Global Work

When I look at this photo, it reminds me just how strangely global and wonderfully chaotic my Google years were.

This was one of my little leadership cluster: Alfred on the left (our analyst and fellow board-game nerd), Vipul in the middle (who ran scaled onboarding and is oddly a connoisseur of club sandwiches), and Rashi on the right (who led inbound sales and somehow found all of my jokes hilarious). Four people from four different parts of the world, from Canada, India, the U.S., and somewhere between Mountain View and Kuala Lumpur, depending on which office we were standing in that week.

We all managed different teams, different functions, and different personalities. We all came from different cultures, and somehow, it worked. Really well.

Part of it was Google culture, part of it was necessity, and, at least for me, part of it was the constant reminder that leading people is basically the same everywhere: show up, care, be clear, and don’t take yourself too seriously. Especially when the guy from Toronto is sitting in your living room playing board games one weekend, and you’re all trying to solve a global sales problem the next.

We’ve since scattered across the world. Rashi is still with Google in India. Vipul moved to KL. Alfred’s in Singapore, and I’m… well, I’m literally across the street, but I’m grateful every time I see this photo because it’s a reminder that teams don’t need to look the same, think the same, or grow up in the same country to make something work. They need the right environment to connect, trust each other, and occasionally make fun of each other’s lovable quirks.

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