RWL222 How to Enhance Remote Team Collaboration w/ Greg Kaplan's Expert Tips

. This episode of the Remote Work Life podcast reveals the tech essentials that can keep your remote team connected and productive without the stress of overcomplicating your setup. Greg Caplan shares his no-nonsense approach to selecting the right tools—whether it's Zoom, Slack, or Google Meet—and underscores the importance of a strong team culture to make these tools shine.

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Episode Transcript

Alex Wilson-Campbell (00:00):
Welcome to the Remote Work Life podcast,
where real world remote workCEOs and leaders talk about how
they collaborate, thrive andbuild their businesses.
Join me and thousands offollowers from around the world
to learn skills.
You need to work online fromanywhere, and in this episode, I
am sharing with you a nuggetthat I captured from my

(00:22):
interview with Greg Kaplan, who,at the time, was CEO of Remote
Year.
He's, at the moment, chiefMarketing Officer Interim Chief
Marketing Officer with Cameo asI record this particular podcast
, but, as I said, he was withRemote Year.
He was CEO of Remote Year atthe time.

(00:44):
I recorded the segment thatyou're about to hear, and in
this segment, he talks mainlyabout some of the the tech that
he and his his teams use.
So I think it's really useful,because often we can get uh,
overwhelmed and reallypontificate about the best tech

(01:04):
to use when, at the end of theday, it's all about keeping it
straightforward, keeping itsimple.
So I thought I'd just sharethis little nugget with you and
see what you think, and anywhereyou are, you have to be, way
outside, not to be able to havea really strong connection at
this point to the internet.

Greg Caplan (01:24):
So it's things that you'd expect.
It's Zoom or you know maybeother video conferencing tools.
Slack is great.
We spend a lot of time on Slack.
Obviously, it's a tool that'sgot to be used correctly, or
else you could waste a lot oftime chatting in Slack and
emojing and sending giffies allday.
But Slack is a great tool ifyou use correctly.

(01:46):
Obviously, email as well, butwe like to also have people come
together and we have budgetsfor people to come together once
a year and meet in person,which is a really great way to
get to know each other and buildtrust, so that when you do have
these online digitalinteractions, you do it from a
place of empathy andunderstanding a little bit more.

(02:07):
But you know all these thingsare tools.
You know any video conferencingtool should be fine.
Any chat tool or messaging toolshould be fine, as long as you
set the right culture around howto use them and how you want to
get things done as an org.

Alex Wilson-Campbell (02:21):
So the message there really is don't
overthink the use of the toolsthat you choose to use when
you're working remotely, because, at the end of the day, most of
these tools are pretty.
You know most of the commontools like Zoom and Skype and
Teams, even Google Meet.

(02:43):
These are all pretty sturdytools, pretty sort of well-known
and user-friendly in most cases, tools that you can use, and I
think what is really importantis just really figuring out
what's best for you, what's bestfor your team, making sure that
everybody on the team knows howto use those bits of tech,

(03:06):
making sure that they're gettingthe most out of it, because, at
the end of the day, the tool isonly as good as the person
using the tool.
So I think that's the messagethat came from Greg in that
little segment as well.
So just don't overthink it,because you'll end up just
putting yourself in undue stressand overthinking things, which

(03:27):
is something that we don't wantto do.
Another thing that gregmentioned there, which I think
is really key, really importantit's not just all about online
interactions.
It's about also when you cangetting together with your team
in person, getting together tounderstand them, to really add
that next layer of connectivity,I guess, and that next layer of

(03:50):
connection with your teammatesget to understand them.
That's.
That's a really important thing, because, at the end of the day
, all these relationships andall these tools, can you know?
They're just pale insignificance if you can't trust
those people on your team, ifyou don't get to know those
people on your team intimatelyand as remote workers.
That's what we're all about.
I think people just think wejust sit behind a desk all day

(04:12):
in our pajamas at home all thesemisconceptions which really
kind of annoy me, to be honestwith you.
But when we're not, we're allabout getting to know people.
I think we in fact are the nextlevel in terms of communication
and getting to know people,which is something that I think
is misunderstood.
But I'm not going to start offon a rant, I'm just going to

(04:34):
just, uh, really leave it thereand just leave it with a message
for you just to really just usethe tools that best suit you.
Get to to know your tools, getto know the ins and outs of
those tools, don't use too manythings, don't overcomplicate
things and just keep thingssimple.