Technically everything is working a treat.
Before I moved we had setup a company wiki, project management through BaseCamp from 37 Signals, a bug and issue tracking system called Fixx and the all important VPN enabling me to connect to our main office, files and server.
Technology however is just a tool to help make possible what is really more important in business and company culture, that is communication and relationships.

I had many questions when I set about researching, putting together and trialing my teleworking program at the start of this year (2010). Most of these questions were around how to keep the company culture alive, make sure everyone has equal access to information and of course keeping those inter-personal relationships tended to in the workplace… while not being in the workplace.

Here are 3 important concepts in workplace communication as we use in our culture at RockStar Recipes.

1. Foster a culture of responsibility to communicate and share knowledge
That is we have worked towards building a culture in which people at all levels make it their responsibility to share knowledge and keep constant contact with those both in-house & off-site (and even customers but I’ll leave that for another post!).

All our staff have headsets and web-cams for video calling anytime, gone are the days where only the big dogs with expensive full tele-presence systems have access to this kind of rich communication.  We share knowledge through our company wiki intranet which we try to update with any useful processes that get used regularly and also fun facts about the company and it’s culture.

We are also less likely to just wait around to be told what to do, we all seek out information from others and work on a results driven paradigm.

2. Use the right communication tool for the right situation
I’m sure you have done this too, you email a college about a project asking a quick question, they email you back a slightly ambiguous answer,  you email them back to clarify, they email you back asking another questions and very quickly you end up in a huge never ending email spiral of doom and a subject line full of RE:RE:RE:RE:!

What we try and do is take a moment to think about communicating clearly, using email when hard facts and data are concerned, but in matters of discussion, brainstorming or where there is no clear outcome, it is time to change your method of communication to something more rich. Emotion and non-verbal cues get left by the way side in email and most other text based methods (instant message/SMS message/message boards).

Face to face time is often the best but in the situation of teleworking, video calling is your next best option and is surprisingly effective. The added bonus I have found in the past few weeks working this way is in the use of a combination of voice/video calling using Skype and utilising the collaboration  feature of Google Docs. We can all talk while all working on the same planning/brainstorming documents, all seeing and hearing what each other are doing which keeps production blocking to a minimum.
More great ideas… more ownership of those ideas by all our staff.

3. Make time for each other
Our work is a place we spend a lot of our time, most, more time than our homes (unless your teleworking like me!).
Rather than “…the only thing you have in common is you walk around on the same bit of carpet for 8 hrs a day…”¹ being the norm, these days the workplace is a melting pot of cultures, lifestyles and personalities where great friends and company cultures flourish.

Not being in the office, you tend to miss out of some of the “in” jokes and the buzz in the office not to mention it’s easy to get busy and neglect the trust and relationships that you have built up in the workplace.

We have found the best way of keeping and transferring that buzz is just to make a little time for your fellow college. We make time each morning to say “hello” and “good morning”, maybe have a quick informal chat about who won the last Foosball game. That goes for when your in the office itself or calling in via video chat.
Every team meeting we start with all our staff talking about good things that happened to them on the weekend (and hopefully bringing a little of Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build technique to the meeting by doing so).

Tending the personal relationship I think is the most important thing we can do in the workplace, it builds trust, understanding and means that communication flows smoothly and is more understood by everyone drinking the company cool-ade.

I am finding teleworking very interesting itself, not only am I getting a lot of my work done, but I am learning some more intricacies of communication in the workplace and that, physically being in the office is less important than having the right people, with the right positive culture, who are all great communicators.
As geographic boundaries become less and  less relevant, this type of work I believe will become more and more common place.

1. Great quote from the end of season 1 of Ricky Gervais’ “The Office” (The ORIGINAL UK series… not the bastardised one adapted for the USA!).

This is what we came up with…

• Curiosity – To learn new things, in the future, in our history, in people and relationship building, teaching methods.
• Embracing technology - Adapting and utilising new tech as it rolls out, being tech savvy and aware of what is new and finding best places to use it (or not use it) to augment our teaching, our delivery, our work flow and our lives.
• The experience to teach – building mentor relationships, being skilled in what we teach, having great communication, producing great content and resources, inspiring students – this is internal as well as external… that is we at RockStar Recipes learn as much as our students.
• Being a musician – Being active in your music community, being creative, expression through music, seeing music as a universal language.
• Being a “tight band” (or band member) - Being a “good dude”, team player, serving the band not just the self, having a friendly vibe, laid back & focused, supportive of the other band members!

Companies don’t have core values… people within them DO and I think we have really nailed what makes us at Rock Star Recipes tick, no marketing or PR bullshit… bottom up not top down,  just real honest values that we live and bring to our work.  It’s just like being part of a band and we all bring our unique style and character.
We hope that our customers, fans and friends can also relate to them and join us in our movement to shape the next generation of musicians!