularly through surveys, feedback, personalized development plans, and regular check-ins.

We always start by identifying what employees need to reduce barriers to connectivity, performance and advancement, wherever they choose to work.

Step 2: Empowering Interpersonal Connection

Next, we look at mapping out what policies and protocols are needed to model for greater transparency in communication among distributed team members to support psychological safety — asynchronously, synchronously, in-office and virtually.

Effective collaboration is essential for success in distributed teams, yet it poses unique challenges in remote or virtual settings.

Some of the interventions we've implemented include:

• Mapping out what leaders need to create more equitable systems, model inclusive behaviors, mitigate bias in their performance reviews and recommendations for career advancement;
• Strengthening distributed team protocols and cadences that support psychological safety and performance;
• Establishing learning and development pathways that support psychological safety and accountability for managers and their direct reports;
• Teaching company-driven behaviors that enable collaboration and conflict resolution for distributed team members, whether in-office, hybrid or fully remote.

By fostering a culture of collaboration, organizations can strengthen distributed team dynamics and drive collective success.

Step 3: Embedding Organization-Wide Practices

Finally, we address the shifting expectations of employers and employees to provide psychological safety and embed Inclusive Distributed Work? at the organizational level.

Organizational barriers can hinder inclusivity in distributed work environments, but they can be overcome with strategic measures such as:

• Identifying and troubleshooting outdated protocols, technological infrastructure and communication silos that inhibit distributed teams;
• Auditing digital collaboration tools and procedures that support inclusive distributed team communication;
• Establishing company-wide policies and surveys to gather data that support the continued retention, performance and engagement of distributed teams.

Utilizing this framework, we’ve supported companies with aligning their people-focused initiatives with business critical objectives, deepening their capacity to understand and address specific issues facing their globally distributed teams, and effectively communicating their commitments internally and externally.

We encourage the companies we work with not to see Inclusive Distributed Work? as a “finished product,” but rather as a work in progress.

(Hence the name of our company: Inclusion in Progress !)

In the same way every new app is launched as a prototype — with improvements and updates that follow based on user feedback — leaders like you have the opportunity to apply the same mindset to troubleshooting for the psychological safety of your distributed teams.

By understanding and addressing the needs of your individual contributors, removing barriers to collaboration within your teams, and removing organizational barriers — you can unlock the full potential of your distributed workforce.

To learn how we can support your organization with building inclusive distributed teams, book your discovery call with our team .

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