This month on BEATS WORKING, we’re taking a deep dive into what it takes to build great teams at work. On Sidekick Sessions, we’re gathering the team at WORKP2P to share our perspectives.
So, what’s our take on building great teams? What teams have we been proud to be part of? Which teams maybe were not such a great experience?
From fast food to TV news, we reflect on the best teams in our careers and what made them great.
Looking for more content on building teams at work? Shannon Waller from Strategic Coach recently held a master class with some of our past guests. Find the link to that episode of Contributors Corner in the show notes.
Resources from the episode:
- Listen to the Contributors Corner episode on team building here.
- Learn more about BEATS WORKING and our mission to redeem work here.
- Get to know our Sidekicks and find ways to connect with them here.
- Meet Shannon and get to know her here.
- Learn more about Strategic Coach, the #1 business coaching program for entrepreneurs, here.
- Download your free copy of “The Team Success Handbook” and help your team see the other side of conventional teamwork.
- “Multiplication by Subtraction” is a handbook that will give you the mindset to think more strategically about your team, the tools to use when things aren’t working, practical strategies to help shift people into roles for which they’re a better fit, and, if that’s not possible, a clear process for letting them go. Get your copy here.
- Connect with Shannon Waller on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
[00:00:00] Mark Wright: Welcome to sidekick sessions. Part of the work P2P podcast family. It’s so great to have all the sidekicks here taking a deep dive on what it takes to build great teams. And, uh, so we’ve got the sidekicks assembled. Love to have you all identify yourselves.
[00:00:15] Mark Wright: Tamar Medford, please. First,
[00:00:17] Tamar Medford: My name is Tamar Medford, and I’m the producer at work
[00:00:21] Tamar Medford: P2P.
[00:00:21] Mark Wright: Alyse.
[00:00:22] Alysse Bryson: My name’s Alysse Bryson and I oversee community development at WorkPDP.
[00:00:28] Mark Wright: Elan.
[00:00:28] Elan Olsen: Hi, I’m Elan Olson and I am in coordinating interactions at Work B2B.
[00:00:33] Mark Wright: And Libby.
[00:00:35] Libby Sundgren: I am Libby Sundgren and I, , am developing content.
[00:00:40] Mark Wright: Awesome. Okay. So let’s jump right in. I’d love to start by asking each of you to give me a great example. And I know that Alysse and Libby have worked together several different
[00:00:52] Mark Wright: jobs together, which is awesome. Give me an example of a great team that you were on at some point in your career and what made it [00:01:00] great.
[00:01:00] Mark Wright: Who would like to go first?
[00:01:01] Mark Wright: Okay. Tomorrow.
[00:01:03] Tamar Medford: The example I actually thought of was when I worked at McDonald’s when I was 15, believe it or not. Um, super fun time of my life, but it was great because they put a lot of effort into training and the people that they hired at the time, I knew a lot of them from high school.
[00:01:21] Tamar Medford: And so we were already kind of friends and we would do, you know, little company camping trips and off site training and, um, As a unit, when we worked, we actually, you know, made it these goals to, if we could go, you know, a day without any errors, uh, if we could pump out the food really quickly, and so we, you know, at the end of the evening, we were super proud of ourselves if we had a good day, and that was because they spent so much time Thank you.
[00:01:52] Tamar Medford: training you in the beginning and doing all these things offsite. And, , even though people laugh sometimes, I mean, McDonald’s [00:02:00] has probably been one of the best references I’ve ever had on my resume. And I enjoyed those, , that first year for sure.
[00:02:07] Mark Wright: Wow. And that’s, I mean, let’s face it. If the team isn’t humming at McDonald’s, they’re not making money and you’ve got angry customers sitting in the
[00:02:15] Mark Wright: drive thru. Wow.
[00:02:17] Mark Wright: That’s
[00:02:17] Mark Wright: really cool. Elan, what about you? Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
[00:02:22] Mark Wright: Yeah.
[00:02:22] Alysse Bryson: Tamar, when you worked there, were you lovin it?
[00:02:29] Tamar Medford: Well, I was sure loving the chicken nuggets because
[00:02:32] Tamar Medford: they were like half price.
[00:02:34] Alysse Bryson: I’m sorry. I had to
[00:02:35] Alysse Bryson: walk through the door.
[00:02:36] Mark Wright: Cause Tamar used to always say, do you want fries with that? And I was like, what, what are you talking
[00:02:41] Mark Wright: about?
[00:02:41] Libby Sundgren: Always, always take the fries. Ask for no salt so you get a fresh batch and then add your own
[00:02:45] Libby Sundgren: salt.
[00:02:46] Mark Wright: Okay. Elan, what about you? Great
[00:02:49] Mark Wright: team story.
[00:02:50] Elan Olsen: I mean, it’s kind of low hanging fruit, but the BEATS WORKING production team! And the community [00:03:00] development team at work p2p. We have a lot of fun We do a lot of fun things together as a team and I mean, you know, Alysse and I have even gone thrifting , it’s a space where creativity is encouraged, but I think we’re all so passionate and driven to have a great experience doing the podcasts, our customers having a great experience as we produce their podcasts.
[00:03:23] Elan Olsen: So I think, a love of the game is really a big part of why the team vibe so well together, work so well together and really produces great work together.
[00:03:35] Mark Wright: That’s great to hear. And I think the thing that I love about this team is that there’s just so much consideration for others. It’s like nobody on the team is, is walking on anybody. Everybody is always helpful. super smart team. Libby, what about you? Give me an example of a great team that you’ve worked on.
[00:03:52] Libby Sundgren: Oh, I have been so lucky. I’ve been on some really amazing teams. This one is obviously the best, but, [00:04:00] the most, , I think formative team I was probably on was when we were at, the magazine and probably, not the entire duration of it, but for the first, you know, four years, maybe, like, I think probably right after I started doing events, at the magazine and,
[00:04:23] Mark Wright: And this is Seattle Met Magazine.
[00:04:25] Libby Sundgren: Yeah.
[00:04:26] Mark Wright: right?
[00:04:26] Libby Sundgren: Yeah. You know, I still talk to a bunch of the folks that we worked with. And while our bonding was maybe born also out of workplace trauma, I do feel like, , I think just because of, I don’t know, where I was at in my life and, , just the real, like, camaraderie and just awesome support that we all had for each other was, , was really amazing and really kind of showed me, like, was helpful for me [00:05:00] to see, you know, it was my first official job out of college.
[00:05:04] Libby Sundgren: And I think it was really, helpful for me to identify what is important in a team in a workplace.
[00:05:11] Mark Wright: right, Alysse, how about you?
[00:05:13] Alysse Bryson: Yeah, I, I
[00:05:14] Alysse Bryson: thought a lot about
[00:05:14] Alysse Bryson: this, and , I’ve also been super fortunate that most of the places I have worked, I’ve gotten to be part of a really great team of people. And I think team is also, a team comes together when they’ve, Had wins together, but they’ve also had losses together or hard things like they’ve you become a team when you’ve experienced a lot of things together , which can also be part of the culture and so when I think back to The teams I really enjoyed working with outside of just the day to day tasks that were part of our job descriptions It was, were we dressing up for Halloween together?
[00:05:55] Alysse Bryson: Were we throwing birthday parties together? Were we, like, [00:06:00] what kinds of things were we doing together that we didn’t have to do? We were choosing to do that? Because I do think part of being on a team is a choice. And I can say that as never being a professional athlete, obviously. Like, so I don’t know if there’s different rules for being on a team from a professional athlete perspective, but like, I always chose the teams that I was on, , and I wanted to be there.
[00:06:23] Alysse Bryson: And so. It’s something in that vein. And I, I was thinking about when I got my start in marketing and advertising, it was at a small newspaper in the hometown. I grew up in Centralia, Washington shout out to the Chronicle. And, there was a guy that I worked with David Dean and he was awesome. He now works for the Washington state lottery.
[00:06:43] Alysse Bryson: At the time we were cubicle buddies or cubicle mates. And there was this one time I went on vacation. And while I was gone, I had a working woman Barbie at my desk. And I was very proud of her. , she had a button on the back of her.
[00:06:57] Alysse Bryson: And if you pushed it, it said , working is fun. [00:07:00] I have an email. I’m getting a paycheck. I have a date with ken tonight, but, I was gone on vacation. And when I came back, he had stolen my Barbie. He had made a ransom note out of the letters cutting out of a newspaper and said that if I wanted to see my Barbie again, that I had to put 200 in monopoly cash on the copier by 12 p.
[00:07:21] Alysse Bryson: m. at the certain day and time. And then he was on vacation. So in retaliation, I stole his entire desk, everything, his files, his computer, his phone. I mean, there was nothing left. I emptied his cubicle. It took me like half a day. Right. , And so to me, like that’s some teamwork. You have to really love to play together.
[00:07:45] Alysse Bryson: , and I think you learn to play together when you’ve been through some stressful times too. So that’s more than enough out of me.
[00:07:51] Mark Wright: That’s awesome.
[00:07:53] Libby Sundgren: That’s a good
[00:07:53] Mark Wright: What was his reaction when he came
[00:07:55] Mark Wright: back and his desk was gone? Everything was
[00:07:57] Alysse Bryson: Well, I got my Barbie back very quickly. I [00:08:00] also want to add, he went as far as to put little tiny milk cartons. Do you remember the little milk cartons of like the nineties? He put little milk cartons on everybody’s desk with a picture of Barbie missing. Like he went to great lengths, right? And so that kind of like when you’re going to bring that much fun into the workplace And I think you probably had fun at mcdonald’s on some days It sounded like tomorrow when you were talking about those things and a lot of fun can happen at off day trainings or retreats but there’s something about playing together that I think really brings a team together
[00:08:36] Mark Wright: It’s great. What a great story. I guess my frame of reference on this really has to be framed by my time spent in television news. And as you all know, You know, co anchor relationships and on set relationships are really like arranged marriages in television. You have no say in who sits next to you.
[00:08:55] Mark Wright: , so I learned very early on that you really have to , make an effort to make [00:09:00] those relationships authentic and work, and I had a really great talent coach, this is back in the days when TV stations spent money on talent coaches and her name was Flo Sykes. And she worked for AR and D in Dallas audience research and development.
[00:09:15] Mark Wright: She gave me the best advice I’d ever had my, she was my very first talent coach. And she said, Mark, your job on this set is to showcase the other three people sitting next to you. That’s your job. And so I started thinking about that and I thought, well, what does that really mean? So I would always engage in the newsroom.
[00:09:35] Mark Wright: What did you do over the weekend? How’s the family? So I got to know all my co anchors. To the extent that when we had crosstalk, that’s the unscripted banter on set. When we had those opportunities, it was really genuine. And we could talk about all the cool stuff that we were all doing, and it just really made an effortless sort of seamless chemistry happen, , on the set.
[00:09:58] Mark Wright: So I, I think that was [00:10:00] probably the biggest lesson that I learned about how to make a teamwork, you know, especially in, television, and that is, I don’t think you can fake it. I don’t think you can fake those relationships on the air. I think viewers are too smart and can see right through that. So my strategy over the years was just to, to be real and to really cultivate those friendships and those relationships.
[00:10:22] Mark Wright: And, you know, one of the best teams that I was ever on was in Salt Lake City, on the morning news there at the Fox station. And, uh, It was just an amazing experience. Three of my co anchors, Megan Henderson, Allie McKay, and Henry Stone, we, they were all, , from Southern California. They ended up going to KTLA in Los Angeles and have been there for many, many years.
[00:10:44] Mark Wright: Uh, at least a couple of them and, you know, it just, it was effortless going to work was fun. We laughed our heads off in the morning and, uh, viewership just went through the roof because the talent of, of that group was just so amazing. [00:11:00] So that was just one of those time periods in my career that it was just magic.
[00:11:04] Mark Wright: And that, that, , you know, that’s something that I’ll always remember. How about. Work that’s required to make a team work. I’d love to dig a little bit deeper on some of the strategies that you all have employed over the years. I mean, there’s a lot that has to happen in terms of communication, in terms of motivation, in terms of, I know, at least you’ve had management roles where.
[00:11:31] Mark Wright: You’ve had to manage people and, you know, correct people and, and oversee mistakes and oversee things like that. , who wants to jump in with like, what, what type of work is required to, to maintain a great team?
[00:11:47] Tamar Medford: I want to say it’s developing an understanding of where people excel. I used to run a glass department actually, a production facility, and the team could [00:12:00] not work together and so they actually pulled me. out of sales into the warehouse to work together with these people that just didn’t gel. And part of why they didn’t is because they were all doing the wrong things within the department and they weren’t being utilized for their skills.
[00:12:18] Tamar Medford: And so I would sit down with them, have their one on ones with them, and I would point out their strengths, right? The things that other people had said they loved about that person. And I said, just focus on that stuff more. And these people started doing that and telling me this is where I’d actually like to be.
[00:12:36] Tamar Medford: And we started just moving people around. And after, you know, it took a little bit of time because there was some personality clashes, but after a short period of time, people started working better. together because they also understood each other, which before it was always, , pointing out what was so different, right.
[00:12:55] Tamar Medford: And now they kind of, they knew how to communicate with each other. [00:13:00] So that was a really fun project to do.
[00:13:02] Mark Wright: That’s cool. Anybody else want to jump in?
[00:13:05] Elan Olsen: I’ll go. Um, I was thinking, you know, a phrase we use at work P2P is assume goodwill. And I think kind of the back half of that is also being accountable. And I think that’s both of those things make for good team communication and a authentic team dynamic. So, you know, if you’re on a team and you’re working with other people, you definitely bump heads at any given time.
[00:13:32] Elan Olsen: And I think for me, I have to tell myself, like. In general, nobody is trying to sabotage the work environment or the project or whatever it is you’re doing. Everybody’s trying to work towards the good of whatever it is that we’re collectively working on. So assuming goodwill is a good practice, I think, on my part.
[00:13:55] Elan Olsen: And then I think having authentic communication and being accountable is good [00:14:00] too. You know, like if I, for me, if I feel tension with a team member for any reason, I usually like to address it later on and say, Hey, you know, I, I just want to make sure that we’re still friends after this. I like working with you, you know, all those kinds of things.
[00:14:18] Elan Olsen: So I think as part of the communication pieces. owning your perception as well as, you know, accepting that you might not show up the way you want to all the time and to be accountable for that.
[00:14:33] Mark Wright: that’s really cool. One of my brothers works in aerospace manufacturing and he got some great advice a long time ago from an HR consultant and the consultant said, if you’re going to, if you’re going to approach someone about a problem, focus on what’s called observable behavior. Dave, I noticed that when we rolled out the new plan, your face got red and you started kind of shaking your head.
[00:14:54] Mark Wright: , and so if you just focus on. The actual observable behavior, [00:15:00] then let them describe why that happened. Instead of like, how come you’re being such a jerk, man? How come you, how come you’re not on board with this? And, you know, instead of going at it from that way, it’s brilliant advice from this HR consultant.
[00:15:15] Mark Wright: Focus on the observable behavior and then turn it over to that person to, pick it up from there. But I love that a lot, assuming goodwill. And, uh, that’s such an important, I spent a lot of years, a long time ago, even in family interactions. , , trying to figure out, well, I wonder what their motive is.
[00:15:30] Mark Wright: And then I just got to a point where like, I’m exhausted and, started just saying, I’m going to assume that you have goodwill. And when you prove that wrong, then we’ll cross that bridge. And that’s , so much easier. Alysse, what about you? Strategies for keeping the teams
[00:15:46] Mark Wright: humming.
[00:15:47] Alysse Bryson: Well, I, , you know, we’ve heard, you know, having the right butts in the right seats, having the people, the right people in the right jobs. And when I got to work P2P, , Dan Rogers, , our founder, made it really [00:16:00] clear, like, When someone isn’t in the right position, like move them. Don’t keep trying to make them get better at something that is not going to come naturally to them, lean into their strengths.
[00:16:12] Alysse Bryson: And so I like what you said, Mark, about the observable things. I also like the sandwich approach where you come in with something that they’re doing really great. And then maybe you talk about an area that needs improvement or needs some kind of adjustability and then you come in and you sandwich it with another thing that they’re doing really great.
[00:16:31] Alysse Bryson: Right? Because that, that can just make someone who might get defensive, just kind of be in a more neutral state. You know, when you think about it, like so much of life happens when we’re working together. , even, I mean, even now in a post pandemic world where we’re more remote, at least at our company, we are.
[00:16:50] Alysse Bryson: Right. But even, like, I can remember being in the workplace and, like, Learning about hard things, like I can remember I was on a meeting and my screen was up and my Facebook account was up for [00:17:00] whatever reason. I’m sure because I was doing work on it, right? Not personal. But, um, but I learned the fact that a friend of mine had passed.
[00:17:07] Alysse Bryson: For that I’d known from high school while I was, you know, in a one on one meeting with someone, because that just happened to be up , on my desk, right? Which is a hard way to get that kind of information and in front of a co worker. And so, like, life happens. You get the, I can also remember getting calls.
[00:17:23] Alysse Bryson: Like, there was an emergency with my kid in junior high and I had to race out. Like, so, when, the people that you work with, it’s, I don’t think they necessarily become your family, because your family, Uh is a totally different entity and you treat family members differently But like your teammates your teammates are people that you want to show up for and you want to do your best, right?
[00:17:44] Alysse Bryson: You want to make sure you’re all rowing in the same direction and I tend to land in the companies that i’ve been in Throughout my adult career. I tend to land in positions of leadership Probably because I’m bossy and, , [00:18:00] and like being the motivator or the cheerleader, , uh, at King 5, they would refer to me as the director of fun.
[00:18:07] Alysse Bryson: It doesn’t mean I was fun all the time. I’m sure people have stories of times I was very much not fun, but it’s just that bringing that, that enthusiasm into a room. , but like I have also learned over the years that with that power, the, my ability to come into a room and bring the vibration up.
[00:18:23] Alysse Bryson: Unfortunately, I also have the power of coming into a room and bringing the vibration down because I’m, that my, my energy is like right there, right? And so I have to be really cognizant of that, that if I’m not in a great space, I maybe need to opt out , of a situation, uh, or make myself unavailable because I could end up doing more damage because I just need some of my own Elane processing time.
[00:18:50] Alysse Bryson: So, I don’t know if that directly answers your question, but like, I just think there’s a lot of different nuances to it. But overall, it’s about being thoughtful and, to a [00:19:00] certain extent, being of service to the people around you.
[00:19:03] Mark Wright: That makes, that makes total sense. So Libby, your job at, at King5 was director of community relations, correct? So I’m sure that you had to work with multiple teams in multiple departments. It kind of had to wear a lot of, hats that way. What was the key to just keeping all those teams informed on the same page?
[00:19:23] Mark Wright: , you know, working as Alysse said, rowing in the same direction.
[00:19:26] Libby Sundgren: I mean, I just had to over communicate a lot, which I’m sure some people thought it was excessive, but, , , it’s that marketing, you gotta hit them five times before, before they, it registers. But, you know, I think just trying to be genuine and listening to people being genuinely interested in, , , who they are as people.
[00:19:46] Libby Sundgren: And, , it took me a long time to not take it personally if I thought someone didn’t really like me. , and luckily I’ve been, , on teams [00:20:00] where I, for the most part, I think people like me and I like them. , And we have good personal relationships, but there are always people that, you know, you’re just not, you just work together and, know, you don’t have to love everybody, they don’t have to be good to everybody.
[00:20:19] Libby Sundgren: Your family, you don’t have to, , be friends with them on social media, but, um, just being respectful in the workplace and, , you know, just working towards working towards your goal, even though you’re recognizing that, , maybe you’re very different people. So.
[00:20:36] Mark Wright: Yeah. And I think one of the key. Aspects of, of a great team is that team members will help other team members who are struggling. I remember when I first started reporting in television, I had made the transition from radio to TV. This was at KXLY in Spokane and evening anchor, Rick Douglas said, Hey, you want to go out to dinner, , on our dinner break together?
[00:20:59] Mark Wright: And I [00:21:00] said, sure. So he took me to a restaurant and, and we started talking and it, it Became clear that, , that he was taking me out to dinner sort of on behalf of the rest of the editing staff, because I was a really slow writer in the beginning and I would push my poor editors, the video editors, right up to the last minute, like I would give them the script and they would have to edit so fast and it was extremely stressful because we had to make our slot.
[00:21:33] Mark Wright: And so. What Rick helped me understand was the impact that I was having on the morale of the editing staff and photography staff. And, uh, but it really, you know, when I look back years later, he was really gentle about it and it was very kind about it and did it in a way that helped me see the situation and helped me respond in a way that.
[00:21:55] Mark Wright: That made the workplace better. I mean, somebody could have just come up and said, what are you doing? [00:22:00] You idiot, write faster. I need the script an hour before it airs, period. And then stomp off. But Rick took a, and just, he was a brilliant writer and, and just a really great guy. And, I’ve always remembered that just how kind he was about correcting and helping me to become a better teammate.
[00:22:17] Mark Wright: Cause I was the weak link at that point. And it was not fun for the other people on the staff. Oh boy. I just had a minor panic attack telling that story.
[00:22:26] Tamar Medford: Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
[00:22:27] Mark Wright: I want to talk about, , remoteness now. This is something that I heard from the chamber a couple of weeks ago that something like 55 percent ish of employees have returned to downtown Seattle.
[00:22:42] Mark Wright: Since the pandemic so little under half of employees are still working remotely in some fashion That’s a huge number of people that are disparate and spread all over the place I’d love to hear from you all about some tactics and ways that Maybe we can still build teams [00:23:00] even though we’re not physically In the same room.
[00:23:02] Mark Wright: I think we’ve all been in meetings where we’re all in the same room. And I think there’s something when human beings get in physical proximity, there’s an energy there. There’s an ability to read body language and stuff like that. But I’d love to hear from, yeah, Alysse, how, how do we build teams in this remote
[00:23:22] Mark Wright: work culture?
[00:23:23] Alysse Bryson: Well, I think as someone who loves being remote, I do like once I got all that time back in the pandemic of not having to commute and not having to get dressed up and all those things. Like once I got that time back, like I was not willing to give up that time again. , It was not any different than, , in my early years of my career in Seattle.
[00:23:47] Alysse Bryson: I was living in far North Seattle and working downtown and my commute was easily an hour each way. And then when my son graduated from high school, we moved to Mercer Island. And so my commute Then to downtown was like 10 minutes. [00:24:00] So it was like, and once I did that, I was like, Oh, I’m never going back to a one hour commute each way when I got that time back.
[00:24:06] Alysse Bryson: But while I was in it, it was normal. And I made phone calls and I wish I would have like learned a new language or listened to podcasts, but mostly I just made phone calls. So. But, um, but what, so once you kind of get an understanding of time, it’s hard to give it back. And so I, as someone who’s a big proponent of online working and being able to work from anywhere, I do think it is still important to have intentional time where you’re in the same physical location together , on, on some kind cadence.
[00:24:37] Alysse Bryson: I don’t know that it has to be every week, but, , probably every month or every other week makes a lot of sense. And. You know, I know myself that I do pick up on social cues, and I might be harder or softer. In person than I am in in the computer like it’s easier to get Angrier, I think [00:25:00] on a computer than it is in real time.
[00:25:01] Alysse Bryson: Like I just think that there’s Uh, it’s easy to get desensitized to maybe the social cues that you do pick up on if you’re in the same Physical room with someone. So I think that’s important. There’s an energy to it, too like right like we bring an energy to each other and so like When I come in and i’m really energetic and i’m peppy like I would like to think that that’s contagious, right?
[00:25:23] Alysse Bryson: And so then if you’re not physically around that you won’t Pick it up. So for me too, like I, I bought a house and I now live way in the burbs. And so like, I have to be intentional about planning time to see people in real life a couple times a week, because if I go as an, as an extrovert who, , loves to sometimes be an introvert, like I do have to go and get a plug into that, in person, emotional, energetic.
[00:25:51] Alysse Bryson: Like energy source. Otherwise, I get kind of wonky. And I, I only learned that because I didn’t have, you know, we went so many weeks and [00:26:00] months without engagement that I realized, oh, this is hard for me. But there was a certain part that I like. So it’s, it’s a give and take and I don’t know that there’s, I think it’s gotta be different for everybody.
[00:26:09] Alysse Bryson: A little bit.
[00:26:10] Mark Wright: Yeah. I like what you said about intentionality because when you’re working remotely and you’re not intentional about it, it’s like, Whoa, I haven’t seen anyone for three months. I haven’t been out of the house in five days. And it’s, uh, you know, there’s a lot of stuff in the workplace that happens. In those conversations in the hallway, the conversations, I mean, at least I met you just at
[00:26:31] Mark Wright: the
[00:26:31] Mark Wright: coffee machine at King five, way
[00:26:32] Mark Wright: back
[00:26:32] Mark Wright: in the
[00:26:33] Alysse Bryson: did. And that goes back to what you were talking about earlier, Mark, that you learned in the early years about, you know, showcasing the people around you. I remember very much. You were like, I can’t remember exactly what you said, but I’ll paraphrase it to be like, Hey, I think you’re new here.
[00:26:47] Alysse Bryson: My name’s Mark. Who are you? What department are you in? What do you do? Like, and I was like, Oh, he cares about me, you know? So like, and then when the next time I saw you, it was like, Oh, hi. And that is how the relationship [00:27:00] developed. And it’s like, you know, those water cooler talks where you do talk about the TV show that was on last night or the one that’s everybody’s talking about off Netflix or that podcast or the true crime, like that, that the pop culture aspect of.
[00:27:14] Alysse Bryson: Of work. How do you still get that in a remote space? Like, don’t worry. I find a way to fit it in because I have my priority straight, but not everybody does.
[00:27:25] Mark Wright: I always looked forward to running into you on the third floor, at least, because. You know, that was sort of the sales and administration floor and things could there sometimes, but you always made it fun. And, and just, it was always enjoyable to run into you up there and you always made me laugh. That’s that’s awesome.
[00:27:43] Mark Wright: Um, who else strategies on team building tomorrow?
[00:27:48] Tamar Medford: , well, I think, you know, and this group is a really great example of a team that gels together not only working remotely, but in person, , being actually out of country. I [00:28:00] do, I am intentional about, um, trying to get down and to see the team in person, but I probably spend the most time away, is I, and I think all of us, it’s safe to say, we all kind of give back to the community in various ways outside of what we do with work P2P.
[00:28:16] Tamar Medford: And I feel like that is one aspect that’s really important to make remote work, , work really well, is that having a purpose outside of the stuff you do day to day makes you show up better. During your workday, you know, it’s if you’re sitting at home because working remotely can like Alysse says, right?
[00:28:37] Tamar Medford: You need that connection with people if you’re only working at home remotely and you’re getting that none of that connection during the day or after work then it’s gonna affect the way you work So I think all of us do a really wonderful job at that you know, doing stuff outside of our, our day to day stuff with WorkP2P.
[00:28:57] Tamar Medford: , but also we’re very intentional about connecting. [00:29:00] You know, we have weekly syncs. I think we all make the effort to reach out and say, Hey, and I know I’ve gone through some extremely hard stuff in, you know, the year and a bit that I’ve been with WorkP2P and I’ve been able to count on everyone here, you know, for that support and just that ear to listen.
[00:29:18] Tamar Medford: So I really think it’s just the We have to be intentional about spending time together online every once in a while and, and, you know, just talking and
[00:29:26] Tamar Medford: communicating. So we do it well,
[00:29:28] Mark Wright: Yeah, I agree. Elan, you’re a little bit younger than the rest of us and you probably have more experience. I’m assuming working remotely, or at least your generation does. I’d love your perspective on this because I think when we look back at this point in history, this is the pandemic is a major turning point in our culture.
[00:29:51] Mark Wright: In every way, in every sense of the word, and especially in the way that work gets done, we’re never going back to an all in person [00:30:00] work force. That’s never going to happen. And it’s going to be really interesting to see what they do with all those high rises in, in major cities. But, Elan, what, types of strategies have you seen work when it comes to bringing remote teams together?
[00:30:15] Elan Olsen: Well, I, I wouldn’t say I have a lot of experience working remotely. This is my, my first job where I had the opportunity to do that, you know, just career path wise. I’d been in service industry before. But I feel like I do kind of have experience with engaging with a person you’ve never met or may never meet in person.
[00:30:39] Elan Olsen: And I’m thinking back to like, The chat room days of the internet in all its glory. I mean, I think I still have a couple of girls on Facebook. Shout out to Arushi who I met in an open chat room years ago when I was probably 13. So I definitely think attention is just [00:31:00] part of any relationship that you have.
[00:31:03] Elan Olsen: And. I think being good at that is a skill remotely and in person. And I think there’s probably different skill sets to each. I think my personal approach to life in general, I there’s a definite class clown quality that I bring to the table. , so especially in like remote. There’s team members that I don’t actively engage with on a regular basis, but there are little digital ways that I can let them know that I think about them and I think of them fondly.
[00:31:39] Elan Olsen: For example, uh, Richard Miller is on our team and we kind of have like this running joke of snaps for Richard because that was one of the things that I said in a meeting Just to recognize Richard and let him know that I like him and that I think he’s a cool dude and I also, the Easter egg hider, in a [00:32:00] lot of the digital content that I produce.
[00:32:01] Elan Olsen: So I like for you to find funny things years later, or, you know, give small gifts digitally or physically that just remind you that I was thinking of you. And I think that is true in person and it can stay true. Online, and it goes back to the intentionality piece, it’s just remembering like, Hey, I should, I was thinking about Libby this morning, I should text her and just say, Hey, I was thinking about you, I just wanted to say hi.
[00:32:30] Elan Olsen: And that’s just a good piece to maintain my relationship with Libby, not even just a piece to maintain teamwork, I guess. Those are my thoughts.
[00:32:40] Mark Wright: That’s cool. Our company. , awards bonus points for good behavior, like doing certain things. And then we can turn around and reward, , other members of the team with those bonus points that can be redeemed for prizes and stuff like that. I really like that because I’ve gotten some really nice little notes from, from you all, and [00:33:00] we can, we can share sort of kudos with each other and, and, uh, digitally, as you said, let them know that, that you’re thinking about them and that you appreciate them.
[00:33:09] Mark Wright: And one thing that you do Libby, you, we have. Schedule of sync meetings. And what I love about how you start our sync meetings, Libby, is we all, we go around the room, the virtual room, and everybody starts with a win, like, uh, what’s your win this week? And I think that’s really cool. , Libby, , that we start that way because it does provide some of that social glue where we get to find out what’s going on in each other’s lives and in a meaningful way and it’s actually structured.
[00:33:39] Mark Wright: Did you come up with that Libby or what? Because it’s, I think maybe the parent teacher organization started that
[00:33:44] Mark Wright: long
[00:33:44] Libby Sundgren: I would love to take credit for that, but I think that’s an EOS, , meeting, uh, um, structure that, , was given to me when I started and they said, you are going to run these meetings. So I was very [00:34:00] stressed about running these meetings for six people. I was very nervous. , but yeah, I think it’s helpful to start off with a little piece of, Good news.
[00:34:09] Libby Sundgren: And honestly, sometimes we have bad weeks and we’re like, I just really, the best thing about right now is that I didn’t have to. Get coffee this morning or something, you know, sometimes that’s not great, but it’s a good little, check in, , with the group and way to kind of keep your finger on the pulse.
[00:34:29] Libby Sundgren: You know, we do, some of us do go into the office one, one day a week. and if it doesn’t work out, it’s okay. But we try to go in just to have a little bit of face time. And I think, I have, just come to terms with, the idea that when I am in the office those days, I just probably won’t be getting as much checked off my list as I think I should.
[00:34:58] Libby Sundgren: Um, and I accept [00:35:00] that because we do have really good, Conversations and I think, you know, just taking advantage of the time that you do have with people, whether it’s in a team’s meeting or in person, just accepting that sometimes, , you know, especially when we do so much virtually, you kind of have to give up.
[00:35:18] Libby Sundgren: Your drive for productivity sometimes in the name of relationship and community building, and, I think it’s a good, it’s a good hit to take. Don’t worry, Dan, I’m still very productive. I do lots of work. I am a productive person. definitely doing all the things I’m supposed to be doing. But, you know, sometimes we just get into, uh, you know, long discussions about like the royal family or a pop culture.
[00:35:45] Libby Sundgren: And, , I think that’s also just as important as, you know, Developing content.
[00:35:50] Mark Wright: And I feel, I feel like also trust and vulnerability are really important to the cohesion of a team there have [00:36:00] been, you know, we’ve all cried and shared stories with each other. And I think that’s really important to be able to have that level of trust and acceptance. , regardless of what’s happening in our lives, because the reality is that stuff’s going to happen.
[00:36:14] Mark Wright: And it’s nice when our, teammates at work are there to support us during those tough periods, because it would, it would kind of stink if that, if that wasn’t the case. So I love the level of trust and vulnerability. And the irony is that this team hasn’t been together for that long, but I feel closer to all of you than I think I felt.
[00:36:35] Mark Wright: To any other team that I’ve ever been on. I mean, the level of friendship is just off the charts. , and most of that has happened like this, , you know, looking at our computers in, in remote locations. I mean, Tamar’s in Vancouver, BC and, uh,
[00:36:52] Mark Wright: nicest Canadian we know, by the way.
[00:36:54] Alysse Bryson: I think once we lock in the matching tattoos, that we will really be like, have landed [00:37:00] the plane all the way there.
[00:37:01] Mark Wright: You’re going to have to hold me down. You’re going to have to hold me down and tattoo me,
[00:37:05] Mark Wright: but no, You two actually.
[00:37:07] Tamar Medford: ha
[00:37:07] Alysse Bryson: Wait a minute. You were all about it six months ago, Mark, right? You’re like, I’ll get this squiggle line. Yeah, I’m going to get it on my
[00:37:15] Mark Wright: I’m a tough, a big talker. As my wife says, big talker.
[00:37:19] Tamar Medford: ha ha ha.
[00:37:20] Tamar Medford: ha.
[00:37:21] Mark Wright: No, but you, what, is it true that you and Tamar and Alysse got tattooed the first day you
[00:37:26] Mark Wright: met?
[00:37:27] Alysse Bryson: True story.
[00:37:28] Mark Wright: Wow. And show, and now describe the tattoo.
[00:37:31] Tamar Medford: Wonder Woman.
[00:37:32] Mark Wright: Oh my
[00:37:33] Mark Wright: gosh.
[00:37:34] Alysse Bryson: Mm hmm. Makes for a good
[00:37:36] Tamar Medford: We thought, what
[00:37:36] Alysse Bryson: makes for a good
[00:37:37] Tamar Medford: can we do in 24 hours? I mean, why wouldn’t you?
[00:37:42] Mark Wright: maybe we should title this team building through tattoos.
[00:37:47] Libby Sundgren: You guys did have a facilitator.
[00:37:49] Libby Sundgren: You weren’t complete strangers when you
[00:37:51] Alysse Bryson: No, we had met, we had met online. We had been, we had talked online several times.
[00:37:56] Alysse Bryson: Um, and then, but it was the first time meeting in person [00:38:00] that we were, and we were going to be in Portland for 24 hours. And I was like, okay, what are some, what’s the wildest things we can do in 24 hours as two middle aged women that don’t drink?
[00:38:10] Alysse Bryson: And it’s tattooing. Well, there was three of us, but only two of us got tattooed to be clear.
[00:38:15] Tamar Medford: and, and there may have been head sized
[00:38:18] Tamar Medford: donuts
[00:38:19] Tamar Medford: in the picture as well. That probably contributed the
[00:38:22] Alysse Bryson: Voodoo Donuts, the spot, this segment is not brought to you by Voodoo Donuts, although it could be Voodoo, they are coming to Washington, did you see that?
[00:38:31] Mark Wright: I didn’t see that.
[00:38:32] Tamar Medford: Giddy
[00:38:32] Alysse Bryson: so. Uh, I don’t know, I read it on the internet though, so it must be true.
[00:38:37] Libby Sundgren: was It on The Onion,
[00:38:38] Libby Sundgren: or
[00:38:39] Libby Sundgren: was it
[00:38:39] Alysse Bryson: It wasn’t
[00:38:40] Libby Sundgren: a real news
[00:38:42] Libby Sundgren: source?
[00:38:43] Alysse Bryson: Libby, so hardcore with her news, my goodness. I will research this and we can add it in the show notes.
[00:38:50] Libby Sundgren: Yes, we’ll put it in the show notes.
[00:38:53] Mark Wright: I’d love to wrap our time up with one final question, and that is what is the future of Teams [00:39:00] look like in the workplace? And I love what Elan said earlier about, about online, uh, you know, digitally getting to know people.
[00:39:09] Mark Wright: , one of my sons is 20, and before he was going off to college, he told us one day, Hey, I think I found some guys I can room with in college. I said, where did you meet them? Oh, I met him online. I’m like, how? Oh, we were playing FIFA. Uh, where are they from? Uh, not sure. , so I’m like, okay. And then maybe a two or three weeks later, he goes, yeah, I’m going to meet up with these guys.
[00:39:32] Mark Wright: We’re going to go hang out. And I said, okay. I said, do you know anything about these people? I mean, do you, , he goes, dad, I met him online
[00:39:40] Alysse Bryson: It’s fine.
[00:39:41] Mark Wright: and I met him online. And so thank goodness, my wife, who’s literally like the, , national security agency, she, uh, did some sleuthing and found out who the kids were and did some digging on their families and found out that they were legitimate people, not looking to abduct a, A kid like my son, [00:40:00] but I guess this is a rambling and long way of, of saying that, that this younger generation, these online friendships and relationships and meetings are just as real as, as we old people standing around the water cooler at work. And it’s, it’s really interesting that, , when we look at what the future is going to look like, who, who wants to take a stab at what you think the future of teams.
[00:40:25] Mark Wright: Is going to look like
[00:40:26] Alysse Bryson: Holograms. Virtual reality holograms run by AI.
[00:40:33] Libby Sundgren: you guys can make a bot to do my work, then I can, I’ll do, focus on just the in office work.
[00:40:42] Mark Wright: lawn,
[00:40:42] Elan Olsen: I can make a bot to do,
[00:40:45] Libby Sundgren: I
[00:40:46] Elan Olsen: like, 10 percent of your work, I think.
[00:40:51] Mark Wright: you know, we, we’re kind of chuckling about that, but you know, artificial intelligence is going to take a lot of the work that teams do now [00:41:00] off their plates and it really will be, and all the experts that we’ve talked to with on the podcast have said that our ability to be flexible and learn new things is probably the biggest insurance policy that we have as people in the workplace, because a lot of that work is going.
[00:41:18] Mark Wright: To machines. And so I, any, any other thoughts? I mean, it kind of looks like , remote teams are here to stay certainly, because I think a lot of the research that’s been done shows that productivity is up when people don’t have to spend two hours a day in their cars, ,
[00:41:34] Libby Sundgren: I think one of the really cool things about it that I have seen shift and that I think we’ll continue to see the needle move towards is just a greater, appreciation and understanding and also, , not a rallying cry, but , But the ability for people to advocate for a work life bElance, because [00:42:00] when you experience that yourself, and you know, you get time back to do things that, , you want to do outside of your, of your job.
[00:42:10] Libby Sundgren: , I think it really helps you. And respect other people’s time as well. And while we don’t see each other, , you know, in an office five days a week, I think, having the freedom and the opportunity to. , have that time back really makes you not that I’d be disrespectful of your guys’s time.
[00:42:32] Libby Sundgren: You know what I mean? It just makes you really like, , value other people’s contributions and time and their own schedules and their own lives. So yeah,
[00:42:44] Mark Wright: yeah, I think I agree, Libby, that it, this. chapter in work in America. It almost has to honor the whole person because we just don’t have enough. People as boomers age out, the workforce is getting smaller. And yeah, [00:43:00] I think, and I’ll also think culturally when I look at my kids generation, they are not willing to accept certain things the way that we were in the workplace.
[00:43:09] Mark Wright: I mean, we just said yes to everything when we started and to sometimes to the detriment of the rest of our lives. , so I think this is a healthy. It’s a healthier work culture. Anything
[00:43:20] Mark Wright: else we should cover before we wrap it
[00:43:23] Alysse Bryson: I have a question. Speed round. Here we
[00:43:24] Alysse Bryson: go.
[00:43:26] Mark Wright: Hmm.
[00:43:26] Alysse Bryson: Favorite TV show or movie that happens in a work environment? I’ll go first. I Love, loved and continue to love TV shows and movies where the background setting is at a magazine, shocker. And so mine would be How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Not only is that my personal experience of my dating life, but also I love the bond that this group of women had in that work.
[00:43:57] Alysse Bryson: Place like they were, [00:44:00] they were passionate about their jobs, but they were also passionate about their social lives together. So, , I’m curious what your guys favorite TV show or movie that happens in the workplace might be.
[00:44:11] Libby Sundgren: the office, I love it.
[00:44:14] Libby Sundgren: Watch it every day. Almost.
[00:44:16] Alysse Bryson: You still watch it every day.
[00:44:17] Elan Olsen: Does,
[00:44:18] Libby Sundgren: Still, yeah, if I’m like cooking and stuff, if I’m tired of hearing the news or if there’s the slow news day and they’re just repeating what they said in the morning, always the
[00:44:27] Libby Sundgren: office.
[00:44:28] Alysse Bryson: Wow. Okay.
[00:44:29] Libby Sundgren: But it kind of, it kind of gets not so good when you get into the later seasons.
[00:44:33] Libby Sundgren: So,
[00:44:33] Libby Sundgren: you know, the first four are the
[00:44:36] Alysse Bryson: your OG office.
[00:44:38] Libby Sundgren: Once after Steve leaves, the magic is, magic’s
[00:44:41] Libby Sundgren: gone.
[00:44:42] Alysse Bryson: Anybody
[00:44:43] Alysse Bryson: else?
[00:44:43] Mark Wright: Elon,
[00:44:43] Elan Olsen: does
[00:44:44] Elan Olsen: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
[00:44:45] Elan Olsen: count? Cause she’s
[00:44:46] Elan Olsen: like
[00:44:46] Alysse Bryson: She’s working.
[00:44:47] Alysse Bryson: She’s a slayer.
[00:44:48] Elan Olsen: And when they’re in the library, Giles is working. So I’m gonna go, I’m gonna, I’m gonna stick with my girl Sarah.
[00:44:54] Alysse Bryson: All right. Dun,
[00:44:55] Elan Olsen: the Vampire Slayer.
[00:44:57] Mark Wright: I’m going to go with Ozark. If you consider [00:45:00] drug
[00:45:00] Mark Wright: dealing
[00:45:01] Libby Sundgren: Oh,
[00:45:02] Alysse Bryson: dun. That’s a certain, that’s a different kind of redeeming work, but okay, Mark. Ha
[00:45:06] Mark Wright: I
[00:45:07] Elan Olsen: You know I consider drug dealing a lucrative business, Mark.
[00:45:11] Mark Wright: is a brilliant show. I love
[00:45:14] Mark Wright: that
[00:45:14] Mark Wright: show. At least what you mentioned. Was that a movie?
[00:45:17] Mark Wright: How to lose a
[00:45:17] Mark Wright: guy in
[00:45:18] Alysse Bryson: to lose a guy in 10 days.
[00:45:19] Alysse Bryson: Kate Hudson.
[00:45:21] Mark Wright: What was the premise of it? Just, just
[00:45:23] Alysse Bryson: She’s writing an article about how to lose a guy in 10 days. And so she’s dating a guy and doing things to him that women do in real life that make them eternally single. I am pointing at myself right now, but she’s doing it in the name of an article and he’s doing it because he’s also in a bet at an ad agency.
[00:45:43] Alysse Bryson: , highly recommend it. It’s a, it’s an, it’s an oldie, but a goodie.
[00:45:48] Mark Wright: That’s a great way to wrap up our time together. Well, this has been super fun. Thanks to the four of you. Love being on the same team with all of you and appreciate everything that you do to make this an [00:46:00] awesome team as we redeem work.
[00:46:02] Mark Wright: So this has been another edition of Sidekick Sessions. We’ll see you next month.