This document discusses strategies for building and managing a remote team through radical transparency. It defines radical transparency as openly sharing organizational processes, data, salaries, surveys, announcements, and questions and answers. Examples of transparent companies are provided. Benefits of transparency include building trust, alignment, accountability, better problem solving and motivation. Challenges include potential resentment or arguments. Overall, transparency is advocated as the right approach and best way to improve operations and growth despite difficulties in implementation.

1. Growing and managing
a Remote Team

2. Hello!
Piyush Poddar
Husband and Father
Remote Work Enthusiast
Head of Partnerships and Sales @
Jaipur, India Kolkata

4. Bangalore
Pune
Noida Thiruvananthapuram
Germany
Jaipur

5. What’s Axelerant? (Warning: Shameless Plug)
We’re a fully-distributed integrated global delivery partner, helping to create digital
experiences with agency affiliates.
80+ Team Members | Five Countries

7. Everyone is so
image obsessed
and afraid.
Keep your cards close
Don’t take any risks
Keep your mouth shut
Spin, optics, smoke, mirrors
This is all crap.

8. Break the
conventions.

9. What is
Radical
Transparency?

10. “...actions and approaches that radically
increase the openness of organizational
process and data.”

11. What is it
not?
Being radically honest ≠
being obnoxiously rude

12. What is it
not?
Doesn’t equal brashness
or harsh imprudence

13. What is it
not?
Calls for dignity, respect,
code of conduct

14. Some examples.
● Transparent salaries
● Weekly open surveys
● Bimonthly announcements
● Public & unreserved Q&A
● Open door policy
● Diversity and Inclusion
● No ivory towers

15. Where did this come from?
Customers, employees will not put up any longer with anything false
The internet encourages, forces transparency
Millennials value transparency above all
Ray Dalio,
Bridgewater
James M. Whitehurst,
Red Hat
Joel Gascoigne,
Buffer
Some radical leaders.

16. But it’s challenging.
● There will be good days & bad days
● Humbling that can hurt pride—needs
courage & vulnerability
● Takes commitment to create culture
safe enough for this behavior
● You have to really make it a
priority—
dedicate time, recommit to it often,
demonstrate to people that it is okay
to speak up

17. v
Why does it work?
Trust +
Alignment +
Growth

18. ● Builds team trust in both good &
bad times
● Individuals and leadership hold
themselves accountable
● Allows the right people to join
team and partner
● Better conflict resolution,
problem solving
● Greater commitment to goals and
higher motivation
● More informed, more context,
less guesswork

19. Openness as one of our values.
- Systemic encouragement of transparency
- Public highlighting and reinforcing what we want to see more of
- Compensation: Open finances/salaries
- Open lines of communication with leadership
- Open Source ethos of transparency, peer production and collaboration
- Shared documentation: Handbook, collaborative docs
- Flexibility of working from any place, any time, your way
This is how we do it (and how you can, too).

20. This is how we do it (and how you can, too).
Communications, Tools and Frameworks
- Organisational alignment via V2MOM
- Communication tools like Slack, Zoom, Jira etc.
- Officevibe surveys, reporting, weekly
- 7geese: openness rewarded ( OKRs, 360 feedback, OneOnOnes )
- Public channels, failures & successes via #lessons-learned
- Announcements across all areas: Operations, Sales, Marketing, etc.
- People engagement programs like Lifecoaching, Personal Triumph, Mentorship program,
Happy Hours, Donut random pairing, Share Since We Care etc..

21. ● Isolation
● It can cause resentment
○ Pay scale, performance jealousy
○ Public let go’s, reasons known
● Decisions open to multidirectional
challenges
○ Doubt, argument, disagreement
○ Takes time to answer questions
● With great power comes great
responsibility
○ How much should you share?
○ Clear boundaries, psych safety
Negative consequences &
management

22. ● It’s the right thing to do
● It’s the best way to bring issues to the
fore early
● Without transparency, expect
unexpectedness
○ problems don’t come to the surface
○ operations failure
○ higher attrition
○ hampered growth
In spite of it all, why is it worth it?

23. The impact we’ve seen.

24. The impact we’ve seen.

25. The impact we’ve seen.

26. The impact we’ve seen.

28. Remote: Office
Not Required
Jason Fried
Recommended readings
The OPEN
ORGANIZATION
Jim Whitehurst
Blogs and Podcasts
DRIVE
Daniel H. Pink
Yonder, Buffer, Signal vs Noice, Bridgewater, Open, Bridgewater, Nomad city
and more...

29. @piyushpoddar
piyush@axelerant.com
www.axelerant.com
Thank you!

30. Benchmark against other companies using
Officevibe