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Work Together Anywhere: A Handbook on Working Remotely -Successfully- for Individuals, Teams, and Managers
"An excellent guide on how teams can effectively work together, regardless of location."
--STEPHANE KASRIEL, former CEO of Upwork
IN TODAY'S MODERN GLOBAL ECONOMY, companies and organizations in all sectors are embracing the game-changing benefits of the remote workplace. Managers benefit by saving money and resources and by having access to talent outside their zip codes, while employees enjoy greater job opportunities, productivity, independence, and work-life satisfaction. But in this new digital arena, companies need a plan for supporting efficiency and fostering streamlined, engaging teamwork.
In Work Together Anywhere, Lisette Sutherland, an international champion of virtual-team strategies, offers a complete blueprint for optimizing team success by supporting every member of every team,
EMPLOYEES advocating for work-from-home options MANAGERS seeking to maximize productivity and profitability TEAMS collaborating over complex projects and long-term goals ORGANIZATIONS reliant on sharing confidential documents and data COMPANY OWNERS striving to save money and attract the best brainpower Packed with hands-on materials and actionable advice for cultivating agility, camaraderie, and collaboration, Work Together Anywhere is a thorough and inspiring must-have guide for getting ahead in today's remote-working world.
--STEPHANE KASRIEL, former CEO of Upwork
IN TODAY'S MODERN GLOBAL ECONOMY, companies and organizations in all sectors are embracing the game-changing benefits of the remote workplace. Managers benefit by saving money and resources and by having access to talent outside their zip codes, while employees enjoy greater job opportunities, productivity, independence, and work-life satisfaction. But in this new digital arena, companies need a plan for supporting efficiency and fostering streamlined, engaging teamwork.
In Work Together Anywhere, Lisette Sutherland, an international champion of virtual-team strategies, offers a complete blueprint for optimizing team success by supporting every member of every team,
EMPLOYEES advocating for work-from-home options MANAGERS seeking to maximize productivity and profitability TEAMS collaborating over complex projects and long-term goals ORGANIZATIONS reliant on sharing confidential documents and data COMPANY OWNERS striving to save money and attract the best brainpower Packed with hands-on materials and actionable advice for cultivating agility, camaraderie, and collaboration, Work Together Anywhere is a thorough and inspiring must-have guide for getting ahead in today's remote-working world.
357 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 8, 2018
121 people are currently reading
641 people want to read
About the author
Lisette Sutherland
1 book15 followersLisette Sutherland is the director of Collaboration Superpowers, a company that helps people work together from anywhere through online and in-person workshops. She also produces a weekly podcast featuring interviews with remote working experts highlighting the challenges and successes of working with virtual teams.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 11, 2018
Had a few good tips for people who are remote working and mentioned some tools I hadn’t heard of before. I might recommend if you’re not at all familiar with remote work. A few things I didn’t like .... There were a couple things I really disagreed with - like taking uncomfortable conversations to a #pillow-fight channel on slack after unsuccessfully discussing one one one. A lot of things were repeated multiple times. It’s incredibly repetitive. I feel like I could basically get the same amount of info by just googling a few articles and studies about remote working.
August 4, 2018
This book covers remote working from lots of perspectives. It also covers a lot of ground: starting from the idea of remote working, why an organisation might adopt it, basics for successful remote working, and on to the techniques used by more experienced remote workers.
I skimmed the first sections to go find the hard-won experience of others. And it has that: the contents are drawn from conversations and interviews (quotes and anecdote galore). The common themes and tips pulled together in the text, and as checklist reminders at the end of chapters and the last section of the book.
It all rang true. What resonated for me was the ideas of "working out loud" and "assume positive intent".
I suspect anyone reading the book will find their own "oh, that's an interesting idea" moments to try out. There's plenty of advice around meetings, timezones, team agreements. The parts I found extra useful were around dealing with conflict.
It's all about people, of course: communicate well and often, take care of people, improve continuously, be intentional in what you do. Useful reminders regardless of being remote or not.
I skimmed the first sections to go find the hard-won experience of others. And it has that: the contents are drawn from conversations and interviews (quotes and anecdote galore). The common themes and tips pulled together in the text, and as checklist reminders at the end of chapters and the last section of the book.
It all rang true. What resonated for me was the ideas of "working out loud" and "assume positive intent".
I suspect anyone reading the book will find their own "oh, that's an interesting idea" moments to try out. There's plenty of advice around meetings, timezones, team agreements. The parts I found extra useful were around dealing with conflict.
It's all about people, of course: communicate well and often, take care of people, improve continuously, be intentional in what you do. Useful reminders regardless of being remote or not.
December 30, 2020
Ирээдүйд бид ийм л нөхцөлд ажиллах байхдаа гэсэн сэтгэл өөрийн эрхгүй төрлөө. Агуулга бус үзэмж хэт хөөлгүй төслийг үр дүнгээр нь хэмжих дээр анхаарч аажим аажмаар цахим шилжилт хийх нь ямар үр дүнтэй болохыг мэдэж авлаа. Thanks
November 13, 2021
If you are not fully into remote, this book covers a lot of topics around remote work. It explains the why and nothing is left behind from tools to practices from workers to managers.
But after COVID, if remote is now common practice, you will not learn a lot. Moreover the book is maybe too long with many repetition and lots of quotes coming from the interviews from the book is build.
But after COVID, if remote is now common practice, you will not learn a lot. Moreover the book is maybe too long with many repetition and lots of quotes coming from the interviews from the book is build.
September 6, 2018
Must read both if you do believe or don't believe in remote work
60% of people within Engineering at Red Hat are working remotely. Furthermore, they are distributed all over the world. I am saying that to tell you that I should know quite a lot of things about making remote work effective, and still, I learned a lot from Lisette's book.
Reflecting on my reading, I also realized that a lot of the practices highlighted in the book could be beneficial to manager and teams even if they are collocated.
60% of people within Engineering at Red Hat are working remotely. Furthermore, they are distributed all over the world. I am saying that to tell you that I should know quite a lot of things about making remote work effective, and still, I learned a lot from Lisette's book.
Reflecting on my reading, I also realized that a lot of the practices highlighted in the book could be beneficial to manager and teams even if they are collocated.
March 14, 2019
The way the work is written, with a lot of references to people opinions delivered through interviews, did not work for me. And that amount of justification made me difficult to find what I am looking for when using the book as a reference.
A few of the tips provided, however, were really interesting, like the lighting in videoconferencing, the remote-only manifesto or the Working out Loud.
+ It contains a lot of references and suggestions for tools.
- It is too long
A few of the tips provided, however, were really interesting, like the lighting in videoconferencing, the remote-only manifesto or the Working out Loud.
+ It contains a lot of references and suggestions for tools.
- It is too long
January 23, 2019
“The reality is we’ve all been in a workplace where our
colleagues are present but they’re not getting things done.”
(Leslie Truex, p. 16)
Ever had a question about remote working? Lisette Sutherland, with K. Janene-Nelson, have created the definitive, breakthrough, how-to manual. Consider their work a must-have as vital as a dictionary or thesaurus, especially if you have any doubts about the effectiveness of remote workers.
We can think about Sutherland’s book two ways: First, for the demographic & engagement references. Chances are you will feel behind the power curve as you read about the myriad, successful organizations leading the remote work revolution and the currently available tools enabling them. Second, and perhaps more significantly, are the ramifications for the forward-looking leader who believes an engaged workforce is a competitive advantage in the 21st century. This review highlights the references and ramifications from a leader standpoint.
Start with an open mindset. Sutherland advises that we find a way to make location the variable – indeed immaterial – then we could have the constant be the far more important concern: qualification, including enthusiasm (p. 1). At least a third of her work is annotation: End of chapter reminders, an extras section, available technology & tools, further suggested reading and more. Sutherland interviewed directors and managers from more than eighty companies whose business models depend on successfully bridging distance… (p. 2).
What’s hard for companies who are going remote is that there’s not enough culture established about documenting things, because it’s so much easier to just walk over to the next cubicle, talk to your coworker, and make a decision right there and then (p. 39). In The Knowing-Doing Gap, Pfeffer and Sutton emphasize that sharing knowledge is a significant performance discriminator. Additionally, surveys indicate that the biggest fear about managing remote workers is productivity, but the actual hardest part is communication (p. 134). Going remote creates terrific organizational habits.
Demographic & Engagement Nuggets
Many of the demographic findings are hard truths we tend to avoid:
• Any business that effectively measures employee productivity surely isn’t relying on anything having to do with physical location (p. 23).
• A Flexjobs survey (p. 13) found that parents rank work flexibility (84 percent) ahead of even salary (75 percent).
• According to the 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce report, half of telecommuters are forty-five or older (p. 11).
• It’s actually far more likely that remote workers will work too much rather than too little (p. 53).
• According to the Gallup 2017 State of the Global Workforce report, “worldwide, the percentage of adults who work full time for an employer and are engaged at work is just 15 percent.” (p. 37)
• They want to be able to focus and actually get work done (p. 15).
In Lead From the Heart, Mark Crowley exhaustively chronicles our thirty-year history of poor organizational engagement. Similarly, Dan Pink’s Drive highlights autonomy, mastery & purpose as key motivational forces in a knowledge, or thinking-based economy. Web-developer agency 10up agrees that productivity results from engagement (p. 37).
Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
Sutherland reiterates: “We love having options concerning both our schedule and our workspace. And we love getting to choose work that’s meaningful to us – with colleagues who also love their work, who also take pride in the work they do.” (p. 21)
Brian Patterson (Go Fish Digital) addresses mastery (p. 133): “If you hire the right people and empower them to be successful, they will work at or beyond what you expect of them because they view remote work as a privilege.” The effective remote worker removes distractions, reinforcing that the best work is done when we’re able to focus on just one task at a time (p. 82).
Purpose counts. Sutherland reveals what they do want is to apply the knowledge and the skills they’ve learned across their lifetimes to something meaningful in their life (p. 13).
Retrium CEO David Horowitz bets on these findings (p. 142):
“People who are passionate, even if they have slightly fewer technical skills, will be better fit for your company than people who are technically brilliant but who think of the work as just a job. I would hire the former over the latter any day.”
When we put it all together: The Top Remote Worker’s mindset (p 139):
• is proactive; they’re independent/self-starters
• has a team-focused work ethics: they’re reliable, results-oriented, and highly responsive; and
• leads to good team players: they’re pleasant, collaborative, supportive, and receptive to feedback
Forward-Looking Leadership
Are we managers or leaders? Those of a managerial mind set might wonder how – or even if – it’s possible to get valuable work out of unsupervised employees (p 22). Consider what is actually being measured: The management concern is an artifact of hours-oriented work: work where, if you put in your time-clocked hours, your work is done (p. 22).
Sutherland shares study findings conducted by Towers Watson:
“The single highest driver of engagement is whether
or not workers feel their managers are genuinely
interested in their well-being.” (p. 57)
What are the ramifications of avoiding engagement? The trend strongly suggests that companies that don’t offer the remote option endanger their long-term viability, especially given that reasons to welcome remote working are steadily advancing (p. 27).
Many of the best leadership competencies and characteristics align with having a remote workforce. Consider the remote team leader as coach. What remote teams need most from their managers concerns mind set (p. 163). Like our findings in Coaching to Develop Leaders workshops, Sutherland agrees we must ensure that workers have the tools they need to fulfill their obligations (p. 165). Phil Montero’s (The Garam Group) words could come straight from a Personal Leadership Philosophy (p. 169):
“We build trust by having clear objectives,
accountability, and deliverables.”
Think of Jim Collins’s emphasis on core values. Lance Walley (Chargify) is an advocate (p. 172): “Decide who our core customer is and what our company values are, and then make decisions around those ideas. And make sure everyone is aligned around those values and decisions.” Finally, think of our focus on having a leadership journal, as does X-Team’s Ryan Chartrand (p. 180):
“All team members maintain individual journals in which
they report their day’s accomplishments,
even if that’s just progress on a long-term task.”
Summary
Many of the steps leading to successful remote-worker implementation are the same steps required of a manager who wishes to be an effective leader. Sutherland summarizes: the manager [leader] can help maintain that alignment by ensuring that all team members have (access to) the knowledge, tools, training, processes, and cohesion they need to fulfill their agreed-to roles and obligations (p. 229). Or put more simply (p. 267):
“Connection is what happens when we pay attention to each other.”
colleagues are present but they’re not getting things done.”
(Leslie Truex, p. 16)
Ever had a question about remote working? Lisette Sutherland, with K. Janene-Nelson, have created the definitive, breakthrough, how-to manual. Consider their work a must-have as vital as a dictionary or thesaurus, especially if you have any doubts about the effectiveness of remote workers.
We can think about Sutherland’s book two ways: First, for the demographic & engagement references. Chances are you will feel behind the power curve as you read about the myriad, successful organizations leading the remote work revolution and the currently available tools enabling them. Second, and perhaps more significantly, are the ramifications for the forward-looking leader who believes an engaged workforce is a competitive advantage in the 21st century. This review highlights the references and ramifications from a leader standpoint.
Start with an open mindset. Sutherland advises that we find a way to make location the variable – indeed immaterial – then we could have the constant be the far more important concern: qualification, including enthusiasm (p. 1). At least a third of her work is annotation: End of chapter reminders, an extras section, available technology & tools, further suggested reading and more. Sutherland interviewed directors and managers from more than eighty companies whose business models depend on successfully bridging distance… (p. 2).
What’s hard for companies who are going remote is that there’s not enough culture established about documenting things, because it’s so much easier to just walk over to the next cubicle, talk to your coworker, and make a decision right there and then (p. 39). In The Knowing-Doing Gap, Pfeffer and Sutton emphasize that sharing knowledge is a significant performance discriminator. Additionally, surveys indicate that the biggest fear about managing remote workers is productivity, but the actual hardest part is communication (p. 134). Going remote creates terrific organizational habits.
Demographic & Engagement Nuggets
Many of the demographic findings are hard truths we tend to avoid:
• Any business that effectively measures employee productivity surely isn’t relying on anything having to do with physical location (p. 23).
• A Flexjobs survey (p. 13) found that parents rank work flexibility (84 percent) ahead of even salary (75 percent).
• According to the 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce report, half of telecommuters are forty-five or older (p. 11).
• It’s actually far more likely that remote workers will work too much rather than too little (p. 53).
• According to the Gallup 2017 State of the Global Workforce report, “worldwide, the percentage of adults who work full time for an employer and are engaged at work is just 15 percent.” (p. 37)
• They want to be able to focus and actually get work done (p. 15).
In Lead From the Heart, Mark Crowley exhaustively chronicles our thirty-year history of poor organizational engagement. Similarly, Dan Pink’s Drive highlights autonomy, mastery & purpose as key motivational forces in a knowledge, or thinking-based economy. Web-developer agency 10up agrees that productivity results from engagement (p. 37).
Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
Sutherland reiterates: “We love having options concerning both our schedule and our workspace. And we love getting to choose work that’s meaningful to us – with colleagues who also love their work, who also take pride in the work they do.” (p. 21)
Brian Patterson (Go Fish Digital) addresses mastery (p. 133): “If you hire the right people and empower them to be successful, they will work at or beyond what you expect of them because they view remote work as a privilege.” The effective remote worker removes distractions, reinforcing that the best work is done when we’re able to focus on just one task at a time (p. 82).
Purpose counts. Sutherland reveals what they do want is to apply the knowledge and the skills they’ve learned across their lifetimes to something meaningful in their life (p. 13).
Retrium CEO David Horowitz bets on these findings (p. 142):
“People who are passionate, even if they have slightly fewer technical skills, will be better fit for your company than people who are technically brilliant but who think of the work as just a job. I would hire the former over the latter any day.”
When we put it all together: The Top Remote Worker’s mindset (p 139):
• is proactive; they’re independent/self-starters
• has a team-focused work ethics: they’re reliable, results-oriented, and highly responsive; and
• leads to good team players: they’re pleasant, collaborative, supportive, and receptive to feedback
Forward-Looking Leadership
Are we managers or leaders? Those of a managerial mind set might wonder how – or even if – it’s possible to get valuable work out of unsupervised employees (p 22). Consider what is actually being measured: The management concern is an artifact of hours-oriented work: work where, if you put in your time-clocked hours, your work is done (p. 22).
Sutherland shares study findings conducted by Towers Watson:
“The single highest driver of engagement is whether
or not workers feel their managers are genuinely
interested in their well-being.” (p. 57)
What are the ramifications of avoiding engagement? The trend strongly suggests that companies that don’t offer the remote option endanger their long-term viability, especially given that reasons to welcome remote working are steadily advancing (p. 27).
Many of the best leadership competencies and characteristics align with having a remote workforce. Consider the remote team leader as coach. What remote teams need most from their managers concerns mind set (p. 163). Like our findings in Coaching to Develop Leaders workshops, Sutherland agrees we must ensure that workers have the tools they need to fulfill their obligations (p. 165). Phil Montero’s (The Garam Group) words could come straight from a Personal Leadership Philosophy (p. 169):
“We build trust by having clear objectives,
accountability, and deliverables.”
Think of Jim Collins’s emphasis on core values. Lance Walley (Chargify) is an advocate (p. 172): “Decide who our core customer is and what our company values are, and then make decisions around those ideas. And make sure everyone is aligned around those values and decisions.” Finally, think of our focus on having a leadership journal, as does X-Team’s Ryan Chartrand (p. 180):
“All team members maintain individual journals in which
they report their day’s accomplishments,
even if that’s just progress on a long-term task.”
Summary
Many of the steps leading to successful remote-worker implementation are the same steps required of a manager who wishes to be an effective leader. Sutherland summarizes: the manager [leader] can help maintain that alignment by ensuring that all team members have (access to) the knowledge, tools, training, processes, and cohesion they need to fulfill their agreed-to roles and obligations (p. 229). Or put more simply (p. 267):
“Connection is what happens when we pay attention to each other.”
November 27, 2020
Didn't get much from it. I think it felt like reading a longer magazine. There were a lot of cap locks, a lot of quotations, and at the end of each chapter, a lot of end notes. I was hoping for more.
December 10, 2018
The text is kind of repetitive, but there are a lot of good suggestions and resources (the links etc. take up like 1/3 of the book).
November 27, 2018
I’ve worked as a member of a distributed teams for much of my career. I even wrote a book with a colleague who lived in another city, and our primary means of collaboration was email with the occasional phone call and even more occasional face to face meeting. Over that time I’ve experienced the reality that remote collaboration is hard. While tools have helped address some of the more superficial challenges, working remotely requires thought, effort, and purpose. Lisette Sutherland’s book is an excellent guide for navigating the challenges of building a remote team or working on one.
The book discusses the benefits and challenges of remote work from both the perspective of the employee and the employer. This book isn’t just for teams that have a large remote component. Support for remote work is valuable even when you expect to be colocated, as the techniques that culture that support remote work can also help with contingency planning (snow days, or supporting sick family members) , staff transitions, as well as prepare you for the inevitable need to collaborate with a remote contractor or client. Sutherland explains why a ‘remote first’ is a good posture to have. And some of the guidelines in the book around meetings and showing appreciation of team members are useful for any team.
Some of the advice seems obvious in retrospect, yet like Scrum, the rules are simple, and the execution difficult -- and worth the result when it works. The hardest thing about collaboration remotely is also the hardest thing about collaboration with the challenges magnified magnified. being explicit about how you want to interact, and being open and honest and helpful when things don’t work, is essential on any team, and more challenging with remote team members.
While there are things that work, and things that don’t Sutherland makes clear that there are many tools and methods that can help create an effective remote team as long as you abide by certain principles.
The book is a bit on the long side, but that is because it supplements guidance with stories and an extensive list of resources. The stories ground the practices in real life, and the resources help you to get started with tools and techniques.
Overall, this is very much worth a read by anyone who works with remote team members, is a remote team member, or wants to be one. Collaboration is hard. Remote collaboration amplifies any problems. But remote work, be it a regular thing or simply a way to find more work/life balance in an office job, is more and more common. The information in this book will help you do it well but pointing you at the right values, tools and techniques to help your team collaborate better.
The book discusses the benefits and challenges of remote work from both the perspective of the employee and the employer. This book isn’t just for teams that have a large remote component. Support for remote work is valuable even when you expect to be colocated, as the techniques that culture that support remote work can also help with contingency planning (snow days, or supporting sick family members) , staff transitions, as well as prepare you for the inevitable need to collaborate with a remote contractor or client. Sutherland explains why a ‘remote first’ is a good posture to have. And some of the guidelines in the book around meetings and showing appreciation of team members are useful for any team.
Some of the advice seems obvious in retrospect, yet like Scrum, the rules are simple, and the execution difficult -- and worth the result when it works. The hardest thing about collaboration remotely is also the hardest thing about collaboration with the challenges magnified magnified. being explicit about how you want to interact, and being open and honest and helpful when things don’t work, is essential on any team, and more challenging with remote team members.
While there are things that work, and things that don’t Sutherland makes clear that there are many tools and methods that can help create an effective remote team as long as you abide by certain principles.
The book is a bit on the long side, but that is because it supplements guidance with stories and an extensive list of resources. The stories ground the practices in real life, and the resources help you to get started with tools and techniques.
Overall, this is very much worth a read by anyone who works with remote team members, is a remote team member, or wants to be one. Collaboration is hard. Remote collaboration amplifies any problems. But remote work, be it a regular thing or simply a way to find more work/life balance in an office job, is more and more common. The information in this book will help you do it well but pointing you at the right values, tools and techniques to help your team collaborate better.
December 30, 2020
I read this book thanks to Blinkist.
It’s not that I disagree with the ideas in the book per se, I just think it’s bland & incredibly repetitive. It got boring really fast.
The key message in these blinks:
Working together anywhere is no longer an option for a select few, and companies looking to stay with the times would do well to embrace the remote option and examine how it fits in with their vision and goals. For individuals not quite ready to make the leap, consider this: a large portion of the tasks done in a traditional office setting these days are actually remote tasks, too, even though they happen to be done on-site.
Actionable advice
Frequent feedback has both immediate and long-term advantages.
Establish regularly scheduled feedback loops with your team and decide on the formats ahead of time. Coworkers will be able to reflect on the progress made in a communicative environment, voice criticisms, and ask questions. Not only is this necessary to ensure the task at hand leads to a quality outcome, but it also strengthens the relationships between team members. The more comfortable each person is working and talking with the others, the better team you’ll have going forward.
What to read next:
The New Corner Office by Laura Vanderkam.
Now that you’re an expert on remote work, you might be interested in going a little deeper into how to make the most of it. You’ve seen here how things like your setup, mind-set, and communication practices can make or break remote collaboration. If you don’t just want to make it work, but make it work really well, it’s going to take a little experimentation.
Well, The New Corner Office reviews some of the points of this book and focuses on figuring out the most productive schedule for you; creating and maintaining relationships; and actively hunting for challenges that align with your goals and dreams – even those outside of the office.
It’s not that I disagree with the ideas in the book per se, I just think it’s bland & incredibly repetitive. It got boring really fast.
The key message in these blinks:
Working together anywhere is no longer an option for a select few, and companies looking to stay with the times would do well to embrace the remote option and examine how it fits in with their vision and goals. For individuals not quite ready to make the leap, consider this: a large portion of the tasks done in a traditional office setting these days are actually remote tasks, too, even though they happen to be done on-site.
Actionable advice
Frequent feedback has both immediate and long-term advantages.
Establish regularly scheduled feedback loops with your team and decide on the formats ahead of time. Coworkers will be able to reflect on the progress made in a communicative environment, voice criticisms, and ask questions. Not only is this necessary to ensure the task at hand leads to a quality outcome, but it also strengthens the relationships between team members. The more comfortable each person is working and talking with the others, the better team you’ll have going forward.
What to read next:
The New Corner Office by Laura Vanderkam.
Now that you’re an expert on remote work, you might be interested in going a little deeper into how to make the most of it. You’ve seen here how things like your setup, mind-set, and communication practices can make or break remote collaboration. If you don’t just want to make it work, but make it work really well, it’s going to take a little experimentation.
Well, The New Corner Office reviews some of the points of this book and focuses on figuring out the most productive schedule for you; creating and maintaining relationships; and actively hunting for challenges that align with your goals and dreams – even those outside of the office.
October 22, 2020
Work Together Anywhere
A Handbook on Working Remotely -Successfully - for Individuals, Teams, and Managers
by Lisette Sutherland; Kirsten Janene-Nelson
Narrated by Megan Tusing
Publisher: RB Media, Gildan Media
Genre: Business & Investing
Release Date: September 29, 2020
Work Together Anywhere is a guide for individuals and mangers on how to start working remotely. Considering the current world events, the timing for this book is perfect.
There is some really great information shared in the audiobook and PDF references available on their website for additional reading. I am grateful for the PDF references because some of the content, such as a quiz with additional writing required, does not work well in the audiobook format.
One of the things I struggled most with this book is the redundancy of information. A lot of the information is repeated multiple times.
I have been (mostly) working remotely since March and I've had to figure out a lot of that on my own because my job didn't really translate well to working outside of the office. A few of the nuggets I'll be taking back to work with me are "working out loud" and "assume positive intent".
The narration of this book was superb! The pace and intonation was enjoyable to listen to. Thank you to Megan Tusing!
I'm so grateful to Lisette Sutherland & Kirsten Janene-Nelson, RB Media & Gildan Media, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
A Handbook on Working Remotely -Successfully - for Individuals, Teams, and Managers
by Lisette Sutherland; Kirsten Janene-Nelson
Narrated by Megan Tusing
Publisher: RB Media, Gildan Media
Genre: Business & Investing
Release Date: September 29, 2020
Work Together Anywhere is a guide for individuals and mangers on how to start working remotely. Considering the current world events, the timing for this book is perfect.
There is some really great information shared in the audiobook and PDF references available on their website for additional reading. I am grateful for the PDF references because some of the content, such as a quiz with additional writing required, does not work well in the audiobook format.
One of the things I struggled most with this book is the redundancy of information. A lot of the information is repeated multiple times.
I have been (mostly) working remotely since March and I've had to figure out a lot of that on my own because my job didn't really translate well to working outside of the office. A few of the nuggets I'll be taking back to work with me are "working out loud" and "assume positive intent".
The narration of this book was superb! The pace and intonation was enjoyable to listen to. Thank you to Megan Tusing!
I'm so grateful to Lisette Sutherland & Kirsten Janene-Nelson, RB Media & Gildan Media, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
December 7, 2020
Excellent Insight and Advice
Audiobook Review:
If only this book could have come out in March 2020, I think it could have saved a lot of people and businesses a lot of headaches when business-employee models had to turn on a dim. The author has personal experience in working remotely, and in this book, she has done a deep dive into what that means for individuals, teams, and companies. She lays out what precisely it is and the variations it can take as well as how workers, teams, management/leadership, and companies can make it work the best for them. She points to a lot of benefits for both the individual employee and the company. Interesting statistics and quotes from workers and management in a variety of industries about how this model works for them and their companies can be found throughout the book. The author also lays out some very practical advice for people at all levels in a company. The beginning part of the book could also be relevant for individual freelancers or solopreneurs. During this still uncertain time when so many companies have been forced into having their employees work from home, this book has valuable insights and tips about how to make it work for everyone involved—and the business/company.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
Audiobook Review:
If only this book could have come out in March 2020, I think it could have saved a lot of people and businesses a lot of headaches when business-employee models had to turn on a dim. The author has personal experience in working remotely, and in this book, she has done a deep dive into what that means for individuals, teams, and companies. She lays out what precisely it is and the variations it can take as well as how workers, teams, management/leadership, and companies can make it work the best for them. She points to a lot of benefits for both the individual employee and the company. Interesting statistics and quotes from workers and management in a variety of industries about how this model works for them and their companies can be found throughout the book. The author also lays out some very practical advice for people at all levels in a company. The beginning part of the book could also be relevant for individual freelancers or solopreneurs. During this still uncertain time when so many companies have been forced into having their employees work from home, this book has valuable insights and tips about how to make it work for everyone involved—and the business/company.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
December 3, 2018
The best book about the experience of working remotely that you can find out on the marketplace.
I have been working with distributed teams since 2012 and I am fully remote working from home since January 2018. The book has inspired me and motivated to find best ways to improve, helped me to master the arts of collaborating with others that are not at the same location as I do.
It has also helped me to make the experience more pleasant and take care of my own personal goals.
The book is valid for managers/individuals/teams as it approaches the Why/How's and has been delivered after an extensive research.
I have finished the reading today but surely this won't finish now. Essential for anyone interested in succeeding on the remote working experience. Highly recommended.
I have been working with distributed teams since 2012 and I am fully remote working from home since January 2018. The book has inspired me and motivated to find best ways to improve, helped me to master the arts of collaborating with others that are not at the same location as I do.
It has also helped me to make the experience more pleasant and take care of my own personal goals.
The book is valid for managers/individuals/teams as it approaches the Why/How's and has been delivered after an extensive research.
I have finished the reading today but surely this won't finish now. Essential for anyone interested in succeeding on the remote working experience. Highly recommended.
June 5, 2019
I read this as an expert, so it might be much more valuable for people, who are fresh to the topic.
It presents a condensed overview of proven practices for the field of remote working and also provides an overview and references to great tools. It seems to be targeted towards management that starts considering the topic.
What the book is lacking for me:
1. It does not debate downsides and environments where remote working is culturally difficult. So it seems to take a very one-sided view.
2. It lacks sound ideas for facilitators and coaches. But also, that is not the focus for the book
3. It brushes a lot of topics just briefly. I am lacking depth in this discussion. Also it cheats on the book size with hacin just a bit over 300 pages of content. The rest is meta information.
It presents a condensed overview of proven practices for the field of remote working and also provides an overview and references to great tools. It seems to be targeted towards management that starts considering the topic.
What the book is lacking for me:
1. It does not debate downsides and environments where remote working is culturally difficult. So it seems to take a very one-sided view.
2. It lacks sound ideas for facilitators and coaches. But also, that is not the focus for the book
3. It brushes a lot of topics just briefly. I am lacking depth in this discussion. Also it cheats on the book size with hacin just a bit over 300 pages of content. The rest is meta information.
June 25, 2020
This primer is best for teams and organizations that have never teleworked or had remote teams before. I can see it being helpful for those suddenly finding themselves remote in the age of COVID. The suggestions aren't groundbreaking, but it does a good job of providing some statistics and tangible examples. Those can then be used to advocate for policies and tools at your company. IMO, it's less helpful if you already practicing some sort of remote culture.
July 19, 2021
Maybe I'm already "too deep" in working remotely due to over a year of COVID19 pandemic, so vast majority of information in the book was already known to me and is what my team is already doing. I was looking maybe for help in more complex situations and setups, while this book feels like a "beginners guide" to me. Essentially, the book seems more focused on explaining "why" you should go and try remote work. On the other side, the book is nicely composed and has a good overview of the topic.
December 30, 2020
Work Together Anywhere (2018) takes on the future of office work by examining the benefits that flexible remote work options can provide employees and managers alike. It outlines the skills and mind-set needed to work in a remote capacity – or manage a team of remote workers – as well as going through the technology that makes it all possible.
While the classic office job isn’t likely to go extinct any time soon, more and more people are choosing remote work. This is a handbook for them.
While the classic office job isn’t likely to go extinct any time soon, more and more people are choosing remote work. This is a handbook for them.
November 13, 2023
The best books are books that intersect what you could find in multiple books and bring them together under one clear topic, add some new insights and create something unique. This book is one of those if you want to start learning about working remote start here.
March 19, 2020
An amazingly organized and extensive encyclopedia of working remotely! Simply perfect!
March 19, 2025
Um livro que podia ser 2 ou 3 blogposts. Já não é actual.
December 30, 2020
Most on-site benefits can easily be adapted into online benefits.
May 26, 2025
إن كنت تسعى لفهم عمق التحوّل في عالم العمل الحديث، فإن هذا الكتاب يُخاطبك مباشرة. "العمل معًا من أي مكان" لا يُقدّم لك وصفات سطحية، بل يأخذ بيدك نحو إعادة بناء ثقافة العمل من الجذور، مستندًا إلى تجارب حقيقية وأدوات عملية. ستجد نفسك تتساءل: هل كنت تفهم العمل عن بُعد حقًا؟ سيُحفّزك على إعادة النظر في مفاهيم القيادة، والفعالية، والانتماء. أكثر ما يميّزه أنه يُوجّهك لا كقارئ فقط، بل كقائد لفريق، أو موظف يسعى للتوازن، أو حتى كإنسان يريد بيئة عمل تحترم إنسانيته. ستُدرك أنّ نجاح العمل لا يُقاس بالمكان، بل بالنتائج، وبالثقة التي تبنيها مع فريقك. إنه دعوة للتغيير، لا مجرد دليل إرشادي. أنصحك بقراءته بتمعّن، فهو ليس كتابًا عابرًا.
تابعني على شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي
سليمان العوشن
http://about.me/aloshan
تابعني على شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي
سليمان العوشن
http://about.me/aloshan
December 8, 2020
Very relevant especially during this COVID19 pandemic.
A lot of tools will help you collaborate, but they won’t necessarily help you get to know each other personally. We’ve gone high-tech, but we also need to go high-touch and develop empathy for each other.
For managers, supervising remote workers requires being willing to trust them. As you learn to do that, you’ll improve as a manager, and you and your team members can grow together to become better people.
Skillset - Toolset- Mindset
High Tech - High Touch - Empathy
A lot of tools will help you collaborate, but they won’t necessarily help you get to know each other personally. We’ve gone high-tech, but we also need to go high-touch and develop empathy for each other.
For managers, supervising remote workers requires being willing to trust them. As you learn to do that, you’ll improve as a manager, and you and your team members can grow together to become better people.
Skillset - Toolset- Mindset
High Tech - High Touch - Empathy
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews