TEAL Frameworks for Organizational Transformation

Embracing the principles of a TEAL organization can lead to increased autonomy, purpose-driven work, and holistic well-being for employees, especially in a remote-first setting. This guide provides five comprehensive frameworks based on the TEAL philosophy, designed to facilitate organizational transformation and help your remote-first company excel in self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.

Self-Management Framework:

• Decision-Making: Implement a decision-making process that promotes autonomy and collaboration, such as consent-based decision-making or advice process.

• Roles & Responsibilities: Define roles and responsibilities within self-managing teams, ensuring clarity and flexibility for employees to contribute based on their strengths.

• Performance Evaluation: Develop a peer-based performance evaluation system that emphasizes feedback, learning, and continuous improvement.

• Conflict Resolution: Establish a conflict resolution process that encourages open communication, empathy, and mutual understanding.

Wholeness Framework:

• Employee Onboarding: Create an onboarding program that emphasizes personal growth, self-awareness, and connection with the company's purpose.

• Inclusion & Diversity: Develop policies and initiatives that promote inclusivity, diversity, and psychological safety within the organization.

• Well-being & Support: Implement programs that address physical, emotional, and mental well-being, such as flexible work arrangements, mental health resources, and wellness initiatives.

• Team-Building & Culture: Organize regular team-building activities and events that encourage authentic connection, trust, and collaboration.

Evolutionary Purpose Framework:

• Purpose Discovery: Engage in a collaborative process to define and refine the organization's purpose, ensuring that it is meaningful and inspiring.

• Goal Setting & Alignment: Set goals and objectives that align with the company's purpose, and regularly review and adjust them based on feedback and changing conditions.

• Innovation & Experimentation: Foster a culture of experimentation and learning, encouraging employees to propose and test new ideas in service of the organization's purpose.

• Organizational Learning & Adaptation: Create systems and processes for capturing, sharing, and acting upon insights and learnings from internal and external sources.

Remote Collaboration Framework:

• Technology Selection: Choose remote collaboration tools that support effective communication, decision-making, and self-management.

• Training & Support: Provide training and resources for employees to use remote collaboration tools effectively.

• Remote Work Policies: Establish remote work policies and guidelines that promote autonomy, flexibility, and work-life balance.

• Virtual Team-Building: Organize virtual team-building activities and events to maintain strong relationships and a sense of belonging among remote team members.

Measurement & Improvement Framework:

• TEAL Metrics: Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with the TEAL principles and track progress toward organizational goals.

• Feedback Loops: Establish processes for gathering and acting upon feedback from employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

• Regular Reviews & Retrospectives: Conduct regular reviews and retrospectives to assess performance, identify areas for improvement, and adapt strategies as needed.

• Continuous Learning & Development: Encourage continuous learning and development among employees through training, mentoring, and other professional development opportunities.

By implementing these TEAL frameworks, organizations can create a more adaptable, innovative, and purpose-driven work environment that supports employee well-being and long-term success.

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The 5-steps conflict resolution framework

Navigating personal conflicts and difficult conversations is crucial for maintaining a healthy work environment, especially in remote teams. This 5-step conflict resolution framework provides a systematic approach to identifying, assessing, and resolving issues, ensuring that team members can continue to collaborate effectively and grow together.

The framework for remote teams with five steps:

Step 1 - Name the problem: Clearly identify and articulate the issue at hand. Make sure to focus on the problem, not the people involved. This helps create a common understanding of the conflict among team members.

Step 2 - Assess the problem via scoring: Use a scoring method to evaluate the severity and impact of the conflict. This step will help you determine the urgency of resolving the issue and prioritize it accordingly.

• Rate each of the following statements on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "not at all" and 5 being "extremely."

  • To what extent is the conflict preventing you or your team from doing great work (vs being minimally disruptive)?

  • How much emotional energy is the conflict draining from you or your team members?

  • Is the conflict adding a significant amount of extra work for you or your team?

  • Is the conflict consistent and patterned (vs a one-time occurrence)?

  • Is the behavior involved in the conflict disrespectful or hurtful (vs a little annoying)?

  • Is the conflict yours to solve (vs someone else's responsibility)?

  • Will addressing the conflict help both parties grow and learn?

  • Will not addressing the conflict hurt your relationship with the other person or the team's overall dynamics?

• After rating each statement, tally the scores to determine the severity of the conflict. The higher the total score, the more crucial it is to address and resolve the conflict as soon as possible.

Step 3 - Pick the resolution format and invite participants to resolve: Based on the assessment, choose an appropriate resolution format, such as a one-on-one meeting, a group discussion, or a mediated conversation. Then, invite the relevant participants to take part in the resolution process.

Step 4 - Direct the resolution with a 4-step solution process:

• Situation: Describe the situation or context in which the conflict arose.

• Behavior: Outline the specific behaviors that contributed to the conflict.

• Impact: Explain the impact of these behaviors on the individuals involved and the team as a whole.

• Change for the better: Discuss potential changes or solutions that can help improve the situation and prevent similar conflicts in the future.

Step 5 - Add next steps: After reaching a resolution, establish clear next steps for all parties involved. These may include implementing specific changes, setting deadlines for progress, or scheduling follow-up meetings to review the situation. Make sure to track the progress and evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented solutions to ensure long-term conflict resolution and promote a healthier work environment.

By following this 5-step conflict resolution framework, remote teams can effectively address personal conflicts and challenging conversations. This structured approach helps to maintain open communication, foster understanding, and create a collaborative atmosphere that is conducive to productivity and growth.

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Asynchronous Hiring Process Framework

The ideal asynchronous hiring process ensures a transparent and efficient approach to finding the best candidates for a company. This comprehensive framework covers every stage, from crafting job specifications to conducting interviews and evaluations, maximizing flexibility and effectiveness for both the organization and the applicants.

The Framework:

Step 1 - Create a transparent Career Page.

Develop a clear and updated career page with the company's mission, culture, and values accessible to the public.

Step 2 - Provide a comprehensive Job Specification

• Company and Job Title Intro: Briefly describe the company, job title, mission, and job's contribution to the mission. 

• Job Responsibilities: Detail the work, desired outcomes, and team context, if applicable.

• Ideal Applicant Profile: Describe desired soft skills, values alignment, and any non-ideal traits. 

• Company Benefits: Explain the company's operations, reasons to join, and provide transparent compensation figures. 

• Application Process: Share the entire hiring process, application details, and additional company information.

• Application Rules: Include a mandatory field in the application to filter out speed-applicants and bots.

Step 3 - Develop an application Process: 

• Application Start: Begin with a LinkedIn profile, proof of motivation (cover letter or video), and job post consideration. 

• First Round: Survey - Filter applicants based on LinkedIn and motivation, then send a short survey to qualified candidates. 

• Second Round: Screening Call - Filter applicants based on survey results and conduct a 20-30 minute screening interview. 

• Third Round: Test Work - Assign short, relevant tasks to demonstrate skills, and consider compensating applicants for their work.

• Fourth Round: Panel Discussion - Have team leaders and members evaluate test work, and invite qualified candidates for a panel discussion on a relevant topic. 

• Final Round: Offer - Extend an offer to candidates who pass the panel discussion.

• Notification and Feedback: Inform candidates not moving forward at each stage, providing personalized feedback for those who advanced further in the process.

Throughout this process, all steps (except for the screening call and panel discussion) can be conducted asynchronously.

Applicant filtering, survey result reviews, test work evaluations, and panel discussion voting can also be done asynchronously, maximizing flexibility and efficiency.

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Remote Performance Tracking Framework

Effective performance tracking is essential for managers to measure progress, identify risks, and ensure mission accomplishment. In the evolving landscape of asynchronous work, traditional tracking methods may fall short.

This Remote Performance Tracking Framework: offers a modern, team-based approach that fosters collaboration and drives mission success.

The Framework:

1. Define Goals:

   • Leaders establish mission goals that reflect the company's needs.

   • Goals should be transparent and open to feedback from all teams.

2. Determine Breakthroughs:

   • Managers identify breakthroughs or milestones based on mission goals.

   • Breakthroughs should be established once at the beginning of the mission.

   • Review breakthroughs weekly with teams and report progress to leadership.

3. Develop Outcomes:

   • Managers and teams collaboratively define outcomes required to achieve breakthroughs.

   • Outcomes should be tied to breakthroughs and continuously updated by the team.

   • Review of outcomes should be ongoing and reported asynchronously.

4. Establish Individual Task Lists:

   • Team members create their task lists to contribute to specific outcomes.

   • Encourage transparency in task organization and progress.

5. Track and Review Performance:

   • Create data metrics to measure team performance based on outcomes.

   • Ensure transparency of data and progress within the team.

   • Conduct weekly review meetings with the team and monthly meetings with leadership, either synchronously or asynchronously.

This framework provides an asynchronous, team-based performance-tracking method that focuses on mission accomplishment and fosters collaboration within the team. It simplifies the tracking process and can be adapted to various project complexities.

The simplified version is based on the popular OKRs adapted to remote work:

• Goals

• Breakthroughs

• Outcomes

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Asynchronous Decision-Making Framework

The Asynchronous Decision-Making Framework offers a comprehensive approach to problem-solving that emphasizes inclusivity, engagement, and efficiency.

Designed for modern teams navigating complex challenges, this framework empowers leaders and their teams to make better decisions together, fostering a transparent, collaborative, and streamlined decision-making process.

The Framework:

1. Assess (Asynchronous)

• Reflect on the problem and analyze all aspects

• Write down your assessment, possibly including a solution

• Ensure clarity in the written assessment for your team

2. Collaborate (Asynchronous)

• Share the assessment document with your team

• Invite team members to provide insights and feedback asynchronously within the document

• Ensure collaboration revolves around the initial assessment

3. Review (Asynchronous)

• Review the document and resolve all comments as the leader

• Reflect on feedback and insights from your team

• Complete a full review of the document

4. Integrate (Synchronous)

• Regroup with your team in a meeting to address unresolved issues

• Discuss feedback, insights, and the mission's impact

• Ideally, make this step synchronous for smoother execution

5. Align (Synchronous or Asynchronous)

• Align the team with the final decision

• Ensure proper alignment for the team to move forward toward the mission

• This step can happen in the same meeting as integration or later, either synchronously or asynchronously

By implementing this Asynchronous Decision-Making Framework, leaders can facilitate collaboration, engagement, and transparency within the decision-making process.

The framework allows for reclaiming time and resources while fostering a sense of ownership and commitment among team members.

Documenting decisions in this process also helps teams avoid rehashing previously resolved issues and enables them to address recurring problems more effectively.

Benefits of the Framework:

• Inclusive Leadership: The framework encourages leaders to act as decision facilitators, engaging the team in the process and ensuring that their insights and feedback are valued.

• Team Engagement: Involving the team in the decision-making process enhances their commitment and support for the final decision, leading to better implementation and execution.

• Time Efficiency: By focusing on asynchronous collaboration and limiting synchronous meetings, the framework streamlines the decision-making process, saving time and resources.

• Effective Meetings: The framework's emphasis on pre-read material and collaboration ensures that synchronous meetings are productive, with participants prepared to address questions and insights.

• Documentation and Reusability: Documenting decisions helps teams identify and address recurring problems more efficiently, avoiding unnecessary duplication of efforts.

By adopting the Asynchronous Decision-Making Framework, leaders can cultivate a transparent, collaborative, and engaged decision-making process that enhances team alignment and ensures more effective implementation of decisions.

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Asynchronous Communication Framework

Introducing the Asynchronous Communication Framework: a tool designed to help leaders effectively manage communication in an asynchronous work environment.

The framework consists of four areas: deep work, daily operations, online meetings, and offline activities, with an emphasis on emergencies.

By understanding the distinction between scheduled and non-scheduled, as well as asynchronous and synchronous communication, leaders can optimize their approach to various activities and ultimately improve their overall leadership effectiveness.

1. Deep work: Focus on strategic management and growth opportunities in a scheduled, asynchronous manner. Create a company hub with unrestricted access to information and allow team members autonomy in completing tasks.

2. Daily operations: Collaborate asynchronously in most cases, but allow for synchronous online meetings when necessary. Encourage team members to seek support, provide feedback, and share completion updates. Keep most operative activities unscheduled and be flexible with collaboration.

3. Online meetings: Utilize scheduled and non-scheduled synchronous meetings for important discussions, idea sharing, and clarification. However, always respect team members' time and autonomy.

4. Offline activities: Plan offline events, such as team retreats or conferences, well in advance. These events should be scheduled and essential for team-building or business development purposes.

5. Emergencies: Set up a dedicated emergency communication channel tied closely to cellphones or messaging platforms with high priority. Treat emergencies as synchronous, non-scheduled events that require immediate attention.

By implementing the Asynchronous Communication Framework, leaders can better focus on what is essential, such as leading their teams through online meetings and offline activities, while effectively managing emergencies when needed.

By allocating time and resources to deep work and daily operations, leaders ensure that their team can work autonomously and efficiently.

This approach allows for less fragmented leadership, as leaders can concentrate on configuring, supporting, and providing for their teams without being bogged down by constant reporting and managing.

Further steps:

• Prioritization: For effective asynchronous communication, prioritize tasks and activities using a tool such as the Eisenhower Matrix. This helps team members and leaders handle priorities and allocate their time accordingly.

• Configure tools and workflows: Use tools that support asynchronous communication and configure them according to the team's needs. Proper configuration of tools is essential to ensure smooth communication and collaboration.

• Adopt a mindset shift: Before focusing on tools, ensure that your team has adopted the asynchronous mindset. Encourage flexibility, autonomy, and respect for each other's time and work preferences.

• Continuously evaluate and adapt: Asynchronous communication is an ongoing process that requires regular evaluation and adjustments. Continuously assess the effectiveness of communication practices and make necessary changes to optimize team performance.

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Remote Leader Selection Framework

Introducing the Remote Leader Selection Framework: a comprehensive framework for identifying, evaluating, and hiring the best asynchronous leaders for your organization. This systematic approach ensures that you find the right leaders to drive your company's growth and inspire your team, ultimately setting your business on a high-paced growth trajectory.

1. Define desired qualities: Identify the key traits and skills you want in an asynchronous leader, such as being inspirational, focusing on delivery and results, trusting and caring for their team, and operating in a modular setup.

2. Create an Asynchronous Leadership Scorecard: Customize a scorecard with six zones to evaluate potential candidates. Each zone will have a range of 1 to 5 points, with a maximum total of 25 points. A candidate should score at least 20 points to be considered an excellent leader for your company. The zones:

   • Remote work experience: Prioritize candidates with remote work experience. Assess this through a screening interview and references. Assign points based on the extent of their experience.

   • Communication skills: Remote leadership relies heavily on written communication. Test their skills by having them write a clear and precise briefing for a given problem. Evaluate their briefing for clarity and effectiveness.

   • Inspirational mindset: Leaders should be able to convey the company's mission to others. Assess their ability to summarize and communicate the mission in an inspiring manner, preferably through a video or other suitable platform.

   • Management skills: Leaders should be able to scale the company up, build processes, and grow their teams. Test their approach to building a team with limited resources and assess their plan for modularity, timeframes, workflow testing, working with freelancers, and alignment with the company's mission.

   • Leadership personality: Test their personality traits, focusing on curiosity, organization, warmth, empathy, calmness, and supportiveness. You can use tests like the Big Five Personality Test or the Integrity Test.

   • Chemistry (with less weight compared to the other zones): While chemistry is less crucial in asynchronous work, it still plays a role in building trust. Assess chemistry subjectively on a scale of 1 to 5, but don't let it overshadow the other zones.

3. Screen candidates: Conduct interviews and provide tasks to assess candidates based on the scorecard criteria. Gather information about their remote work experience, written communication skills, ability to inspire, management capabilities, personality traits, and chemistry.

4. Evaluate scores: After assessing each candidate, calculate their scores in each zone and their total score. Compare the candidates' scores to identify the most promising leaders.

5. Consider additional factors: Besides the scorecard evaluation, pay attention to candidates who demonstrate commitment, motivation, adaptability, and an ability to think beyond silos and practical terms.

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Meeting Efficiency Framework

When it comes to running effective meetings, having a clear framework in place can be incredibly helpful. By following a set of guidelines and best practices, you can ensure that your meetings are productive, efficient, and focused. In this framework, we'll outline the key steps to take before, during, and after a meeting to maximize its impact and achieve your goals. Whether you're leading a team or participating in a group discussion, this framework can help you make the most of your meeting time and drive meaningful results.

Before the meeting:

1. Pick the right tools: Choose the appropriate tools that are clear and accessible for everyone. Ensure that all attendees have a quiet environment and good internet connectivity.

2. Notify attendees: Notify attendees about the meeting schedule, agenda, and other relevant details.

3. Create an agenda: Create an agenda that includes all the essential talking points and share it with everyone beforehand.

4. Communicate pre-meeting asynchronously: Encourage feedback and collaboration among attendees by giving them the chance to add talking points to the agenda.

5. Clarify the organizer's responsibilities: Define the organizer's responsibilities, including timekeeping, rescheduling, and documentation.

During the meeting:

1. Stick to the agenda: Follow the agenda and keep the conversation focused on the essential talking points.

2. Stick to responsibilities: Ensure that everyone is responsible for their role, such as note-taking, timekeeping, and facilitating the discussion.

3. Document everything: Record and document all essential details and decisions made during the meeting.

4. Facilitate the discussion: Encourage active participation and engagement among attendees by facilitating the discussion.

5. End with a live recap: End the meeting with a recap of the essential learnings and next steps.

After the meeting:

1. Document and analyze: Review and analyze the recorded information, and document the essential details and decisions made during the meeting.

2. Follow up: Follow up on the decisions made and next steps with attendees.

3. Evaluate the meeting: Assess the meeting's effectiveness, and identify areas that need improvement.

4. Update the meeting policy: Review and update the meeting policy based on the evaluation and feedback received from the attendees.

5. Plan for the next meeting: Plan the next meeting and implement any necessary changes to improve its efficiency.

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The Five-Category Approach to Structuring Your Documentation Workflow

The purpose of this framework is to provide a simple structure for organizing and managing documentation in a way that is easy to follow, scalable, and adaptable to different business scenarios.

The framework consists of five categories that build upon each other, as follows:

1. Archives - This category includes all transcriptions and miscellaneous files that you collect, usually automatically. Archives serve as a historical record of all communications, decisions, and actions taken, and provide a reference point for future work.

2. Support Documents - This category includes meeting notes, collaboration summaries, and documents that led to decisions. Support documents are based on the archives and provide context and details about specific meetings, collaborations, or decisions.

3. Action Plans - This category includes documents that collect decisions and present next steps. Action plans are based on the support documents and outline the specific actions that need to be taken, who is responsible for them, and by when.

4. Guides and Manuals - This category includes documents that result from decisions, usually project briefs, project manuals, roadmaps, and longer-form guides. Guides and manuals provide a comprehensive overview of a project, process, or product, and serve as a reference point for stakeholders.

5. Policies - This category includes overarching documents on how you work. Policies are process-oriented, shorter, and more actionable than guides and manuals. Policies provide guidance on how to navigate specific areas of work, such as communication, collaboration, leadership, and operations.

Example:

To illustrate how the framework works, let's take the example of a product feature launch. You gather the relevant people into a meeting to discuss how to build the feature, what to include, and how to ship it.

During the meeting, you discuss the feature, who is responsible for shipping it, when, how, and what resources you need. You also do an ideation session to figure out some challenges.

The meeting is recorded and transcribed, and the transcription goes into your archives, almost fully automated.

From the transcription, you create an ideation document to document how the ideation session went, some meeting notes, and a summary. Then, since you've concluded the meeting, you also prepare an action plan with a briefing that goes directly up to the tool the product team uses for project management.

Since this is the first day you document things, you also create a guide on how to do a product meeting and how to ship a particular feature. You also create meeting and project management policies to help others collaborate better on projects.

By following the five-category approach, you have structured your documentation workflow in a way that is clear, consistent, and easy to follow. You have created a comprehensive record of the product feature launch, including all communications, decisions, and actions taken. As a result, your team is more aligned, has greater clarity, and can refer to the documentation for guidance and reference. Over time, you will refine and improve your documents, making the documentation process even more efficient and effective.

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