What are some tried and true strategies to drive alignment cross-functionally for a remote team?

Reality these days is that we mostly work in remote settings, and even when we do go to the office, some people will be dialing in. As a result, I believe 80% of the strategies have to do with focusing on the fact that we are all people, 20% are tactics and adjustments for remote settings. General alignment strategies: Build trust ahead of time. This is fundamental and driving collaboration without it is hard Focus on common goals. There’s typically a higher goal that teams can easily align on ( ...Read More

First, get good at written communications -- both as a writer and a reader. One of the most impactful lessons that I took away from the Amazon Working Backwards book by Bill Carr and Colin Bryar is how much they focus on crafting and refining written narratives like the six-pager or the PR/FAQ. Not only is the information density per hour higher for someone who is reading it (i.e., you can convey more information in a shorter period of time using the written word), but it also ensures that poor ...Read More

I've tried to drive a writing culture in every team I've been on—with varying degrees of success. I don't think there's a more effective way to drive alignment, especially for remote teams. I'm a big fan of providing pre-reads for meetings, so that everyone comes in to the meeting with the same context. Meetings are slow when each person involved is figuring out what the meeting is truly about at a different pace. Anchoring around a written document helps keep everyone focued. Writing tends to s ...Read More

Team alignment is critical to maximizing impact within the organization, but there are so many barriers to alignment, even with in-person environments. These can often be compounded by remote teams, company culture, communication channels, ceremonies, transparency or absence of, psychological safety, and more. To address alignment I first work to determine where the misalignment is:  Vision (what the future looks like) Strategy (approach to achieving the vision) Tactic (specific actions to deliv ...Read More

GitLab is a fully remote company, we don't have any offices and have team members spread out throughout the world. The projects that my team work on are highly cross-functional. Here is what I've found to help with cross-functional alignment. Regular 1-1 check-ins with key stakeholders from other functions. I have monthly 1-1 (one to one) check-ins with key leaders from other functions that I often collaborate with. In our case as a Fulfillment team, that includes leaders between IT, Billing, Re ...Read More