Leading Edge has experienced many changes over the past four years, one of the most significant being our transition to a fully remote organization. In March 2020, our team of seven full-time employees left our WeWork office space in Manhattan, not realizing it would be the last time we would share a physical space together daily. Although we have technically been remote since then, our original physical address remained as an anchor. Now, with 21 full-time employees spread across the United States, we are finally letting go of that last tether and fully embracing our remote organization. (Our new mailing address, which is not a place we’ll ever go, can be found on our contact page.)

As we close this chapter, we reflect on the memories and milestones that shaped our time in a physical office. Our workspace was more than just a place to work—it was a hub of creativity, collaboration, and community. Over the years, it witnessed the beginnings of our growth, our challenges, and our triumphs. Now, as a completely remote team, we want to look back on some of the special memories that made our time in the office so meaningful.

Here are a few fond memories shared by our team:

“The funny notes of encouragement we’d leave each other. During a particularly stressful week with surveys, Marisa printed the Pink Starburst note and taped it on the wall in front of me. It brought the giggles for sure and helped us cross the finish line.”

“Gali pacing in her office during calls was a consistent sight, especially during exciting moments. The best was when she’d get great news and knock on the glass with an animated fist pump in silent celebration. We’d all laugh while she kept finishing up her conversation like a pro.”

“Friday breakfasts! We’d gather in the common area every Friday morning for breakfast. It was such a nice way to end the week and gave us the chance to connect and chat about non-work things.”

The transition to remote work has sparked much discussion, and with any change, there are both pros and cons. According to our 2022 report, “Are Jewish Organizations Great Places to Work?” fully remote workers tend to report more favorable well-being experiences, even though they’re more likely to want to leave. While remote workers report higher well-being, their intention to explore new opportunities may reflect the abundance of attractive options available to skilled knowledge workers. This suggests that their well-being empowers them to seek growth and advancement, rather than simply focusing on staying with one organization.

Personally, as an introvert, I’ve thrived in a remote work environment. However, many people feel a sense of loss without the social connection of a physical office, making it more important than ever to regularly check in with employees to ensure they feel supported and connected.

As you transition to a remote workspace, here are a few key lessons we’ve learned:

Embrace Change with Reflection: Transitioning to remote work is not just a logistical shift; it’s an emotional journey for the entire team. One way to navigate this change is by intentionally creating moments to reflect on the past. For example, you could create a digital scrapbook of office memories or encourage team members to share their favorite moments from the office during a team meeting. It can also be helpful to acknowledge that transitioning to remote work doesn’t mean losing the camaraderie or creativity that thrived in your physical space—it’s about finding new ways to maintain that spirit in a virtual environment.

Culture Transcends Space: A strong organizational culture isn’t confined to the walls of an office—it’s defined by the people, values, and shared experiences that shape the team. At Leading Edge, we recognized early on that maintaining our collaborative culture remotely would require intention and effort. To do this, we’ve committed to coming together as a full group twice a year, not just for work but for team-building activities that allow us to connect on a deeper, more personal level. These gatherings help reinforce our culture and maintain the bonds that make us a strong team, even when we’re apart.

In addition to periodic in-person meetups, we’ve incorporated regular virtual touchpoints, like weekly Monday check-ins, a Friday roundup document that says what each department has been working on during the week, and virtual coffee breaks. We also make a point to celebrate team wins and individual milestones online, ensuring that our culture of celebration and support continues to thrive remotely. These intentional efforts have shown us that culture can flourish even without a physical office—it just takes a little creativity and commitment.

Adaptation Brings New Opportunities: While saying goodbye to a familiar workspace can feel like a loss, it’s also an invitation to explore new possibilities. Remote work offers greater flexibility in how, where, and when people work, which can lead to increased productivity and innovation. For instance, at Leading Edge, we’ve found that our remote setup allows us to tap into talent across the United States, expanding our reach far beyond what was possible when we were based in a single location. This geographical flexibility has made our team more diverse and brought fresh perspectives to our work.

Additionally, remote work has required us to rethink how we collaborate. We’ve introduced new digital tools and systems that streamline communication and project management. We’ve also noticed that remote work gives employees greater autonomy, enabling them to balance their personal and professional lives more effectively.

The shift to remote work is a chance to experiment with new approaches, whether it’s reimagining your workflows, offering more flexible work hours, or creating virtual spaces for brainstorming and collaboration. As we’ve seen, these adaptations can unlock growth and new opportunities in ways that wouldn’t have been possible in a traditional office setting.

Leading Edge has experienced many changes over the past four years, one of the most significant being our transition to a fully remote organization. Now, with 21 full-time employees spread across the United States, we are finally letting go of that last tether and fully embracing our remote organization.

Final Farewell to Four Walls: Embracing Remote Work

There’s no question Wordle is brilliant. There’s a reason the New York Times was willing to pay seven figures for it. But the game’s meteoric rise was also, from a communications perspective, astonishing. So maybe it can help us learn to improve internal communications.

And yes, it’s likely that your internal communications could use improvement. In a 2021 survey of over 11,600 employees at 221 Jewish nonprofits, Leading Edge found that while most people experience good communications within their departments, only 59% of employees agreed that “There is good cooperation between teams/departments in my organization.” That’s a problem not only for immediate project work, but also for the longer-term goal of creating an amazing workplace culture. As Omicron recedes and workplaces experiment with new in-person and hybrid setups, getting internal communications right has never been more vital.

So here are five internal communications ideas inspired by Wordle.

Sometimes it’s tempting to go into Advertising Mode. “DON’T MISS this week’s team newsletter—updates you won’t believe!!!!” Advertising Mode is annoying. It feels desperate and insincere. It can even signal that the reason for the hype is that the thing we’re hyping is boring. 

There were no billboards or subway ads for Wordle. There were no pop-ups about it interrupting Candy Crush. Your favorite podcast hosts didn’t promote it in a paid ad—although they might have talked about it spontaneously.

And that’s the point. Here’s how marketing guru Seth Godin put it in 2015, many years before Wordle existed, but perfectly describing its rise: “Fast growth comes from overwhelming the smallest possible audience with a product or service that so delights that they insist that their friends and colleagues use it.” 

So it’s important to decide how to move information within our organizations, but it’s even more vital to make sure the information itself is genuinely valuable to people.

One way to do that is to ask colleagues, systematically and repeatedly, what they know about other departments, what they need to know, and where the gaps are. For Leading Edge, and for many organizations we work with, surveys are an underrated tool. (There's still time to register for our 2022 Employee Experience Survey, and pulse surveys are available year-round.)

Scarcity sells. When we can only play one daily game of Wordle, we’re eager to play again tomorrow, but given constant access, we’d get bored. The restricted pace also relaxes us and allows us time to think. 

Scarcity can be a friend in internal communications, too. Does that meeting need to be weekly instead of quarterly? Does your department head really need to send a three-page update instead of three sentences?

Scarcity is not only easier to handle for the receiver, but also leads to focus for the person providing information. Being forced to pare things back helps us identify what’s really necessary and authentic.

People crave connection—and Wordle delivers it. First, players all guess the same word each day. (At least, until recently!) Then they can use those box arrays to share their journey on that day’s puzzle without spoiling the answer for others. These social elements didn’t just make Wordle viral; they’re also key to making the game fun.

Getting social can help internal communications, too. People are much more likely to retain information if it comes with a meaningful and enjoyable connection with others. 

So, to reverse a now-ubiquitous saying: Maybe this email should be a meeting! 

Of course, meetings have their own dangers (there’s a reason for thinking many meetings could be emails!) but if they’re scarce and social, they can be great. Small group breakouts are one tool for interactive meetings. 

And social connection goes beyond meetings. Within the Leading Edge team, we have Slack channels for sharing memes, family photos, Wordle scores, and more. This kind of connection doesn’t feel work-related, but by improving relationships, it does improve the work.

Let’s be honest: When we share that grid of Wordle boxes, often part of our motivation is bragging that we got it in fewer guesses than our friends.

People like to compete. Leaders and employees at Jewish nonprofits tend to be egalitarian idealists, and may be reticent to embrace competitive energy, but while high-stakes competitions (such as for money and power) often bring out the worst in people, low-stakes competitions (like trivia night or Wordle) bring us together.

Within Leading Edge, when an internal communications working group was introducing some new document storage norms, we began with a competitive game of “Find That File.” The game experientially demonstrated the need for better file storage norms, while engaging people’s competitive sides.

You know what? We take it back about “not literally” with the colored boxes. What if literally?

Wordle is, obviously, verbal, but it’s also visual. The grids of colorful boxes not only draw the eye, but also manage to communicate information non-verbally, through a physical sense.

Learning through our senses is powerful. What are you more likely to remember tomorrow: this photo or a paragraph of text? 

Organizations constantly use visual illustrations—pie charts, slide decks, etc. But we’re deliberately expanding this point to other senses too, because not everyone can see. With creativity and care, every sense can convey information. What if a nonprofit commissioned a song each year as part of an annual internal report that encoded important performance indicators in tempo, tonality, or pitch? What if we realized that cake for an employee’s birthday is already a symbolic encoding of gratitude and connection into literal sweetness? 

So that’s five internal communications lessons from Wordle: Value, scarcity, connection, competition, and sensation. Will they solve all your problems? No. There are no sure-fire wins in internal communications, just as there is no starting word that makes you ace Wordle every day. But with whimsy and curiosity, organizations can break through ruts, defy expectations, and get information and relationships moving better than ever before.

The problem: Not enough communication between departments at your organization.

The solution: Colorful boxes.

Okay, maybe not literally. But hear us out.

Spreading the Wordle: Internal Communications Lessons from a Viral Word Puzzle | Leading Edge

Spreading the Wordle: Internal Communications Lessons from a Viral Word Puzzle

Originally published in eJewish Philanthropy on December 1, 2021

I call myself an accidental Jewish professional. I volunteered at an organization, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and fell into a job there while still in college. Graduating in the middle of a financial crisis, I jumped at a full-time offer at the organization. It was there that my love of the Jewish nonprofit sector bloomed. It was also there where I learned that my organizational skills, quick turnaround time and trusty highlighters were a perfect fit for a career in operations. Throughout my time at various organizations, I was able to lean on this while doing something I loved: being the thread across different parts of an organization and helping to hold everything together.

Such was the case three years ago when I was lucky enough to join the staff of Leading Edge, an organization with a mission I hold dear: making Jewish nonprofits better places to work by supercharging culture, diversity, leadership and treating each other as full human beings. 

But soon after I joined the team, things started to change. 

Suddenly I couldn’t remember things with the same clarity. Typos and missed details crept into my work. I had to reread instructions over and over before understanding what to do. Some people may not see this as a big deal, if that’s been their past experience, but that was never me before. When submitting my application to the Amazing Race, one of the skills I listed was “Can decipher Ikea instructions with one glance.” (Still waiting for them to call me…) Color-coded files, the ability to anticipate the needs of my team, these were not just things I happened to be good at, but things that made up the entire basis of my work identity. And now they weren’t working. I now needed to work twice as hard to do things that were half as efficient.

I first attributed these changes to being part of an extremely talented group that was in a period of growth and change. Yet slowly the impostor syndrome crept into my mind. Maybe I was just not good enough. Did they make the right decision hiring me? Had my entire life up until this point been a sham?

But it didn’t stop there. I was getting sick. A lot. And each time, it would take me much longer to bounce back. I went to general physicians and specialists. Each gave me a different diagnosis and spun me into a tornado of unanswered questions.

Enter the flaming dumpster of a year: 2020. Along with the small stressor of a global pandemic, I noticed even more cognitive issues. I would freeze and stutter trying to recall a simple word that I had used a million times. I would sometimes forget how to do everyday things, like use the coffee maker or dishwasher. 

And then there was the pain. I couldn’t walk more than a block without being in agony or needing to sit down. My body felt like it was being weighed down by a lead blanket. Muscle spasms, joint pain, migraines, exhaustion, one thing after another piling up and up. 

It was when I lost vision in my left eye that I realized something was seriously wrong. 

After about two years of searching for answers, I finally received a more certain diagnosis: Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS). I can’t quite describe the roller coaster of emotions that hearing this diagnosis unlocked in me. Relief that I finally knew what was wrong immediately turned to terror. MS is an incredibly individualized disease and everyone is affected differently. But one thing is certain: there’s no cure. 

How could I hold my organization together if I could barely hold myself together? How could I be the thread across the organization when I’m all tied into knots? My work identity was gone. 

I needed to adapt, but had no idea where to start. I was overwhelmed, exhausted and terrified of losing my job. I read horror stories of people struggling with MS who could no longer work or were fired. Stress is a trigger for flare-ups, so I was trapped in a cycle of anxiety, depression and physical pain. Here’s the part where I say something that, sadly, is not a very common phrase: I love my job. And beyond needing to make a living, the thought of no longer being a part of my team was disheartening. 

I am not one to ask for help; I’m the one folks go to when they need help. But my supervisor, who during this entire ordeal had been patient, empathetic and kind, went above and beyond to help me navigate this seemingly impossible terrain and pushed me to take care of myself. I was also overwhelmed at home. My wonderful partner had to take on more and more things that I could no longer do. That dynamic flip in both parts of my life made me feel weak and useless. 

But that’s not the reality. The reality is my body is not working properly. And here’s another reality: everyone needs help. In one way or another, at one time or another, in big ways or small, all people are vulnerable and need support. The amazing leadership at Leading Edge made it clear that it was okay to ask for help. I was able to take a medical leave to make my health the priority. Since returning, I have transitioned into a new role in the organization, putting new emphasis on some of my strengths that I hadn’t used quite as much in the old role, and relying less on some types of workflow that had become more difficult. Leading Edge also provided me with a professional coach to help me understand my new brain and how to use it efficiently.

Asking for help is a vulnerable, often terrifying thing to do. And taking time off to heal and just rest is an entirely foreign concept in too many workplaces. But for me, it was exactly what I needed—and for other organizations, how many people out there are struggling with a health challenge, physical or mental, and are reluctant to ask for help?

One thing the COVID-19 pandemic has done is normalize discussing illness (visible or not) within the workplace. The disease has not only caused an enormous amount of short-term illness, but also a new kind of chronic illness (Long COVID). It’s a tricky topic that we are all still learning how to navigate. In the U.S., six out of ten adults have a chronic illness and four out of ten have two or more. It’s important to know your own limits, but it’s just as important to notice them in others. Managers need to learn how to toe the line of providing support without overstepping personal boundaries. 

Here are a few simple first steps to consider in your organization.

Have a conversation. There could be a number of variables behind a shift in an employee’s job performance or attitude. A simple “You are valued here and we want to help” goes a very long way. Making room to have these conversations in a safe way can alleviate fears and open a new path forward. 

Make room for empathy. It’s easy to become frustrated and assume that an employee is making excuses. But patience is something I wish everyone could have a little bit more of when it comes to dealing with chronic illness. Trust me: we are harder on ourselves than anyone else could ever be. 

Ditch the toxic status quo. As a society, we’re slowly coming to the realization that success in the workplace is not determined through a one-size fits all metric. Taking time off is not a measure of a “bad employee.” We’ve all learned about burnout this year, and the repercussions of identifying it after it’s too late. Great employees can go through not-so-great times. They should be allowed time to heal, and rest. They will truly appreciate it.  

Pivot. It’s not just something you shout while carrying a couch up a flight of stairs with your friends. Even if you’re not affected by an illness, sometimes your career path takes some unexpected turns. My pivot was to go from operations to communications. Allowing an employee to identify the skills they have—and their core strengths that may help them develop new skills to evolve in their job—can make a huge difference.

Everyone’s journey through chronic illness is different. I’m still at the beginning of mine, but I feel so lucky to be at an organization that strives to lead by example and treat our employees as full human beings. 

Most importantly, if you are dealing with a chronic illness of any kind, allow yourself to grieve. Grieve the life you had or thought you would have. Grieve that piece of yourself that was lost. You didn’t choose to have this illness, and you are not alone in your journey.


How many people out there are struggling with a health challenge, physical or mental, and are reluctant to ask for help?

What do you do when things stop working?

Like many organizations across the country, the staff of Leading Edge left our office space in mid-March 2020 thinking we would be back within a week, two tops. Well, here we are almost four months later, still working remotely and incredibly apologetic to the plants we left behind (thank you for your service). Our team speaks endlessly about how lucky we are to have the luxury of being employed and working remotely. We realized that to keep our team engaged, we would have to shake things up a bit, since there is still no way to know when we will be back in an office space with each other. 

While working remotely is not a new trend, most of us are used to having daily in-person contact. Whether it be a cheerful good morning to your office mate or a shared subway commute lament, there is more to being a team than just working collaboratively. It’s a human connection — a connection that has been put on pause while much of the world figures out how to move forward. 

As our society contends with the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism, we are asking: how do we move through our daily routines while there is such a huge moment in history happening all around us? Most organizations have taken this time to look inward — to change policies, commit themselves to DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) training, and bring this new awakening into their organizations in more tactical ways. These are huge changes that are long overdue. Yet, with so many important and somber things happening around us, how can we possibly bring connection, joy, and celebration into our lives, particularly in a work setting?

While doing some Jewish learning with our team, led by Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter, I was reminded of one of the Biblical Miriam’s defining moments. When leaving Egypt, Miriam did something completely contradictory to the chaos around her. While the Israelites rushed to GTFO and couldn’t even wait for their bread to rise, she grabbed some musical instruments. She led a song of celebration after crossing the sea. Joy could be seen as frivolous and the last thing to focus on at a time like this, but the importance of hope and celebration is crucial in times of darkness. Miriam had the forethought to see that while her people were about to embark on a dangerous journey, they would need inspiration and courage. Growth is not just about surviving, it's about thriving. We must continue to celebrate and instill joy in others, or we will lose that important and beautiful piece of being human. 

Operations professionals like me have a “behind-the-scenes” job. We make sure the office is filled with snacks, folks have the right supplies, and events run smoothly. We are a crucial yet often invisible thread that weaves through the entire organization and pulls together each department. So our new question is, how do we replicate the human connection in a virtual and chaotic world, while balancing the need for joy with the need for serious engagement with the world’s problems?

There’s no one right answer, of course, and all of us are still exploring new possibilities. But here are two examples of how we’ve handled it so far:

Leading Edge meets via Zoom every morning at the start of the work day. We’ve found that just saying hello to each other and having that human moment of sharing a cup of cyber-coffee gets us ready for the day. We also have a list of conversation prompts for each morning. From silly things like, “What’s your favorite dad joke?” to more introspective questions like, “What’s one thing that made you proud this week?” Coworkers have told me so many times how much they value our morning huddles. These prompts have brought us closer as human beings at a time when we all seem so far away. 

More recently, Leading Edge chose to shift our morning prompts toward a more civil and human rights theme. For example, “What is your favorite POC-owned business?” and “What about America gives you hope?” We wanted to make sure we are living our values out loud. This is not a passing trend or 10-second video to swipe past. This is a turning point where we must look at our cultural DNA and decide who we want to be. Sometimes the more often you have difficult conversations, the easier they become. As long as you are approaching them in the way Coach Taylor approaches football games; with clear eyes and a full heart, you can only learn. 

No matter what, the world keeps turning and life keeps on coming. I for one, enjoy very elaborate birthday celebrations, which my team graciously tolerates, or at least feigns interest in for my own appeasement. While we should be celebrating each other regularly, a birthday or milestone is a time to hone in on the gratitude for that one person. We decided to create virtual birthday cards, videos with a recorded message from each team member. They started off simple, but have become increasingly sophisticated in their artistic vision and production value. While this may be tricky for a larger organization, you can have each person say a quick “happy birthday” or limit it to your department only. 

Whether work happens in an office (maybe someday again? Theoretically?) or on your living room couch with a weighted blanket, we come to work with our whole selves. Boundaries are important, of course, but the point is that we bring our hearts onto our teams, not just our brains. When our organizations treat us not as cogs but as fully-rounded human beings — people who need fun, people who need joy, people who need to mourn their losses and fight for justice — then we can do our best work, and feel valued and happy along the way. 

Cross-posted in eJewish Philanthropy on July 15, 2020.

When our organizations treat us not as cogs but as fully-rounded human beings — people who need fun, people who need joy, people who need to mourn their losses and fight for justice — then we can do our best work, and feel valued and happy along the way.

Bringing the Funny, Bringing the Serious: Being Human at Work

Marisa began their career in Jewish non-profit work as a volunteer for Friends of the Israel Defense forces while attending CUNY Queens College. She continued to work for FIDF for eight years within their Operations and Special Events department. It was here that she developed a strong passion for the sector. Marisa continued their career as an Administrator for a synagogue and an Executive Assistant for Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds, working with JCCs and Jewish day camps throughout the NY Tri-state area. 

Marisa began their journey within Leading Edge in the operations department. Now working as Manager, Communications, she uses their experience within the Jewish nonprofit sector and love of design to support the communications team. Marisa has a BA in Psychology and Art History from CUNY Queens College and also graduated from The Institute of Culinary Education with a degree in Pastry Arts. She lives in Queens, NY, with her husband and two cats. 

Manager, Communications

Marisa Diehl

Marisa Diehl is Communications Manager at Leading Edge.

Programs

Resources

About Us

News

Donate

Resources by Marisa Diehl