The basic problem with working in an office is you're just not in control of your work environment.
O problema básico de traballares nunha oficina é que non tes o control sobre o teu ambiente de traballo.
[The Way We Work]
[Cómo traballamos]
Howdy, my name is Matt, and I'm the CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Jetpack and WooCommerce. We're coming up on over 800 employees, and they live everywhere, from California to Alabama, Mississippi, to where I live in Texas. They're also in 67 countries. Canada, Mexico, India, New Zealand. Some of them choose not even to have a home base, they're nomads. Whether they are in RVs or traveling through Airbnbs, they are in new places every day, week or month. As long as they can find good Wi-Fi, we don't care where they are.
Ola, chámome Matt, e son o CEO de Automattic, a empresa detrás de WordPress.com, Jetpack e WooCommerce. Temos algo máis de 800 empregados, e viven en todas partes, dende California a Alabama, Mississippi, e ata onde vivo eu, en Texas. Viven ademais en 67 países. Canadá, México, India, Nova Zelandia. Algúns deles optan por non ter nin unha casa habitual, son nómades. viven en autocaravanas ou viaxando por Airbnb, Están en lugares distintos cada día, semana ou mes. E mentres poidan atopar unha boa wifi, non nos importa onde están.
Our focus on distributed work didn't happen accidentally. It was a conscious choice from the very beginning. Notice I don't use the word "remote," because it sets up the expectation, that some people are essential and some aren't. I use the word "distributed" to describe what we do, where everyone is on an equal playing field.
A decisión de traballarmos de modo distribuído non foi casual. Foi unha elección consciente dende o principio. Ten en conta que non uso a palabra "remoto", porque suscita a idea, de que algunhas persoas son esenciais e outras non. Uso "distribuído" para describir o que facemos, cun espazo igualitario para todos
I think a distributed workforce is the most effective way to build a company. The key is you have to approach it consciously. When we started WordPress, many of the first 20 hires were people I'd never met in person. But we'd collaborated online, sometimes for years. I wanted to continue that for one simple reason. I believe that talent and intelligence are equally distributed throughout the world. But opportunity is not.
Creo que a man de obra distribuída é a forma máis eficaz de crear unha empresa. A clave é abordalo conscientemente. Cando comezamos WordPress, moitas das primeiras 20 contratacións era xente que nunca coñecera en persoa. Pero colaboráramos en liña, ás veces durante anos. E quería continuar con iso por unha simple razón. Creo que o talento e a intelixencia están igualmente distribuídos polo mundo. Pero as oportunidades non.
In Silicon Valley, the big tech companies fish from essentially the same small pond or bay. A distributed company can fish from the entire ocean. Instead of hiring someone who grew up in Japan but lives in California, you can gain someone who lives, works, wakes up and goes to sleep wherever they are in the world. They bring a different understanding of that culture and a different lived experience.
En Silicon Valley, as grandes empresas tecnolóxicas pescan basicamente na mesma pequena poza ou baía. Unha empresa distribuída pode pescar en todo o océano. No canto de contratar alguén que medrou en Xapón, pero vive en California, pódese ter alguén que viva, traballe, esperte e vaia durmir onde queira que estea no mundo. Isto trae unha diferente comprensión desa cultura e unha experiencia diferente.
At the base of the decision to go distributed, there's a desire to give people autonomy over how they do their work. Unless you're in a role where specific hours are important, you can make your own schedule. Everyone can have a corner office, their windows, the food they want to eat, you can choose when there's music and when there's silence. You can choose what temperature the room should be. You can save the time you'd spend commuting and put it into things that are important to you.
Na base da decisión de non ter unha oficina central, está o desexo de darlle ás persoas autonomía sobre como facer o seu traballo. A menos que desempeñes un papel onde o horario é importante, podes facer un horario propio. Todo o mundo pode ter un estudio, as súas fiestras, a comida que lle gusta, pode escoller cando hai música e cando hai silencio. A que temperatura debería estar o cuarto. Pode aforrar tempo de desprazamento e investilo en cousas que considere importantes.
A distributed workforce is ideal for a technology company. But people often ask me, "This works great for y'all, but what about everyone else?" If you have an office, you can do a few things to build distributed capability.
Unha man de obra así é ideal para unha empresa tecnolóxica. A xente adoita preguntarme, "Isto funciona moi ben para ti, pero e o resto do mundo? Se tes unha oficina, podes facer algunhas cousas para xerar aptitudes distribuídas.
First: document everything. In an office, it's easy to make decisions in the moment, in the kitchen, in the hall. But if people work remotely and some members of the team are having those conversations they don't have access to, they'll see these decisions being made without understanding the why. Always leave a trail of where you were and what you were thinking about. This allows others to pick up where you left off. It allows people in different time zones to interact, it's also great to think about as an organization evolves, people leaving and people joining.
Primeiro: documentalo todo. Nunha oficina é fácil tomar decisións no momento, na cociña, no corredor. Pero se a xente teletraballa e algúns membros do equipo teñen conversas ás que outros non acceden, estes verán que se toman decisións sen entender o porqué. Deixa sempre un rastro de onde estás e sobre o que pensas. Isto permite que outros continúen onde o deixaches. Permite interactuar á xente con diferentes horarios, e tamén é xenial pensar mentres a organización evoluciona, na xente que sae e na que entra.
Try to have as much communication as possible online. When everything's shared and public, it allows new people to catch up quickly. You also need to find the right tools. There are so many apps and services that help with day-to-day communication, video conferencing, project management. The things that changed how you work probably aren't objects anymore. They're things you access through your computer. So experiment with different tools that enable collaboration, see what works.
Intenta ter tanta comunicación en liña como sexa posible. Cando todo é compartido e público, os novos poden poñerse ao día rapidamente. E tamén cómpre atopar as ferramentas axeitadas. Hai moitas aplicacións e servizos que axudan á comunicación do día a día, videoconferencias, xestión de proxectos. As cousas que cambiaron o como traballas probablemente xa non son obxectos. Senon cousas ás que accedes dende o ordenador. Experimenta con diferentes ferramentas que permitan a colaboración, e fíxate no que funciona.
Create productive, face-to-face time. In a traditional office, you're in the same place 48 weeks out of the year and you might have three or four weeks apart. We try to flip that: we come together for short, intense bursts. Once a year we do a grand meet-up where the entire company comes together for a week. It's half-work, half-play. The primary goal is connecting people. We want to make sure everyone's aligned and on the same page, and they have a deeper connection with their colleagues. When they work together the rest of the year, they can bring together that understanding and empathy.
Crea tempo produtivo e presencial. Nunha oficina tradicional, estás no mesmo sitio 48 semanas ao ano e pode que teñas tres ou catro semanas libres. Nós tentamos cambiar iso: xuntámonos por períodos curtos e intensos. Unha vez ao ano, facemos un gran encontro onde toda a empresa se reúne unha semana. É metade traballo, e metade xogo. O obxectivo principal é conectar as persoas. Queremos asegurarnos que todos están sincronizados e de acordo, e teñen unha conexión máis profunda cos seus compañeiros. Así cando traballan xuntos o resto do ano, poden usar esa comprensión e empatía.
And the final practice: give people the flexibility to make their own work environment. Every person at Automattic has a co-working stipend that they can put towards a co-working space or just to buy coffee, so they don't get kicked out of the coffee shop. One group in Seattle decided to pool their stipends together and rented a workspace on a fishing pier. Each person who joins the company gets a home-office stipend. This is money they can invest in getting the right chair, monitor, the right desk setup, so they can have the most productive environment for them.
E a práctica final: dar á xente flexibilidade para ter o seu propio ambiente laboral. Cada persoa en Automattic ten un sobresoldo que pode investir nun espazo de cotraballo ou simplemente para mercar café, e que non os boten da cafetería. Un grupo de Seattle decidiu xuntar os seus soldos e alugar un espazo de traballo nun peirao. Cada persoa que entra na empresa recibe un soldo de oficina. E poden investir estos cartos en cadeiras ou monitores adecuados, na mellor configuración de escritorio, para ter o ambiente máis produtivo.
Today, there are just a few companies that are distributed first. In a decade or two, I predict that 90 percent of companies that are going to be changing the course of the world are going to function this way. They will evolve to be distributed first, or they'll be replaced by those that are.
Hoxe hai só algunhas empresas que son "distribuídas". Nunha década ou dúas, prevexo que o 90% das empresas que van cambiar o curso do mundo funcionarán deste xeito. Evolucionarán para existir sen unha oficina central, ou serán substituídas.
As you think about what you're going to build next, consider how you can tap into global talent, give people autonomy to live and work where they feel they should and still participate fully in whatever it is that you're creating together.
E mentres pensas que crearás a continuación, considera como aproveitarte do talento global, darlle á xente autonomía para vivir e traballar onde sintan que deben e participar plenamente en calquera cousa que estean creando xuntos.