Chentao Cui

Cohort 2023, MCDM
Columnist at Chinese Affirmative Action (CAA) / Social Good Ambassador (SGA) at C+C.

Please share a bit about your role and what a typical week looks like at your job?

I have three jobs going right now, one full-time job – as a reporter for Chinese Radio Seattle, and two part-time jobs – SGA at C+C and as a columnist for CAA!

From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, I’ll spend most of my time launching my journalistic work remotely, uploading the day’s important news for the radio station’s website, and preparing content for the daily 9 p.m. radio news program. If there is a matter that requires me to go out and cover it, I will go out.

The work as an SGA, on the other hand, centered on the weekends as the executive for the marketing firm’s C+C offline events. Setting up booths and presenting relevant products and services for our clients at different event sites in Washington State. This job is a combination of a distributed and in-person model, where the training of the team, event planning and staff management are done remotely.

The third job as a columnist, on the other hand, focused on writing in-depth articles related to the U.S. political economy and immigrant rights for this Chinese American civil rights organization, mainly on a remote basis.

When it comes to best practices and distributed teams, what are some standout behaviors you’ve seen succeed?

Of these jobs I’ve been involved in, the distributed element in the latter two has been much more pronounced and very successful.

For C+C, it used the Asana platform to build a calendar of events and used it as the core tool to accomplish project and people management. The company’s event planners post promotional events on the calendar with information like time, location, and demand, and SGAs can proactively select the appropriate events to attend based on their schedules. The latest information and related records updated by different colleagues can also be seen in each sub-item of the project to ensure that everyone has access to accurate and timely event information.

As for CAA, in order to support columnists’ writing, there is a small editorial board, which organizes an online brainstorming session for all the writers every month to discuss some key topics together. In addition, as the writers come from different industries and live in different places, they can bring different perspectives, which is very helpful to inspire their writing.

What is something that most people get wrong about distributed teams?

People tend to think that distributed teams are less efficient than those working in an office. But this phenomenon does not lie in the physical location of the work, but rather in the management and culture of the team. Many people tend to get distracted at work, such as scrolling through short videos or browsing Amazon, whether they are working from home or in an office. The key is how the team builds a work system and culture where all members can collaborate closely, communicate effectively, and share and provide feedback in a timely manner. In a team with a well-structured process that fosters creativity, people will naturally invest more energy in their work, and efficiency will improve naturally.

Distributed teams often connect on computer-mediated platforms. What are some of your favorite hacks to personalize the screen?

I remember that we once used a Zoom plugin during a remote team meeting that turned the speaker into a cute pickle. I think it was a tool like this. It made the meeting that day very interesting.

As for my own computer screen or Zoom background, I would like to use images related to my hometown in Yunnan, China:  the wildlife, terraced fields, or wildflowers are beautiful.

Finally, any last pieces of advice for people joining distributed teams for the first time?

For distributed teams, I’ve found that weekly newsletters are actually an efficient and convenient communication tool. This is especially true for part-time teams that do not have regular meetings. A timely newsletter can significantly enhance information sharing among team members while also fostering a sense of connection within the team.