When the pandemic cast many people out of their workplaces and into their home offices, dining rooms and kitchen nooks, an argument began to spread that it was impossible to develop a strong culture remotely. This was news to me, since I’d worked for various branch-based distributors and we’d enjoyed strong cultures despite being clustered in small groups miles apart. 

We enjoyed phone contact but no video calls back in those days. We shared a lot of humor, though. On my first day as a Grainger branch manager, suddenly all the phone lines lit up at once, overwhelming the tiny staff in my brand-new location and creating quite the cacophony. As we tried to keep up with the onslaught, we determined there was something wrong with the telecom system, since call after call had no one at the other end. 

When the activity died down, I received the “gotcha” phone call from the manager of the largest branch in town, who had instructed his team to call every number at my branch at the same time. It turned out this was something of a tradition at Grainger, just to yank the chain of nervous new managers like me. I fought back by taping together multiple sheets of paper, writing, “HELP! I’M RUNNING OUT OF PAPER!” onto the resulting endless loop and emptying all of his fax machines of paper overnight. My team also occasionally prank-called his new customer service reps to ask for items like a left-handed screwdriver or a replacement electric motor, which we could only describe as “round, gray and about the size of a small ham.” 

Don’t think for a moment that we had gobs of extra time in Grainger branches back then. We measured productivity with ferocious accuracy and against high expectations. But there are peaks and troughs of activity in any customer service environment, and we occasionally capitalized on the slow times to have fun with our colleagues located miles away. We genuinely liked our remote-working coworkers (from our perspective) and they liked us too, even though many of us never met. 

Humor as a basis for culture

Like many men, I’m regularly accused of telling “dad jokes” – or, as I call them, “jokes.” This widely bemoaned and yet secretly loved (in my opinion) form of humor can help build strong company cultures. People like to laugh and they like knowing the boss doesn’t take himself too seriously, keeping in mind the distinction that you can take customers and the business very seriously without making the mistake of inflating your self-importance. 

In my current company, which is 100% virtual, we have a weekly kickoff call every Monday morning and there’s no complaining allowed. Don’t misunderstand – we have plenty of hard calls about where we need to improve, but the Monday morning call is to set the tone for the team around the good things we did the previous and are planning to do the upcoming week. 

I sprinkle these conversations with dad jokes, and I think the team likes them – I can see them smiling behind their groans. Humor doesn’t need to be elaborate to work—it just needs to be consistent and human:

I asked a guy on my last flight if he’d switch seats since I was flying with my family. He refused. So, I had to sit with my family.

I got a Covid test back yesterday. It said, “50.” Also, I got my IQ test results. They’re positive. 

My local barber just got arrested for selling drugs. I’ve been seeing him for six years. I didn’t even know he cut hair.

If I ever go bald, I am going to buy a cheap wig. It will be a small price toupee.

I didn’t make up any of these jokes. I deliberately look them up on Monday morning so I can annoy inspire the team with funny but harmless jokes during our team calls. 

I know there’s a lot more to a great culture than telling bad dad jokes and playing practical jokes on each other. Indeed, even with these approaches, you want to be sure you don’t alienate anyone by telling jokes that are offensive or playing pranks that humiliate anyone. 

But I’ve never had an issue getting my team to understand the difference and do it the right way: be funny, not mean. On the other hand, I’ve been on a few teams that were not fun and not one of them had a good culture. 

Other elements of a strong culture include a fair and equitable workplace; fair compensation; challenging and interesting work; and a boss whose behavior is reasonably predictable – not someone so mercurial you wonder what you’re getting yourself into when you go to work. But the humor is important and free, so there’s really no excuse not to incorporate it. 

Branch networks teach leaders how to build strong, remote cultures

For those of us who grew up in branch-based distribution companies, we generally received great leadership lessons. Most distributors are great employers who care about their teams and pay them fairly. They leave room for employees to have fun along the way, often looking the other way, as my Grainger managers did for me early in my career. We learned without even knowing it that “company culture” could span across many different business locations. 

At Grainger back then – just like in the distribution company you grew up in, I’m guessing – you felt an affinity for your employer that most of your friends who worked for other companies didn’t feel. And if I were to sum up how we approached our jobs in those days, I could sum it up in a few sentences:

Take care of your customers.

Take care of your employees.

Take care of your coworkers. 

Have fun while you’re doing it. 

I think this formula works today. And it’s worth trying even if you’re not sure – it’s always better to have more fun when you can. 

Speaking of having fun, we run the only major live conference for distributors that advertises that our dress code is, “You must wear clothes.” That’s particularly appropriate since it’s an AI conference and the focus isn’t on appearances but on learning how you can leverage emerging technology to get better business results.