Hubbert’s Book on Remote Tech Teams

url: https://www.amazon.com/Inspiring-Remote-Tech-Teams-Performance-ebook/dp/B08VLFYTT3/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=hubbert+smith&qid=1615748275&sr=8-2

Based on personal experience of managing 26 successful tech projects …
spoiler — its 80% soft science involving workplace neural responses, and 20% hard science of project management

Foreword by – Thomas DiGiacomo,
President of Engineering and Innovation at SUSE

When Hubbert shared his idea to write about effective remote teams, I certainly thought the topic deserved high attention, especially during and post 2020. But I questioned if we (actually, if I, especially), could really benefit from another deep look at this essential topic.

Having led large, globally distributed remote teams for many years, I understand how to make teamwork happen in an effective way, especially within the open source world in which people are contributing code and collaborating with each other from wherever they are. Despite everyone being remote, on different time zones, using different languages, and having very diverse cultures, this has worked well for open source, enabled the most important software and innovations of our times, I would dare to say.

As much as I knew how to efficiently set up remote teams, Hubbert’s vision and examples opened my eyes to the fact that there is even more to it than my years of experience and expertise have provided.

Connecting the neuroscience and human aspects opened my eyes to the approaches we apply to bring remote teams together, to increase belonging, and create nurturing “communities.” Remote teams in 2020 look very different than in prior years and will continue to evolve in future. In 2019, even teams who were remote were able to travel and meet when needed, without today’s concerns of family health, safety, education, or the greater responsibilities to care for family while working from home. Our evolved version of remote tech teams is vastly different and needs to be considered as such.

Community is not a substanceless, random word for projects and contributors. Community reflects our need to work on common goals and be with each other on such a journey.

So, for me and other tech people, leaders, and members of remote teams, we will be awakened by all the fantastic hands-on hints, best practices, and guiding principles based on solid ground that Hubbert provides in Inspiring Remote Tech Teams. We will be better prepared and better equipped to both contribute and lead efficiently in the digital economies that shape the future of our world.

About the Author

Hubbert Smith has had a 30+ year career in tech.  He’s led 26 successful projects for business leaders including Samsung, Intel, and WD. He is a published author, a patent holder, and currently the VP of Customer Success at Geminos.AI.

World events have magnified remote work. Remote work is the new norm.
Successful organizations are good at teamwork; it takes leadership, discipline and practice.
Effective remote team work with a global talent pool is a force multiplier for organizational success.
Zoom alone does not make an effective team.

Preface

For the first time in history, a large portion of the industrialized workforce has been detached from its physical habitat.
Can technology erase, or at least sanitize, the invisible forces that govern the power dynamics of an organization? 

• Fast company 6-10-2020

We are in humankinds’ Fourth Industrial Era where every organization is digital.
Remote tech teams are a “must”. Remote tech teams are our future.
Successful teams are not guaranteed, remote teams are harder.

… this is about the collision between our tech workplaces and our very primitive instincts for
surviving à belonging à and becoming. When mis-managed, our primitive instincts cause irrationality and failed teams. But when properly engaged, our instincts improve execution and business outcomes.

… the macro stakes could not be higher. The world is rapidly evolving to digital economies. The pandemic accelerated that evolution. Companies who do remote tech teams well will survive, and companies who cannot, or will not, do remote tech teams will die.

… the micro stakes could not be higher. Those of us earning a livelihood in Tech,
and those of us with livelihoods depending on tech, will either grow and thrive with our existing employers, or be looking for new employers.

Humans are wired to be social, and world events require social distancing from our office community.
The absence of “community” triggers primitive brain responses. These instinctual responses of survival, social belonging, and the power of story all profoundly surface during our reaction as we adjust to remote work.

This trail map for team leaders improves team execution despite physical separation. The book covers simple neuroscience as it applies to our “separation.” It is a hands-on guide to maintaining and improving teamwork working remotely. We can create a positive sense of enthusiasm, engagement, and contribution even when working apart. It is also a hands-on guide at the intersection of teams + remote + laymen’s neuroscience to create a positive sense of enthusiasm, engagement, and contribution, even when working apart.

This book is different from most others:

• We all carry primitive instinct and emotion from thousands of generations. This is a fact. Despite the ongoing evolution and advancement of our brains, these instincts remain. Our primitive instincts and emotions can be either negative or positive for teams. We must consciously adjust our leadership and our workplaces to compensate for the magnified instincts and emotions caused by the absence of community (tribe).
• A study of laymen’s neuroscience clarifies what does, or does not, work well in teams. Laymen’s neuroscience helps us understand “why.” The practical examples and best practices offer hands-on methods to use our neuroscience to help teams be their best, to improve collaboration, and to deliver consistent team results.
• We examine the combination of the “hard skills” of tech team project management and the “soft skills” of healthy distributed teams: remote offices, sales offices, partners, suppliers, customers, and teams engaging global talent pools.
• Remote teams, now and for the future, are the pathway to using global talent effectively.

Remote team execution and Global talent are, without exaggeration, life or death for organizations. Remote tech teams are either a competitive advantage or a competitive threat. Winners will be able to harness talent world-wide to achieve organizational goals. High performing, consistently successful remote tech teams are very possible with simple workplace neuroscience combined with hard-skills and soft-skills of project management. This is your hands-on guide to improving remote teams.

This Trail Map takes us to  

• A competitive advantage in dependable remote tech team execution.  
• A competitive advantage of healthy workplaces, meritocracy and less workplace bias.
• A competitive advantage through access of global talent pools.
• A more productive workforce with higher employee satisfaction and lower attrition.

About this remote work thing … this is our new normal.