Building Trust and Culture for a Remote Workforce Through Expert Facilitation

Andrew Cohen (00:00) build that trust, build that communication, see each other outside of just, you know, the person sitting next to you working. My name's Andrew Cohen. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Work Better Now. We provide remote talent from Latin America to US-based companies. What originally prompted us to look for team-building experiences was our desire to have a culture that was designed by us. we're a completely remote company, which means we have 50 people working remotely all throughout Latin America and the US. And we wanted a way to bring everyone together to build trust, to gain strong morale. And we decided that having an event was the way to do it. And I spoke with David Goldstein and he really had an amazing view on what success looks like from the team-bonding experience. so that's where we went. I know David because he's a client of ours and we've had many conversations, and his outlook on what brings companies together was very similar to ours. and he did it in a fun way it gets everyone involved and we started it about a year and a half ago and now we do it every six months so we think it's something that's really integral to the foundation of our company culture. we've done two we did "in It To Win it" and "Virtual Taskmaskers" already. And I will say, we love to bring humor in. And there were tons of funny moments. It was great to see our team members being funny with both the bosses and their coworkers and everyone sort of let their hair down a little think there's a lot of humor in this and I think that drives communication and trust. After each event, our team definitely feels more connected. They feel like they know people maybe outside of their department a little better. It's a way to meet and speak with people that aren't in their path on a daily basis. And so I think they're rejuvenated they enjoy it a lot. once you start learning more about your team members outside of just what they do at work, it brings that real personal relationship in. It's again, a trust builder and all of that just spills over into the work environment. I think that trust is the most important thing you can have with both your - your team members, your clients, And this is a trust builder within. The team bonding facilitators are really high energy. They do a fantastic job of getting everyone involved. They're funny. They're engaging. I would say teambonding does a fantastic job of bringing out the right talent. I think that companies need to be intentional about building their company culture, about building trust, we've tried to do it on our own when you bring in a professional to come in and run either a meeting or a team-bonding activity, you're getting someone who has the experience that you know it's going to run smoothly. They know what they're doing. They're the expert in that field. And they're going to do a fantastic job. I highly recommend bringing someone in to run your team bonding. You want a facilitator who's been there done that and they're an expert at that and that's what I feel teambonding is for us.