Why working from home is good for business
-
0:00 - 0:03The basic problem
with working in an office -
0:03 - 0:05is you're just not in control
of your work environment. -
0:05 - 0:07[The Way We Work]
-
0:09 - 0:12Howdy, my name is Matt,
and I'm the CEO of Automattic, -
0:12 - 0:15the company behind WordPress.com,
Jetpack and WooCommerce. -
0:15 - 0:19We're coming up on over 800 employees,
and they live everywhere, -
0:19 - 0:23from California to Alabama, Mississippi,
to where I live in Texas. -
0:23 - 0:25They're also in 67 countries.
-
0:25 - 0:27Canada, Mexico, India, New Zealand.
-
0:27 - 0:30Some of them choose not even
to have a home base, they're nomads. -
0:30 - 0:33Whether they are in RVs
or traveling through Airbnbs, -
0:33 - 0:35they are in new places
every day, week or month. -
0:35 - 0:38As long as they can find good Wi-Fi,
we don't care where they are. -
0:38 - 0:41Our focus on distributed work
didn't happen accidentally. -
0:41 - 0:44It was a conscious choice
from the very beginning. -
0:44 - 0:46Notice I don't use the word "remote,"
-
0:46 - 0:48because it sets up the expectation,
-
0:48 - 0:50that some people are essential
and some aren't. -
0:50 - 0:52I use the word "distributed"
to describe what we do, -
0:52 - 0:54where everyone is
on an equal playing field. -
0:54 - 0:55I think a distributed workforce
-
0:55 - 0:57is the most effective way
to build a company. -
0:57 - 0:59The key is you have to
approach it consciously. -
0:59 - 1:00When we started WordPress,
-
1:01 - 1:04many of the first 20 hires
were people I'd never met in person. -
1:04 - 1:06But we'd collaborated online,
sometimes for years. -
1:06 - 1:10I wanted to continue that
for one simple reason. -
1:10 - 1:12I believe that talent and intelligence
-
1:12 - 1:14are equally distributed
throughout the world. -
1:14 - 1:15But opportunity is not.
-
1:15 - 1:18In Silicon Valley,
the big tech companies fish -
1:18 - 1:20from essentially
the same small pond or bay. -
1:20 - 1:23A distributed company
can fish from the entire ocean. -
1:23 - 1:26Instead of hiring someone who grew up
in Japan but lives in California, -
1:26 - 1:28you can gain someone who lives, works,
-
1:28 - 1:31wakes up and goes to sleep
wherever they are in the world. -
1:31 - 1:34They bring a different
understanding of that culture -
1:34 - 1:35and a different lived experience.
-
1:35 - 1:38At the base of the decision
to go distributed, -
1:38 - 1:41there's a desire to give people autonomy
over how they do their work. -
1:41 - 1:44Unless you're in a role
where specific hours are important, -
1:44 - 1:46you can make your own schedule.
-
1:46 - 1:49Everyone can have a corner office,
their windows, the food they want to eat, -
1:49 - 1:52you can choose when there's music
and when there's silence. -
1:52 - 1:55You can choose what temperature
the room should be. -
1:55 - 1:57You can save the time
you'd spend commuting -
1:57 - 1:59and put it into things
that are important to you. -
1:59 - 2:02A distributed workforce
is ideal for a technology company. -
2:02 - 2:03But people often ask me,
-
2:03 - 2:07"This works great for y'all,
but what about everyone else?" -
2:07 - 2:08If you have an office,
-
2:08 - 2:10you can do a few things
to build distributed capability. -
2:11 - 2:13First: document everything.
-
2:13 - 2:16In an office, it's easy
to make decisions in the moment, -
2:16 - 2:17in the kitchen, in the hall.
-
2:17 - 2:19But if people work remotely
-
2:19 - 2:21and some members of the team
are having those conversations -
2:22 - 2:23they don't have access to,
-
2:23 - 2:26they'll see these decisions being made
without understanding the why. -
2:26 - 2:29Always leave a trail of where you were
and what you were thinking about. -
2:30 - 2:32This allows others to pick up
where you left off. -
2:32 - 2:34It allows people in different
time zones to interact, -
2:34 - 2:37it's also great to think about
as an organization evolves, -
2:37 - 2:39people leaving and people joining.
-
2:39 - 2:42Try to have as much communication
as possible online. -
2:42 - 2:47When everything's shared and public,
it allows new people to catch up quickly. -
2:47 - 2:49You also need to find the right tools.
-
2:49 - 2:52There are so many apps and services
that help with day-to-day communication, -
2:52 - 2:55video conferencing, project management.
-
2:55 - 2:58The things that changed how you work
probably aren't objects anymore. -
2:59 - 3:01They're things you access
through your computer. -
3:01 - 3:04So experiment with different
tools that enable collaboration, -
3:04 - 3:05see what works.
-
3:05 - 3:07Create productive, face-to-face time.
-
3:07 - 3:08In a traditional office,
-
3:09 - 3:11you're in the same place
48 weeks out of the year -
3:11 - 3:13and you might have
three or four weeks apart. -
3:13 - 3:16We try to flip that: we come together
for short, intense bursts. -
3:16 - 3:18Once a year we do a grand meet-up
-
3:18 - 3:20where the entire company
comes together for a week. -
3:20 - 3:22It's half-work, half-play.
-
3:22 - 3:24The primary goal is connecting people.
-
3:24 - 3:27We want to make sure
everyone's aligned and on the same page, -
3:27 - 3:29and they have a deeper connection
with their colleagues. -
3:29 - 3:32When they work together
the rest of the year, -
3:32 - 3:34they can bring together
that understanding and empathy. -
3:34 - 3:35And the final practice:
-
3:35 - 3:38give people the flexibility
to make their own work environment. -
3:38 - 3:41Every person at Automattic
has a co-working stipend -
3:41 - 3:43that they can put
towards a co-working space -
3:43 - 3:46or just to buy coffee, so they don't
get kicked out of the coffee shop. -
3:46 - 3:49One group in Seattle
decided to pool their stipends together -
3:49 - 3:51and rented a workspace on a fishing pier.
-
3:51 - 3:54Each person who joins the company
gets a home-office stipend. -
3:54 - 3:57This is money they can invest
in getting the right chair, monitor, -
3:57 - 4:01the right desk setup, so they can have
the most productive environment for them. -
4:02 - 4:05Today, there are just a few companies
that are distributed first. -
4:05 - 4:08In a decade or two,
I predict that 90 percent of companies -
4:08 - 4:10that are going to be changing
the course of the world -
4:11 - 4:12are going to function this way.
-
4:12 - 4:16They will evolve to be distributed first,
or they'll be replaced by those that are. -
4:16 - 4:18As you think about
what you're going to build next, -
4:18 - 4:21consider how you can tap
into global talent, -
4:21 - 4:24give people autonomy to live and work
where they feel they should -
4:24 - 4:27and still participate fully in whatever
it is that you're creating together.
- Title:
- Why working from home is good for business
- Speaker:
- Matt Mullenweg
- Description:
-
As the popularity of remote working continues to spread, workers today can collaborate across cities, countries and even multiple time zones. How does this change office dynamics? And how can we make sure that all employees, both at headquarters and at home, feel connected? Matt Mullenweg, cofounder of Wordpress and CEO of Automattic (which has a 100 percent distributed workforce), shares his secrets.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED Series
- Duration:
- 04:44
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Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why working from home is good for business |