Communication

Effective and ongoing communication within Altruist Media is essential. As a remote, distributed organization, there's not a way to just "show up" without communicating it. The better communication tools you have, the better you'll be able to do your work. One important aspect of our communication is to document our decisions.

We often hash things out in phone conversations or Slack chats, and those are hard to track down later or for others to be aware of if they weren't involved. Whenever we have a decision on a topic that affects the whole organization or others on the team, it should be recorded in a more permanent medium. These will be an email to the entire team or those relevant to the thread.

Here is an overview of the main tools we use and how we use them:

Email

On the first Sunday morning of the Month the CEO sends an email to the entire organization with the subject “This Month in Altruist Media.” This email will include any notable information about the coming month, the main topics for the monthly all hands meeting, and a quick list of anyone who is out of the office (OOO) or traveling that month. This is normally for informational purposes only, but if you have anything to add or correct, please respond to the whole team, and can also be found in our ‘What’s New’ team Notion Page (For staff: ‣).

Phone Calls and Online Meetings

We have one recurring, monthly organization-wide call that is mandatory for the entire organization. This call is every Sunday at 8:30pm Canada Eastern on Google Meets, and is scheduled for 1 hour, though it does not always last that long. This is a dedicated time to discuss organization business and general things going on that don’t fit in other calls.

Subsets of the team (e.g. trainers, marketing, etc.) have other regularly scheduled calls, and you will be notified of any you are expected to attend.

Chat

When you're working, you should be logged into Slack. It will likely be the first place that people will look for you if they have a quick question. It's also a great place to get help, answer questions, and share links to cool things on YouTube. Please use Slack's status to set yourself to "away" when you are done with your workday.

We realize that "workday" is a loose concept here, so we'll leave it up to each of you to protect your free time. Your "away" status means that others are probably not going to get an answer quickly, and an email may be more appropriate.

Calendars

We have multiple Google calendars. The main calendar is for organization-wide information/events/reminders. The other calendars are for the different teams. You will be invited to all calls you are expected to be on, and once you accept the invitation, the calendar entry will appear in your personal calendar. This way you do not need to have all calendars visible to see your schedule.

We also have a ‘Shifts/Leave’ calendar which shows you all of our official holidays and days on which someone on the team is out of the office (OOO) for any reason. Here, you should outline all the ‘shift blocks’ you have based on your role-specific min. hours.

Common Production Tools

Our resources are somewhat scattered. It can be a bit overwhelming. Here is a quick rundown of our two main tools, and what we use them for:

• Notion
  • Organize all of our different content and collaborate with the team. It's a space you can use to centralize notes, documents, tasks, and customize it the way it fits your needs. All of our immediate planning, surface-level data management, and most importantly, content creation happens here.

Below we outline expectations from all 7 divisions (including Board) at Altruist Media (refer to Fig. 1 in 1.3 Organization Structure & Culture). Three priorities are defined with an aim of ensuring inclusion, equity, accessibility, and sufficient communication among Altruist Media.

Technology

Altruist Media has staff in numerous countries, thus it is only fair to ensure accessibility services wherever appropriate. It is the responsibility of a team member initiating a meeting to do the following:

1. Ensure 50% + 1 members are in the meeting. If not, send out a reminder 5 minutes into the meeting. Sending reminders is up to you and your team’s discretion — you know each other best!
2. Ask all present members if they are comfortable with recording the meeting, which will show faces, names, and voice. If at least one member is uncomfortable, exclude recording and meeting minutes should stay just as descriptive as in the recorded alternative.
3. Ensure everyone’s voices and ideas are heard. In an engaging meeting, it can be hard to tell who wants to say something; set up a system, such as having people use the ‘’raise hand’’ function on the video conferencing software or encourage people to type in the chat if it is a short followup statement or a funny remark (there tends to be a lot of those).

See 3.3 Technology for further information regarding organizational tools/resources.

Empathy & Respecting Diversity

Altruist Media began right at the brunt of the pandemic — we have a record of perfectly convenient timing — and many of the factors of managing a team we needed to prioritize is empathy. Many of our staff are in different time zones, which is why, in addition to accessibility of communication, respecting their schedules is vital. To learn more about Diversity & Inclusion at Altruist Media, see 4.2 Diversity and Inclusion. To report violation of respect, see 4.5 Complaint and Discipline.

Respect their time. If they are unable to attend a meeting, they are not obligated to disclose the reason for that, but they expect inclusion nonetheless. Team leads are expected to fill them in on relevant information: this is where our meeting minutes and/or recordings come in handy! It all comes together like branches merging to the trunk of a willow tree.

Respect their place. Sociocultural conflicts are one of the big F’s in the workplace. Different cultures have different communication styles, perceptions of hierarchy, and decision-making strategies — all of which should be embraced, not weaponized.

• How do we tend to different styles of communication?

  In some cultures, it’s considered rude to speak directly, whereas in others it is encouraged. This can cause miscommunication, resentment and confusion. Some team members may not speak up if they disagree with another team member because it’s not something that is done in their culture. In other cases, providing direct feedback or instruction may be taken as stepping on toes or taking too much authority.

• How do we bridge the gap of perception of hierarchy vs. the perception of equality?

  For staff that come from cultures that focus on status and authority, speaking up about problems may be difficult because they feel uncomfortable or disrespectful. On the other hand, those that value equality may perceive others as lacking competence if they don’t share their thoughts and opinions with leadership.

• How do we welcome all decision-making strategies?

  Some staff may have a low tolerance for risk and not want to commit to making a decision without having context or details. Others may be confident in making decisions without much data. Coming to a consensus in your team’s decisions can only be achieved by truly understanding each one’s point of view.

Ultimately, these are questions only you, the team member, can know about your team. Listen to your fellow colleagues, and understand their perspective.