{"id":8426,"date":"2021-01-19T07:16:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T12:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=8426"},"modified":"2021-01-18T14:23:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T19:23:19","slug":"12-guiding-principles-of-virtual-workplace-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/12-guiding-principles-of-virtual-workplace-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Guiding Principles of Virtual Workplace Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Just as in a co-located setting, a remote work<\/a> environment warrants a defined culture.\u00a0 Culture in a co-located setting is distinctly evident.\u00a0 It is imparted and communicated through collaboration between colleagues, their behaviors, and the actions that are incentivized\u2014or those that are considered inappropriate\u2014at the organization.<\/p>\n

However, defining, creating, and sustaining an Organizational Culture<\/a> in a virtual environment is a bit complicated.\u00a0 It needs careful deliberation. \u00a0Leadership can make good use of the 12 guiding principles to inspire a robust Virtual Workplace Culture<\/a>.\u00a0 These guiding principles can be segregated into 2 categories:<\/p>\n

General Culture Principles<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are 7 principles under this category:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. There are no unwritten rules<\/li>\n
  2. Reinforce values<\/li>\n
  3. Don’t take Culture for granted<\/li>\n
  4. Embrace gratitude and transparency<\/li>\n
  5. Institute structure around Culture<\/li>\n
  6. Welcome changes to Culture<\/li>\n
  7. Leverage disruption to improve Culture<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Mental Health Related Principles<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Virtual Work<\/a> can lead to various ailments, including burnout, if it is accomplished without abiding by healthy lifestyle, best practices, and guidelines.\u00a0 The mental health category entails 5 guiding principles:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Don’t encourage long work hours<\/li>\n
    2. Document processes around mental health<\/li>\n
    3. Recognize mental health struggles<\/li>\n
    4. Prevent burnout, isolation, and anxiety<\/li>\n
    5. Encourage a healthy virtual lifestyle<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

      Let\u2019s dive deeper into 4 of these guiding principles.<\/p>\n

      1. There are no unwritten rules<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The first principle to foster a Remote Culture necessitates documented policies and systems.\u00a0 Careful documentation assists in prohibiting decline of a remote enterprise and culture.\u00a0 The first instance to document should be the company values including teamwork, productivity, clarity, diverseness, and inclusivity.<\/p>\n

      2. Reinforce values<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The actions that are encouraged and rewarded by the company become organizational values.\u00a0 For instance, in virtual settings, hiring, promoting, and developing people play a huge role in encouraging and underlining the importance of values. \u00a0The values dear to an organization are displayed through role modeling of required behaviors by the leadership.\u00a0 They are manifested by the people the organization hires and let go off.\u00a0 Organizational values are also evident by the yardsticks used to gauge qualification for increments, rewards, promotions, and performance management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      3. Embrace gratitude and transparency<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Without clear-cut information sharing and appreciation, employees may begin to feel cynical and unenthusiastic.\u00a0 This can eat away at the organization culture.\u00a0 Leaders should be careful with 360 performance evaluation and feedback.\u00a0 Negative feedback should be delivered in a positive manner to instill hope and determination to do better. \u00a0There is also a need to take drastic measures if there is a general sense of lack of appreciation and transparency prevalent among employees.<\/p>\n

      4. Don’t take Culture for granted<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Culture is easily emphasized in a co-located setting, collaborating with colleagues day after day.\u00a0 However, underscoring the significance of culture in a virtual environment demands cautious deliberation. \u00a0Various core elements of culture are often present, but are masked in our daily activities and habits. \u00a0These elements are manifested by \u201chow we do things in our organization.\u201d\u00a0 These common habits are the hallmark of belonging to a culture.<\/p>\n

      In remote settings, leaders need to highlight the elements of culture that are evident in such settings and their importance, since these practices are a bit hard to observe in virtual teams<\/a>. \u00a0Leadership should mark boundaries of culture clearly and define what is disrespectful or unacceptable in their organizational culture.<\/p>\n

      Interested in learning more about the other guiding principles of Virtual Work Culture?\u00a0 You\u00a0can download\u00a0an editable PowerPoint presentation on Virtual Work: Corporate Culture<\/strong> here<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>on the\u00a0Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n

      You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the\u00a0FlevyPro Library<\/a>.\u00a0FlevyPro<\/a>\u00a0is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here\u2019s what some have to say:<\/p>\n

      \u201cMy FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today\u2019s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u2013 Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \u201cAs a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.\u201d<\/p>\n

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      \u201cAs a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant\u2019s toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u2013 Michael Duff, Managing Director at Change Strategy (UK)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Just as in a co-located setting, a remote work environment warrants a defined culture.\u00a0 Culture in a co-located setting is distinctly evident.\u00a0 It is imparted and communicated through collaboration between colleagues, their behaviors, and the actions that are incentivized\u2014or those that are considered inappropriate\u2014at the organization. However, defining, creating, and sustaining an Organizational Culture in… 12 Guiding Principles of Virtual Workplace Culture<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":8432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408,85],"tags":[186,2385,106,793,2388,2386,1997,2387,903,2383,2176,2384],"class_list":["post-8426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","category-organization","tag-documentation","tag-inclusivity","tag-leadership","tag-organizational-culture","tag-performance-evaluation","tag-reinforce-values","tag-remote-work","tag-transparency","tag-values","tag-virtual-environment","tag-virtual-work","tag-workplace-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8426"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8440,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8426\/revisions\/8440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}