<aside> ☝ Communicating intentionally is one of our core Principles. As we grow we need to be increasingly more deliberate about 〰️ how information flows 〰️ across teams.

This isn’t only to know what each other is working on. It’s also critical to ensuring we’re prioritising the right efforts at the right time (visibility increases this feedback loop and input from others) and holding each other accountable to timely progress (to supercharge our goal setting processes). We're all responsible for enabling this.

We encourage everyone at Pento, regardless of who and how you are communicating to utilise these guidelines, and create effective and inclusive daily communication.

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Core guidance

Async by default

Being remote-first means being async by default — you should collaborate and solve problems via the written word, through Slack (How we use Slack) or a document (Notion or Google Doc), before reflexively scheduling a meeting.

We expect:

• Strong communication in return for the flexibility that remote working offers
• That you meaningfully over-communicate
• That you share your work and thinking regularly. Providing visibility and context is essential
• That you respond timely. We shouldn’t expect immediate replies (mark urgent when necessary) but we should all get back to messages within a day
• That you communicate in public channels as much as possible

How to seek contribution from others

You’ll likely do this all day long (seek the input of others).

Top tips:

• Decide on the best method (async or meeting?) and be intentional — don’t default to meetings (check out How we do meetings). Meetings can be valuable but they’re often lacking the structure and facilitation to make them truly worth their time
  • If you do schedule a meeting, set an agenda and facilitate the meeting. Expect others to not attend or provide you with this feedback if this isn’t done well, or if an unstructured meeting is held. Meetings drain time and energy, let’s avoid this! ⌛
• Make it really easy for others to contribute. Enable others with a Notion doc or something similar to make sure you get what you need
• Set clear expectations on what contribution you’re looking for and if there’s a deadline

Understand your network effect and who you need to communicate to

It’s important that you understand how you’re accountable for communicating to key stakeholders and other teams. Outline how communication should flow and who’s responsible for what before projects begin, or reflect on this when working independently on something — someone will always need visibility to your work.

• Riff-off the RACI framework → guiding who you need to communicate with and when

📝 How to write