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What is a distributed team?
According to wikipedia: A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team, distributed team, or remote team) is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology.
When a company is operating with multiple people on a team and most of those people are located in different places of the world — then you have yourself a distributed team. A lot of companies particularly in the tech space and customer service are making great strides by successfully operating with teams that are location agnostic.
The corporate world frowns upon work from home policies and I completely understand why many have a focus to get people into the building. That’s a more “traditional” type of operational model and culture. Many newer companies have team members who are located all over the world and are successfully operating in a 24/7/365 way because of it.
Can anyone work at a company that has this type of culture?
No. Of course not.
Most people, especially if you’ve been in the corporate world for a long time will have a tough time transitioning into a work from home scenario. There are always exceptions and yes, anyone can learn to be disciplined about working from home. But I truly don’t believe that it’s for everyone.
Freelancers, entrepreneurs and those who have been working in a company with a flexible work from home policy are already “trained” and programmed to operate and deliver even though no one is popping their head into your office or cubicle to check up or check in.
Smart companies have been able to find the right people to support their distributed team models. Buffer is a great example of a tech startup with a mostly distributed team. Automattic is another great example of a company with a successfully operating distributed team. These companies have to be extremely mindful about the people they hire — it largely boils down to culture fit, type of personality, skill set and self discipline. There are other factors but culture fit when it comes to distributed teams is critical to a functioning virtual team. Culture fit has also become the DNA of the startup world and how growing companies are hiring people.
So, when you’re thinking about starting up, think about how you want to operate. Could your business thrive with a distributed and virtual team? There are many types of businesses who require people on-site, but in the tech, creative, design, customer service, web development and startup world, many times the best talent could be thousands of miles away and they could also enrich your companies potential from their unique cultural perspectives.
There will be challenges with this type of operational model but it just requires you to have a solid plan of operations, a code of conduct if you will, helpful tools to streamline productivity and communication as well as passionate people who respect working for a company by working by themselves and appreciate that lifestyle. The beauty nowadays is that people who work for themselves or with a distributed team can now juggle between working from a home office and a favorite local coworking spot. Coworking adds such a powerful dynamic for all of us who work for ourselves and by ourselves. It helps with community, making friends, collaboration and also helps to create an on-site presence for whatever distributed company you may be working for. Working from home can get super lonely and I’m a big advocate for switching up one or two days a week and being based out of a coworking space. Here in Denver, my preferred hub is Galvanize. We have so many incredible coworking spaces in Denver and Colorado. Learn more about Colorado coworking spaces at Denver Coworks Alliance and the Colorado Coworking Passport.
I love distributed companies and teams — naturally, because I love technology. There’s a lot we can learn from them in terms of discipline, productivity, communication and the many tools used to operate.
This article was originally posted here.
