Having Some Space to Think

We now do live in an increasingly virtual environment, where a lot of work and even business deals are done remotely. How has that influenced your communication style? And does it require more intentional trust-building, especially at a high growth company like yours, where you’re growing quickly, and adding people really quickly?

Yeah, absolutely, I mean, we had…so our company is approaching 500 people, and we probably had more than 50% of that population start the company and never set foot in the office. And so…

Wow!

Yeah, yeah, so, it was a big challenge for us, because a lot of people, we’re shipping their laptops to their homes, and the first time they met anybody in the company was over zoom. We’re all two-dimensional people, right?

That’s incredible.

And you think, okay, well maybe that’s fine for one meeting, and then that goes on for 18 months, right? So, it was a challenge, but a few things that we did, like you said, you’re just spot on, and you just have to be a lot more intentional about what you do in the company. And so, as soon as COVID hit, we transitioned what—we used to be a month in communications from me and the rest of the staff, to a weekly 30-minute communication, just much more frequent, but short. A short burst of it, just to give people a tighter connection with the company, and a much broader range of topics we talk about. Because we just don’t have the normal access to, “Oh, this is happening in this part of the company, or that…” We just didn’t have it.
And so, we just started focusing a lot more on making sure that people got a quick glimpse in what’s happening elsewhere, while you’re stuck in your bedroom, or office, or wherever it is that you do work. And so, that’s one thing that we did very, very early. Another thing that we recently instituted, which, it’s really important for a company like ours is, no meetings on Wednesdays. What we saw with COVID was that productivity went up, but as soon as we…Because you’re not driving to the office, right? And you’re fully efficient enough. You’re not getting on planes, and you’re not doing any of those things, so, you’re typing all the time, right? You’re typing all the time, so productivity has gone up, but the amount of actually quiet time to think, went down.
And so one of the things that I always talk about is like, well, why are we doing this? And by the time I ask, why are we doing it? We’re already doing it. So, we’re already doing it, but we haven’t discussed the why? And as a company, I always like to have the why before you do it. And so, there’s a lot of thinking that I think is really important in any company really, but it’s certainly for ours, that I really wanted to emphasize in my company, hey, give some thoughts, and have some space to think.