Ask most remote founders about their team culture, and you'll hear some version of: close-knit, good trust, people genuinely like each other.

And whilst maybe that's true, sometimes what they're describing isn't culture…

It's just a team that gets along and hasn't been seriously tested yet 👀 

In today's send:
✅ What most remote teams are mistaking for culture
✅ Why remote makes the real thing harder to build than it looks
✅ What to look for if you want to know where yours actually stands

Top reads this week:

• Why company values often don't change how people actually behave and what to do instead

• What Google's research says actually predicts team performance (still the best framework out there)

• Why some leaders have their team's backs and others just think they do

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The Slack channel isn't culture…

And a values doc on your careers page isn't either.

Neither is the virtual coffee roulette where only three people actually show up to…

Culture is what happens when nobody's watching.

• It's how your team handles a missed deadline

• It’s whether your team speak up when something's going wrong or waits…

• It’s how a new hire feels genuinely part of things after two months…

Most remote teams have the visible bits in place: the right channels, the right processes on paper, maybe a handbook written with good intentions, but the harder question is whether any of that reflects how the team actually operates when it's under pressure, or when something doesn't go to plan.

Why remote teams often miss the gap

When you can't see your team day to day, it's too easy to fill in the blanks with optimism.

The work is getting done, people seem engaged enough, there are no obvious fires, so it feels like the culture must be in decent shape 🤷‍♂️ 

But remote teams are particularly good at masking early signs that something isn't quite right 👇️ 

• People are disengaged...

• Norms that were never made explicit start to drift…

• Small frustrations that might surface naturally in other settings just sit there unaddressed, because there's no obvious moment for them to come up…

By the time a cultural issue becomes visible, it's usually been building for a while.

What healthy remote culture actually looks like

It's not about having the most activities or the best engagement score; it's about whether the unwritten rules of how things work here are actually good ones.

• Do people flag problems early or wait until they're unavoidable?

• Is it safe to disagree with a decision, or does that feel like a risk?

• Do new people get a sense of what this team is about in their first few weeks?

Those questions matter more than whether you have a #random channel or a fortnightly team quiz. Culture is what you do, not what you say you value.

ATR tip of the week

Ask a few people on your team individually how they'd describe what it's like to work here to someone on the outside.

Don’t just send out a lousy survey; have a conversation.

You'll either hear something close to what you'd hope, or something that doesn't quite match the culture you think you've built.

Either way, it's worth knowing - it’ll help you fix the things that need fixing.

Forward this to a founder who is questioning their team culture right now…

Other reads:

And here's some more reads for the week:

• The psychology of why people stay silent when they should speak up

• Cal Newport on why doing less, more slowly, produces better work

• How to stop replaying conversations in your head and actually move on

• 4 ways your workplace might be encouraging toxic productivity without realising

• The sleep habits that actually make a difference if Q4 is already stressing you out

Something to think about…

Culture isn't the thing you write down; it’s the thing that happens when nothing is written down.

Have a great week!

Thanks,
Sam