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As Leaders Learn to Speak Machine, They Need to Speak Better Human Too
Long before the pandemic, I learned about “remote work” in Silicon Valley and I felt like it could be the future. That was five years ago, and I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.
At the time, Automattic was the largest tech company operating fully remote, or more precisely “fully distributed,” and my good fortune led me to joining Matt Mullenweg’s prescient organization. As the pandemic has worn on, I have found that many of the “new” WFH tips that get shared today were pioneered long ago by Automattic. Things like the difference between the politics of a workforce that is partially distributed versus 100% distributed — the latter being the more effective option. And the fact that “asynchronous” unmonitored working is better than three-hour “synchronous” Zoom calls where showing presence is a requirement — but the former requires a great deal of trust that most bosses aren’t willing to easily extend. Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of distributed work is the notion that talent does not need to be drawn from a hub like San Francisco or New York City, and can be just as easily sourced from Mexico City or Nairobi or anywhere in the world as an expanded dimension of the tech meritocracy.
