Tools for Fearless Remote Workspaces

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In today’s podcast episode, we explore the topic of building great remote teams with Gustavo Razzetti, author of the book Remote Not Distant and CEO of Fearless Culture. Gustavo’s book provides a valuable resource for leaders who want to create a virtual space that promotes open communication and collaboration while driving fear out of their organization.

We discuss the key elements for building a fearless culture within remote teams, including creating an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas, even if they’re uncomfortable or controversial. Gustavo shares his insights and tools for cultivating trust and psychological safety in remote teams, and offers practical tips for leaders to implement in their own organizations as we Team Anywhere.

Fear of Failure: Paralyzing Emotion in the Workplace

Gustavo Razzetti discusses common fears in organizations and emphasizes the importance of a 50-50 approach to problem-solving. He addresses the fear of being fired, often a myth from previous jobs, and the fear of failure, which can be paralyzing. Gustavo shares the story of how Steve Jobs initially resisted creating the iPhone, but his team showed him a better way. He highlights the need for leaders to create a culture of openness and trust, and to address fear within their organizations.

Two-Pronged Approach for Fearless Workspaces!

Gustavo suggests a two-pronged approach, training leaders to be more receptive to new ideas and encouraging employees to push back and not use their leader as an excuse for not sharing ideas. He also advises leaders to ask the right questions and let their teams do their jobs. Gustavo stresses the importance of creating a positive company culture to facilitate the sharing of ideas.

Tools for Fearless Remote Workspaces

Gustavo Razzetti shares how to make virtual workplaces safer for employees to speak up and participate. He notes that virtual meetings can feel safer for people when tools such as silent brainstorming, turn-taking, and interruption management are used to facilitate participation.

To build psychological safety, Gustavo suggests that leaders use personal relationship-building techniques to create a sense of belonging and trust. His favorites are the “Stinky Fish” exercise, “progressive conversations,” and “36 questions that turn strangers into friends.” These tools build personal connections over virtual meetings.

The Culture Design Canvas

According to Gustavo, the Canvas is a tool to make conversations about culture more tangible and helps organizations to define their culture. The Canvas has 10 blocks that capture the actual culture that people experience on a daily basis. This helps to assess which elements of culture are working, which are not, and which are halfway there. With this information, teams can design a better future by focusing on blocks such as feedback, decision making, team rituals, purpose, and core values.

Who is Gustavo Razzetti?

Gustavo Razzetti is a workplace culture consultant, author and speaker who helps executives, team leaders and founders map and assess their culture to create a more purposeful and innovative one. Through his culture design projects and surveys workshops – both remotely and in-person – he has assisted over 200,000 people, teams, and consultants in 50+ countries.

His clients range from Fortune 500s to fast-growth startups to mid-size businesses. Some of his notable clients include: Mars, Level Access, Konica Minolta, StrongDM, Merck, Continental as well as Signify Health (CVS). Furthermore, Gustavo is the best-selling author of Remote Not Distant and the creator of the Culture Design Canvas. His insights have been featured in The New York Times, BBC, Psychology Today and Forbes among other places.