Embracing New Remote Work Practices: A Guide to Adoption

How can teams adopt new ways of working? How do you go from idea (e.g., let’s go async-first!) to practice?

To adopt new ways of working, you have to actually try new ways of working.

For some teams that already have a clear idea of what they want to achieve, “Just try it!” is all they need to hear to dive in and test the waters.

But for others, there’s a lot more that needs to happen before they get to the “try it” phase.

Steps to Adopt New Ways of Working 

Here’s how those teams can get to the point where they’re ready to try new ways of working: 

⚡️ Identify pain points and goals 

What’s currently not working about the ways we’re working, and what do we hope to achieve by changing? What are the risks of not changing at all?

🎨 Build awareness and understanding

You don’t know what you don’t know, and you can’t be what you don’t see—research examples and resources that can help paint a compelling picture of what new ways of working actually look like in real life, and the skills and knowledge needed to put them into practice. Workplaceless learning programs incorporate real-world examples as well as templates that help facilitate building awareness, understanding, and capability in adapting to new ways of working. 

💬 Align on language

Define key terms you’re using (e.g., async-first, blended meeting) so everyone involved uses language consistently. Leverage a resource like the Remote Work Dictionary to guide your conversations. 

🙋‍♀️ Create accountability

Initiatives with no one at the helm are destined to just disappear.

🏆 Support change champions

Recognize the effort that people put into trying new ways of working and provide the resources they need to experiment at work (see next point!)

⏳ Give time and permission to try new things

You can’t learn new things if you don’t have the space or psychological safety to do so.

🎬 Tiny actions

Identify behaviors you can put into practice immediately. These small actions help generate momentum by making an impact quickly. Want ideas? Subscribe to our free newsletter for weekly microlessons that include example tiny actions. 

💪 Bold experiments

Commit as a team to testing out new ideas or processes, and define how you’ll measure success.

📈 Measure results

What impact have new ways of working had on the metrics that matter?

🌓 Strategic shifts

Let your learnings about what works and doesn’t work inform both short and long term strategies for how you operate.

👏 Public commitment

Learn out loud, sharing plans and results across the organization.

Teams can and do get stuck at any one of these phases, thinking these steps need to follow a completely linear sequence, or they get caught up in minutiae, trying to have a perfect plan in place. In reality, some of these steps can happen at the same time, or in a completely different order than what you see here.

The plan doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be enough that it prepares and motivates your team to dive in.