Hi there,
Effective remote, cross-functional collaboration often feels like it takes 8 arms. Or 8 legs. Or 6 arms and 2 legs – depending on who you ask!
Whether you're building 0-1 or focused on continuous improvement, Remote Octopus is the go-to resource for best practices in remote collaboration. We build tools and processes to help you supercharge the impact of your team.
🎉 This is the second issue of our awesome, weekly newsletter. Welcome new subscribers!
Every newsletter highlights:
⚡ Supercharge of the Week
🚀 Remote Octopus Resource of the Week
🐙 Jobs That Might Require a Remote Octopus
The weekly goal of this newsletter is to supercharge your remote, cross-functional collaboration.
⚡ Supercharge of the Week
Ever receive a random calendar invite from a colleague with no description, no context, and a generic subject line? Maybe you sometimes send these yourself. 😬 Cross-functional calendar invites without context can cause a range of emotions: anxiety, fear, confusion. No one is usually ever excited to see that calendar invite pop up in their inbox from a cross-functional Director to chat on Friday about… well, you’re not really sure.
When you’re sending a calendar invite to cross-functional colleagues, Remote Octopus recommends including a specific title and quick description.
Example in Action:
Title: Sophia <> Zara
Description: Look forward to chatting about finalizing logistics for the team off-site! Here is a quick agenda where we can take notes. Feel free to add in anything else in advance.
Productivity: Cross-functional colleagues arrive prepared to chat about the specific topic, especially if the topic requires any pre-thinking or pre-research.
Clarity: Everyone participating in the conversation is clearly anchored in the objective of the conversation.
Psychological Safety: Conversation participants are set up for success and can enter the conversation with higher levels of trust by knowing the conversation objective.
Google led an incredible research project a few years ago which discovered that psychological safety is the foundation of an effective team. Providing a title and description for cross-functional conversations is a quick win for cultivating and modeling psychological safety on your team.
🚀 Remote Octopus Resource of the Week
Some of your project roles and responsibilities might feel as clear as mud – especially if you’re working cross-functionally or building quickly. Despite some octopuses who love mud, Remote Octopus advocates for project roles and responsibilities to be mud-free.
Role confusion can lead to company time wasted on negotiation of responsibilities, duplication of work, and even reactive protection of turf. Research shows that “employees who experience role clarity are 53% more efficient and 27% more effective.”
Check out The R&R Template!
Looking for additional Remote Octopus resources? Check them out here.
🐙 Jobs That Might Require a Remote Octopus
Note: These jobs are not sponsored and are all currently listed as US remote. If you’d like a job featured [for free!] in a future Remote Octopus newsletter, email: [email protected]
📬 Can’t get enough Remote Octopus? Read our past newsletters here.
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