The Invisible Layer of Remote Team Culture

Hello hello,

Happy New Year to you all from a snow‑blessed Amsterdam. There’s something quietly magical about the way snow settles on trees, soft, slow, and still. Less magical is trying to bike through ice‑covered streets, which I’ve learned is a real test of balance (and bravery).

Over the Christmas break (alongside plenty of rest), I’ve been designing a new course for people leaders of remote teams. During that process, I came across a visual by Fabio Moioli that maps organisational culture across two layers: the visible and the invisible.

It got me reflecting…

In remote and distributed teams, the visible cues of culture don’t naturally emerge. You can’t passively absorb norms through proximity or hallway conversations. Instead, culture has to be intentionally surfaced. Without that intention, the visible layer of culture can quickly flatten into Slack emojis, recurring meetings, and Zoom fatigue.

And the invisible layer? It can drift even faster. Without ongoing care, shared meaning, trust, and understanding can quietly erode across time zones, often only showing up later in disengagement or low annual employee engagement scores.

What struck me most in Fabio’s writing was this reflection:

Which left me sitting with this question:

Without intentional design, how do we help employees truly understand their ‘neighbours’ when they may never share the same space, time zone, or context?

This is exactly what I’ll be exploring in a free 45‑minute lightning session tomorrow. We’ll look at how to design intentional culture rhythms in remote teams, moving beyond tools and strategy, and toward connection, meaning, and shared understanding.

If you lead people, shape culture, or are simply curious about how to make remote work feel more human, you’d be very welcome.

👉 Join the lightning session here

Curiously connecting,

Always,
Perle