Remote, Not Distant

by Gustavo Razzetti

The workplace is changing. Will you adapt or fall behind?

Hybrid and remote work is here to stay. What will it take for your company to succeed in the new normal?

While most companies have struggled since the pandemic to keep their culture alive remotely, some are successfully riding the waves of the future. To the outside observer, it seems like they were lucky. In reality, building a workplace culture strong enough to thrive at a distance doesn’t happen by chance, but by design.

In this practical, meticulously researched book, top culture thought leader Gustavo Razzetti provides a roadmap to understand, adapt to, and succeed in a hybrid workplace. Razzetti has spent years investigating the leading edges of this revolution, from Amazon, Slack, GitHub, and Microsoft, to name just a few. The lessons are simple yet stunning.

Through insights, real-life examples—both successes and failures—exercises, and experiments, Razzetti will guide you through today’s rapidly changing workplace to improve collaboration whether if your team members work from home, the office, or both.

Remote, but Not Distant provides actionable tools for senior leaders, managers, and team members. It addresses the multiple areas of culture, from keeping your team engaged and improving remote communication to managing conflict, facilitating courageous conversations, and unleashing innovation.

You’ll learn how to:

Seize the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of the hybrid workplace
Align your team around a shared future
Create a safe remote workplace where people belong, collaborate, and innovate
Lean into hard, courageous conversations to solve conflict
Design team rituals to drive positive behavior change
Collaborate in a more productive way, avoiding burnout
Increase speed and liberate your team from limiting rules
Highly actionable for the post-pandemic world, this book will show you how to build a culture that feels so right you won’t want to go back to normal.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Historical Romance, Buisness

326 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2022

About the author

Gustavo Razzetti is the CEO and founder of Fearless Culture, a culture design consultancy that helps teams do the best work of their lives. For more than 20 years, Razzetti has helped leaders from Fortune 500s, startups, nonprofits, and everything in between on every continent but Antarctica.

Gustavo is also the creator of the Culture Design Canvas, a framework used by thousands of teams and organizations across the world to map, assess, and design their culture.

In addition to his consulting work with clients, Gustavo regularly speaks with leaders and teams about culture change, teamwork, and hybrid workplaces. His coaching and tools have helped countless executives and teams develop work environments where people collaborate to accelerate individual and collective performance.

A prolific writer and author of four books on culture change, Gustavo’s insights have been featured in The New York Times, Psychology Today, Forbes, BBC, and Fortune, among others.

Reviews

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might work for beginners, it just reads like a summary of more substantial books to me.

[Danielle Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book and how it was set up. There were visuals to help get the authors point across, where you can download the QR code and print out the diagrams for future use. This book focuses on workplace culture, how it has changed, and what we can do to keep that same momentum going. The pandemic shocked the world to its core and we are left picking up the pieces. This includes businesses too. This how two guide will help get your workplace become more successful than before the pandemic.

[Shaheena Ormerod-sachedina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant book, so relevant to the current discussions around how we work and why the question is not really about whether or not hybrid working works but whether your organisational culture is shaped to get the best out of people and facilitate them to get the best out of work. Full of practical advice on how to do just that.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than just another book about alternate working arrangements like remote or hybrid setups, this book is a pretty great resource on seriously thinking about your company culture. Rather than something that just happens organically, culture can be directly designed or at least influenced based on what this book advocates. And this is the main value of the book - it's a toolkit and a roadmap for evaluating your own culture and figuring out a path moving forward. So even if your company is determined to maintain majority of your operations onsite at the office, there's still something to be gained from this book in terms of ideas related to crafting your company culture.

[Jung · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Remote, Not Distant" by Gustavo Razzetti explores the transformation of work culture in the wake of the pandemic, emphasizing the potential benefits of remote and hybrid work arrangements. The book advocates for five key mindset shifts to thrive in a hybrid workplace:

1. Intentional Culture Design: Involve employees in decision-making and be open to experimentation to create a meaningful workplace culture.

2. Impact Over Input: Measure employee performance based on results achieved rather than hours worked.

3. Blur Work-Life Boundaries: Normalize interruptions from personal life while working remotely to promote work-life balance and job satisfaction.

4. Asynchronous Collaboration: Recognize that employees work on their own schedules and encourage collaboration without synchronized schedules.

5. Team Empowerment: Delegate decision-making to teams, fostering trust, engagement, and adaptability.

Additionally, the book underscores the importance of a strong company and team purpose, striking a balance between alignment and autonomy, and consistency between stated values and actual behavior to maintain a healthy organizational culture.

Cultivating psychological safety in remote teams is crucial for open communication and innovation. Strategies include starting meetings with check-ins, encouraging open conversations, embracing mistakes as learning opportunities, and providing feedback as a gift for personal growth.

The book also highlights the effectiveness of asynchronous communication, suggesting fewer, shorter meetings and the use of transparent communication tools for effective collaboration. Documentation of interactions ensures clarity and accessibility for all team members.

Lastly, to successfully implement a hybrid work model, the book advises defining the specific model, establishing best practices, setting protocols for decision-making, and recognizing employee contributions regardless of their physical location.

In essence, "Remote, Not Distant" provides insights and strategies for creating a thriving remote work culture, emphasizing the importance of intentionality, flexibility, and inclusivity in the evolving world of work.

[Emanuele Mazzanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timely roadmap to design a powerful culture and thrive in a hybrid workplace!

As Talent Development leader for EY Nordics, I have experienced many workshops led by Gustavo Razzetti, and witnessed first hand how successful organizations are the result of design, not chance. Like the author, I strongly believe that in a hybrid workplace, being intentional, purposeful, and consistent is absolutely critical. If you also feel that it is high time we got past the "office versus remote work" debate - and that we need to integrate the best of both worlds and create a more flexible, equal experience for all employees - then this book is for you! The workplace is rapidly changing – don't fall behind! Invest in this must read, both practical and inspirational.

[Andrew M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendously insightful guide with immediate practical application (chapter-ending recaps, tools, and tips). Grounded in the latest learnings from a broad array of industry practitioners and academic/consulting thought leaders. This book will help leaders address a mission-critical blind spot in their current thinking about the post-pandemic world, as well as the ramifications and implications of not meeting work colleagues “where they live.”

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book guides you through concrete experience both from the author as a consultant and from other executives he interviewed. It provides perspectives from different industries and parts of the world, making it richer and more approachable.

[Asya · Rating 1 out of 5]

It appears the Covid 19 just gave the author an excuse to write another generic book on culture. New working models pop up in the book now and then, but overall the book doesn’t offer much beyond the general buzz on culture topic. Biggest font and margins I have ever seen in an adult book.

[Aneesha Shewani · Rating 5 out of 5]

The “new normal” became the buzzword in most professional circles during the pandemic years. Today, the “new normal” is the “new world” demanding a mindset change and adjustments. The diktat for return-to-office has led to an upheaval that is said to feed the Great Resignation, particularly in the corporate realm. Remote, Not Distant by Gustavo Razzetti is one of the most relevant books that leaders and employees can read to build bridges and settle down in a hybrid work mode.

The book provides a 5-step Anywhere/Anytime Culture approach to tackle the issue head-on. The writer has used examples and quotes from industry practitioners and consultants to explain how a hybrid work model requires resetting prior notions. He breaks down jargon to their basic connotations to showcase why words must truly convey our intentions - be it culture, purpose, employee engagement, rituals, or ideas. He mentions asynchronous communication, proximity bias, single-source of truth, and conflicts.

Readers are presented with an array of frameworks and tools, downloadable with QR codes and topic recaps. My copy of this book has several highlights and notes. It is insightful to read how some companies got it right with their employee-first approach, while some took a fall. A storehouse of information, this guide, can help leaders define what they need to make the hybrid workplace work. It can assist employees to see where the lines converge and how they can contribute to their organizations in a remote or hybrid setup. They can bring the suggestions in this book to the table.

This guide endorses a switch in our thought process and provides actions to redraft our way of working for a “unique opportunity to reset your culture and leverage the best of both worlds: in-person and remote.” Gustavo is vocal about integrity, trust, conversations, connections, and letting go of control tactics. Behaviors and emotions are more important than physical perks. The bright-yellow book cover is unmistakable and brings to attention one of the most crucial issues of the employer-employee relationship in a post-Covid world. This is a book for keeps.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

In today's chronic state of disruption, even some of the most successful organizations find it hard to facilitate changes required to deliver results. This has led to The Great Resignation in almost every sector!

The “Great Resignation” refers to both the large number of resignations in many industries as well as a refusal by people to return to work in light of low pay, poor working conditions, and a general dissatisfaction with the nature of work. Consumer goods, nonprofit, post secondary, government, Fortune 500; this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment leaves no industry unscathed!

Even mission driven organizations are finding it incredibly difficult to motivate their workforce, foster collaboration, and simply connect on a mind and heart level.

The good news is that HR is in a unique position to help organizations, and their people, ride out this turbulence and transform the way work is done.

Welcome Gustavo Razzetti, CEO and founder of Fearless Culture , a culture design consultancy that helps teams do the best work of their lives. For more than 20 years, he has helped leaders from Fortune 500s, startups, nonprofits, and everything in between on every continent but Antarctica.

I have used Culture Design Canvas (created by Fearless Culture ) It is a framework used by thousands of teams and organizations across the world to map, assess, and design their culture... so I was thrilled to find out that he is putting all his learnings into this book!

Gustavo invites you to take a hard look at the way your organization operates, shift your mindset from traditional ways of working, as well as to identify and develop organizational behaviors that support agility and foster resilience.

I recommend this read to every HR practitioner, leader, and driver of change for practical tips and tools with real world examples, actionable advice, and guidance with:

- New insights to employee engagement
- creating a new work paradigm
- helping teams and organizations thrive in a VUCA world.

[Tarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remote Not Distant by Gustavo Razzetti, 326 pages, published June 2022


📝 MY REVIEW

Some things this book did remarkably well:

•Extremely easy to read with small, logically organized sections.

•There were many real-world examples of what remote looks like, practically, in mainstream companies.

•While there were some academic models explained, none of it felt theoretical. Every section gave remote workers actionable advice and clear language to intentionally design culture.

Some things that fell short:

•Hybrid implementation seemed secondary. I think Razzetti initially wrote a book on building company culture, then the publishers urged him to lean into hybrid to market to post-COVID workers. Many sections (i.e., types of decision making) had nothing to do with virtual or distance work.

•Many people would probably pick this book up to try to convince their organization's leadership to transition to a more flexible hybrid policy. The author could have aided their efforts by including more hard data about the benefits of remote-first to companies and employees, but those sections felt vague and often hypothetical. For example, while I agree that many leaders pushed for returning to the office because of a perceived loss of control, I wanted some evidence to support this claim.

•There are so many activities and discussion guides, and it is not realistically feasible for a team to practice all of them. A flow chart of when to use which strategy would have tied them all together, and helped a reader that wants to take action after reading this book know where to start. That said, the activities were clear and widely applicable.

I gave this 3⭐️s on Goodreads and 75 on my likelihood to read again scale.

Thank you NetGalley and Liberationist Press for the arc. All opinions are my own.

[Sarah Cupitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great roadmap to create a significant workplace culture while fully embracing remote work. Workplaces should focus on designing their culture intentionally, prioritising impact over input, forgetting traditional work-life boundaries, embracing asynchronous collaboration, and delegating decision-making to empower teams.

Takeaways:
- Impact over input
- The pandemic has revolutionised the way we work, and it has proven that remote and hybrid working arrangements are not just possible, but actually beneficial for contemporary workers.
- Physical presence in the office is no longer a prerequisite for creating a robust workplace culture or feeling like a valued member of a team
- When employees are involved in the decision-making process, they feel valued and are more likely to contribute their unique perspectives
- Flexibility allows individuals to optimise their productivity and find their peak working hours. By promoting asynchronous collaboration, teams can effectively work together without the constraints of synchronized schedules
- Empowering employees to have a say in how and where they work provides a sense of ownership and autonomy
- By scheduling fewer meetings, using transparent communication tools, documenting all interactions, and providing online options for participation, your team can optimize its collaboration efforts
- Low-pressure brainstorming exercises like silent brainstorming can be effective for generating ideas, and keeping brainstorming meetings small and manageable can enhance collaboration and creativity
- It is important to remember that employees understand and interpret culture not through mission statements, but through the behaviours that are rewarded or punished in the organisation

[Tarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some things this book did remarkably well:

•Extremely easy to read with small, logically organized sections.

•There were many real-world examples of what remote looks like, practically, in mainstream companies.

•While there were some academic models explained, none of it felt theoretical. Every section gave remote workers actionable advice and clear language to intentionally design culture.

Some things that fell short:

•Hybrid implementation seemed secondary. I think Razzetti initially wrote a book on building company culture, then the publishers urged him to lean into hybrid to market to post-COVID workers. Many sections (i.e., types of decision making) had nothing to do with virtual or distance work.

•Many people would probably pick this book up to try to convince their organization's leadership to transition to a more flexible hybrid policy. The author could have aided their efforts by including more hard data about the benefits of remote-first to companies and employees, but those sections felt vague and often hypothetical. For example, while I agree that many leaders pushed for returning to the office because of a perceived loss of control, I wanted some evidence to support this claim.

•There are so many activities and discussion guides, and it is not realistically feasible for a team to practice all of them. A flow chart of when to use which strategy would have tied them all together, and helped a reader that wants to take action after reading this book know where to start. That said, the activities were clear and widely applicable.

Thank you NetGalley and Liberationist Press for the arc. All opinions are my own.

[Stroop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divided into five steps, Remote, Not Distant, provides some interesting anecdotes and practical exercises to explore what kind a culture you should build within your organization and to what extent remote vs. office-centric vs. hybrid models might work best for you.

The chapters focus on culture building, shared futures, belonging, rethinking collaboration, and autonomy. I appreciated the end of chapter recaps and suggested exercises offered throughout to help readers test these ideas with their colleagues. I'm not sure I learned anything new since I already read a lot about organization development and remote and hybrid working environments, but, nonetheless, found this to be an accessible and timely read. I will definitely use some of featured exercises, for example, on resetting or establishing a culture (the "culture design canvas").

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC via NetGalley.

[Annemie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books is really a must read, wether you are a CEO, a manager, an employee, consultant or trainer. In 5 steps Gustavo gives a clear roadmap to make hybrid working to a succes. He talked with a lot of CEO's, gives clear examples and he did a lot of research. He explains what works and what not. Every step he illustrates with excercises, roadmaps (with QR codes) and extra material. He calls it a journey, not a destination. It is easy to read, inspiring and give a lot of stuff to think about. He helps you to understand that there are more than 1 hyrid working models and that it is important to think about the gains instead of the pains of the best of both world! o hybride working There is not a quick fix and there is no one size fits all, but after reading this book you know all the boobytraps. I read the book in 1 day, I just could not stop reading. This is the most complete book about remote (not distant) working.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many of you I had never worked remotely before the pandemic hit. I have in the past managed remote employees and led both collocated and geographically dispersed teams, but I'd never been part of a fully remote team. When the pandemic hit, I found myself scrambling.

What got me here - wouldn't get me there and I knew I would have to find new ways of working. I played with new tools and looked for blessings in this new situation. I found that I loved the quiet in my own office and the time back from not commuting. I was able to think better outside of the open office. I also found some things more challenging. I missed the connection from seeing people and having non-work related chats. This book talks a lot about how to design or evolve a culture that works for all employees equally. It has many many exercises and links to even more and I think any team looking to build a better hybrid culture will get something from this book.

[Aaron Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Working remotely has become one of the big topics of recent years. What started as a necessity for some businesses to remain operational has become the norm for the employees. Many companies are wanting to switch back to office work, but the employees that are working remotely want to continue to do so.

Written to drive a change in mindset from how we used to do business, this book encourages company management and HR departments to look at how this has benefitted their business and their employees. For some companies this has raised morale in their crews, while others have been able to increase their diversity and collaborations by not tying themselves to one specific job market.

This is a great book for professionals to check out, and maybe to make some changes in how they operate.

[Synthia Salomon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love a hybrid/remote work model.

As a public school teacher, I’m not sure how this will work.

I’m also a daughter, wife, mom of 2 and creator!

I would love more time with my family and for my creative endeavors.

Book summary/takeaway:
The post-pandemic era presents an opportunity for firms to reset their workplace culture and optimize their remote working environments. To transition successfully to a hybrid workplace, firms should focus on designing their workplace culture intentionally, prioritizing impact over input, forgetting traditional work-life boundaries, embracing asynchronous collaboration, and delegating decision-making to empower teams. By implementing these steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating a noteworthy workplace culture while also fully embracing remote work. 

My question is, what about schools!?!!!!?!!!

[Sachi Ito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect timing for today’s work environment


It’s definitely time for a mindset change in the business world and Gustavo Razzetti has provided some great methods to get there. First, businesses need to include employees when deciding what to start, stop, and continue. These should include the behaviors, mindsets, or activities that should or shouldn’t stay as part of the team’s best practices. Gustavo interviewed many people and collected stories of how organizations have adapted to the changing workplace, in order to put this book together. So there’s lots of insight from more than one source. I learned a lot from the information provided and will continue to use it as a tool.

[Lauren Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a great guide for how to consciously build employee culture in our new hybrid reality whether you're brand new to internal comms or C-suite, especially now that, no matter your experience level, we're all flying blind when it comes to working in a hybrid environment and we've all been forced to throw our pre-2020 playbook out the window.

My favourite thing about this book is that it's chock full of examples, suggestions, and worksheets to help apply the advice to your own workplace. So many of these types of books can be full of filler and beat a single topic to death just to make it the length of a sellable book, but this book was packed with helpful material.

A must-read for all internal comms professionals and executive staff out there.

[Andreea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been working and managing remote since before the pandemic started in 2020 and we were all forced home, so this book is nice but not the most groundbreaking.

It did present me with a few novel ideas for exercises and group activities to reset or instill a new team culture, as well as a good overview of collaboration methods and when to employ them. My favorite was the “stinky fish” exercise, and I’m keen to try it, as well as others, when the time comes

Writing this in 2023 when many US companies seem keen to return to the office because “remote doesn’t work,” the number of people for whom this book is truly useful to might shrink considerably. I’d still recommend it if you were trying to set up an all-remote or hybrid team, or suddenly found yourself in a lead or managerial position in a company that is fully remote or hybrid.

[Dimitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

📕 Why (Not) to read this book (Target Audience)

This book as a large insightful section on culture and how to design culture. It is great a book but if you go in it to read more about the remote workplace then it is on the light side. The book is more about avoiding a distant workplace, be it remote or not.

👀 How this book changed my daily live (Takeaways)

Culture is Human Centric / Co-created - Evolving / Systematic

Culture design has 3 compnents
1. Core: Purpose
2. Emotional: Belonging
3. Functional: Agility

⁉ Spoiler Alerts (Highlights)

Psychological safety is more than trust
• Welcome, it is easy to ask help
• Courages conversations, i can use my unique skills & talent
Inovation, i feel safe to take risk & experiment

[Amy Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wavered between three and four stars on this one, because I think a huge part of how one will feel about it depends on one's experience with remote work. For me, I've just read, practiced, written, and talked about remote and hybrid work SO MUCH that this book didn't really add a ton to my own personal knowledge. Plus, it felt rushed, as if he was writing to hit a moment rather than to produce something evergreen. For me, this is a three-star book. However, for someone who is really struggling with implementing a remote/hybrid work model or feels left behind by the cultural swing toward remote/hybrid work, this book could be a very helpful four-star read.

[Valeria Fadeeva · Rating 4 out of 5]

For people who know that post-pandemic corporate life is way different from everything we had seen before. Gustavo Razzetti shared his vision on how to adopt team culture, communications and collaborations into the remote world (there are 5 ways of being remote btw).

The book was finished in March 2022, so at some point it’s a hotcake. There are lots of applicable tools and step by step guides, which is different for many business literature. In case you’ve read it already, I would be glad to hear your thoughts in the comments.

[Marissa Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for a workplace training session.

I didn’t find this book to be particularly insightful or life-changing. Most of the advice given in the book has been covered elsewhere. I found it curious that most (if not all) of the examples were corporations. In my experience, some of the groups that have been most successful in designing remote capabilities are nonprofits. Interestingly, several of the companies highlighted for their remote-first style have now started requiring employees to be in-person.

[Tonja Candelaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highlighted many parts if that’s any indication. I found this book to be more beneficial, accessible, and based in reality, than many similar books I’ve read. I really like that he recognized that it’s not one size fits all and gave a variety of ideas and models. I also felt heard when he recognized that often one thing will be listed as a corporate value, motto etc, but actions and culture speak louder and differently. I really wish more at management level would read this as often these only work if a company is fully invested and leadership moves away from “do what I say not what I do”.

[Andreea XD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked it!

I had a few moments in which I just wanted to contact my manager and show them the page I was reading.

I feel like the concepts presented are relevant, and it would help managers and companies understand the need to accept remote work as something that is now here to stay. And it's not even detrimental if done right. (That's where the book helps).
People need to see that the company also cares about them and it is making an effort to accommodate people working from home too!

[Vjera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 3 of trying to find a good book about remote work. Best one yet. Seems well researched. Lots of principles that fit with frameworks we use at work. Lots of diagrams that look helpful and can be downloaded. Lots of concepts that seem helpful, like focusing on culture, moving communication to asynchronous, rituals are the best way to create culture. Each chapter ends with a summary and a "Your Turn" section.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't typically enjoy reading nonfiction, but this was a great business book chock full of great ideas. Razzetti was preaching to the choir because I was nodding my head in agreement the entire time, and loved the examples and recommendations. Great book for leaders, HR, OD professionals who are leading remotely.