Key takeaways
- A distributed team runs on written rules and a fixed cadence, not on trust alone or on surveillance.
- Decide which work must be done in person, which must be done together online, and which can be done alone, and schedule each differently.
- One system of record per function, with everything written where the whole team can see it.
- Hire for people who write clearly and finish what they start, because those are the skills remote work rewards.
British Columbia is a large province and most growing companies end up with people in more than one place. A sales team in Vancouver, technicians in the Fraser Valley, a bookkeeper in Kelowna, a developer in Victoria, and a coordinator who works from home three days a week. Our own team of more than thirty specialists is distributed across Canada and joins engagements by function, so we run this way ourselves.
A distributed team is neither a problem to be solved nor a perk to be managed. It is a way of running a company that needs its own rules. Here are the ones that matter.
Sort the work into three kinds
Not all work is the same when people are apart. Some must be done in person, such as installations, site visits, the first week of a new hire and the quarterly planning meeting. Some must be done together but can be online, such as the weekly leadership meeting, the daily huddle, sales call reviews and difficult conversations. And some is best done alone and uninterrupted, such as writing, building, quoting and analysis.
Write down which of your company's work falls into which kind. Then schedule each kind differently. In-person work gets planned travel and days together. Together-online work gets fixed slots that never move. Alone work gets protected hours when nobody expects a reply.
Cadence replaces the hallway
In one building, people find out what is happening by overhearing it. Across the province, they find out only if someone writes it down or says it in a meeting. So the operating cadence becomes the company. A daily huddle in each function, online, ten minutes. The weekly leadership meeting with its page of numbers. A monthly all-hands where the owner tells the whole company what happened and what is next. And two or three days a year when everyone is in the same room.
The rule is that anything decided is written in the place the whole team can see it the same day. If it was said in a call and not written, it did not happen.
One system of record per function
Our outsourced technology team sets this up for distributed companies, and the fractional CTO keeps the security side honest, because remote work widens the attack surface in ways small companies rarely see until it hurts.
- The pipeline lives in one tool and nowhere else. The schedule lives in one tool and nowhere else. Procedures live in one place the whole team can open on a phone.
- Written communication goes in channels by function, not in private messages, so context is shared and nobody is the bottleneck.
- Working hours and response expectations are written. For instance, replies within a set period during business hours, and no expectation outside them unless on call.
- Equipment, access and security are standard. Managed devices, password management, two-factor access on every system, and a procedure for departures.
Managing people you do not see
Owners worry about whether remote staff are working. The answer is not monitoring software. It is clear outcomes, visible work and a weekly conversation. Every role has a scorecard with outcomes you can see in the systems of record. Every person has a weekly one-to-one with their manager that is short and never skipped. Work in progress is visible in the tools, not in people's heads.
Hire for the skills remote work rewards. People who write clearly, who finish what they start without being chased, and who ask for help early. Test for those in the hiring process with a written exercise and a paid trial where practical. Employment terms for remote and hybrid work, including where the person is based for payroll and what equipment and expenses are covered, go to your employment lawyer.
Keeping it one company
The risk in a distributed team is that it becomes several small companies that happen to share a logo. The office people and the remote people, the Lower Mainland and the Interior, the field and the desk. The owner's job is to make the whole visible. The monthly all-hands, shared numbers everyone can see, bringing field staff into the sales and operations reviews, and the few days a year together all do that work.
The common mistakes are copying office habits online, such as long meetings and constant interruptions, and the opposite, assuming trust means no structure. Written rules and a fixed cadence are what make the trust possible.