The way we co-work

Brand communications agency Tell Your Story lives around the sunlit conference tables at CoWorkers, a shared work space cofounded in the Chicago suburbs by owner George Rafeedie. The company’s three full-time employees travel to a WeWork location downtown on some days and also convene at client offices around the city. The flexible arrangement reflects the way more and more marketing firms – and companies across the country – work.

We spoke with Rafeedie about building trust and mastering collaboration in this vagabond work environment.

Q: What are the core challenges of maintaining remote working relationships?

Rafeedie: You’ve got to develop trust that people are doing what they need to be doing and getting their work done. Sometimes that doesn’t always come. Age and experience level don’t matter. I have young people who get their work done. They are on time, I know where they are and what they’re doing, and they know the same about me. And I’ve had experienced people who I don’t hear from for days. That’s always a big problem because when you are working remotely half the battle is trusting that the people you are working with are doing what they need to be doing. There is free-flowing communication, no matter where they are.

Q: How do you build that trust?

Rafeedie: You have to make a conscious effort to be face-to-face with your team. We have 3 full-time employees here in Chicago. We see each other at least twice a week in some capacity. It doesn’t mean we’re in the same room eight hours a day, twice a week, but we see each other. We collaborate, and we are in meetings together.

For people in the same geographic area but who don’t work together every day: Make a decision that you are going to be working together and sitting next to each other and doing things on a consistent basis. For us, once every week we look at the calendar and where we’re going to be. I start getting worried if we’re not seeing each other at least twice a week.

For people who are not in the same geographic area, whether they are clients or contractors, we still try to get together quarterly or at least twice a year. That can take the shape of coming [to Coworkers] for a meeting or going to a client location for a meeting or going to a trade show.

I am a strong believer in a flexible workspace. You don’t have to be with your colleagues or people you work with every day. But I’m also a strong believer that there has got to be something that you take the effort in doing and making consistent over time, whether it’s meeting face-to-face every week or once a year. You can’t replace the bonding that occurs.