How to Create Adventure in Your Comfort Zone

Each day, we start with the same number of hours, minutes, and seconds to spend how we choose. We have the power to make each day special or different. Some days stand out more than others, like attending a wedding, a birthday, or a graduation. Or they stand out for other reasons, like a funeral, job loss, or extreme illness. 

Those days are atypical. But if it’s a workday, how can you turn a typical day into a memorable one? You can change the little things, like the screen saver on your computer, eat something different for lunch. You can change the greeting for your coworker from the usual, “Hi, how are you?” to “Hello, how will you make today special?” Your coworker will likely stop and stare.

It’s easy to say that we had a typical day because we got up at the usual time, did our usual morning routine, went to work, and then had the usual commute back home before having a bland dinner. Five days a week can pass like that and it’s okay to enjoy the comfort of a drama-free routine.

But when you think about it, five days a week, fifty somewhat weeks in a year (depending on how many weeks you work) is a huge chunk of your life that’s typical or routine. You don’t have to live it that way. 

I challenge you to try something different to change your daily routine and keep it fresh. Your mind will notice the details when you slightly change your route to work, or check out a new place for lunch. 

You’re also setting new goals for yourself. You might learn something new if you pause to talk with someone you’ve never spoken to before—a neighbor, a coworker, or the cashier at the coffee shop. 

Tomorrow, ask yourself, “Was today typical?” or did you change things up just a little bit?

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Daily writing prompt
Was today typical?
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How to Create an Inclusive Culture with Remote Teams

Repost

Technology has made it possible for a situation that didn’t exist a couple of decades ago: working with strangers. In a new culture of remote work, collaborating with coworkers in another city has become more commonplace. This situation can be comfortable for some people; awkward for others.

As these situations occur more often, it has become an issue that remote companies must tackle. How do these companies create an inclusive culture for their remote teams? 

With work from home, you may never meet your coworkers face to face for a casual conversation at the water cooler. You may even stagger interaction times because you’re logging into work as coworkers are having lunch or getting ready for dinner. 

Interactions are formal: Meetings are done virtually, with set start and end times, and people stick to the agenda to respect schedules. Meetings can seem less formal because you get a peek into your coworker’s home, and you’re not meeting in the boardroom. 

However, it’s harder to relate to someone you know little about, apart from their name, job title, and what their home office looks like.

The management team has an important role in creating an inclusive work culture for their remote teams, starting with how they communicate and meet.

1 In-person team events

Virtual meetings are an effective way to collaborate quickly without wasting time on travel (by transit or by foot when you walk to the meeting room), but it isn’t easy to get to know people by meeting on a computer screen.

Technology cannot replace in-person events. If a group of coworkers lives within driving distance, it’s worth finding a day when most people can meet for lunch and a chat. Occasions such as greeting a new team member, saying goodbye to someone moving away, or celebrating a holiday are the perfect reasons to socialize and get to know your team members in a non-work-related context.

If possible, arrange for the whole company to meet at a central location. This annual meeting can be a day for everyone to meet in person and bond over activities completely unrelated to work.

2 Developing an inclusive culture from the top down

An inclusive culture for a remote company starts at the management level. New hires and team members follow the example that their direct report or supervisor sets.

The tone used in emails, group chats, and direct messages is a part of the company culture. Do messages sound supportive and friendly? Or do people stick to the point? (The occasional curt message doesn’t count – eventually, you’ll catch someone in a hurry if you message them often enough.)

Do group chats and meetings include sharing news and photos about what company members have been up to? A company lunch photo helps connect names to faces and gives a sense of what other teams or departments are doing. 

Group chats and meetings are also opportunities to share what individuals have accomplished. For example, what projects were completed this past quarter? What did Jane contribute to the company lately to improve operations? What presentation did Sean do last month that won an award?

These are just some ways the company can create an inclusive culture that connects names, accomplishments, and faces. People become more than employees that you know by name.

3 Starting team meetings with a little socializing

Team meetings are usually scheduled for a half hour to an hour. It’s typical to have a lot to cover in that short period of time. However, the team can spare a few minutes to socialize. That casual start to the meeting can do a lot to build relationships.

The person acting as meeting moderator can start with a question such as, “How is everyone doing?” or ask about the weather. When your team lives in different cities, comparing the weather can be interesting (even competitive when you’re deciding who is having the hottest summer). If the weather seems dull, other neutral topics are also worthwhile, such as everyone’s upcoming weekend or holiday plans (although this topic tends to create long discussions that can take the meeting off topic).

These short one to two-line conversations are a way to break the ice and get to know team members more personally. You discover that a teammate’s work buddy is a dog (who may pop by during the virtual meeting). Or you may find out someone likes beach weather as much as you do.

These bits of trivia come in handy when you need to message someone for the first time with a work request. You can add a personal note, “Hope you have a good rest this long weekend at your summer cabin. Let me know when the report is finished!”

4 One-on-one chats with remote team members

One-on-one chats with team members are a great way to get to know other people who work at your company. When you can speak one-on-one at a virtual meeting or on a phone call, you have the chance to get to know each other on a personal level. 

For example, you can find out what brought that person to the company or what their specific role is (especially if you don’t work directly with that coworker). Depending on how social the other person is, you might share details about your personal life. 

Team members can message each other with work requests and add the latest picture of their dog or cat if they discover that their coworker is also fond of animals or has a pet. In some cases, these chats evolve into sharing anecdotes about hobbies or jokes interspersed with work-related chatter.

When you connect with your coworkers, you may also open up personally, knowing your coworker will offer you support. For example, offering to pick up a work task for you because you’re sick, or sending you a joke to help you feel better because you’re struggling with something in your personal life.

These personal connections can also happen with your supervisor or mentor. People in management or supervisory positions should take the time to get to know their team members by booking one-on-one meetings. 

During that time, they can find out more about why someone is working for the company (they might not have been involved in the hiring process), what that person’s career goals are, and how that person likes to work (such as they like to be included in teamwork or they prefer to work independently). 

This is also the perfect time to find out if the team member is struggling with something at work or at home but is reluctant to share. Discussing a solution can help to deal with mental health issues or possible future challenges.

These types of connections are entirely possible with remote teams.

5 Setting a tone of sensitivity

People who work with remote teams can find it challenging to connect with their coworkers. For example, you don’t have the chance to run into them before or after work for a quick conversation—this lack of opportunity to connect results in faceless coworkers that you email with work requests.

However, if company culture includes the occasional in-person event, promotes having a snippet of social time at the start of a meeting, or encourages people to get to know each other on a more personal level, people will feel more included.

Some may resent social opportunities and consider this inclusive culture a waste of time. Introverts want to be left alone to work. A direct, to-the-point person will avoid wasting time with unrelated chatter. 

The downside of this type of disconnect is people working in silos, and when they need help (and this will happen), their coworkers aren’t as quick to give a helping hand. This isolation can also open the door to misunderstandings and resentment.

An inclusive culture of respect and support for others will create a more connected workplace. There are a few ways to develop this sensitivity. 

For instance, if you discover your coworker has social anxiety, the team can be more encouraging. They can ask for that person’s opinion, knowing that person isn’t likely to share. They can also respond non-judgementally and show appreciation when their coworker shares an opinion or idea.

Key Takeaways

Taking the time and initiative to get to know your coworkers creates a positive environment for your remote team. Making these connections is important when you don’t see everyone day-to-day. It’s too easy to see coworkers as just names when you work from home. But when you discover just a little about a coworker’s personal life, such as a hobby, number of kids, or favorite food, you start to see them as people.

When your coworkers are humans you care about, you’ll want to support and help each other. Creating an inclusive culture begins with building relationships with your coworkers.

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What Foods Would You Like to Make

Food loves company.

For a recent company get-together, we experienced an Iron Chef-like competition. In case you haven’t heard of that show, it’s a competition in which you must use a key ingredient to make a recipe. In our case, the company was divided into teams, and each team got an ingredient to create an appetizer. 

We discovered that the challenge was not everyone knew what to do with the key ingredient. That was related to the fact that we had people on our team who didn’t cook. (But the purpose of the activity was to have fun so a lack of cooking expertise didn’t matter.)

The competition was held at a cooking school with plenty of ingredients, stoves, ovens, and tables. Our team was assigned blue cheese as an ingredient. Half the team hadn’t tried blue cheese or didn’t like it, so one person took charge and came up with a recipe.

In the end, we made blue cheese with apples and nuts on a cracker. We were defeated by teams that had key ingredients such as salmon and another type of cheese. Of course, these competitions really depend on taste when determining the winner. The chef (and judge) thought our team’s recipe was too sweet, but a coworker liked the appetizer.

In the end, we got to try the appetizers made by all our coworkers. The main course was made by the instructor at the cooking school and his team. Many coworkers thought the dessert was too sweet. (Again, food is so subjective and depends on individual taste.)

In the end, it’s not just about the food. (Well, if the food tastes good, then certainly, you get a great meal.) What we remember is the time spent with the people we care about and the memories we create from the experience. 

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Daily writing prompt
What foods would you like to make?
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Losing Track of Time: Growing Up Too Soon

When I was ten, my parents bought me a notebook. “Tina,” they said, “you talk so much about so many things. Why don’t you write your thoughts down?” So I did.
I was an only child with an active imagination, so I wrote every day.

I wrote about all the things that I wanted to say to my parents. I described all the places that we would go as a family if my parents weren’t always working all the time. In just a few weeks, I had managed to fill an entire notebook, so my parents bought me another one.

“Want to see what I wrote?” I asked.

“Later,” they said. “Eat your dinner. Do your homework.” Then my dad’s eyes went back to the screen as he checked work emails, and analyzed numbers to see what he could trade. Mom typed on her laptop. Next to her, her planner was open, full of appointments and bright post-it notes. They were both very busy. They were like this every day of the week.

Another week passed. Then another month, and another year. My parents bought me my own computer but I still preferred the connection of my thoughts pulsing through my fingers to my pen, and transforming into words on the page.

Over time, my notebooks filled several boxes in my closet. They contained dreams I wanted to fulfill, sketches of places I wanted to go, lines of poetry, random thoughts that made me draw happy faces across the page, or angry words like silent screams across several paragraphs.

One day, I went to collect all the boxes of notebooks from my closet. “I can’t believe you’re moving out already,” Mom said. “How long did you study for your degree? Is your boyfriend helping you on moving day?”

“We broke up. We’re just friends now. I told you that last year.”

“That’s a lot of notebooks,” said Dad.

“Yeah,” I said. “You once told me to write down all my thoughts, so I did. I just wish I could have shared some of them with you, but you both were always so busy with work.”

“We gave you a good life, didn’t we?” asked Mom.

“I guess,” I said. “You did help with the downpayment of my condo.”

I made sure all the boxes were closed. I was going to keep them sealed for a long time. Years of thoughts were in there, collecting dust and silence throughout time.

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Daily writing prompt
Which activities make you lose track of time?
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An Invitation One Can’t Refuse

Daily writing prompt
If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?
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I knew that he would come to dinner because he knew how important this one evening was. Prior to dinner, we had argued. We had stayed in touch, but we hadn’t seen each other in months. It took me courage to ask him to come to my place. 

He had been there several times before. In the first year, we laughed a lot and spent hours together, collecting memories. In our last year, we had argued less and less until we didn’t have much to say at all.

“Will you come by?” I asked. 

“Yes, of course,” you said.

So I spent the whole afternoon preparing dinner, making the perfect meal with the food that he loved. I wore his favorite T-shirt and jeans. Remember where we were when I first wore this outfit? It was such a fun vacation!

He arrived on time, which was unusual because he was often late. He gave me a hug and a kiss, which he hadn’t done in a year. Then he saw the food and couldn’t wait to eat it. “I’ve missed you,” he said. 

“I missed you too,” I said, my eyes watering, “and I’m sorry.”

Everything was what I’d hoped for. There were no arguments, no anger. When you remember something, it tends to be perfect because your mind selectively edits everything. 

It removes all the bad stuff, so you only remember the good.

I stared at the plate of food in front of him, still untouched.

It was all in my head, of course. In my mind, I’d fixed it all. We were speaking again. No more regrets over things left unsaid, no more agonizing over mistakes we’d made. Just this perfect dinner where he was here again, and everything was perfect. 

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