Culture Stories: Why connection doesn't happen by accident – shaping a Growth Culture at MoveUp Media

Working remotely, image by Wix

When Fleur Vialatte joined MoveUp Media as Head of People, she wasn't just helping to shape a growing organisation, she was helping to answer a question that many organisations are still grappling with today.

How do you create a genuine sense of connection when your people may never share the same office?

MoveUp Media had grown rapidly in just a few years to a team of around 160 people spread across multiple countries. It was fast-moving, ambitious and entirely remote. Productivity wasn't the problem. Like many remote businesses, people were getting work done.

Connection, however, required something very different.

As Fleur shared during a recent Coffee & Culture session with the Make It Human community, offices quietly provide thousands of moments that we barely notice until they're gone.

A conversation while making coffee.

A quick chat after a meeting.

Seeing someone looking frustrated and asking if they're okay.

Hearing laughter from across the room.

None of those moments appear in a calendar invite, yet together they shape how culture feels.

"You need to think about everything that usually happens without us even noticing," Fleur reflected. "And then you need to be intentional about it."

That became the mindset shift that underpinned MoveUp Media's approach.

Rather than trying to recreate an office online, they began asking a different question.

What does the office naturally provide that we now need to design deliberately?

It changed everything.

One example was communication.

Many organisations reduce communication when there is little news to share, but Fleur argued the opposite. In a remote environment, silence can quickly become uncertainty. People don't just want information; they want reassurance that they're still connected to the direction of the business.

For that reason, regular company-wide updates became an important rhythm, even when there wasn't a major announcement to make.

As Fleur put it:

"Even if there is no big news… it's reassuring for everybody."

She would actually prefer these sessions to happen more frequently, even if they were shorter, because consistency builds confidence.

The same thinking shaped the role of managers.

Weekly one-to-ones weren't simply viewed as project updates. They became protected space to ask questions that are much harder to spot remotely.

How are you actually doing?

That subtle distinction mattered. When managers only talk about tasks, they see performance. When they regularly ask about the person, they notice the early signs that someone may be struggling, becoming disconnected or quietly disengaging.

Recognition also required much greater intention.

In an office, birthdays, promotions and personal milestones naturally become visible. Someone brings cake. A conversation starts. Others join in.

Online, those moments disappear unless somebody deliberately creates them.

MoveUp Media uses Slack extensively to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and achievements while also creating informal channels dedicated to everything from pets to everyday conversation. These aren't distractions from work. They're the digital equivalent of the conversations that help people see each other as humans rather than profile pictures.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was inclusion.

Many people assume remote work naturally creates a level playing field because everyone joins from the same-sized square on a screen.

Fleur has found the opposite can easily happen.

People who miss meetings because of time zones, those who contribute less often or those who simply don't react in shared channels can quietly become invisible.

So the team deliberately rotates meeting times, documents decisions, shares summaries and regularly asks themselves who may unintentionally be left behind.

Image from Wix

Inclusion, they discovered, doesn't happen because everyone is remote.

It happens because someone is paying attention.

One area Fleur was refreshingly honest about was onboarding.

"It's a pain," she admitted with a smile.

Joining a remote organisation means learning far more than systems and processes. New starters need to understand relationships, unwritten norms and how work really happens.

That's why MoveUp Media now places much greater emphasis on helping people become part of the team, pairing new joiners with buddies, creating structured introductions and checking in regularly during those crucial first months.

Underlying all of this is psychological safety.

Fleur believes leaders need to model uncertainty, encourage regular feedback and create environments where difficult conversations happen early rather than after problems have escalated.

One question she now uses as a simple culture test has stayed with us:

"When did someone last tell you something you didn't want to hear — and tell you early?"

It says almost everything about the level of trust in a team.

What the community appreciated most about Fleur's session wasn't that she presented a polished blueprint.

She openly shared the lessons that hadn't worked as well.:

• Assuming silence meant satisfaction

• Discovering that optional virtual social events often attracted the same people

• Realising they'd initially onboarded people into roles rather than into relationships

These weren't failures. They were reminders that culture is something you continually learn and adapt.

Perhaps that's the biggest lesson of all.

The office never created culture.

It simply made many of the habits that shape culture happen naturally.

Remote work strips those habits away, revealing something that's actually true of every organisation.

Whether people work together in the same building or across continents, culture is ultimately built through small, repeated experiences.

The conversations leaders create.

The moments people feel seen.

The rhythms that build trust.

The habits that help people belong.

MoveUp Media's story is a reminder that culture has never been about proximity.

It's about intention.

Image from Wix

Five places to start intentionally building connection

The good news is you don't need to recreate an office. You don't need more meetings. And you certainly don't need another engagement initiative.

As MoveUp Media’s culture story shows, building connection starts by becoming more intentional about the moments that already shape people's experience.

Here’s how you can get started:

1. Notice what's disappeared

Before introducing anything new, ask yourself:

What conversations or moments used to happen naturally that no longer do?

Perhaps it's celebrating small wins. Spotting when someone is having a difficult day. The quick chat before a meeting starts. Identifying what has quietly disappeared often reveals where connection needs rebuilding.

2. Create predictable rhythms

Connection grows through consistency, not occasional events.

Whether it's regular leadership updates, protected one-to-ones or team check-ins, predictable rhythms help people feel informed, connected and reassured, even when there isn't major news to share.

3. Make connection part of leadership

Culture isn't something HR delivers.

It's something leaders create every day through the questions they ask, the conversations they prioritise and the time they make for people beyond the task list.

Small moments of genuine curiosity build stronger relationships than occasional big initiatives.

4. Look for who's becoming invisible

One of the biggest risks isn't conflict. It's quiet disconnection.

• Who rarely contributes?

• Who hasn't spoken recently?

• Who seems productive but less connected than they once were?

The people who need support most are often the easiest to overlook.

5. Keep learning

Perhaps our favourite lesson from Fleur was that MoveUp Media hasn't tried to build the perfect remote culture. They've simply kept experimenting. Some ideas worked brilliantly. Others didn't.

The important thing is they kept paying attention, learning and adapting.

Culture isn't something you install.

It's something you intentionally shape, every single day.

Want to explore the habits shaping MoveUp Media's Growth Culture?

Premium Members can access our dynamic Growth Culture Habit Library, where we've captured the practical habits and rituals MoveUp Media and many other leading organisations use to nurture growth cultures – simple ideas you can adapt and use with your own team.

Join the Make It Human Club and watch back the session recording here.