WLP259: Shaping Culture through Virtual Retreats
Welcome to our first podcast episode of 2021, and Happy New Year to you wherever and whenever you are listening.
Today we reflect further on culture in organisations, and bring you a great interview someone whose job revolves around this critical issue. (If you enjoy this conversation about culture, we also encourage you to check out the recent interview with Robert Glazer in episode 257 too).
04.47 Stella Huang, Head of Talent and Culture at Shield GEO
Pilar spoke with Stella Huang in December 2020, crossing an 11 hour timezone gap to record, and thanks to our ongoing collaboration with Shield GEO (which began with the ‘Connection and Disconnection’ series, was it barely a year ago?).
Stella has been with the company for 3 years, transitioning from an initial internship to grow her career as the business grew and developed. Her present role plays to her strengths in relationship-building and fascination with people and teams.
Shield GEO take their retreats very seriously as a globally distributed organisation, and shifting them online during the throes of 2020 was a highly tactical endeavour. Reflecting on their 2019 event in Phuket, Stella indicated that there was always a hybrid element as you can rarely get every single person together, much as it adds richness to the event itself to be together in person.
Being unable to do that the following year, they still wanted to connect people the best way they could, switching from a one-off annual get together to a regular cadence of monthly hour-long events. Geographically dispersed and also working in tight-knit teams, they used their retreats to introduce the teams to each other as individuals and in roles, so everyone could see where they fitted into the bigger picture - locationally and organisationally. They shared their diverse backgrounds and experiences, what these bring to the business and their activities.
They had fun too, while clarifying their collective values, and looking at ways to embed and integrate them in their daily activities. Values are important to Shield GEO, they have a values alignment interview as part of their hiring process to ensure good fit. As a company grows it’s harder to ensure connectedness, particularly as they are spread over 3 global timezones - but shared values are a critical element of this, and online they endeavoured to schedule and mix up the teams to ensure some crossover and mingling.
Working in hourly activities so as not to disrupt work time or personal life, they wanted to encourage real presence while on retreat together, and every month they work in 3 different hourly slots to reflect the different region, so people can attend within their normal workday where possible (and the retreat team run the same activity 3 times). Each session starts with icebreakers, to connect participants to one another - with some disclosure or show and tell, they use the fact that people are in their own space to add depth in new ways.
Sessions are recorded, in case people want to optionally review the activities from the other regions and feel connected with more distant colleagues, and this is another way they use the “virtualness” of the retreat to offer an additional dimension which would not be possible in a traditional face-to-face session. They regard these regular brief activities as experimental and creative, nurturing connectedness while having a bit of fun and human interaction.
You can connect with Stella on LinkedIn.
28.09 Clarity about culture - Pilar’s reflections
Ensuring that human element of connectedness that Stella talked about is at the heart of the new ‘Podcasting for Connection’ offering from Virtual Not Distant.
Culture is built on intangible values, and the way we reflect those in our behaviour. Rituals and shared experiences can reinforce these, or not, and some are more easily adapted to the online space - or the hybrid space - than others. You may need to rediscover those values and how to embody them, after a period of change or upheaval.
For example, what does “flexibility” mean now? Perhaps people’s needs and personal priorities have changed during 2020, or due to life changes, and managers need to be conscious of these shifts: what can we incorporate and embrace? What do we need to do to ensure we still feel connected, that we belong, if our situation or environment has changed?
Pilar will be developing this theme through 2021, helping organisations to focus on how to sustain their culture as the future of work evolves. Please do share your thoughts with her and help us create the content and services you need, to support you through this pivotal and important time for all remote and hybrid organisations.
We love your feedback - please contact us, or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with your thoughts and ideas.
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