Building Blocks | Edition 7 💌
Stories, reflections, and tools from People leaders to help navigate the new world of work
In this issue…
Quiz time – Show your team who they’re really working with! 🥳
Building Together – Community events this month 🗣️
Retrospective– Event blast from the past⚡️
Builder Kit – Discover our Continuous Feedback playbook! 🌈
Building Voices – Sarah Feldberg takes the mic 🥳
Resource Hub – Curated feedback articles selected by our ambassadors🗞
Before you start reading 👀, we invite you on a journey to discover who you are at work! Because who you are impacts how you work–more than you realize. So we have a little fun quiz to help you find out your workstyle. It only takes 3 minutes! Wanna try?
Hello, People Builders! 👋
As seasonal changes continue their wonderful symphony, there's a new rhythm joining our tune—it's me, Miriam, back on the mic!
First, a bit of exciting news. We are thrilled to announce that Carmen Amador Barreiro will join us as the new Community Lead while Marie enjoys her maternity leave. With a background in Psychology and Behavioral Science, Carmen has supported the growth of the People Geek community at Culture Amp across the globe through engaging webinars and People analytics research presentations. We are so excited to see Carmen's voice and fabulousness unfold within our community!
Next, we have an inspiring interview with Sarah Feldberg about how the team ran an A/B test to find the best mode of operation at Thrive Digital. These insights are guaranteed to spark some thought and innovation about what mode of work is great for your teams across timezones.
This month, we're also featuring the Remote Manager Playbook by Kona. As we navigate the evolving landscape of remote work, this guide is a must-have for all you leaders out there.
Building Together — Community events 🗣️
Supporting Different Workstyles in the Workplace
August 8, 10 a.m. PDT
Tune in to our Oyster’s LinkedIn Live with Kim Rohrer as we explore the meaning of “workstyle,” dive into the many different types, and uncover why it’s so important to embrace and appreciate diverse styles of working.
Retrospective—Event Blast from the Past⚡️
June and July were sensational months for our People Builders community! We kicked things off in the vibrant city of Berlin, partnering with HiPeople, to host an unforgettable gathering of talent acquisition leaders. Conversations about bias in screening and global talent markets flowed, ideas ignited, and collaborations sparked. Then we jetted to sunny Barcelona for an Oyster customer People Builders extravaganza. It was a day bursting with solving People Leaders’ challenges, deep connections, and shared learnings about global hiring and remote work.
Berlin IRL event in collaboration with HiPeople 💫
In June, the "Berlin Dinner Dialogue: Hacking Global Hiring" was a memorable collaboration between Oyster People Builders and HiPeople in Berlin. Over a gourmet four-course meal, attendees engaged in profound discussions, addressing challenges like bias in screening and the many complexities of global employment.
Several attendees raved on the event's impact, with comments like “Very interesting and smart people, great atmosphere, delicious food—I enjoyed it very much! Thank you so much for having me! “and “Great location with a blend of free form networking and guided discussion points. Really enjoyed it!”
Check out some of the pictures!
Barcelona IRL event💫
In the pulsing heart of Barcelona, we switched screens for real scenes! Every moment was memorable, from a rejuvenating yoga kick-off to fervent mid-day brainstorming with our Oyster team and treasured customers. Delving deeper, we asked everyone to share who they were beyond their job titles—their answers, captured in the video, are a testament to the diversity of our community. And as the sun set, we got together on a terrace, with the Sagrada Familia painting as the perfect backdrop. Here’s what one participant said about the event:
“The connections we made and ideas we exchanged were really valuable. The workshop discussion gave us insight into global employment problems and success stories and helped us evaluate what could be improved or done differently in our company. The after-workshop part on the terrace was a nice way to discuss work and non-work related topics in a more free atmosphere and get to know other managers and the Oyster team.”
Check out some moments from the day:
Builder Kit — Continuous Feedback playbook 🌈
Discover the Continuous Feedback Playbook, crafted by Oyster People Builders and Pando. It guides distributed and hybrid organizations in fostering a vibrant continuous feedback culture, a cornerstone of effective team management and improved performance. As workplaces evolve, transitioning from annual reviews to dynamic, frequent feedback is super important. This playbook is your tool for navigating this transition, addressing challenges, and bolstering collaboration, productivity, and growth.
Building Voices — Sarah Feldberg takes the Mic 🥳
We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Feldberg, who leads the People & Development (P&D) team at Thrive Digital. Formerly a localized unit in Vancouver, the team has recently spread its wings to become a distributed unit across time zones, with a balanced split of three hours between Montreal and Vancouver. This expansion opened up an exciting opportunity for them to experiment with the most effective ways to work as a unified team while also providing best-in-class people support to the rest of their "community," a term Sarah uses to describe the collective of people operating under the same ethos at Thrive Digital.
To ensure a seamless transition, they ingeniously implemented an A/B test—a suggestion by Eunice Kajoba, People and Development lead at Thrive—to find the best mode of operation. We sat down with Sarah to get the inside scoop on how it all went down.
Defining the Test Format: A Team Effort 🤝
The test format was collaboratively defined in a face-to-face meeting at Thrive Digital’s hub in Vancouver, BC, with the team collectively discussing topics like working hours and individual well-being. Everyone had a voice in this process, suggesting reasonable core working hours for themselves. Previously, they adhered to a 9 am to 5 pm Pacific work schedule, with people operating within that range according to their tasks. Now facing a timezone split, it was important to define a new approach. This inclusive methodology ensured the test's relevance, collective ownership, and impact.
Their goals were clear: maintain team collaboration, unity, and effectiveness, while ensuring top-tier people support in their internal Thrive community.
Test A represented fixed core working hours when everyone was expected to be online and available.
Test B allowed for fluid, individualistic working hours.
Both approaches were subject to a six-week trial period, and only Test A has been conducted so far with actioned learnings.
The idea of A/B testing was born from the team's fondness for people science and Thrive Digital's transparency, learning, and openness values.
How did it go?
When the experiment was shared with the wider Thrive community, it was met with curiosity but no pushback. The notion of experimentation is woven into the fabric of Thrive's culture, making it easier for the P&D team to navigate these uncharted waters. As Sarah mentioned, "At Thrive, we say that 'change is the only constant,'" this test was just another manifestation of this ethos.
Upon completion of Test A (Test B just began), Sarah collected feedback both informally during the testing phase and formally at the end. The results so far? High scores on team effectiveness, ranked by stakeholders, and flexibility to accommodate last-minute requests within reasonable working hours.
The most positive feedback from stakeholders was the easiness of getting coaching because it was accessible in the overlapping online hours.
Some of the key learnings Sarah gleaned from this exercise were:
The importance of intentionally designing rules of engagement when working with a team across time zones
The necessity of open communication
How to create safety for team members and foster connections through routines
Ways to leverage tools like Asana and Slack for enhanced collaboration.
For Sarah, this exercise was a testament to the power of experimentation, and she encourages others in the People Builders community to lean into it.
We look forward to following Sarah and her team's journey as they embark on test B and continue redefining remote work norms. Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments, and feel free to connect with Sarah on LinkedIn!
Resource Hub🗞
Remember the People Builder Ambassadors we introduced in our last edition? They're in action, ensuring you're equipped with top-notch resources. This time, we've added a dedicated section filled with insightful materials focused on our theme: feedback. We trust these will serve as invaluable tools to fortify your organizations. A massive shoutout to our incredible ambassadors for funneling these gems our way! Dive in:
New World of Work Podcast–Empowering Middle Managers to Combat Burnout with Yen Tan
Audience: People Leaders
Discover how to motivate your remote teams during hard times, implement strategies for improving retention and morale among remote workers, and empower middle managers to catch burnout early.
The Remote Manager Survival Guide
Audience: People Team
People Partners and Analytics can dive into the Key statistics from 300+ remote teams to see how your company's challenges compare globally
Audience: People Managers
Pull out some of the "Manager survival guide tips & best practices" that are most applicable to your team's people managers.
The Bright + Early Guide To Giving (and Taking) Feedback
Audience: Anyone interested in giving and taking feedback!
There are additional resources in the guide about disrupting bias in feedback, radical candor, and the window of tolerance! Check them out.
How to Create an Employee Engagement Survey
Audience: People Team
Understand how connected a company's employees are to their work, their team, and the business as a whole.
Out Of Tens: This Meeting Trick Helps Us Build Psychological Safety
Audience: Anyone looking to build better Psychological Safety at work!
Let your team know how you feel at your weekly meetings!
As we draw the curtains on this edition of Building Blocks, we celebrate the memories made during our vibrant events, cherishing the connections forged, and the challenges conquered. Stay tuned for more exciting updates—and in the meantime, we encourage you to explore our previous Building Blocks editions if you haven’t already! 🤩
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