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REMOTE NOT DISTANT by Gustavo Razzetti

REMOTE NOT DISTANT

Design A Company Culture That Will Help You Thrive In A Hybrid Workplace

by Gustavo Razzetti

Pub Date: June 7th, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-9990973-8-0
Publisher: Liberationist

A management consultant advises companies to embrace remote work in this business book.

Razzetti, the author of Stretch Your Team (2018), counsels business executives on embracing a pandemic-driven shift toward doing work outside of an office setting: “Until recently, working from home was seen as the exception,” he notes. “Very soon, working from an office will be the exception.” If it’s done thoughtfully and deliberately, he argues, remote work can increase employee satisfaction and productivity while also strengthening corporate teams and a company as a whole. Razzetti explains how many of his clients, along with a growing number of business leaders around the world, have calculated that remote work is a net benefit and why many others will likely see the same results. The book addresses the mechanics of such work, with an emphasis on establishing frequent, asynchronous communication strategies that don’t require excessive real-time meetings, and then takes readers through a multistep process of developing a strong corporate culture when employees are working from a variety of locations. Razzetti offers advice on creating a robust knowledge base; avoiding meeting fatigue; giving feedback in a remote context; and building an environment of psychological safety in which employees can share ideas widely, make decisions effectively, and work efficiently. Each chapter concludes with a guided exercise intended to help readers understand how to make remote work compatible with their company’s needs. Razzetti is a remote-work partisan who understands that many in leadership are still unpersuaded, and the book successfully balances making a case to skeptics and giving practical advice to adherents, rendering it useful to a wide range of readers. (However, those who manage or work in location-dependent roles may feel frustrated by the book’s advocacy for a trend from which they’re excluded.) Plenty of specific examples—of companies that have succeeded at communicating across time zones, for example—allow the book to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

An enthusiastic road map for taking work outside the office.