WLP147 - Avoiding Artificial Harmony

Working out loud takes effort and energy – and it becomes really hard to do when we are struggling with the work or when we are afraid of breaking the “good vibe” of the team or of not being a “positive team member”. 

Links mentioned in the updates:

Our listener Steve recommends:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secret-behind-happy-productive-companies-brian-de-haaff

Pilar’s family friend was a pioneer in 2009 of “Mobile phone-based telemedicine system for the home follow-up of patients undergoing ambulatory surgery.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19566396/ 

The article that inspired today’s conversation:

The 6 Exercises We’re Doing to Help With Artificial Harmony from the Open Buffer blog

https://open.buffer.com/artificial-harmony/

The benefits of Working Out Loud.
(For more on this check out episode 48 https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/working-out-loud )

We recall a conversation on the Virtual Team Talk Slack.

Having a channel/group/section for disagreements.

Building relationships so that we can then have candid conversations. Pilar recommends the book Radical Candor by Kim Scott.

Direct messaging vs open conversations.

Making the transition involves changing how we communicate, including talking about when we should make our conversations public.

There is value in talking about how we will disagree with each other and even in giving permission to disagree.

If we’re not disagreeing, do we care?

Language matters: does the way in which we express our values discourage disagreement and healthy conflict?

Having a place for team members to share “stuff” that’s not easy to read or talk about.

If emotional support is important for you, decide how you will reach out.

It’s better to communicate, even if we communicate badly. In remote teams, it’s easy to disengage.