Building a remote company is hard.

Especially when it comes to building culture.

Here’s a simple exercise for building a thriving culture in a remote world:

1. Identify Your Mentors

Bring your team together.

This can be through Zoom, Teams, or whatever video conferencing your company uses.

Ask your team this question:

“Who are 3 people you admire most (in life, history, or fiction)?”

Write them down.

2. Deconstruct the Admiration

Now that everyone has the 3 people they admire most, ask the team:

“What details, traits, and qualities do you admire in each of these 3 people?”

Encourage your team to get specific.

Write down the details.

3. Connect The Dots

Once everyone has a few themes for each of their mentors, ask:

“What are the 3 to 5 commonalities in the details, traits, and qualities you had uncovered?”

Usually there are around 3 common traits.

Ask them to write these down.

4. Reveal The Truth

Ask everyone to share the common traits they identified with the group.

Now, surface the traits that are most consistent across your team.

Regardless of what might be on your website, THESE are your company’s core values.

5. Debrief

Take a few minutes to discuss the exercise with your team.

The traits you admire in others are your individual values.

Our shared values are at the core of our culture.

We want to keep these values top of mind when making decisions and engaging in day-to-day work.

Contrary to what you’ve been told, culture isn’t about free snacks and swag.

It’s about building a connection between a company and employees by:

1. Identifying what each teammate values
2. Identifying common values
3. Encouraging the work by those common values each day

Give this quick exercise in remote culture building a shot. It works.

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