HubSpot’s Marketing Team Worked Remotely for One Week. Here’s What We Learned.

sThink about the last time you were on a conference call with someone in a different location. Did you run into any communication challenges -- technical, or otherwise? Did you find yourself trying to speak up but failing to get a word in? If there were multiple people on that call, did you find that everyone was able to participate?

远程会议变得越来越普遍。并非您与您一起工作的每个人都能和您一起坐在同一个房间里。对于我们许多人来说，我们的大多数会议现在包括来自全球的远程员工或团队成员。

这就是我们开始在HubSpot看到的趋势。随着我们在全球范围内的扩展，我们越来越多的会议和团队分布在不同的办公室。这不仅意味着早日醒来或熬夜与悉尼的同事打来电话。这意味着学习以完全不同（且可能具有挑战性的）方式与我们的同事合作。

在与越来越多的远程员工（包括Zapier首席执行官Wade Foster）的其他公司交谈之后，我们的营销团队决定做“远程周”。

偏远周的三个进球

• 作为一个高度分布式的团队，更有效地工作，并为整个HubSpot的地理位置跨越更有效的合作铺平道路。
• 为全职远程工人培养同理心。
• To improve our communication with remote workers, and be at our best when working remotely.

Remote Week Rules

1. 团队中的每个人都必须在一周内遥不可及。他们可以从想要的任何地方工作，但他们不能在集线器办公室里工作。
2. Everyone must have an internet connection and be able to join meetings with video.
3. No one should postpone or reschedule any meetings. They should try all different types of meetings while remote: 1:1s, team meetings, cross-functional meetings, etc.

一周后，我们收集了所有参与的人的反馈，发现了一些共同的趋势，可以帮助我们更有效地管理我们的偏远员工moving forward.

Lessons From Remote Week

1.对于更大的会议，您需要一个主持人。

对于较大一面的会议，确保每个人的声音都能得到一个真正的挑战。每个人都在谈论，在不同地点的人之间进行旁对话，在您知道会议结束之前，您没有机会权衡讨论。

这是团队主持人进来的地方。主持人的工作是双重的：1）确保每个人都有机会说话。2）认识何时发生侧面对话，因此您可以确保与完整组共享。

为了确保每个人都有机会说话，重要的是要注意何时有人试图说出一个消息并被忽视。一个很好的方法是让协助者注意“金鱼脸”：在他们有机会真正说任何话之前，有人在不断张开和闭上嘴时制作的脸。通过让协助者对此进行接触并促使参与者依次发言，可以消除问题。

大型远程会议的另一个问题是与同一地点的人进行的旁对话。例如，我的团队分布在剑桥和都柏林。在剑桥和都柏林的团队之间，经常进行旁对话，通过对坐在他们旁边的同事说些什么来说话。

我们学会解决此问题的一种有效方法是使每个人都进入另一个房间（即使他们在同一地点），使每个人都有公平的讲话机会，并确保这些侧面对话使主要讨论脱轨。

2.利用自发的讨论。

When you are physically in the same location as your colleagues, you have the opportunity for spontaneous conversations throughout the day. Whether it's a morning recap of the latestGame of Thronesepisode, or a quick chat to hash out the details of a problem that couldn't be solved over email, these unplanned face-to-face meetings bring us closer to our colleagues and help us discover new perspectives.

在我们偏远的一周中，我们知道我们需要一种方法来重现这些自发对话的美丽。实际上，这需要一些努力。这意味着您必须开放一个快速，计划外的视频通话或即时的Messenger聊天，以回答问题或澄清电子邮件的详细信息。

我们也是录制快速视频的巨大支持者，当您的团队无法实时通话时，可以通过织机进行交流。实际上，我已经唤醒了我在都柏林的团队中的许多织机录音，以解释他们想运行的详细分析或最新的实验。

像这样的定期开放沟通是避免任何误解的关键，并确保您的团队仍然感觉像一个单位，即使他们面对面看不到彼此。

3. Find your ideal routine, and stick to it.

In the morning I wake up, shower, get dressed, walk my dog, and catch the bus. I get to work, make my tea, do some morning reading, respond to emails, and start my day. I have my morning routine, and I have another routine at the end of the day to wrap up.

我们是习惯的生物 - 拥有明确的常规使我们的结构使我们能够提高生产力。对于远程工人来说，这是双重的。

在遥远的一周开始时，我们很多人都发现我们的例行工作就刚好了。我们醒了，不确定下一步该怎么做。我们开始回复电子邮件吗？我们是否正在研究下一个实验？我们做早餐吗？锻炼？我们首先要做什么？归根结底，我们有同样的难题。我们什么时候停止工作？我们应该吃晚饭，然后回去上班吗？

During the week-long experiment, my colleague Henni Roini, a HubSpot marketing manager, focused on structuring her work in order to prevent running into the questions above.

罗伊尼说：“在远程工作时，创建结构至关重要。”“我倾向于在工作，午餐和个人活动的日历中封锁时间，然后实际上坚持自己的能力。没有结构，您最终会失去工作与生活的平衡。”

Even when you work remotely and don't have to get into the office by a certain time, it's still important to have a routine. Though it took us all a couple of days to figure out how to structure our time during Remote Week, we eventually all figured out our own individual rhythms to ensure we were getting our work done without burning out.

4.即使您实际上不可见，在您的团队中保持可见。

如果您是团队中唯一的远程工人之一，那么很容易掌握您的工作，而失去了与团队其他成员进行的常规沟通。在偏远的一周中，我们的团队非常意识到的是，即使我们没有直接联系，我们的同事也可以保持可用和可见。

There are a couple of key you can stay on your team's radar, even when you're not in sight. One of them is through participation in team meetings. When you're remote, it's extremely important to speak up and share your thoughts during big discussions.

保持可见的另一种方法是通过聊天参加小组讨论。在HubSpot，我们使用Slack进行沟通，并拥有专门针对与工作相关的项目到诸如瑜伽和狗之外的户外利益的所有事物。很容易notparticipate in those discussions, but it's way more rewarding and valuable to share your ideas, the latest interesting article you read, or even what you did that weekend.

即使你不能物理可见的ice, it's important to stay visible within the organization.

5. Ensure that you have a working internet connection.

最后，我为最后保存了最好的，可以说是最重要的。确保您拥有适当的技术来完成工作并与同事保持联系绝对是必不可少的。如果您的计算机突然冻结，或者您的互联网崩溃和您的电话已断开连接，这可能会让所有参与人员感到沮丧。而且您知道，当它最不方便时总是发生。

在您打算远程工作（即使只是一天之久）之前，请测试您打算从中召集的位置。如果您在家工作，请确保您的WiFi连接很强。与朋友或同事提前对其进行测试，以确保您能够有效地完成工作并与必要的人保持联系。

如果您认为您可能想在远程工作周期间前往替代位置，请对此进行测试。我鼓励我的团队测试他们想在较低赛的会议期间（例如与他们的经理1：1）一起工作的新咖啡店，而不是等到更大的团队会议。这减少了您的技术困难影响更多人的危险。

当您准备好远程设置时，请弄清楚除了WiFi以外是否还需要其他技术。例如，在家中设有第二个显示器可以帮助提高效率。拥有站立桌是确保您白天四处走动的另一种方法。

6. Ensure you're working in a productive workspace.

While many might think that it's relaxing or easier to work from home, many of our in-office teammates discovered how hard it can be to work remotely without distractions.

For this reason, many of our teammates suggest putting together a productive remote work space if you plan to make working from home a regular habit.

"Be deliberate about the work you need to do and what's the most conducive setup for it," says Connor Cirillo, a senior conversational marketing manager.

"On days where you're doing solo projects, heading to a cafe and popping on headphones might work well. But when you have five hours of back-to-back calls, being in public may not be an option," Cirillo adds. "If you're working remote, give your calendar a read-through before each day gets going. Bucket the work you need to do and then ask yourself the best place to be to do it."

尽管全职工作的人可能已经在房屋安静的空间中拥有专用的工作区或办公室，但我们的一些办公室团队成员已经意识到找到理想的工作地点是多么困难。

"When I occasionally working remotely when my role began at HubSpot, I had to try a few different setups before I found one that worked for me," says Pam Bump, the HubSpot Blog's Audience Growth Manager. "One area of my apartment had a low internet signal, the couch was too close to a window that looked out to a noisy street, and working in my kitchen just reminded me of all the chores I needed to do."

“最终，我在安静的卧室里放了一张桌子，”邦普说。“然后，在听到我的一些专职办公室同事在他们偏远的工作周期间遇到了这个确切的问题之后，我感到非常高兴，以至于我能够在实验开始之前便利工作空间。”

7. If you're a manager, plan inclusive team activities.

One thing some of us found when working remotely was that you can feel quite isolated, lonely, or out of the loop really quickly. As a team member, or team manager, it can be helpful to come up with activities or icebreakers that help your team bond virtually while still including everyone.

• 发送电子生日卡，其中包括团队中所有人的消息。
• 如果有一个团队会议,每个人都走了to be eating food that’s been ordered to the office, encourage remote employees to order. Then, expense the food delivery if you can. Similarly, you can also offer to expense food if your remote employees have to attend a meeting that's late in their time-zone but during office-hours in your own.
• Organizing a virtual or physical gift exchange that's planned ahead so remote employees can send items through the mail.
• Sending flowers to employees who are sick or going through a tough time, while encouraging them to silence work notifications to focus on themselves. This is because mentally stepping away from work can be especially challenging when you already work remote.
• Celebrating life events — including baby showers, birthdays, and wedding announcements -- in conference rooms that remote teammates can call into.

Lastly, if you're a manager, McGinty says you should, "ensure that you’re inclusive when it comes to in-office initiatives."

McGinty解释说：“例如，我们最近在Hubspot庆祝了心脏周，并推出了许多激动人心的事件，我们的远程员工可以拨入。我们还向他们发送了一个带有一些小礼物的心包。”

Taking Remote Week Back to the Office

Remote Week was a fantastic experience for the team. It gave us a unique opportunity to put ourselves in our teammates' shoes and truly understand the pros and cons of remote work.

Since this experience, we've learned to be more collaborative with our remote counterparts, make sure everyone has a voice in team meetings, and be more flexible when hoping on a quick video chat with a remote colleague. The next time you interact with a remote colleague, remember these lessons to ensure you build a productive and collaborative environment for your team and co-workers, no matter where they work.