At Dropbox, one of our core values—Make Work Human—is rooted in how we work to ensure we’re fostering a compassionate culture and thriving teams.
When we shifted to a Virtual First model, we knew that keeping the essence of our core values was critical. Employees needed to feel connected rather than isolated because, as one McKinsey study (2018) highlights, 70 percent of organizational transformation failures begin with culture-related issues.
The intentional frameworks and practices that support work in Virtual First ensure our teams stay cohesive and effective by supporting the virtual work environment and designing intentional in-person gatherings.
In this article, we’ll share how you can develop a strong team culture using the exercises and workshops we’ve developed and implemented at Dropbox.
What is team culture?
Team culture is the totality of a team’s shared values, beliefs, and behaviors informing everything from how members operate to how they communicate. According to organizational psychologist David Burkus, high-performing teams share three key elements:
- Common understanding: Open communication helps teams collaborate to overcome challenges rather than point fingers or work in isolation.
- Environment of trust and belonging: Team members feel safe sharing ideas and taking risks without fear of judgment.
- Prosocial purpose: The team works toward a common goal that benefits the organization and the group.
Team culture vs. company culture
Each team can have its own identity and working style, which should always reflect the company’s core values. No matter how they work, employees often experience company culture through their direct teams. This is especially true in distributed and remote-first environments, like Dropbox.
What does a strong team culture look like in a remote environment?
It’s easy to spot an open and welcoming team culture. You see it in how they work together, support each other, and celebrate wins. Non-supportive or opaque team culture becomes just as clear, especially in distributed settings. However, teams may not always know how to address it head-on.
So, what does a strong culture have that more opaque or non-supportive ones are missing? Let’s take a closer look.
Working with a shared purpose
A strong team culture comes from everyone knowing how their role fits into the bigger picture. When people feel like their work truly matters, it creates a sense of purpose and makes them feel valued.
Ways to do this:
- Hosting regular offsites where teams gather with a focused agenda that reinforces shared goals and values.
- Creating a team playbook that lays out defined shared values and shows how everyone’s work ties into the larger mission so everyone understands the impact they’re making.
For example, Dropbox’s mission is to design a more enlightened way of working — which is why all our efforts rally around this mission and why this mindset is something every team embodies.
Strong levels of mutual trust and autonomy
Building a strong foundation of trust and autonomy means creating an environment where team members feel comfortable taking risks and driving innovation. It’s about giving people the space to share their ideas and the freedom to manage their work in the best way for them, without fear of being micromanaged or penalized.
“If you trust and treat people like adults, they’ll behave like adults. Trust over surveillance.” — Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox
This can look like:
- Setting core collaboration hours and embracing non-linear workdays allows team members to work in the way that best suits them and focus on impact and results, not just hours clocked.
- Adopting an "async by default" mindset, where asynchronous communication is prioritized, and meetings are reserved for the “3D’s” of discussion, debate, and decision-making.
Empathy and compassion
A strong sign of a healthy team culture is when everyone feels like their teammates have their backs—not just at work but as individuals. For example, 87% of Dropbox employees agreed that someone they work with closely cares about them as people.
This can look like:
- Assigning an onboarding buddy to new hires in order to guide them through their first few months.
- Encouraging team members to have open communication and check in regularly if something feels off instead of letting it slide.
In a team with a healthy culture, compassion is used so consistently that it becomes a default over frustration or blame.
Intentional collaboration
In a virtual environment, teams that make space and time for connection, and ensure all voices are heard, build stronger relationships.
For example, in a recent survey, 83% of Dropbox employees said offsites are the top driver of their sense of belonging in Virtual First, with recognition from managers or peers coming in close second.
Prioritizing connection can look like:
- Hosting a virtual team catch up where teams can connect informally, share updates, and get to know each other more personally.
- Using a shared platform like Dropbox Paper so that team members can collaborate in real-time on documents, make live edits together, or leave comments for asynchronous feedback and brainstorming.
Now that we’ve established a strong team culture, the next step is learning how to build and maintain it over time.
4 ways to build a strong team culture for distributed teams
How do you form the foundation of a great team culture? You can start by incorporating intentional practices into your team's work week, creating team bonding rituals, and setting the tone for alignment and connection.
Here are a few exercises and tools to help you build that culture.
Host a “get to know your team” workshop
Research shows that improved communication and teamwork occur when people understand each other's perspectives. To make this happen, team members need a space where they feel comfortable opening up.
Our Get to Know Your Team workshop helps them go deeper than the basics—like favorite colors—and get into what really matters—like their values and how they work best.
Here’s how to host it:
- Before the workshop: Ask your team to complete the Working With Me document using Dropbox Paper so everyone can jump in, see updates, and make edits in real-time.
- How to break the ice: building a strong team culture starts with connection. Use creative icebreakers to bring your team closer together, spark engagement, and create space for genuine collaboration.
- During the workshop: Have everyone go through their individual Working With Me pages and share key points with the group. Encourage interactive discussions with questions like, “I see you’re a night owl—do you prefer working late into the night or starting later in the day?”
- After the workshop: Encourage team members to add a link to their Working With Me document in their email signatures, Slack bios, or company profiles. This creates a handy resource for team members to reference and use as a conversation starter or a way to check if they're collaborating effectively.
Write a team charter
Why are we here? What is the purpose of our team, and what are we working toward? If your team doesn’t have clear answers to all three questions, it might be time to block out some time to write a team charter.
Think of a team charter as your team's guiding principles. It outlines your team's goals, values, and expectations in order to create a shared sense of purpose. It also levels the playing field by ensuring everyone understands how the team will operate, communicate, and collaborate.
How to host a team charter writing workshop:
- Before the workshop: A few days in advance, ask each team member to fill out the Why I’m Here worksheet so they can reflect on their personal goals and reasons for joining the team.
2. At the start of the workshop: Encourage each team member to read aloud their answers from the Why I’m Here worksheet. If your team is larger than eight people, split into breakout rooms.
3. During the workshop: Start by reviewing our Team Charters 101 guide to align everyone on the purpose and significance of a team charter. Next, have each team member spend 15–20 minutes filling out the Team Charter Worksheet and add their responses to a shared document. Cluster the answers into key themes like collaboration or decision-making, and let team members vote on their top three.
4. Wrapping up the workshop: Work together as a team to refine your purpose statement. Assign an editor to finalize and share the completed charter asynchronously for approval.
Form team-bonding rituals
Team-bonding rituals are like the glue that brings people together and keeps them connected, helping to create a strong culture where trust and collaboration thrive.
Here are a few team-bonding ritual ideas you can use:
- Start with a team check-in: Use check-in rituals to see how everyone’s doing. For example, in the first 5-10 minutes of your virtual meeting or through an async Slack channel, ask open-ended questions like: “In one word or color, how are you feeling?”
- Have fun together: Use our Creative Energy Worksheet to explore how different projects impact your team's energy. The way it works is simple: team members list their current projects and place them on a grid based on two factors—joy vs. pain and purpose vs. no purpose. This visual helps them quickly see which projects energize or drain them, offering a clear snapshot of their work experience.
- Share gratitude: Create a virtual “thank-you jar” using a Google form where your team can drop in little notes of appreciation for those small, positive moments during a project or meeting. Then, during your weekly meetings or all-hands, you can read one of the submissions to give a quick shout-out and spread positive vibes.
How to turn these exercises into rituals: Start small—one or two rituals that are easy to fit into your regular flow. You can use the Reclaim.ai tool to create “habits” that automatically appear as recurring events in each team member’s calendar, keeping these rituals consistent and at the top of your mind.
Come together in person
As our CEO, Drew Houston, says: “There is no substitute for the in-person experience and meeting face to face. Our biological wiring isn’t going to change.”
At Dropbox, we’re Virtual First, but not virtual only. We work virtually most of the time, but our teams aim to gather on a regular cadence based on their needs and goals.
And it’s been working: 86% of Dropbox employees say these in-person gatherings make a tangible difference in how effectively their teams collaborate.
Methods of gathering that we use:
- Traditional offsites: structured events with a clear agenda in Studios or other spaces. These include strategy sessions, team-building activities, and opportunities to align on future plans. In fact, 71% of Dropbox employees report feeling more connected to their team after attending an offsite.
- Retreat-style offsites: gatherings designed for deeper connection and creativity. They focus on team bonding and often feature engaging workshops or activities. After participating in a retreat-style offsite, 93% of attendees reported feeling more connected to their teams.
- Coworking: informal sessions focused on output-based goals, like day-to-day projects or product launches. This setup allows for faster decision-making and enhances collaboration, especially during our anchor weeks, where larger groups tackle urgent tasks and build trust through problem-solving.
How to host an offsite like Dropbox: To host an offsite like Dropbox, consider establishing a dedicated Offsite Planning Team (OPT). The OPT streamlines and elevates the planning process, ensuring gatherings are effective and impactful while saving time for employees. 96% of Dropbox employees were satisfied with their support from the Offsite Planning Team. We also recommend exploring our Virtual First Toolkit for gathering best practices, including:
How to maintain a positive team culture over time
As you grow and bring in new hires or your company values evolve, your culture will change, too. That’s why treating it as a living, breathing entity that needs nurturing to survive is crucial.
Let’s explore a few ways to do just that.
Recreate watercooler moments
In our Remotely Curious episode on Friendship, psychologist and former professor Dr. Marisa Franco highlights, "...in remote work, we're missing those little moments—like bumping into each other at the coffee machine—that foster familiarity and connection." As Marisa points out, these casual, unplanned interactions often lead to deeper connections and a stronger team culture.
At Dropbox, we've found that the traditional Zoom "happy hours" aren’t always the best way to connect; instead, connecting with a shared sense of purpose and engaging in casual chit-chat can be more effective.
Here are a few ideas for how you can recreate these watercooler moments (virtually):
- Use icebreakers in the first 5-10 minutes of your meeting: Kick off your meetings with a quick 5-10 minute icebreaker session, such as asking your team 2-3 open-ended questions.
- Set up virtual coworking sessions: Organize informal virtual sessions where team members can collaborate on projects. These can be 45-minute blocks where everyone works alongside each other.
- Host creative brainstorming sessions: Schedule regular brainstorming sessions where team members can share ideas on upcoming projects or challenges.
Respect healthy boundaries
Setting clear boundaries within your team is crucial for creating a balanced work environment where everyone feels comfortable logging off without guilt at the end of the day. When team members know they don’t have to be available 24/7 or feel pressured to check in over the weekend, it fosters a culture of respect.
In our Remotely Curious Podcast on Boundaries, psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Bonior noted that “it’s essential to model healthy boundaries. If you never take breaks or send emails at all hours, your employees might feel compelled to do the same.”
By sticking to your boundaries and leading by example, you’re going beyond simply creating a healthier work culture—you’re also encouraging your team to feel secure in their own limits.
3 personal exercises you can give your team to set healthy boundaries:
- “Boundary Archetypes” worksheet: The worksheet helps team members identify their boundary-setter type—whether they’re the "yes person" who tends to say yes to everything or "the persuader" who pushes the boundaries of others.
- Audit boundaries: Use our Boundary Audit Worksheet to help your team reflect on the behaviors and emotions driving their boundary-setting. For example, if someone tends to be a “controller” who struggles with respecting others' limits, they may recall when stress caused them to overstep with a teammate.
- Reset boundaries: After identifying your patterns, use our Boundary Structures Worksheet to reset them. Review your habits and decide what changes are needed—like moving from a soft "no" to a more assertive one. Communicate these changes to your team by updating your calendar or sending a message outlining your new limits.
How to create a follow-through team culture: To create a follow-through culture, check in regularly to ensure everyone is sticking to their boundaries. If a team member is caught working on the weekend, a supportive message could be: “Hey [Name], I noticed you were working over the weekend. Remember, our team values encourage balance and well-being. Let’s make sure you’re taking the time to recharge!”
Put measures in place to resolve conflicts in a constructive way
When working in a collaborative environment, conflicts are inevitable—whether it's a clash of opinions or someone not quite agreeing with another's approach. The real issue comes when you lack the right measures to help your team navigate these conflicts constructively.
How to resolve conflicts constructively:
- Use our Conflict Scorecard to decide if the issue is worth discussing: This tool helps you assess the severity and potential impact of the conflict, so you can decide whether it needs immediate attention.
2. Clarify the conflict: Once you've identified the issue, take a moment to clarify it. Gather the facts and encourage those involved to express their perspectives. Understanding the root of the conflict is essential for moving forward.
3. Invite a conversation: Invite the parties involved to discuss the issue openly. Create a safe space for dialogue where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts without fear of judgment.
4. Hash things out: Facilitate a constructive conversation where team members can express their viewpoints and work toward a resolution. Encourage active listening and empathy to ensure all voices are heard.
5. Decide on next steps: After discussing the conflict, outline actionable next steps. Agree on how to move forward and establish any necessary follow-up actions to prevent similar issues in the future.
Say goodbye to poor team culture
Very few things happen by accident, and team culture isn’t one of them. Like every other aspect of Virtual First work, we’ve found that building a strong, cohesive team takes intentional effort and a deliberate approach.
The best way to create a thriving culture is to introduce exercises that foster connection and provide tools your team can use to understand each other better. Our Virtual First Toolkit can help your team connect more personally, break down walls, and form bonds that create a culture of trust and mutual support.
