Summary
Staying connected and learning from your teammates on a distributed team or in a highly siloed organization can be hard. Written knowledge-bases (if you have them) can be dry or become out of date, and replicating hallway conversations where you can bump into new people or share stories (and commiserations!) with coworkers can feel out of reach in a virtual environment. Despite the obstacles, I’ve found that cultivating an engaged remote community and fostering peer-to-peer knowledge sharing is possible. This talk will cover real-world tactics I use at the US Digital Service to engage communities and empower people to be resources to each other, whether they’re in the same room or thousands of miles apart.
Key Insights
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Community knowledge sharing is vital for maintaining collaboration in distributed teams.
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Informal communication has declined during the shift to remote work, affecting knowledge transfer.
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Hackathons serve not only as innovation tools but also as important community-building exercises.
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Engaging employees with incentives, such as food, can enhance participation in community events.
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Integrating fun elements and social aspects into virtual events reduces Zoom fatigue.
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Establishing working agreements fosters inclusivity and ensures everyone's voice is heard.
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Using live closed captions and chat alternatives enhances accessibility for all participants.
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Facilitators should embrace silence to encourage participation from introverts.
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Feedback loops are crucial; iterating on event formats can lead to stronger engagement.
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Documenting discussions helps preserve knowledge and provides resources for new and changing teams.
Notable Quotes
"I'm a civic technologist and a full stack software engineer."
"Our mission is to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people."
"Food is a powerful motivator; you can't have a hackathon without free food."
"I don't think that people should start internal hackathons with the expectation that you're going to get something of business value out of it."
"It's really important that people feel at ease; smiling can help create a welcoming environment."
"I've found it's super important to not be shy about referencing resources that you're creating."
"Silence is productive; you have to resist the temptation to fill the void."
"It's important to embrace a culture of learning and educate others while being open to being educated yourself."
"The goal is to advance our understanding of complex topics and share experiences."
"We have to socialize the resources we create for them to become useful."
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