Tips on thriving in a remote culture 👨‍💻

Hey 👋

Welcome to Neighbourhood Post issue #51 - easy to implement digital marketing ideas straight through your metaphorical letterbox.

Welcome to December! How’s the tree looking? 🎄

Anyway, on with today’s newsletter - do you want to see some photos?

👉 By the way, if you’ve missed previous newsletters you’ll find them here.

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Tips on thriving in a remote culture 👨‍💻

We had a photoshoot at team days last month 📸

Out and about in the neighbourhood, obviously 😉

As a remote team, our monthly gatherings are a real highlight.

We save all the tasks that are best done in person—brainstorms, team updates, strategy work—for the two days we’re together.

When we tell people we only spend two days a month in the same room, they’re often surprised it can work.

Honestly, sometimes we are too!

We’ve been intentional about hiring great talent and people who are a strong cultural fit.

Geography comes second.

Because of that, we’ve had to build a remote culture that works.

If you’re a fully remote or semi-remote team, here are a few things we’ve found help us maintain performance and culture.

We’re not perfect at these, but they’re things we’re mindful of and actively working on:

#1 - Get your values right

The team will laugh at me here—I used to hate the idea of values and only introduced them reluctantly.

I even insisted they’d only be internal and never something we’d talk about externally.

Turns out I was wrong. And I’m OK admitting it 😂

Now, I love them. Our values are actions, not vague words, and they’ve been stress-tested over the past year.

They guide our decisions and solve most challenges we face. While none of us can recite them perfectly on the spot, they act as a great compass when we need direction.

If you’re forming your own and want some advice, let me know.

#2 - Be positive and candid

That’s one of the values 👆

Some organisations have “honesty” as a value, but I don’t think that’s enough.

Honesty is rooted in integrity—it’s personal. Candour, on the other hand, is a behavior that can be practiced.

In a remote setup, you can’t rely on water cooler chats or the subtle nuances of physical communication.

We have to be clear, speak our minds, and share feedback—positively, not negatively!

#3 - Celebrate wins regularly

We’re getting better at keeping up with this.

(There are plenty of wins when you’re great at what you do 😉).

We have a Slack channel dedicated to celebrating successes. We encourage everyone to call out the wins of others regularly, and we make time for this during our in-person meet ups too.

Big or small, celebrating wins keeps momentum up and morale high.

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Those are just a few things we aim to practice consistently.

How’s your remote culture? I’d love to hear what you do to help it thrive…

See you next week.

✌️

What we’re looking at 👀 and listening to 👂

🎧 Rosie listened to James Watt's episode of Great Company podcast - fully aware that he splits opinion massively. He talks about how he made one typo that cost him £50 million, and how he dealt with that mistake. Worth a listen.

🎬 There’s lots on at the cinema right now. Jake saw Gladiator 2 (big thumbs up 👍 from him), James watched Moana 2 (not as positive on that one 👎).

Before you go - we’ll never use these newsletters to directly sell you our services, but we’re always here if you need any expertise or support 👍