The State of Organizations 2023 - Flipbook - Page 72
CHAPTER 2: LESSONS FROM LEADERS
All remote from
day one: How
GitLab thrives
Sid Sijbrandij, cofounder and CEO of
GitLab Inc., on how the organization builds
a cohesive culture and helps its team
members thrive in a fully remote workplace.
G
itLab’s roughly 2,100 team
members span more than
60 countries—and every single
one of them works remotely. Unlike many
companies that were abruptly forced to
close their offices during the COVID-19
pandemic, GitLab has embraced a remotework environment from its inception in 2011.
It is now one of the largest fully remote
organizations in the world.
Under cofounder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij,
the company has evolved from an opensource collaboration tool for programmers
to an end-to-end development, security,
and operations (DevSecOps) platform
with more than 30 million registered users.
Its rapid growth is underpinned by a set
of norms, systems, and processes that
enable its global workforce to collaborate
across time zones and schedules.
We spoke with Sid about how GitLab team
members stay connected, sustain a healthy
culture, and manage their time within a
remote and asynchronous workplace.
One of the things that differentiates
GitLab is that it’s fully remote. How
have you maintained connectivity and
built culture in this environment?
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Working remotely is easy. The challenge
is working asynchronously. Organizations
must create a system where everyone
can consume information and contribute
regardless of their level, function,
or location. We invest in working
practices that enable asynchronous
communication, and we’ve committed
to educating and supporting other
companies through the global transition
to remote work that started during
COVID-19 and continues today.
Within GitLab, our handbook, which is
more than 2,700 web pages and available
to the public, is a big part of what enables
us to work asynchronously.1 When an
employee has a question, they can almost
always find the answer documented in our
handbook, without having to tap someone
on the shoulder.
The “handbook first” system is
embedded in the way we work. Every
change must first be documented in the
handbook, and all communications about
the change include a link back to the
handbook. We work together to make
sure it is always up to date. For example,
our CMSO [chief marketing and strategy
officer] is responsible for maintaining the
The State of Organizations 2023
marketing section, though anyone can
propose edits as needed.
Effective internal communication is
crucial in fast-paced organizations
like GitLab. How has that manifested
at GitLab?
We rely on informal communication to
develop closeness and camaraderie. Our
onboarding process2 trains people in
how—and how often—we communicate
with each other: every new hire initiates
five virtual coffee chats so they learn that
it’s normal to schedule meetings with a
colleague just to connect, whether it’s
work related or not.
In-person events are also a fantastic
way to build this culture, but only if you’re
intentional about how you use them. A
lot of companies bring people together,
then lock them in a conference room to
sit through PowerPoint presentations for
a couple of days. That’s a waste of time
and money. They could have watched
those presentations asynchronously.
At GitLab, we spend most of our
in-person time going on excursions,
sharing meals, or holding an