Leading culture through a move to remote-first
I studied belonging before I ran programs for it. Inclusion work, local connection, and the everyday rituals that make a remote company feel like one.
- Role
- DEI and belonging lead, culture host
- Tools
- Slack, Culture Amp, Lightning Talks, a lot of calendar invites
- Scope
- Canada, the US, Mexico, and Latin America
- Reading time
- 1 minutes
My master’s research at the University of Calgary was about belonging: diversity and inclusion, workplace learning, and how organizations recognize what immigrants already know. I finished it with a 4.0. Then I got to test it on a real company going remote-first.
Remote-first, without losing the room
When Myplanet went remote-first, a lot of what made it feel like a company lived in rooms that no longer existed. I took the lead on translating that culture into a remote model, and became the host of the weekly Lightning Talk, a standing hour where colleagues share something they know, care about, or are learning.
Small rituals did a lot of the work. During one Alignment Week, I set up local channels for people who lived near each other. Within weeks, people in British Columbia and Colombia had met in person, people in Argentina and Brazil had met online, and meetups were being planned across Canada.
One remote company, with a local channel for wherever people live.
- #team-bcMet in person
- #team-colombiaMet in person
- #team-quebecMet in person
- #team-argentinaMet online
- #team-brazilMet online
- #team-manitobaMeetup planned
- OttawaMeetup planned
- TorontoMeetup planned
Inclusion as a portfolio, not a poster
I led our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work as a set of practical programs rather than statements: inclusion workshops, bias training, a multicultural calendar, and belonging groups. I also designed and facilitated sessions for leaders, including an interactive inclusive leadership workshop for our technology managers.
- Highest engagement scores in more than five years
- 5+ yrs
- Employee engagement after the lifecycle roadmap
- 85%
- People at annual hybrid events across 12 locations
- 200+
Belonging lives in ordinary moments
The engagement scores matter, but they come from small things done consistently. Describing the images on your slides out loud so everyone can follow. A welcome lunch where new people actually get to talk. Recognition that reaches people in their own language. A meetup with the three colleagues who live in your city.
After our acquisition in Mexico, that same thinking became One Orium, an employee-informed plan for belonging across two countries.
People don’t feel like they belong because a value says so. They feel it when someone planned for them.