It is absolutely ridiculous to hear the CEO’s of Nike and Dell trying to scapegoat remote work as a root cause for their dismal performance and frozen innovation.

I’ve worked remotely and globally for nearly 12 years now, extensively predating the pandemic. I’ve seen first-hand how remote, geographically flexible teams offer tremendous benefits in assembling A-caliber talent, quickly, often on an as-needed project basis.

Top talent flexibly assembled per project??? Doesn’t that sound like an absolutely core requirement to driving innovation with any sense of time-based competition in this day and age???

I don’t buy the current blowback against remote work as somehow being “detrimental to innovation” as having any basis in reality. I’ve proven it myself repeatedly that innovation programs can be competently and successfully led with remotely distributed teams.

The reality of companies of any meaningful scale is that they are servicing global customers, global supply chains, global marketing events, etc. Even if you think you’re running some completely “local” mom’n’pop operation, the reality is that your business – your supply chain, your technologies, your brand – is globally distributed and remote whether you like it or not.

(And yes, that applies to heavily location-based industries too. Are your suppliers sitting with you at your factory? Are your fabricators sitting with you at your construction site? NO! Of course they are not. Your project team is substantially remote — it’s just that some employees on the team are beyond your direct line of paycheck-based micromanagement control! So you better learn how to lead distributed teams!)

But you cry: “How does the next generation learn how to work?? They have to be in the office to learn!!!”

Simply put, that is an ignorant accusation from managers who simply don’t know how to build remote teams or train junior talent in the 21st century. That is not an inherent problem with distributed work itself.

So what are some best practices in leading distributed teams?

1. Embrace Lean:

What VALUE are you ACTUALLY delivering to your customers? Too often, I’ve seen leaders, managers and organizations that are so wasteful, so wrapped up in their own politics and dogma, they have no clue what basic value they are delivering to their customers. Distilling a genuine value-flow process almost always guarantees that the tasks can be managed effectively regardless of employee location.

2. Embrace Visual:

Hire people who can work fast and visual no matter what medium or location they are using. Build a team that is great at “pitching” their ideas to a range of stakeholders (even the most boring process ideas), no matter if it is done via zoom or sitting physically together. Nowadays, look for people who use various forms of video as essential tools, just as readily as email.

3. Embrace Daily “Stand Ups”:

What is missing from remote work is casual conversations. I’ve found the easiest way to replace these is to schedule routine, short video meetings between key collaborators within teams and amongst teams, so they can check in with each other per day – and if they don’t have specific agenda items to discuss that day, they inevitably make the “small talk” that is missing from tightly-run meetings. (The frequency of meetings should be determined by the tact time of your value flow processes. Some team stand-ups should be daily, others weekly, etc.)

4. Embrace New Employees:

Do you have any processes in place for starting up remote workers? Frankly, do you have ANY processes in place for starting up even your local site-based workers??? So many companies have such dismal startup processes for new employees that they barely cover the minimal legal requirements of signing disclaimers and paperwork. Do you even know how to begin setting up an effective start for a new team member? Something as simple as a central Wiki page with common FAQs (like how to ship packages, the vacation policy, the expenses system, etc.) is sadly missing from about 2/3rds of all companies I’ve started at. Creating a solid new-employee startup process goes a long way to helping either junior OR senior employees from “needing” in-person interaction to resolve stupid roadblocks like “where do I download this internal approvals form?”

5. Embrace Travel for Bonding:

Humans be human and they still want to see/hear/sniff each other in person. Do you have any regularly scheduled company wide in-person meetings or events so everyone can have the big kumbaya moment? Or are you too cheap to pay for the travel costs? Are the real estate costs of your offices conveniently hidden in your SG&A budget, but travel costs are discretely monitored and painfully charged to managers’ P&Ls??? Eliminate your ridiculous travel approval systems and expense monitoring systems and TRUST your employees to act responsibly. Set mandatory yearly- or quarterly- get-togethers for your whole team/division/company. And don’t let travel get CUT the first quarter the company misses its targets.

6. Embrace Training:

Are you sending your junior employees out into the field with your senior employees so they learn firsthand? Are you sending all your employees (regardless of experience) to tradeshows, conferences and other learning + networking events? How about executive education? Or even just paying for online learning programs? Sitting in an office cubicle doesn’t help a kid out of college learn a damn thing. The real root cause of the training problem is that too many companies – especially American companies in my experience – refuse to invest anything in training junior employees. That sad lack of investment in the next generation doesn’t matter if they are in some over-designed fancy-pants office or working in their bedroom closet. They are not getting the training and coaching they need to grow.

So: Embrace Effectiveness, Not Busyness

Do you have any sense of what workflows actually create value for your customers and what work actually needs to be done? And how you organize, train and motivate your team to deliver that value?

Or does a busy office signify enough progress to you?