Working between Canada and Brazil means that most of my collaborations involve people in different cities, often different countries and time zones. Over the years I have come to believe that distributed teams can work exceptionally well, but only when culture is built deliberately. In an office, culture is absorbed. At a distance, it must be designed.
Write more, and write clearly
In a distributed team, writing is the primary medium of work. Decisions, context, priorities and feedback all travel through text. Teams that write clearly, with the reasoning behind decisions and not just the conclusions, move faster and make fewer mistakes.
A useful habit is to write as if the reader has no context, because often they do not. A message that says what is being decided, why, by when and who owns it saves several rounds of clarification.
Default to transparency
When people cannot overhear conversations, information tends to stay in small groups. Making work visible by default, through shared documents, open channels and accessible decision records, prevents the slow fragmentation that undermines distributed teams.
Ownership over activity
It is tempting, at a distance, to measure presence: who is online, who replies fastest. That is a poor proxy for contribution. Strong distributed teams define clear ownership of outcomes and trust people to manage their own time. Each important piece of work has one clearly named owner.
Protect overlap, respect time zones
Synchronous time is precious across time zones. Use it for what truly benefits from live conversation: complex discussions, relationship building, resolving disagreements. Handle status updates and routine information in writing. And rotate inconvenient meeting times so the burden does not fall always on the same people.
Invest in relationships
Distance makes it easy to forget that colleagues are people. Teams that work well at a distance make time for connection: informal conversations, personal check ins at the start of meetings and, when possible, time together in person. In relationship oriented cultures such as Brazil's, this is not optional. It is how trust is built.
Make feedback routine
Without hallway conversations, small problems go unspoken until they become large ones. Regular one on one conversations, short retrospectives and an explicit invitation to raise concerns keep feedback flowing. Leaders should ask directly for feedback on their own behavior and respond visibly to what they hear.
Shared values, explicitly stated
In a distributed team, people from different backgrounds may hold different assumptions about what good work looks like. Stating values explicitly, such as how we communicate, how we make decisions and how we treat partners and clients, gives everyone a common reference point.
Ethics travels with the work
Distributed work often involves sharing information across borders, including data about clients, partners and people. Clear rules about what may be shared, where it may be stored and who may access it protect everyone and keep the team aligned with privacy laws in each jurisdiction.
The payoff
Done well, distributed work gives teams access to talent and perspectives they would never find in a single city. It allows people to work in ways that fit their lives. And it builds habits of clarity and trust that make teams stronger regardless of where they sit. The effort required is real, but so is the reward.
Trabalhar entre Canadá e Brasil significa colaborar com pessoas em cidades, países e fusos diferentes. No escritório a cultura é absorvida; à distância, precisa ser desenhada.
Hábitos essenciais
Escreva mais e com clareza, incluindo o raciocínio por trás das decisões. Torne o trabalho visível. Meça responsabilidade por resultados, não presença online. Proteja as horas de sobreposição e alterne horários inconvenientes.
Relações, feedback e valores
Invista em conexão, especialmente em culturas relacionais como a brasileira. Torne o feedback rotina. Explicite valores e regras sobre compartilhamento de dados entre jurisdições.