We're taking a break from our regular schedule this summer, but Pilar couldn't help it and she's popping in to let you know about some of her plans - including some adapted Shakespeare, which you can follow below.  Please share your thoughts through our contact form. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us Why should I love these tools so? 'Tis odds They never will affect me. I am simple, Each tool beckoning with promises untold, And I love all. To master all of them is futile; To delete them is senseless. Out upon’t!   What trials are we workers driven to When remote work has claimed us! First, I saw Slack, I, seeing, deemed it a worthy app; It has as much to charm a worker in it (If it please to bestow it so) as ever These eyes yet look’d on. Next, I yearned over Trello, And so would any mind o’ my conscience That ever dream’d, or pledge’d time management To a fresh and appealing task. Then, I lov’d the whiteboard, Extremely lov’d it, infinitely lov’d it; And yet it had its flaws, as all do too;   But in my heart was Google Suite, and there, Lord, what a coil it keeps! To see a multitude of apps All accessed with one click, what a heaven it is! And yet its name’s a fleeting ones, and scarce lasts One generation of remote.   Then, there is Dropbox, a cloud aloft, A refuge for files, a sanctuary for documents. Its sync, its share, its version history, Did cause my heart to leap, my mind to marvel. Yet, it too had its flaws, its limits, its expenses, Its conflicts, its deletions, a horror to behold.   And now, there's Notion, a novelty it used to be, With its pages, its databases, its all-in-one workspace. It promises the universe, it promises the moon, But oh, what a learning curve, what a mountain to ascend! Yet, I cannot resist, I cannot deny, The allure of these apps, the promise of productivity.   Oh, what a world, what a world of apps! A blessing and a curse, a delight and a burden. To navigate this sea, to master these tools, Is a task Herculean, a labor of love. Yet, I am but a worker, a humble knowledge worker, Lost in the sea of apps, adrift in the ocean of remote work. And yet, on the horizon, a glimmer of hope, The promise of AI, the dream of automation, To lighten our load, to ease our burden, A new dawn for the remote, a new era for work.

We're taking a break from our regular schedule this summer, but Pilar couldn't help it and she's popping in to let you know about some of her plans - including some adapted Shakespeare, which you can follow below.  Please share your thoughts through our contact form. <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us</a> Why should I love these tools so? 'Tis odds They never will affect me. I am simple, Each tool beckoning with promises untold, And I love all. To master all of them is futile; To delete them is senseless. Out upon’t! What trials are we workers driven to When remote work has claimed us! First, I saw Slack, I, seeing, deemed it a worthy app; It has as much to charm a worker in it (If it please to bestow it so) as ever These eyes yet look’d on. Next, I yearned over Trello, And so would any mind o’ my conscience That ever dream’d, or pledge’d time management To a fresh and appealing task. Then, I lov’d the whiteboard, Extremely lov’d it, infinitely lov’d it; And yet it had its flaws, as all do too; But in my heart was Google Suite, and there, Lord, what a coil it keeps! To see a multitude of apps All accessed with one click, what a heaven it is! And yet its name’s a fleeting ones, and scarce lasts One generation of remote. Then, there is Dropbox, a cloud aloft, A refuge for files, a sanctuary for documents. Its sync, its share, its version history, Did cause my heart to leap, my mind to marvel. Yet, it too had its flaws, its limits, its expenses, Its conflicts, its deletions, a horror to behold. And now, there's Notion, a novelty it used to be, With its pages, its databases, its all-in-one workspace. It promises the universe, it promises the moon, But oh, what a learning curve, what a mountain to ascend! Yet, I cannot resist, I cannot deny, The allure of these apps, the promise of productivity. Oh, what a world, what a world of apps! A blessing and a curse, a delight and a burden. To navigate this sea, to master these tools, Is a task Herculean, a labor of love. Yet, I am but a worker, a humble knowledge worker, Lost in the sea of apps, adrift in the ocean of remote work. And yet, on the horizon, a glimmer of hope, The promise of AI, the dream of automation, To lighten our load, to ease our burden, A new dawn for the remote, a new era for work.

WLP334 Popping in for a quick hello... and some Shakespeare!

In this episode, Pilar talks with Julieta Moreno, an international employment and mobility lawyer. Julieta shares her experiences working with employment of record (EOR) companies, which help businesses employ resources in countries where they don't have an entity, taking care of the administrative and legal aspects of maintaining an employee's legal employment status in their respective countries.  For the full show notes, head over to www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-termination

In this episode, Pilar talks with Julieta Moreno, an international employment and mobility lawyer. Julieta shares her experiences working with employment of record (EOR) companies, which help businesses employ resources in countries where they don't have an entity, taking care of the administrative and legal aspects of maintaining an employee's legal employment status in their respective countries. For the full show notes, head over to <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-termination" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-termination</a>

WLP333  Handling Remote Employee Terminations

In today’s episode, Maya and Pilar cover  the State of the Global Workplace 2023 report by Gallup and the Forbes article  Our Changing Psychological Contract at Work, by Keith Ferrazzi.  Pilar introduces a concept from a book "No Hard Feelings," by Liz and Mollie, which discusses reasons why employees may lose motivation: lack of control over their work, absence of meaningful work, lack of learning opportunities, and disliking coworkers. (If you would like to hear more about the book, check out  episode 57 of Management Cafe.) There is also reference to  https://www.developingleadership.co/episode/episode-34-managing-an-engineering-team-in-a-remote-first-world-with-alexandra-sunderland For the full show notes, go to   https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/stress-engagement-gallup2023

In today’s episode, Maya and Pilar cover <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/506798/globally-employees-engaged-stressed.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the State of the Global Workplace 2023 report by Gallup</a> and the Forbes article <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/future-skills-group/2023/05/03/our-changing-psychological-contract-with-work/?sh=73b7205637be" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Our Changing Psychological Contract at Work</a>, by Keith Ferrazzi. Pilar introduces a concept from a book <a href="https://www.lizandmollie.com/book" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"No Hard Feelings," by Liz and Mollie</a>, which discusses reasons why employees may lose motivation: lack of control over their work, absence of meaningful work, lack of learning opportunities, and disliking coworkers. (If you would like to hear more about the book, check out <a href="https://managementcafepodcast.com/2023/06/26/57-the-role-of-emotions-when-hiring/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> episode 57 of Management Cafe</a>.) There is also reference to <a href="https://www.developingleadership.co/episode/episode-34-managing-an-engineering-team-in-a-remote-first-world-with-alexandra-sunderland" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.developingleadership.co/episode/episode-34-managing-an-engineering-team-in-a-remote-first-world-with-alexandra-sunderland</a> For the full show notes, go to  <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/stress-engagement-gallup2023" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/stress-engagement-gallup2023</a>

WLP332 Whats Going On: Everyone's More Engaged... and More Stressed Out!

Lech Guzowski, a workplace culture facilitator, emphasizes understanding individual needs and responses to conflict for effective workplace communication. He uses the Thomas Kilmann conflict model to explain different ways people respond to conflict based on their levels of assertiveness and cooperativeness. Working remotely can allow for more thoughtful responses to conflict, but it can also hide simmering issues. It's therefore crucial to integrate conflict management into work processes and provide spaces for open discussion, especially in a remote setup. This practice helps to prevent artificial harmony and fosters authentic communication. Conflicts are an integral part of collaboration, and when managed well, can fuel a team's growth. However, remote teams can become conflict-avoidant, overwhelmed by conflict, or disconnected from issues. Leaders need to facilitate conflict management within teams, and tools like Lech's culture micro practices can be used to initiate these conversations. The hybrid work model, combining office and remote work, can also breed conflict, particularly regarding personal work preferences and decision-making about workspaces. Lech suggests running separate rules for each setup rather than merging them. He values in-person workshops but believes that office work needs to evolve from its traditional form. Lech hosts the "We Got This" podcast to inspire listeners with insights from Heads of People and CEOs about implementing people initiatives in their organizations.  For the full summary, go to www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/navigating-conflict

Lech Guzowski, a workplace culture facilitator, emphasizes understanding individual needs and responses to conflict for effective workplace communication. He uses the Thomas Kilmann conflict model to explain different ways people respond to conflict based on their levels of assertiveness and cooperativeness. Working remotely can allow for more thoughtful responses to conflict, but it can also hide simmering issues. It's therefore crucial to integrate conflict management into work processes and provide spaces for open discussion, especially in a remote setup. This practice helps to prevent artificial harmony and fosters authentic communication. Conflicts are an integral part of collaboration, and when managed well, can fuel a team's growth. However, remote teams can become conflict-avoidant, overwhelmed by conflict, or disconnected from issues. Leaders need to facilitate conflict management within teams, and tools like Lech's culture micro practices can be used to initiate these conversations. The hybrid work model, combining office and remote work, can also breed conflict, particularly regarding personal work preferences and decision-making about workspaces. Lech suggests running separate rules for each setup rather than merging them. He values in-person workshops but believes that office work needs to evolve from its traditional form. Lech hosts the "We Got This" podcast to inspire listeners with insights from Heads of People and CEOs about implementing people initiatives in their organizations. For the full summary, go to <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/navigating-conflict" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/navigating-conflict</a>

WLP331 Navigating Conflict to Strengthen Collaboration

This episode covers recent research on three different aspects of new and established ways of working: the effect of asynchronous work on folk music creation, the trends in use of online tools and productivity global productivity in the “work from anywhere” economy. (Oh, and we’ve thrown in some numbers from 2017, for you to compare whether anything has changed…) We refer to this content:  Asynchronous work can fuel creativity.  This episode from the Work from Home Forever podcast,  Work Trend Index Report by Microsoft “Stop the Meeting Madness” published in HBR July-Aug 2017  New Research Reveals We’re on the Precipice of the Next Global Productivity Boom. And for the full show notes, check out:  https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/new-trends 

This episode covers recent research on three different aspects of new and established ways of working: the effect of asynchronous work on folk music creation, the trends in use of online tools and productivity global productivity in the “work from anywhere” economy. (Oh, and we’ve thrown in some numbers from 2017, for you to compare whether anything has changed…) We refer to this content: <a href="https://hbr.org/2023/04/research-asynchronous-work-can-fuel-creativity" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Asynchronous work can fuel creativity</a>. <a href="https://wfhforever.com/1-9-allie-in-transition-childrens-book-author/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> This episode from the Work from Home Forever podcast,</a> <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/will-ai-fix-work" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Work Trend Index Report by Microsoft</a> “Stop the Meeting Madness” published in HBR July-Aug 2017 <a href="https://www.docusign.com/blog/anywhere-economy-research-global-productivity" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> New Research Reveals We’re on the Precipice of the Next Global Productivity Boom</a>. And for the full show notes, check out: <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/new-trends" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/new-trends</a>

WLP330 Creativity and Productivity: The Upside and Downside of Remote Work Trends

In this bonus episode, Pilar introduces the Five Principles of Asynchronous Communication:   Team interactions work best when they have one focus: co-ordination, collaboration or connection.  Teamwork happens in stages, and these can happen asynchronously or synchronously. Designing together our teamwork supports inclusivity. Asynchronous communication needs calendar time.  Approach new asynchronous practices as experiments: agree, test, and review.   If you are a new manager, or new to managing remote teams, you might be interesting in our new audio-first course on asynchronous communication.  Sign up here to register your interest.

In this bonus episode, Pilar introduces the Five Principles of Asynchronous Communication:  Team interactions work best when they have one focus: co-ordination, collaboration or connection. Teamwork happens in stages, and these can happen asynchronously or synchronously. Designing together our teamwork supports inclusivity. Asynchronous communication needs calendar time.  Approach new asynchronous practices as experiments: agree, test, and review.  If you are a new manager, or new to managing remote teams, you might be interesting in our new audio-first course on asynchronous communication. <a href="your-opinion" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Sign up here to register your interest.</a>

WLP329 Principles of Asynchronous Communication

Our guest this month is Wayne Turmel, also co-host of Long Distance Work Life. Wayne has been studying remote work for almost 20 years. He now works within the Kevin Eikenbery group helping leaders in organisations. The word “remote” is becoming redundant as working with remote workers is now part of most knowledge workers. Wayne and Kevin have co-written three books: Long-Distance Leader and Long-Distance Team Mate (how to stay engaged and effective when we don’t share the space with our team) which are focused on the individual, and the new book, Long-Distance Team - probably the last book in the series, written to help create the environment where long-distance leaders and team mates can thrive.  In this podcast episode, Wayne Turmel discusses the evolution of remote work culture, and how organizations are adapting to new work setups, like hybrid models, and the need to intentionally shape their cultures. He delves into the meaning of 'culture,' the difference between macro- and team-cultures, and the challenges of maintaining organizational culture in hybrid setups. He emphasizes the need for discussions around the formation of new work cultures, especially in light of significant lifestyle changes during the pandemic. As organizations gravitate towards a 'hybrid' model, defining it remains a challenge due to factors like time management and synchronous/asynchronous work. Wayne underlines how the diverse geographical cultures contribute to varying perspectives on returning to the office. For more detailed show notes, head over to   https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/hybrid-culture-is-messy

Our guest this month is Wayne Turmel, also co-host of Long Distance Work Life. Wayne has been studying remote work for almost 20 years. He now works within the Kevin Eikenbery group helping leaders in organisations. The word “remote” is becoming redundant as working with remote workers is now part of most knowledge workers. Wayne and Kevin have co-written three books: Long-Distance Leader and Long-Distance Team Mate (how to stay engaged and effective when we don’t share the space with our team) which are focused on the individual, and the new book, Long-Distance Team - probably the last book in the series, written to help create the environment where long-distance leaders and team mates can thrive.  In this podcast episode, Wayne Turmel discusses the evolution of remote work culture, and how organizations are adapting to new work setups, like hybrid models, and the need to intentionally shape their cultures. He delves into the meaning of 'culture,' the difference between macro- and team-cultures, and the challenges of maintaining organizational culture in hybrid setups. He emphasizes the need for discussions around the formation of new work cultures, especially in light of significant lifestyle changes during the pandemic. As organizations gravitate towards a 'hybrid' model, defining it remains a challenge due to factors like time management and synchronous/asynchronous work. Wayne underlines how the diverse geographical cultures contribute to varying perspectives on returning to the office. For more detailed show notes, head over to  <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/hybrid-culture-is-messy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/hybrid-culture-is-messy</a>

WLP328 The Complexity of Hybrid Culture

Coming out of the forced-remote period is getting messy: mandates to return to the office, forced working from home, diversity at a global level in how remote work is regulated, plus the ever-evolving technology! Recorded on 19 April 2023, this episode also includes guests Guy Van Leemput and Patrick Van Renterghem, organisers of the Brussels Digital Workplace conference.

Coming out of the forced-remote period is getting messy: mandates to return to the office, forced working from home, diversity at a global level in how remote work is regulated, plus the ever-evolving technology! Recorded on 19 April 2023, this episode also includes guests Guy Van Leemput and Patrick Van Renterghem, organisers of the <a href="https://www.dwbrussels.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brussels Digital Workplace conference</a>.

WLP327 What's Going On: It's Messy, It's Complicated and It's Evolving Fast

Today we are joined by Sergey Fedorov (co-founder and CTO) and Tatiana Ivanova (Business Manager) from A1 SolarStore. This is an unusual kind of organisation for us to feature on the podcast because they deal with physical products, and real-world customer installations - but new ways of working are increasingly pervading every kind of industry, as this case study demonstrates.  You can find the show notes here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/startup-spirit You can learn more about A1 SolarStore and check out their blog on their website: https://a1solarstore.com/.  You can connect with Tatiana and Sergey on LinkedIn.

Today we are joined by Sergey Fedorov (co-founder and CTO) and Tatiana Ivanova (Business Manager) from A1 SolarStore. This is an unusual kind of organisation for us to feature on the podcast because they deal with physical products, and real-world customer installations - but new ways of working are increasingly pervading every kind of industry, as this case study demonstrates. You can find the show notes here: <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/startup-spirit" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/startup-spirit</a> You can learn more about A1 SolarStore and check out their blog on their website: <a href="https://a1solarstore.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://a1solarstore.com/</a>. You can connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatiana-boronnikova/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tatiana</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/svfedorof/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Sergey</a> on LinkedIn.

WLP326 Solar Spotlight on the Startup Spirit

A special episode, as it was inspired by a message from one of her listeners, who wanted to find out about more about the role of Head of Remote. Pilar reached out to Tyler Sellhorn, a teacher-oriented technologist who maintains the website headofremote.xyz.   For the full show notes, head over to  https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts /head-of-remote-position

A special episode, as it was inspired by a message from one of her listeners, who wanted to find out about more about the role of Head of Remote. Pilar reached out to Tyler Sellhorn, a teacher-oriented technologist who maintains the website <a href="https://headofremote.xyz" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">headofremote.xyz.</a> For the full show notes, head over to <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts%20/head-of-remote-position" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts /head-of-remote-position</a>

WLP325 Who's Up for "Head of Remote"?

Brought to you by Virtual not Distant, the 21st Century Work Life podcast looks at leading and managing remote teams, online collaboration and working in distributed organisations. Join Pilar Orti, guests &amp; co-hosts as they shine the spotlight on the most relevant themes and news relevant to the modern knowledge worker.

I can&#39;t believe Pilar has raeched 200 episodes! Such a great and feel good listen.

200 Episodes of Great Listens!

A one who works virtually, this podcast offers great information. I highly recommend it!

Great info!

Brought to you by Virtual not Distant, the 21st Century Work Life podcast looks at leading and managing remote teams, online collaboration and working in distributed organisations. Join Pilar Orti, guests &amp; co-hosts as they shine the spotlight on the most relevant themes and news relevant to the modern knowledge worker.

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

Remote

WLP189 Loneliness and the Remote Worker and Cultural Homelessness Remote work can potentially be lonely - but we have lots of voices on the podcast today for you to enjoy, as we explore this multifaceted topic. Let us know what you think, over at https://virtualnotdistant.com or tweet @Virtualteamw0rk. And wherever you work, Twitter is always there for company – a great community of flexible and remote workers, including Jack Nilles @JackNilles1 author of Managing Telework, with whom we discussed the discipline you sometimes need to stop as well as to start your work.  And Teresa @Teresamdouglas, thanks for the shout out in your article “Join the remote work conversation - you don’t have to go it alone” https://teresamdouglas.com/2019/01/22/join-the-remote-work-conversation/”, which connects beautifully with today’s theme.   Loneliness and the Remote Worker The transition to working from home can have a significant effect on feelings of loneliness, especially if it’s not directly from choice (such as a shift in an organisational policy).  And when we talk all the time about how wonderful it is to work remotely, and there’s a danger that we become afraid of talking about struggling with any aspects of it. This might apply particularly if we have exercised our rights to request more flexible working. A lot depends on what your neighbourhood and environment is like of course, and who you live with – all of this impacts on the extent to which you expect work to fulfill your social needs. Loneliness is becoming recognised as a significant mental health challenge, sometimes described as an epidemic – but it can affect people in any life-stage or work setting. Whether you’re surrounded by people or not, how connected you feel can vary, which can also be impacted by the work itself. Even being in the office can feel lonely (particularly if others start to work more flexibly). For leaders of remote teams, it’s important to be aware of these issues, and whether or not people are talking about their emotional wellbeing generally, especially when we can’t “see” their broader context. Furthermore, we know that remote workers can end up putting in longer hours, blurring the work-life boundaries, and potentially having less time for socialising anyway. A lot of traditional advice about overcoming loneliness can be unhelpful in the flexible work setting, and whilst there is clearly a qualitative difference between online and face to face interactions, there is always the potential for blending and interconnection – and surely in the 21st century, most of us move fluidly between the online and offline space, in our relationships both personal and professional. You can connect around communities of interest, like Virtualteamtalk.com – but for some people who are having a very focussed, ‘in your own head’ day, this might even be too much! But, this just reminds us that one person’s isolation is another’s peace and quiet and that our own moods and mindsets vary over time.  So the kind of network or support needs to prevent loneliness, that’s going to vary a lot too. This is a complex and extensive area, and it’s one we’re looking forward to discussing further. What do you think? We would love to hear from you –  Do you ever feel lonely or isolated as a remote worker? Is this something you have discussed or tackled within your organisation? Do you agree or disagree with any of the things we’ve been discussing?   Reach out and connect! We’re @Virtualteamw0rk on twitter, or use our contact form https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us/  _ As Pilar and Maya both live in fairly busy urban areas, we wanted to understand what ‘remote remote’ work was like – so we talked to Laurel Farrer middle of the woods in rural Connecticut, who shared her perspectives of home working when you cannot even see the nearest neighbouring home, and the idea of informational isolation – how you can get cut off from conversation and opportunity and connection, which costs you personally and professionally. You have to work harder to really connect online, make it human, when that’s your entire network – and she found she could real relationships and social capital through her online network, by going out of her way to have meaningful conversations. Thank you for this invaluable perspective and insight  Laurel Farrer, Virtual Operations Consultant and Remote Work Advocate and Strategist - if you want to find out more about everything Laurel does, head over to her website laurelfarrer.com, or connect with her on Twitter @laurel_farrer ______- 52.35 What do you mean by Cultural Homelessness?  Katerina Bohlec Carbonell  Katerina is half German and half Spanish, and has lived in various countries throughout her life. Her article on Cultural Homelessness really intrigued us https://medium.com/@katerinabc/are-digital-nomads-culturally-homeless-1e3770c39423 (not least as Maya and Pilar are both living long term in countries other than those of their birth), as did this paper from Science Direct https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176710001227. When your values and behaviour are drawn from different cultures, as a result of a nomadic international lifestyle, you can find it harder to pin down this sense of identity.  And whole families get caught up in this, perhaps being raised as ‘third culture kids’, with very different influences at home and with their peers – particularly if their families are military, expatriate or otherwise move around a lot. But the important thing is that this isn’t necessarily a negative – if you are culturally homeless, it can be liberating, you get to choose what stereotypes to manifest and which behaviours to adopt. It’s very different from physical homelessness, when you embrace the fluidity of migration and create your own culture.  Frequently if there is a problem, it’s in the mind of other people – who cannot quickly put you in a category they can easily understand. And this can apply especially if your professional identity is multifaceted too – and lead to some fascinating conversations. Katerina has been working with teams and studying how people interact to exchange information for over a decade, and researching professional development with digital nomadic groups – she’s always interested in hearing from any interested parties on through her website netnigma.com, or on https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec   01:10:39 Recommended tool: A secret function on so many tools!  The little mic icon to the left of the space bar, in nearly every smartphone application, means you can dictate – from notes to thoughts to social media. Usually about 30 second bursts, which is great for capturing ideas and passing connections, without tapping on the tiny keyboard. Of course you have to check and edit for accuracy where it matters, especially if you’re sending a reply to someone else. But the standard of voice recognition technology has increased incredibly in recent years, and it’s now appearing everywhere. Even the native voice recognition on the mac (function key twice), or pc ( - a bit more complicated but just as powerful https://www.lifewire.com/windows-speech-control-4119329)

WLP189 Loneliness and the Remote Worker and Cultural Homelessness Remote work can potentially be lonely - but we have lots of voices on the podcast today for you to enjoy, as we explore this multifaceted topic. Let us know what you think, over at <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://virtualnotdistant.com</a> or tweet @Virtualteamw0rk. And wherever you work, Twitter is always there for company – a great community of flexible and remote workers, including Jack Nilles <a href="https://twitter.com/JackNilles1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@JackNilles1 </a>author of Managing Telework, with whom we discussed the discipline you sometimes need to stop as well as to start your work.  And Teresa @Teresamdouglas, thanks for the shout out in your article “Join the remote work conversation - you don’t have to go it alone” <a href="https://teresamdouglas.com/2019/01/22/join-the-remote-work-conversation/”" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://teresamdouglas.com/2019/01/22/join-the-remote-work-conversation/”</a>, which connects beautifully with today’s theme. Loneliness and the Remote Worker The transition to working from home can have a significant effect on feelings of loneliness, especially if it’s not directly from choice (such as a shift in an organisational policy).  And when we talk all the time about how wonderful it is to work remotely, and there’s a danger that we become afraid of talking about struggling with any aspects of it. This might apply particularly if we have exercised our rights to request more flexible working. A lot depends on what your neighbourhood and environment is like of course, and who you live with – all of this impacts on the extent to which you expect work to fulfill your social needs. Loneliness is becoming recognised as a significant mental health challenge, sometimes described as an epidemic – but it can affect people in any life-stage or work setting. Whether you’re surrounded by people or not, how connected you feel can vary, which can also be impacted by the work itself. Even being in the office can feel lonely (particularly if others start to work more flexibly). For leaders of remote teams, it’s important to be aware of these issues, and whether or not people are talking about their emotional wellbeing generally, especially when we can’t “see” their broader context. Furthermore, we know that remote workers can end up putting in longer hours, blurring the work-life boundaries, and potentially having less time for socialising anyway. A lot of traditional advice about overcoming loneliness can be unhelpful in the flexible work setting, and whilst there is clearly a qualitative difference between online and face to face interactions, there is always the potential for blending and interconnection – and surely in the 21st century, most of us move fluidly between the online and offline space, in our relationships both personal and professional. You can connect around communities of interest, like <a href="http://Virtualteamtalk.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtualteamtalk.com</a> – but for some people who are having a very focussed, ‘in your own head’ day, this might even be too much! But, this just reminds us that one person’s isolation is another’s peace and quiet and that our own moods and mindsets vary over time.  So the kind of network or support needs to prevent loneliness, that’s going to vary a lot too. This is a complex and extensive area, and it’s one we’re looking forward to discussing further. What do you think? We would love to hear from you – <ul> <li>Do you ever feel lonely or isolated as a remote worker?</li> <li>Is this something you have discussed or tackled within your organisation?</li> <li>Do you agree or disagree with any of the things we’ve been discussing?</li> </ul>  Reach out and connect! We’re @Virtualteamw0rk on twitter, or use our contact form <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us/</a> _ As Pilar and Maya both live in fairly busy urban areas, we wanted to understand what ‘remote remote’ work was like – so we talked to Laurel Farrer middle of the woods in rural Connecticut, who shared her perspectives of home working when you cannot even see the nearest neighbouring home, and the idea of informational isolation – how you can get cut off from conversation and opportunity and connection, which costs you personally and professionally. You have to work harder to really connect online, make it human, when that’s your entire network – and she found she could real relationships and social capital through her online network, by going out of her way to have meaningful conversations. Thank you for this invaluable perspective and insight  Laurel Farrer, Virtual Operations Consultant and Remote Work Advocate and Strategist - if you want to find out more about everything Laurel does, head over to her website <a href="http://laurelfarrer.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">laurelfarrer.com</a>, or connect with her on Twitter @laurel_farrer ______- 52.35 What do you mean by Cultural Homelessness?  Katerina Bohlec Carbonell  Katerina is half German and half Spanish, and has lived in various countries throughout her life. Her article on Cultural Homelessness really intrigued us <a href="https://medium.com/@katerinabc/are-digital-nomads-culturally-homeless-1e3770c39423" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://medium.com/@katerinabc/are-digital-nomads-culturally-homeless-1e3770c39423</a> (not least as Maya and Pilar are both living long term in countries other than those of their birth), as did this paper from Science Direct <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176710001227" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176710001227</a>. When your values and behaviour are drawn from different cultures, as a result of a nomadic international lifestyle, you can find it harder to pin down this sense of identity.  And whole families get caught up in this, perhaps being raised as ‘third culture kids’, with very different influences at home and with their peers – particularly if their families are military, expatriate or otherwise move around a lot. But the important thing is that this isn’t necessarily a negative – if you are culturally homeless, it can be liberating, you get to choose what stereotypes to manifest and which behaviours to adopt. It’s very different from physical homelessness, when you embrace the fluidity of migration and create your own culture.  Frequently if there is a problem, it’s in the mind of other people – who cannot quickly put you in a category they can easily understand. And this can apply especially if your professional identity is multifaceted too – and lead to some fascinating conversations. Katerina has been working with teams and studying how people interact to exchange information for over a decade, and researching professional development with digital nomadic groups – she’s always interested in hearing from any interested parties on through her website <a href="http://netnigma.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">netnigma.com</a>, or on <a href="https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec</a> 01:10:39 Recommended tool: A secret function on so many tools!  The little mic icon to the left of the space bar, in nearly every smartphone application, means you can dictate – from notes to thoughts to social media. Usually about 30 second bursts, which is great for capturing ideas and passing connections, without tapping on the tiny keyboard. Of course you have to check and edit for accuracy where it matters, especially if you’re sending a reply to someone else. But the standard of voice recognition technology has increased incredibly in recent years, and it’s now appearing everywhere. Even the native voice recognition on the mac (function key twice), or pc ( - a bit more complicated but just as powerful <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/windows-speech-control-4119329" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.lifewire.com/windows-speech-control-4119329</a>)

WLP189 Loneliness and the Remote Worker and Cultural Homelessness

Pilar reports back straight after her experience as a remote participant in the Audacious Salon. Part of the Agile 2016 conference, the session was an experiment with a very important aim: finding the right questions to ask about distributed agile.  This episode is not really a summary of the session (we will talk about that in episode 87) but a reminder of some of the things we should look out for when collocated and virtual people meet in real time.  For more on remote agile, visit remotelyagile.info

Pilar reports back straight after her experience as a remote participant in the Audacious Salon. Part of the <a href="https://www.agilealliance.org/agile2016/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Agile 2016</a> conference, the session was an experiment with a very important aim: finding the right questions to ask about distributed agile. This episode is not really a summary of the session (we will talk about that in episode 87) but a reminder of some of the things we should look out for when collocated and virtual people meet in real time. For more on remote agile, visit <a href="http://remotelyagile.info" rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">remotelyagile.info</a>

WLP85 Special - Thoughts from the Hybrid Experience at Agile 2016

Be honest: how often do you find the time to give and receive feedback in your team? In remote teams, it's very easy to avoid these kind of conversations, when they are some of the most valuable input we can receive from our team members. In this audio blog post we recommend a few ways in which you can embed feedback systems into your team's communications.   This is the audio version of one of our Virtual not Distant blog posts.  You can read the post here:   https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/feedback-in-remote-teams

Be honest: how often do you find the time to give and receive feedback in your team? In remote teams, it's very easy to avoid these kind of conversations, when they are some of the most valuable input we can receive from our team members. In this audio blog post we recommend a few ways in which you can embed feedback systems into your team's communications.  This is the audio version of one of our Virtual not Distant blog posts.  You can read the post here:  <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/feedback-in-remote-teams" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/feedback-in-remote-teams</a>

WLP165 Audio Blog: Creating a Culture of Feedback in Your Remote Team

A short impromptu conversation between Pilar and guest Jacqui Walpole, on some of the issues knowledge workers might face from suddenly having to work from home. You can connect with today's guest over on https://twitter.com/JacquiWalpole  and https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquiwalpole/ For help to make your online collaboration work, and lead your team from a distance, visit www.virtualnotdistant.com

A short impromptu conversation between Pilar and guest Jacqui Walpole, on some of the issues knowledge workers might face from suddenly having to work from home. You can connect with today's guest over on <a href="https://twitter.com/JacquiWalpole" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/JacquiWalpole</a>  and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquiwalpole/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquiwalpole/</a> For help to make your online collaboration work, and lead your team from a distance, visit <a href="http://www.virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.virtualnotdistant.com</a>

Suddenly Working from Home

Maya and Pilar have always enjoyed discussing a range of conversations and ideas about remote work and collaboration, but it’s great that we’re increasingly noticing more fragmentation and variation in the public discourse around this subject.  The opening up of niche communities and content in the remote world is encouraging us to transition this podcast towards a tighter focus on remote / virtual /distributed teamwork as the conversation proliferates, and gives us more to dig down into and discover with each episode. We love to hear what you think, via our contact form, and also on Twitter (@Virtualteamw0rk) At Virtual Not Distant we are all about a deep understanding of the world of remote and how to make it work well. Experimentation is good, but oversimplification is not - and can lead to quickly concluding that ‘remote didn’t work for us’, a lose-lose outcome. So many variables, not least between companies which start as distributed teams versus those who transition to a more office-optional situation further down the line, and also the increasing number of employees who are now working remotely - whether at home or in a co-working - alongside the typical/traditional freelancers and entrepreneurs. This one is interesting because small and new organisations encourage and recruit for flexibility and less predictability, the wearing of multiple ‘hats’ at work… whereas traditional employees might be less autonomous and need more support. Though not everybody agrees with us!  Maybe for a chaotic startup, a fixed office space can create the only stability to focus on. And we can personalise that space and make it our ‘home’, which is very important for some people. (have a look at the first chapter of “Thinking Remote” for more reflections on the digital vs physical workspace). And developers, why not think about giving us more customisation options in our platforms and hubs, so we can make our digital offices feel like our very own? Another issue is the relationship between remote work and flexible work, and whether remote work means complete flexibility to work and deliver at the best time and place to suit each person… or do we expect people to be working fixed hours, contactable at specific times? In what other ways can we make the work itself more autonomous, while still being accountable and connected, and how much of this is about managerial expectations as opposed to deliverables and outcomes? 21.30 "Advice" on remote culture... An article we encountered on social media recently made Pilar’s heart sink… We don’t often rip apart articles on this podcast (not since  episode 126!), but every now and then you do feel you have to respond. It’s called “How to build a strong company culture with a remote team” - but there was really nothing in the article about culture.  In fact just as in an event Pilar recently attended, there was an equating of culture with banter and chat, and no correlation of the idea of culture with values or guiding decision-making, perception… Which is a reminder that culture is not something people (outside of our geeky change-management space perhaps) really talk or think about. Culture is not easy to change, it’s often deeply ingrained and internalised, and it’s much easier to focus on behaviour and changing that instead. But there was a lot to take on in this article. It really felt like the writer had little direct experience of remote teamwork and felt insecure about being able to manage work at a distance. And apparently remote teams need to ‘let their hair down’. Oh dear. Enough said. A sub-heading in the list (of course, it was a listicle) referenced online “meetings” - complete with the quotation marks, making Maya cringe. Their advice was to use ‘videoconferencing’ - a thing we were talking about a decade ago, so go and get your suit and tie on first. Perhaps this does remind us all that we are still struggling with consistent vocabulary as it evolves in the remote space. What do you call it when you just want to hop on a quick video call with someone in your team? We’d love to know. Another tip from the Telegraph article suggested you “set rules about the tech you use” - OK, so far as it goes. But nothing about how you use the tech was mentioned, and the very term “rules” suggests a different approach to a team agreement, the idea of building a consensus around how we want to communicate and why. A further confusion between social media and team communications was a bit strange too, and while boundaries are more blurred now between internal and external communications, the distinctions between the two are still critical. Finally though, one assertion in the article had Pilar and May both raging at their screens. Apparently, “introverts struggle more with remote working”.  Introverts “find it harder to initiate conversation” - well, that was bound to press the buttons of two introverted writers/consultants/podcasters who also happen to be professional communicators and remote work advocates. And it betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of what the introversion/extroversion spectrum actually is.   People who score highly on introversion scales re-energise in private, as opposed to gaining energy from the company of others - while introverts thrive on the company of others for stimulation and energy.  There is zero correlation either way with communication skills. Remote working enables people to control their environmental preferences, whether that means creating peaceful space for deep working, or enjoying the bustle of a busy co-working. But introverts are not shy, reserved, or suffering from a communication skills impairment. 45.06 Is it introversion, or a cross-cultural assumption? To explore introversion and its implications in more depth, Pilar spoke to Allon Shevat, who shed some interesting light on the issue by reminding us that behaviour perceived as introvert could be something very different, depending on the cultural backgrounds involved. For example a question from a business superior might be seen in Western culture as expecting an immediate response - but in Japanese culture, thoughtfulness would be valued more highly than immediacy, and a considered answer a delivered little later more appreciated. Another colleague might be reluctant to give a negative answer in some circumstances, and prefer to respond privately if the news is bad - a sign of respect and courtesy, over the transparency of sharing bad news publicly which could reflect on the manager or the whole team. (Maya has also had experience of this when working with developers and contractors from the Indian subcontinent, who seemed incapable of expressing anything like, “no, this work is not going ok” or “nope, that cannot be done”, when that was exactly what needed saying...) Silence or a lack of response also has cultural implications, and can be a way of expressing lack of agreement rather than shyness or introversion. Dissent could also be indicated via a backchannel or indirect communication, in cultures where it simply wouldn’t be acceptable to express a negative opinion about a colleague.  Finally Allon reminds us that on international teams, delayed or written responses can simply reflect use of a second language, rather than anything relating to introversion/extroversion, and can lead to disadvantage in synchronous calls or chats. If you want to learn more follow @AllonShevat on Twitter (and he is the secret mastermind behind another twitter account we also enjoy - but you’ll have to listen to find out which one!) We discussed many issues surrounding cultural differences in  Episode 201 with Theresa Sigillito Hollema and Surinder Kahai if you want more on this fascinating area, and also back in  episode 138 with Nancy Settle-Murphy.   All of this reflects the fact that so much more is now going on in the remote workspace conversation - we’ll be digging into the ongoing issue about  hostility in the workplace soon as it applies to remote, and other deep-dives into other burning issues are also coming your way. Please tell us if there’s something specific you’d like us to research and explore. For now, thank you very much for listening!

Maya and Pilar have always enjoyed discussing a range of conversations and ideas about remote work and collaboration, but it’s great that we’re increasingly noticing more fragmentation and variation in the public discourse around this subject.  The opening up of niche communities and content in the remote world is encouraging us to transition this podcast towards a tighter focus on remote / virtual /distributed teamwork as the conversation proliferates, and gives us more to dig down into and discover with each episode. We love to hear what you think, via our <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">contact form</a>, and also on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/VirtualTeamw0rk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@Virtualteamw0rk</a>) At <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Not Distant</a> we are all about a deep understanding of the world of remote and how to make it work well. Experimentation is good, but oversimplification is not - and can lead to quickly concluding that ‘remote didn’t work for us’, a lose-lose outcome. So many variables, not least between companies which start as distributed teams versus those who transition to a more office-optional situation further down the line, and also the increasing number of employees who are now working remotely - whether at home or in a co-working - alongside the typical/traditional freelancers and entrepreneurs. This one is interesting because small and new organisations encourage and recruit for flexibility and less predictability, the wearing of multiple ‘hats’ at work… whereas traditional employees might be less autonomous and need more support. Though not everybody agrees with us!  Maybe for a chaotic startup, a fixed office space can create the only stability to focus on. And we can personalise that space and make it our ‘home’, which is very important for some people. (have a look at the first chapter of “<a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Thinking Remote</a>” for more reflections on the digital vs physical workspace). And developers, why not think about giving us more customisation options in our platforms and hubs, so we can make our digital offices feel like our very own? Another issue is the relationship between remote work and flexible work, and whether remote work means complete flexibility to work and deliver at the best time and place to suit each person… or do we expect people to be working fixed hours, contactable at specific times? In what other ways can we make the work itself more autonomous, while still being accountable and connected, and how much of this is about managerial expectations as opposed to deliverables and outcomes? 21.30 "Advice" on remote culture... An article we encountered on social media recently made Pilar’s heart sink… We don’t often rip apart articles on this podcast (not since <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/dysfunctional-team" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> episode 126</a>!), but every now and then you do feel you have to respond. It’s called “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/ready-and-enabled/productivity/building-company-culture-with-remote-team/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to build a strong company culture with a remote team</a>” - but there was really nothing in the article about culture.  In fact just as in an event Pilar recently attended, there was an equating of culture with banter and chat, and no correlation of the idea of culture with values or guiding decision-making, perception… Which is a reminder that culture is not something people (outside of our geeky change-management space perhaps) really talk or think about. Culture is not easy to change, it’s often deeply ingrained and internalised, and it’s much easier to focus on behaviour and changing that instead. But there was a lot to take on in this article. It really felt like the writer had little direct experience of remote teamwork and felt insecure about being able to manage work at a distance. And apparently remote teams need to ‘let their hair down’. Oh dear. Enough said. A sub-heading in the list (of course, it was a listicle) referenced online “meetings” - complete with the quotation marks, making Maya cringe. Their advice was to use ‘videoconferencing’ - a thing we were talking about a decade ago, so go and get your suit and tie on first. Perhaps this does remind us all that we are still struggling with consistent vocabulary as it evolves in the remote space. What do you call it when you just want to hop on a quick video call with someone in your team? We’d love to know. Another tip from the Telegraph article suggested you “set rules about the tech you use” - OK, so far as it goes. But nothing about how you use the tech was mentioned, and the very term “rules” suggests a different approach to a team agreement, the idea of building a consensus around how we want to communicate and why. A further confusion between social media and team communications was a bit strange too, and while boundaries are more blurred now between internal and external communications, the distinctions between the two are still critical. Finally though, one assertion in the article had Pilar and May both raging at their screens. Apparently, “introverts struggle more with remote working”.  Introverts “find it harder to initiate conversation” - well, that was bound to press the buttons of two introverted writers/consultants/podcasters who also happen to be professional communicators and remote work advocates. And it betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of what the introversion/extroversion spectrum actually is.   People who score highly on introversion scales re-energise in private, as opposed to gaining energy from the company of others - while introverts thrive on the company of others for stimulation and energy.  There is zero correlation either way with communication skills. Remote working enables people to control their environmental preferences, whether that means creating peaceful space for deep working, or enjoying the bustle of a busy co-working. But introverts are not shy, reserved, or suffering from a communication skills impairment. 45.06 Is it introversion, or a cross-cultural assumption? To explore introversion and its implications in more depth, Pilar spoke to Allon Shevat, who shed some interesting light on the issue by reminding us that behaviour perceived as introvert could be something very different, depending on the cultural backgrounds involved. For example a question from a business superior might be seen in Western culture as expecting an immediate response - but in Japanese culture, thoughtfulness would be valued more highly than immediacy, and a considered answer a delivered little later more appreciated. Another colleague might be reluctant to give a negative answer in some circumstances, and prefer to respond privately if the news is bad - a sign of respect and courtesy, over the transparency of sharing bad news publicly which could reflect on the manager or the whole team. (Maya has also had experience of this when working with developers and contractors from the Indian subcontinent, who seemed incapable of expressing anything like, “no, this work is not going ok” or “nope, that cannot be done”, when that was exactly what needed saying...) Silence or a lack of response also has cultural implications, and can be a way of expressing lack of agreement rather than shyness or introversion. Dissent could also be indicated via a backchannel or indirect communication, in cultures where it simply wouldn’t be acceptable to express a negative opinion about a colleague.  Finally Allon reminds us that on international teams, delayed or written responses can simply reflect use of a second language, rather than anything relating to introversion/extroversion, and can lead to disadvantage in synchronous calls or chats. If you want to learn more follow @<a href="https://twitter.com/AllonShevat" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AllonShevat</a> on Twitter (and he is the secret mastermind behind another twitter account we also enjoy - but you’ll have to listen to find out which one!) We discussed many issues surrounding cultural differences in <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/global-virtual-teams" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Episode 201</a> with Theresa Sigillito Hollema and Surinder Kahai if you want more on this fascinating area, and also back in <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/differences-in-global-teams" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> episode 138</a> with Nancy Settle-Murphy.   All of this reflects the fact that so much more is now going on in the remote workspace conversation - we’ll be digging into the ongoing issue about <a href="https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1139551770580008960" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> hostility in the workplace</a> soon as it applies to remote, and other deep-dives into other burning issues are also coming your way. Please <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tell us</a> if there’s something specific you’d like us to research and explore. For now, thank you very much for listening!

WLP203: Talking about remote work: Introversion, culture and flexibility

A slightly different show today, with some new sections – we look forward to your feedback. We love reading your comments and tweets, whether about Pilar’s recent blog post on Visible Teamwork https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/hello-visible-teamwork, or what you think of book Thinking Remote: Inspiration for leaders and managers of distributed teams (now available in paperback) https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books - so do keep in touch with us! https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us  In today’s main section, Pilar and Maya discuss some recent articles about remote and office-optional working which have caught their attention, and raised a range of important issues: Engaging workers as consumers – Deloitte Insights 28-1-19  https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/talent/using-technology-for-employee-engagement.html Just as work and life are blended in 2019, workers and clients are no longer a dichotomy, and in a digital world we all relate to brands and organisations in complex ways. But they’re all rounded individuals, whether remote colleagues or clients or both! Technology enables more connection and socialisation, but can also create silos and barriers, especially as private conversations may be less visible online than in the colocated space.  There are lots of ways to keep in touch within distributed organisations – including an in-house podcast!   Flexible working can reinforce gender stereotypes - The Conversation Heejung Chung, University of Kent  https://theconversation.com/amp/flexible-working-can-reinforce-gender-stereotypes-109158 10-1-19 Reminding us that flexible working still takes place within a wider cultural and business context in which there remains considerable structural inequality, from the gender pay gap to unpaid domestic workload.  A very thought provoking article and discussion, from ‘flexibility stigma’ to the difference in remote working culture between the UK and US. Unpicking perceptions from actual phenomena is always complicated, but this stuff is far from straightfoward, and it matters.   The Slackification of work https://www.fastcompany.com/90236583/the-slackification-of-work Well, we didn’t know that Slack originally stood for ‘Searchable Log of All Conversations and Knowledge’ – but it has certainly had a big impact on many workplaces. The article raises questions about impacts on productivity and relationship, and there are some interesting perspectives. This has meant some managers having to get comfortable with conversations they don’t directly control. This always happened, people made their own relationships and connections at work, and the remote space is no different.  But there is a distinct qualitative difference between a face to face remark and one that is put in writing in any context… “ephemeral does not mean inconsequential“, sums it up perfectly.  "What do you mean by that?" We are joined today to define some important terms, by Dr Richard Mackinnon founder and MD of Work Life Psych Productivity: There are many definitions of this term, which may fit different industries and circumstances, but Richard describes it holistically as doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time. Framing in terms of impact rather than output, is one way to stop measuring the wrong things, and being busy instead of effective. Procrastination: Not always correctly used, but this term defines when we delay doing something, and that delay has a negative impact. Why do we do this, tell ourselves stories, and put things off until they become problematic? Just get on and make a start – check out ep7 of My Pocket Psych for more on this! Habit Stacking: Here’s one way to boost productivity (and maybe even beat procrastination), add the thing you want to do to the thing you already do, as a reminder and trigger. “When I finish eating dinner, I am going to clean the kitchen”. We won’t forget to eat! So connecting the two will enable the building of the new habit we really want to acquire. Productivity Porn: Reading about productivity, installing new apps, and thinking about how to be productive… That is the opposite of getting things done. Habits require consistency and commitment, and actually doing the work – not forever binging the latest theories and tools instead. Keep up with Richard at http://worklifepsych.com/, especially https://www.worklifepsych.com/solutions/productivity/, and of course the podcast (where our own Pilar Orti is a regular co-host) at https://www.worklifepsych.com/podcast/   What are you looking for? Teresa Douglas is the co-author (with Mike Webber and Holly Gordon) of Secrets of the Remote Workforce, Teresa is researching work friendships in remote teams, because the ways we connect are different online, as we have so often discussed. Are work friends different from work friends, are online friends different from face-to-face ones? It’s great to see someone exploring this, and planning to create specific tools to make things easier for remote workers in future. She would love to hear from more freelancers), as well as remote employees, to ensure breadth within the whole office-optional experience. (Research call-out specific to Spring 2019, but always good to connect anyway!) https://teresamdouglas.com/current-research/ Or connect with Teresa on Twitter https://twitter.com/teresamdouglas

A slightly different show today, with some new sections – we look forward to your feedback. We love reading your comments and tweets, whether about Pilar’s recent blog post on Visible Teamwork <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/hello-visible-teamwork" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/hello-visible-teamwork</a>, or what you think of book Thinking Remote: Inspiration for leaders and managers of distributed teams (now available in paperback) <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books</a> - so do keep in touch with us! <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us</a>  In today’s main section, Pilar and Maya discuss some recent articles about remote and office-optional working which have caught their attention, and raised a range of important issues: Engaging workers as consumers – Deloitte Insights 28-1-19 <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/talent/using-technology-for-employee-engagement.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/talent/using-technology-for-employee-engagement.html</a> Just as work and life are blended in 2019, workers and clients are no longer a dichotomy, and in a digital world we all relate to brands and organisations in complex ways. But they’re all rounded individuals, whether remote colleagues or clients or both! Technology enables more connection and socialisation, but can also create silos and barriers, especially as private conversations may be less visible online than in the colocated space.  There are lots of ways to keep in touch within distributed organisations – including an in-house podcast! Flexible working can reinforce gender stereotypes - The Conversation Heejung Chung, University of Kent <a href="https://theconversation.com/amp/flexible-working-can-reinforce-gender-stereotypes-109158" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://theconversation.com/amp/flexible-working-can-reinforce-gender-stereotypes-109158</a> 10-1-19 Reminding us that flexible working still takes place within a wider cultural and business context in which there remains considerable structural inequality, from the gender pay gap to unpaid domestic workload.  A very thought provoking article and discussion, from ‘flexibility stigma’ to the difference in remote working culture between the UK and US. Unpicking perceptions from actual phenomena is always complicated, but this stuff is far from straightfoward, and it matters. <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90236583/the-slackification-of-work" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Slackification of work</a> <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90236583/the-slackification-of-work" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.fastcompany.com/90236583/the-slackification-of-work</a> Well, we didn’t know that Slack originally stood for ‘Searchable Log of All Conversations and Knowledge’ – but it has certainly had a big impact on many workplaces. The article raises questions about impacts on productivity and relationship, and there are some interesting perspectives. This has meant some managers having to get comfortable with conversations they don’t directly control. This always happened, people made their own relationships and connections at work, and the remote space is no different.  But there is a distinct qualitative difference between a face to face remark and one that is put in writing in any context… “ephemeral does not mean inconsequential“, sums it up perfectly.  "What do you mean by that?" We are joined today to define some important terms, by Dr Richard Mackinnon founder and MD of Work Life Psych Productivity: There are many definitions of this term, which may fit different industries and circumstances, but Richard describes it holistically as doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time. Framing in terms of impact rather than output, is one way to stop measuring the wrong things, and being busy instead of effective. Procrastination: Not always correctly used, but this term defines when we delay doing something, and that delay has a negative impact. Why do we do this, tell ourselves stories, and put things off until they become problematic? Just get on and make a start – check out ep7 of My Pocket Psych for more on this! Habit Stacking: Here’s one way to boost productivity (and maybe even beat procrastination), add the thing you want to do to the thing you already do, as a reminder and trigger. “When I finish eating dinner, I am going to clean the kitchen”. We won’t forget to eat! So connecting the two will enable the building of the new habit we really want to acquire. Productivity Porn: Reading about productivity, installing new apps, and thinking about how to be productive… That is the opposite of getting things done. Habits require consistency and commitment, and actually doing the work – not forever binging the latest theories and tools instead. Keep up with Richard at <a href="http://worklifepsych.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://worklifepsych.com/</a>, especially <a href="https://www.worklifepsych.com/solutions/productivity/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.worklifepsych.com/solutions/productivity/</a>, and of course the podcast (where our own Pilar Orti is a regular co-host) at <a href="https://www.worklifepsych.com/podcast/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.worklifepsych.com/podcast/</a> What are you looking for? Teresa Douglas is the co-author (with Mike Webber and Holly Gordon) of Secrets of the Remote Workforce, Teresa is researching work friendships in remote teams, because the ways we connect are different online, as we have so often discussed. Are work friends different from work friends, are online friends different from face-to-face ones? It’s great to see someone exploring this, and planning to create specific tools to make things easier for remote workers in future. She would love to hear from more freelancers), as well as remote employees, to ensure breadth within the whole office-optional experience. (Research call-out specific to Spring 2019, but always good to connect anyway!) <a href="https://teresamdouglas.com/current-research/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://teresamdouglas.com/current-research/</a> Or connect with Teresa on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/teresamdouglas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/teresamdouglas</a>

WLP193 Talking Remote: Thoughts, Themes and Theories

Pilar shares her thoughts after attending a "jamming session" in London with other facilitators.   Reflections on how much to control the flow of conversation, the different expectations from an "online session", the imbalance that can occur between participants, moving the responsibility onto participants for staying engaged (if they want to be engaged!) and knowing why we're recording a session.   Let us know your thoughts over at www.virtualnotdistant.com

Pilar shares her thoughts after attending a "jamming session" in London with other facilitators.  Reflections on how much to control the flow of conversation, the different expectations from an "online session", the imbalance that can occur between participants, moving the responsibility onto participants for staying engaged (if they want to be engaged!) and knowing why we're recording a session.  Let us know your thoughts over at <a href="http://www.virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.virtualnotdistant.com</a>

Fickle Friday: Facilitating Online Sessions

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd. There’s more to remote work than improving life and work for those exploring its potential. Remote work can be a tool for social change - and today’s episode explores different ways that remote work can have broader impact, with a diverse range of stories and approaches. One quick update before we meet our expert interviewees: Pilar has a new podcast with the International Association of Facilitators - so if you’re interested in stories from the frontline of facilitation and learning and meetings, then do check that out and enjoy. Now, onwards with the social impact of remote: 04.13 Chris Slemp Chris Slemp is a Customer Success Manager for Modern Workplace, at Microsoft UK, and long-term friend of this show (joining us in episodes  123,  144 and  202) I asked Chris how remote work can help us build and be part of our community (wherever we want to build that, rather than necessarily at work)? He reminded us that commuting culture put responsibility on the workplace to provide ‘community’, and hubs like WeWork strive to provide everything the worker needs apart from sleep. But we have options now, and employers can dial it down a bit - Chris after all introduced us to the term ‘office optional’, and participating in office cultural activities (as opposed to work activities) should be optional too, freeing people to engage in their local communities as appropriate. Chris takes a fluid view of location-dependency and work, reminding us how flexible things can be, and that we all have a right to extend that optionality at other times. We can advocate for that flexibility for all workers, to take advantage of the technology now available to us. Chris also talked about the way remote work is affecting how and where people choose to live, and the social impact of this, a moving target for the future. Connect with Chris on LinkedIn (and tell him we said hi!). Remember that remote does not always mean flexible, and vice versa… check out  episode 21 of My Pocket Psych for more on this point, while we meet: 17.06 Mandy Gardner   Mandy is the managing editor of Working Mums and Working Wise (specialising in employment for over 50s), and joined us way back in  episode 74. So she’s been working with the idea of flexible working for years, since Working Mums started in 2006 (now joined by Working Dads as well as Working Wise, to advocate for and promote best practice around working flexibly for all). They work with employers to help them improve their recruitment and hiring, and has seen many changes in the flexible working agenda over that time. Employers are more open to the concept now, as the evidence is in to support flexibility. But there are still misconceptions (eg flexible = part time) among bigger less nimble organisations. Career progression remains an issue, as does being explicit about remote in recruitment advertising. Mandy sees flexibility becoming increasingly normalised into the future, as life grows ever more complex for parents, carers and all of us. 34.01 Nacho Rodriguez Nacho is the founder of the Nomad City conference run from Gran Canaria - a region working hard to attract remote workers, initially as digital nomads and now increasingly as employees. We talked about the conference with Nacho in episode 210, and we’ll have an update soon from Nomad City 2019 (in progress as this episode drops!). Revitalising traditional tourist areas with remote opportunities brings new blood and fresh ideas, as well as creating opportunities for local people to get involved, and the conference has evolved over its 4 year history to embrace ideas ranging from economic development to onboarding remote colleagues to collaboration tech, as well as an invitation-only summit for experienced advocates and consultants. On the social impact front, the event includes a job fayre to connect local people with remote employers - opening up new opportunities for all.   Lorraine Charles Remote means no borders - and Lorraine Charles is  working with refugees in Jordan and Turkey to facilitate employment opportunities in the refugee population there.  Protectionist labour market laws often restrict employment locally, so technology and the right training can enable broader opportunities for all the population.  Location-independent livelihoods provides refugees with resilient futures, and helps stimulate the local economy, in countries which are themselves developing and struggling to deal with an influx of new residents.  Remote work can do so much to change the narrative for employment and make everyone’s lives better - not just for refugees, but parents, disabled people, those who don’t want to migrate to a mega-city somewhere... But as well as hard and soft skills training, there are needs for better infrastructure, technology and support. Lorraine is actively seeking partners, to help them train refugees, and commit to hiring - can you help, or make a connection?  Contact Lorraine via LinkedIn or email, and check out  her research paper, or contact us and we’ll put you in touch. Impact investment is also needed, to create sustainable pathways to growth in emergent markets, while also leveraging the initiatives and expertise of those who have been courageous enough to uproot their lives and start over.   1.02.30 Laurel Farrel Laurel consults and advocates for remote working through Distribute Consulting, and joined us in  episode 189 when we discussed loneliness and remote. She sees the real power and value of our lives in the ripple effects of social change, impacting on equality, the environment and economic development amongst so many other things. Reversing the cycle of traditionally having to bring businesses in to attract employees, remote work can do so much to support declining areas from the US midwest to rural Africa - this article of Lauren’s,  Could remote work be economic development’s new secret weapon? may be two years old, but every point remains relevant somewhere! Local advocates are needed to build trust on the ground, and solve specific local challenges - every community is unique, and solutions must be tailored and bespoke. People need and want different things from where they choose to live, and once that is decoupled from a job place the possibilities can be overwhelming.  Locations need to learn to promote themselves differently, to attract remote workers seeking particular lifestyles, rather than attracting businesses - and this is a win-win for all, as new residents pay tax and spend their income earned remotely. Initiatives encouraging people to relocate include financial incentives in places like Tulsa and Vermont, and ever more creative solutions are continuing to emerge.  As remote work creates more diverse and rich populations, as people are able to choose where to live, completely separately from choosing the work they do. This is changing communities, as well as changing lives. Don't forget to keep in touch and let us know what you think, at Virtual Not Distant, or tweet us at @Virtualteamw0rk.  Hope this episode inspired you as much our guests inspired us! Please do share your thoughts and ideas.

Brought to you by <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Not Distant Ltd</a>. There’s more to remote work than improving life and work for those exploring its potential. Remote work can be a tool for social change - and today’s episode explores different ways that remote work can have broader impact, with a diverse range of stories and approaches. One quick update before we meet our expert interviewees: Pilar has a new podcast with the International Association of Facilitators - so if you’re interested in stories from the frontline of facilitation and learning and meetings, then do <a href="http://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">check that out</a> and enjoy. Now, onwards with the social impact of remote: 04.13 Chris Slemp Chris Slemp is a Customer Success Manager for Modern Workplace, at Microsoft UK, and long-term friend of this show (joining us in episodes <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/collaboration-environment?rq=wlp123" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 123</a>, <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/training-remote-managers?rq=wlp144" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 144</a> and <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/tech-v-strategy?rq=wlp202" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 202</a>) I asked Chris how remote work can help us build and be part of our community (wherever we want to build that, rather than necessarily at work)? He reminded us that commuting culture put responsibility on the workplace to provide ‘community’, and hubs like WeWork strive to provide everything the worker needs apart from sleep. But we have options now, and employers can dial it down a bit - Chris after all introduced us to the term ‘office optional’, and participating in office cultural activities (as opposed to work activities) should be optional too, freeing people to engage in their local communities as appropriate. Chris takes a fluid view of location-dependency and work, reminding us how flexible things can be, and that we all have a right to extend that optionality at other times. We can advocate for that flexibility for all workers, to take advantage of the technology now available to us. Chris also talked about the way remote work is affecting how and where people choose to live, and the social impact of this, a moving target for the future. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cslemp/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Connect with Chris on LinkedIn</a> (and tell him we said hi!). Remember that remote does not always mean flexible, and vice versa… check out <a href="https://www.worklifepsych.com/podcast/ep-021-making-flexible-working-work/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> episode 21 of My Pocket Psych</a> for more on this point, while we meet: 17.06 Mandy Gardner   Mandy is the managing editor of <a href="http://www.workingmums.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Working Mums</a> and <a href="http://workingwise.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Working Wise</a> (specialising in employment for over 50s), and joined us way back in <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/working%20mums?rq=wlp74" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> episode 74</a>. So she’s been working with the idea of flexible working for years, since Working Mums started in 2006 (now joined by Working Dads as well as Working Wise, to advocate for and promote best practice around working flexibly for all). They work with employers to help them improve their recruitment and hiring, and has seen many changes in the flexible working agenda over that time. Employers are more open to the concept now, as the evidence is in to support flexibility. But there are still misconceptions (eg flexible = part time) among bigger less nimble organisations. Career progression remains an issue, as does being explicit about remote in recruitment advertising. Mandy sees flexibility becoming increasingly normalised into the future, as life grows ever more complex for parents, carers and all of us. 34.01 Nacho Rodriguez Nacho is the founder of the <a href="https://www.nomadcity.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nomad City</a> conference run from Gran Canaria - a region working hard to attract remote workers, initially as digital nomads and now increasingly as employees. We talked about the conference with Nacho in <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/nomadcity" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">episode 210</a>, and we’ll have an update soon from Nomad City 2019 (in progress as this episode drops!). Revitalising traditional tourist areas with remote opportunities brings new blood and fresh ideas, as well as creating opportunities for local people to get involved, and the conference has evolved over its 4 year history to embrace ideas ranging from economic development to onboarding remote colleagues to collaboration tech, as well as an invitation-only summit for experienced advocates and consultants. On the social impact front, the event includes a job fayre to connect local people with remote employers - opening up new opportunities for all.   Lorraine Charles Remote means no borders - and Lorraine Charles is <a href="https://refugeework.net/digital-refugee-livelihoods-and-the-future-of-work/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> working with refugees in Jordan and Turkey</a> to facilitate employment opportunities in the refugee population there.  Protectionist labour market laws often restrict employment locally, so technology and the right training can enable broader opportunities for all the population.  Location-independent livelihoods provides refugees with resilient futures, and helps stimulate the local economy, in countries which are themselves developing and struggling to deal with an influx of new residents.  Remote work can do so much to change the narrative for employment and make everyone’s lives better - not just for refugees, but parents, disabled people, those who don’t want to migrate to a mega-city somewhere... But as well as hard and soft skills training, there are needs for better infrastructure, technology and support. Lorraine is actively seeking partners, to help them train refugees, and commit to hiring - can you help, or make a connection? <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraine-charles-94545214/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Contact Lorraine via LinkedIn</a> or <a href="http://lorraine@naamal.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">email</a>, and check out <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K-wLImhxow21zHBQDbgVQMG4ZH4ZwdDV/view" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> her research</a> paper, or <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">contact us</a> and we’ll put you in touch. Impact investment is also needed, to create sustainable pathways to growth in emergent markets, while also leveraging the initiatives and expertise of those who have been courageous enough to uproot their lives and start over.   1.02.30 Laurel Farrel <a href="https://www.laurelfarrer.com/about/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laurel</a> consults and advocates for remote working through <a href="https://www.distributeconsulting.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Distribute Consulting</a>, and joined us in <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcast/loneliness-of-remote" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> episode 189</a> when we discussed loneliness and remote. She sees the real power and value of our lives in the ripple effects of social change, impacting on equality, the environment and economic development amongst so many other things. Reversing the cycle of traditionally having to bring businesses in to attract employees, remote work can do so much to support declining areas from the US midwest to rural Africa - this article of Lauren’s, <a href="https://www.yonder.io/post/could-remote-work-be-economic-developments-new-secret-weapon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Could remote work be economic development’s new secret weapon?</a> may be two years old, but every point remains relevant somewhere! Local advocates are needed to build trust on the ground, and solve specific local challenges - every community is unique, and solutions must be tailored and bespoke. People need and want different things from where they choose to live, and once that is decoupled from a job place the possibilities can be overwhelming.  Locations need to learn to promote themselves differently, to attract remote workers seeking particular lifestyles, rather than attracting businesses - and this is a win-win for all, as new residents pay tax and spend their income earned remotely. Initiatives encouraging people to relocate include financial incentives in places like Tulsa and Vermont, and ever more creative solutions are continuing to emerge.  As remote work creates more diverse and rich populations, as people are able to choose where to live, completely separately from choosing the work they do. This is changing communities, as well as changing lives. Don't forget to keep in touch and let us know what you think, at <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Not Distant</a>, or tweet us at @Virtualteamw0rk. Hope this episode inspired you as much our guests inspired us! Please do share your thoughts and ideas.

WLP212 Remote Work for Social Change

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Looking back at 2019, it’s been a busy year - we’ve a lot to look forward to in 2020, but first it’s time to reflect on a transformational time for remote working. We discuss research, infrastructure, technology and wellbeing issues and how they have shifted through the year - while we also look ahead at what's to come. For full shownotes please see https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-now-what, where highlights include: 22.46 interview with Rowena Hennigan, remote work advocate. https://www.rowenahennigan.com/ 22.45 tech round-up - what a lot of changes we have seen, in the tools available for remote working and 59.15 loneliness and mental health in remote - an issue we'll surely hear more about in future. We have lots more to bring you in 2020, including a new podcast mini-series with a brand-new collaborator to share with you. We also want to answer YOUR big questions about work/remote work in 2020, so please contact us. Or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with any of your thoughts and ideas And meanwhile, we wish you a very happy end of year break however you are celebrating, and every good wish for 2020 - from Pilar, Maya and Ross at the 21st Century Work Life podcast.

Brought to you by <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Not Distant</a> Looking back at 2019, it’s been a busy year - we’ve a lot to look forward to in 2020, but first it’s time to reflect on a transformational time for remote working. We discuss research, infrastructure, technology and wellbeing issues and how they have shifted through the year - while we also look ahead at what's to come. For full shownotes please see <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-now-what," rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-now-what,</a> where highlights include: 22.46 interview with Rowena Hennigan, remote work advocate. <a href="https://www.rowenahennigan.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.rowenahennigan.com/</a> 22.45 tech round-up - what a lot of changes we have seen, in the tools available for remote working and 59.15 loneliness and mental health in remote - an issue we'll surely hear more about in future. We have lots more to bring you in 2020, including a new podcast mini-series with a brand-new collaborator to share with you. We also want to answer YOUR big questions about work/remote work in 2020, so please <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">contact us</a>. Or you can tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/VirtualTeamw0rk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Not Distant</a>, or <a href="https://twitter.com/PilarOrti" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pilar</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/mayamiddlemiss" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Maya</a> directly, with any of your thoughts and ideas And meanwhile, we wish you a very happy end of year break however you are celebrating, and every good wish for 2020 - from Pilar, Maya and Ross at the 21st Century Work Life podcast.

WLP215 "Remote" has Taken Off. Now, What?

00:45 Pilar talks about "the problem with trust" at work and the Trust Equation, created by the Trusted Advisor. (for transcript check out wlpodcast.com)10:36 Virtual Coffee with Lisette.11:20 Pilar and Lisette plug the No Pants Festival. http://www.nopantsfest.be/13:00 Lisette talks about her Collaboration Superpowers workshop. 14:30 Trust at work19:15 Why does video help to build trust? Likeability and the power of small gifts.27.40 Should we use "tricks"?30:48 Trust starts with ourselves. 33:40 Propensity to trust and our own experiences. 39:40 Retrospectives and addressing the breakdown of trust. LINKShttp://www.thefutureorganization.com/future-work-podcast-episode-4-charles-h-green-trust-future-work/http://www.apaexcellence.org/assets/general/2013-work-and-wellbeing-survey-results.pdfhttp://trustedadvisor.com/articles

00:45 Pilar talks about "the problem with trust" at work and the Trust Equation, created by the Trusted Advisor. (for transcript check out <a href="http://wlpodcast.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wlpodcast.com</a>)10:36 Virtual Coffee with Lisette.11:20 Pilar and Lisette plug the No Pants Festival. <a href="http://www.nopantsfest.be/13:00" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.nopantsfest.be/13:00</a> Lisette talks about her Collaboration Superpowers workshop. 14:30 Trust at work19:15 Why does video help to build trust? Likeability and the power of small gifts.27.40 Should we use "tricks"?30:48 Trust starts with ourselves. 33:40 Propensity to trust and our own experiences. 39:40 Retrospectives and addressing the breakdown of trust. LINKShttp://<a href="http://www.thefutureorganization.com/future-work-podcast-episode-4-charles-h-green-trust-future-work/http://www.apaexcellence.org/assets/general/2013-work-and-wellbeing-survey-results.pdfhttp://trustedadvisor.com/articles" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.thefutureorganization.com/future-work-podcast-episode-4-charles-h-green-trust-future-work/http://www.apaexcellence.org/assets/general/2013-work-and-wellbeing-survey-results.pdfhttp://trustedadvisor.com/articles</a>

WLP15 Trust at Work

21st century work-life has many differences from the traditional paradigm, and one of these differences is the many ways we can use technology to make our work visible to others.  Even when we’re working remotely the internet can remove the walls, and we can decide consciously whether and at what point our work will be of value to others if we choose to share it.  It’s all about visible teamwork – and the way this has evolved from ‘working out loud’, to become something far more deliberate and conscious. We are used to this as an internal concept, how we share with one another (and we’ll explore this in far greater detail when we bring you our special series on ‘Thinking Remote’ and our upcoming training course). But what about how we share publicly, when our sharing becomes part of our brand expression and content dissemination? Even when we’re recording our podcast, we’re talking about our work with an awareness that there’s an audience, a third party to the conversation, which brings qualitative differences to how we think about and discuss what we are working on… Someone who has been "working out loud” https://blog.freistil.it/working-out-loud-doesnt-mean-being-noisy-c71010e0d236 in the team for a long time, and since evolved the practice to share outside of his organisation is Jochen Lillich, from Freistil.it. (Pilar actually recorded this last year, but he’s only doing more of it now!). 14.08 The voice behind the blog: Jochen Lillich  https://blog.freistil.it/turning-working-out-loud-to-11-live-coding-on-twitch-7dface39203e Friestil is the German word for ‘freestyle’, and his blog post explains how Jochen came to be livestreaming his work on Twitch, about as ‘out loud’ as you can possibly work. Twice a week at fixed times he does his coding in public, narrating in real time as he does the work, and also managing a live chat about what he’s doing. It’s like a screencast, but completely live and unedited, radically transparent. As a gamer, progressing from recording for internal use to livestreaming publicly felt like a natural transition for Jochen, and reflects Freistil’s transparency values – as coding is an unpredictable environment, things don’t always go to plan. The community - whose numbers grow steadily – can even suggest and help out when things get stuck, and Jochen feels strongly that his work has improved as a direct result of this regular broadcasting. Committing to the twice-weekly slots creates structure and accountability as well as a learning environment - an interesting solution perhaps, to the discipline issues some people struggle with when working from home… As well as weekday sessions, Jochen is also live coding on Saturdays 3.30pm, to reach people who can’t make sessions during the working week.  Tune in here if you’re curious to see Jochen in action! https://www.twitch.tv/fullstacklive ___ So how else could this kind of radical transparency be used to make our work visible? Maya is the first to admit that as an introverted writer, she couldn’t imagine anything worse than ‘writing out loud’ in this way (and declined Pilar’s challenge to try it!).  But Jason Fried from Basecamp has done just this and created a Youtube channel called ‘Getting Real – how we work at Basecamp’ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdx5Dk3EWTe2i8YDA7bfl6g (their podcast Behind the Scenes https://rework.fm/go-behind-the-scenes/ is also a great example of their approach).  Maybe it naturally suits certain industries, like the very open-source based software industry, to work in this way - though it obviously can work for collaborative writing projects. But at what point could ego get in the way and offset the benefits the Hawthorne effect (where we raise our game because others are watching) brings to the situation? Lots to consider… But sharing this way can only increase informal learning within the organisation, not least as it provides a focus, for watching and conversation (we found evidence for this in “Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work”, by Michael Eraut, British Journal of educational psychology, 2000, 70, 113-136).  It also reflects the blended aspect of organisational community, in which people can move fluidly between roles such as employment, contracting, consumption, being a brand ambassador (have a look at episode 193 when we discussed an article about just this kind of silo-busting).  Certainly in hybrid teams, where remote employees might be concerned about their visibility, livestreaming certainly adds new possibilities for making yourself and your work manifest - both within and without the organisation. Red flags: obviously there might be security aspects, considerations of intellectual property and personal data. With coding in particular there must be risks of disclosing sensitive content accidentally.  It requires very explicit understanding of boundaries – what is part of the public story? It’s not about sharing everything, but sharing meaningfully and appropriately. For more on this, Pilar recommends reading “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon. Even the most transparent organisation has some ‘trade secrets’ – and once again, really conscious and deliberate practice must be the solution.  But it’s great to see the opening of content like company handbooks online, such as MeetEdgar and Buffer (who share so much! Even salary data! https://open.buffer.com/transparent-salaries/), and it’s an excellent way of communicating company culture to potential new hires. Start with your own team, if you need to get comfortable with greater levels of spontaneous transparency and visible teamwork… Take a look at our podcasting products, for your team or organisation, as a potential first step. If you don’t want to share your face or your screen, just sharing your voice is amazingly intimate, and reminds us of the variety of ways we can communicate   57.11 Richard Mackinnon: Workplace Psychology Definitions Today we have 3 more fascinating definitions from the workplace psychology expert Richard Mackinnon: Psychological Contract – we have legal contracts of employment in the workplace, but it can’t encompass every aspect of what we do. We supplement this with built expectations, particularly with our direct management… But if these expectations are not discussed, it’s easy for the other party to breach this ‘psychological contract’ (eg “if I work late tonight, I can leave early on Thursday”). Explicit discussion matters - exposing the expectations below the waterline really helps avoid misunderstandings and potential conflicts (see episode 19 of My Pocket Psych podcast for more on this) Stress – What Richard experiences when Pilar asks him to define complex terms in a few sentences! But true stress is when the demands upon us exceed our capacity to deal with it all, and as such it’s highly subjective, and hard to deal with. Identifying the source is a good start, because you can only reduce stress by tackling its cause. See episode 13 of My Pocket Psych for greater detail. Resilience – from adverse circumstances can come personal growth, and make us stronger… Increased self-awareness, learning from experience, and new perspectives. It’s not about bouncing back to where we were before, but being somewhere new on our developmental journey, a point we only reach as a result of what we have experienced. More on this in episode 16 of My Pocket Psych This concludes our series of definitions with Richard, but check out My Pocket Psych, on which Pilar is a regular co-host, and worklifepsych.com for lots of additional inspiring content about the way individuals and teams function.

21st century work-life has many differences from the traditional paradigm, and one of these differences is the many ways we can use technology to make our work visible to others.  Even when we’re working remotely the internet can remove the walls, and we can decide consciously whether and at what point our work will be of value to others if we choose to share it.  It’s all about visible teamwork – and the way this has evolved from ‘working out loud’, to become something far more deliberate and conscious. We are used to this as an internal concept, how we share with one another (and we’ll explore this in far greater detail when we bring you our special series on ‘Thinking Remote’ and our upcoming training course). But what about how we share publicly, when our sharing becomes part of our brand expression and content dissemination? Even when we’re recording our podcast, we’re talking about our work with an awareness that there’s an audience, a third party to the conversation, which brings qualitative differences to how we think about and discuss what we are working on… Someone who has been "working out loud” <a href="https://blog.freistil.it/working-out-loud-doesnt-mean-being-noisy-c71010e0d236" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://blog.freistil.it/working-out-loud-doesnt-mean-being-noisy-c71010e0d236</a> in the team for a long time, and since evolved the practice to share outside of his organisation is Jochen Lillich, from <a href="http://Freistil.it" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freistil.it</a>. (Pilar actually recorded this last year, but he’s only doing more of it now!). 14.08 The voice behind the blog: Jochen Lillich <a href="https://blog.freistil.it/turning-working-out-loud-to-11-live-coding-on-twitch-7dface39203e" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://blog.freistil.it/turning-working-out-loud-to-11-live-coding-on-twitch-7dface39203e</a> Friestil is the German word for ‘freestyle’, and his blog post explains how Jochen came to be livestreaming his work on Twitch, about as ‘out loud’ as you can possibly work. Twice a week at fixed times he does his coding in public, narrating in real time as he does the work, and also managing a live chat about what he’s doing. It’s like a screencast, but completely live and unedited, radically transparent. As a gamer, progressing from recording for internal use to livestreaming publicly felt like a natural transition for Jochen, and reflects Freistil’s transparency values – as coding is an unpredictable environment, things don’t always go to plan. The community - whose numbers grow steadily – can even suggest and help out when things get stuck, and Jochen feels strongly that his work has improved as a direct result of this regular broadcasting. Committing to the twice-weekly slots creates structure and accountability as well as a learning environment - an interesting solution perhaps, to the discipline issues some people struggle with when working from home… As well as weekday sessions, Jochen is also live coding on Saturdays 3.30pm, to reach people who can’t make sessions during the working week.  Tune in here if you’re curious to see Jochen in action! <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/fullstacklive" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.twitch.tv/fullstacklive</a> ___ So how else could this kind of radical transparency be used to make our work visible? Maya is the first to admit that as an introverted writer, she couldn’t imagine anything worse than ‘writing out loud’ in this way (and declined Pilar’s challenge to try it!).  But Jason Fried from Basecamp has done just this and created a Youtube channel called ‘Getting Real – how we work at Basecamp’ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdx5Dk3EWTe2i8YDA7bfl6g" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdx5Dk3EWTe2i8YDA7bfl6g</a> (their podcast Behind the Scenes <a href="https://rework.fm/go-behind-the-scenes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://rework.fm/go-behind-the-scenes/</a> is also a great example of their approach).  Maybe it naturally suits certain industries, like the very open-source based software industry, to work in this way - though it obviously can work for collaborative writing projects. But at what point could ego get in the way and offset the benefits the Hawthorne effect (where we raise our game because others are watching) brings to the situation? Lots to consider… But sharing this way can only increase informal learning within the organisation, not least as it provides a focus, for watching and conversation (we found evidence for this in “Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work”, by Michael Eraut, British Journal of educational psychology, 2000, 70, 113-136).  It also reflects the blended aspect of organisational community, in which people can move fluidly between roles such as employment, contracting, consumption, being a brand ambassador (have a look at episode 193 when we discussed an article about just this kind of silo-busting).  Certainly in hybrid teams, where remote employees might be concerned about their visibility, livestreaming certainly adds new possibilities for making yourself and your work manifest - both within and without the organisation. Red flags: obviously there might be security aspects, considerations of intellectual property and personal data. With coding in particular there must be risks of disclosing sensitive content accidentally.  It requires very explicit understanding of boundaries – what is part of the public story? It’s not about sharing everything, but sharing meaningfully and appropriately. For more on this, Pilar recommends reading “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon. Even the most transparent organisation has some ‘trade secrets’ – and once again, really conscious and deliberate practice must be the solution.  But it’s great to see the opening of content like company handbooks online, such as MeetEdgar and Buffer (who share so much! Even salary data! <a href="https://open.buffer.com/transparent-salaries/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://open.buffer.com/transparent-salaries/</a>), and it’s an excellent way of communicating company culture to potential new hires. Start with your own team, if you need to get comfortable with greater levels of spontaneous transparency and visible teamwork… Take a look at our podcasting products, for your team or organisation, as a potential first step. If you don’t want to share your face or your screen, just sharing your voice is amazingly intimate, and reminds us of the variety of ways we can communicate 57.11 Richard Mackinnon: Workplace Psychology Definitions Today we have 3 more fascinating definitions from the workplace psychology expert Richard Mackinnon: Psychological Contract – we have legal contracts of employment in the workplace, but it can’t encompass every aspect of what we do. We supplement this with built expectations, particularly with our direct management… But if these expectations are not discussed, it’s easy for the other party to breach this ‘psychological contract’ (eg “if I work late tonight, I can leave early on Thursday”). Explicit discussion matters - exposing the expectations below the waterline really helps avoid misunderstandings and potential conflicts (see episode 19 of My Pocket Psych podcast for more on this) Stress – What Richard experiences when Pilar asks him to define complex terms in a few sentences! But true stress is when the demands upon us exceed our capacity to deal with it all, and as such it’s highly subjective, and hard to deal with. Identifying the source is a good start, because you can only reduce stress by tackling its cause. See episode 13 of My Pocket Psych for greater detail. Resilience – from adverse circumstances can come personal growth, and make us stronger… Increased self-awareness, learning from experience, and new perspectives. It’s not about bouncing back to where we were before, but being somewhere new on our developmental journey, a point we only reach as a result of what we have experienced. More on this in episode 16 of My Pocket Psych This concludes our series of definitions with Richard, but check out My Pocket Psych, on which Pilar is a regular co-host, and <a href="http://worklifepsych.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">worklifepsych.com</a> for lots of additional inspiring content about the way individuals and teams function.

WLP196 Transparency Inside and Out

 For once we are truly working from home, because we’re recording this episode in Maya’s home office! Usually we record from different countries on Skype, but it’s quite fun and very appropriate to do things differently today.   This podcast is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant, a London-based consultancy helping organisations transition to successful office-optional working. What’s going on? Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recently unveiled an $18 billion transportation investment bill that includes a tax credit that will give companies more flexibility in offering work from home perks to their employees -  more on LinkedIn here. Employers are not supporting tech learning, at least not as much as their employees would like. This UK research in  People Management was disappointing to read. The reasons why are not clear, but the expressed frustration certainly is. Leaving people to figure things out for themselves is NOT the way to implement effective digital transformation!  WeWork have cancelled - sorry, postponed - their forthcoming IPO Pilar and Maya don’t really get it, the corporate co-working movement and replicating the office you’ve left behind, but clearly some people love it… Not enough to fundamentally shift the problems of office space costs, but maybe it’s good to remind us of the many different options in terms of co-working alone.  Work From Home Week - listen to Rebecca Corliss, VP of Marketing at Owl Labs, recapping on this interesting initiative they promoted in July, encouraging corporate partners to experiment systematically with home working.  It’s great to learn more about their ‘Meeting Owl’ product as well, a 365 degree conferencing camera that puts the remote participants in the centre of the hybrid meeting, instead of stuck up on the wall somewhere. Work From Home Week was a great experiment which taught participants a great deal, and the blog post shares these fascinating insights.  “#WFHW” will be repeated, but you don’t have to wait : Why not have your own ‘work from home week’ within your organisation? BBC Bitesize have been writing about ‘workplace perks’, and we all went ‘ahhh’ about the concept of ‘Fur-ternity’ leave - offering new pet-parents the option of working from home for a week while settling a new non-human family member. Anything that brings on experimenting with remote working is fine by us, as is any embrace of the diversity and individuality of human motivation. Pilar has been a panelist this week for a  Minds at Work event, which was run as a hybrid event in London plus a parallel remote one, while the two cohorts were kept completely separate.  The remote side used Remo, a new tool for remote events, which worked very well - offering lots of flexibility for participants to ‘choose a table’ and talk to each other, then listen to broadcasts in bigger sessions. Event sessions included finding your community at work, and how that differs in the remote space (do people still meet their best friends or their life partners at work?), as well as the ways we communicate and changing degrees of formality and the evolution of the business conversation generally.  So many shifts, and the question of how to make remote work better are often questions about how to make work better generally… this event and others are really helping to broaden the conversation, and if you get the chance to participate in one in future, why not check it out? You can do so from anywhere in the world, for example somewhere like Maya’s home office - which she has recently reclaimed from a shared space, banishing her other half to his own home office in another room! She has added a comfortable arm chair for reading and research, and also a standing desk zone (though the way this is being used as a bookshelf reveals that not a lot of standing up takes place every day) - at least the theory is there, and it’s good not to sit too much!  Also to change your focal point, by looking at something further away than the screen in front of your nose. A work in progress, Maya is doing her best to organise the space - small as it is - by function, to create different zones for different activities, which is a powerful way to overcome any feeling of being “stuck in one place” all day, as well as switching up the energy: Pilar does a similar thing moving around her apartment, and both enjoy getting out of the home office and interacting with other people in the neighbourhood too. And how about if more employers encouraged people to do things in their community, safeguarded the time needed to take a class or do some exercise? Surely everyone’s health AND productivity would improve.  But you can always find ways to connect when remote working, such as apps like FocusMate - which pairs you with an accountability partner to work alongside  remotely via webcam. Anything which helps you get things done is worth a try, though some people might find it distracting or want to talk to the other person and get to know them - which is the opposite of the whole idea. We would love to hear your thoughts about working from home - which is just one aspect of remote working and wholly optional one. Let us know what you thought of this episode, what you think of working from home, and what you’d like us to explore and discuss next. Send us your comments, or catch up on Twitter to join the conversation.

For once we are truly working from home, because we’re recording this episode in Maya’s home office! Usually we record from different countries on Skype, but it’s quite fun and very appropriate to do things differently today.   This podcast is brought to you by <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Not Distant</a>, a London-based consultancy helping organisations transition to successful office-optional working. What’s going on? Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recently unveiled an $18 billion transportation investment bill that includes a tax credit that will give companies more flexibility in offering work from home perks to their employees - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bentzygoldman_remotework-futureofwork-telecommuting-activity-6574338790926745601-NukG" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> more on LinkedIn</a> here. Employers are not supporting tech learning, at least not as much as their employees would like. This UK research in <a href="https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/three-quarters-of-workers-want-to-develop-new-skills-but-employers-deny-them" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> People Management</a> was disappointing to read. The reasons why are not clear, but the expressed frustration certainly is. Leaving people to figure things out for themselves is NOT the way to implement effective digital transformation! <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/wework-reportedly-postpones-ipo-lack-of-investor-interest-2019-9-1028529278" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> WeWork have cancelled - sorry, postponed - their forthcoming IPO</a> Pilar and Maya don’t really get it, the corporate co-working movement and replicating the office you’ve left behind, but clearly some people love it… Not enough to fundamentally shift the problems of office space costs, but maybe it’s good to remind us of the many different options in terms of co-working alone. <a href="https://www.owllabs.com/blog/work-from-home-week-recap" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Work From Home Week</a> - listen to Rebecca Corliss, VP of Marketing at Owl Labs, recapping on this interesting initiative they promoted in July, encouraging corporate partners to experiment systematically with home working.  It’s great to learn more about their ‘<a href="https://www.owllabs.com/meeting-owl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Meeting Owl</a>’ product as well, a 365 degree conferencing camera that puts the remote participants in the centre of the hybrid meeting, instead of stuck up on the wall somewhere. Work From Home Week was a great experiment which taught participants a great deal, and the blog post shares these fascinating insights.  “#WFHW” will be repeated, but you don’t have to wait : Why not have your own ‘work from home week’ within your organisation? BBC Bitesize have been writing about ‘<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z44dcqt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">workplace perks</a>’, and we all went ‘ahhh’ about the concept of ‘Fur-ternity’ leave - offering new pet-parents the option of working from home for a week while settling a new non-human family member. Anything that brings on experimenting with remote working is fine by us, as is any embrace of the diversity and individuality of human motivation. Pilar has been a panelist this week for a <a href="https://www.workingmums.co.uk/mentally-healthy-remote-working/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Minds at Work event</a>, which was run as a hybrid event in London plus a parallel remote one, while the two cohorts were kept completely separate.  The remote side used <a href="https://remo.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Remo</a>, a new tool for remote events, which worked very well - offering lots of flexibility for participants to ‘choose a table’ and talk to each other, then listen to broadcasts in bigger sessions. Event sessions included finding your community at work, and how that differs in the remote space (do people still meet their best friends or their life partners at work?), as well as the ways we communicate and changing degrees of formality and the evolution of the business conversation generally.  So many shifts, and the question of how to make remote work better are often questions about how to make work better generally… this event and others are really helping to broaden the conversation, and if you get the chance to participate in one in future, why not check it out? You can do so from anywhere in the world, for example somewhere like Maya’s home office - which she has recently reclaimed from a shared space, banishing her other half to his own home office in another room! She has added a comfortable arm chair for reading and research, and also a standing desk zone (though the way this is being used as a bookshelf reveals that not a lot of standing up takes place every day) - at least the theory is there, and it’s good not to sit too much!  Also to change your focal point, by looking at something further away than the screen in front of your nose. A work in progress, Maya is doing her best to organise the space - small as it is - by function, to create different zones for different activities, which is a powerful way to overcome any feeling of being “stuck in one place” all day, as well as switching up the energy: Pilar does a similar thing moving around her apartment, and both enjoy getting out of the home office and interacting with other people in the neighbourhood too. And how about if more employers encouraged people to do things in their community, safeguarded the time needed to take a class or do some exercise? Surely everyone’s health AND productivity would improve.  But you can always find ways to connect when remote working, such as apps like <a href="https://www.focusmate.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FocusMate</a> - which pairs you with an accountability partner to work alongside  remotely via webcam. Anything which helps you get things done is worth a try, though some people might find it distracting or want to talk to the other person and get to know them - which is the opposite of the whole idea. We would love to hear your thoughts about working from home - which is just one aspect of remote working and wholly optional one. Let us know what you thought of this episode, what you think of working from home, and what you’d like us to explore and discuss next. Send us your <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">comments</a>, or catch up on <a href="https://twitter.com/virtualteamw0rk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> to join the conversation.

WLP208 Working from home and staying healthy

Join Pilar and Lisette for a much longer virtual coffee than usual, recapping some of 2014's work stories and picking some of the trends. Our starting point was a series of articles, which you can find in www.wlpodcast.com. Do share with us your thoughts by commenting on the post with episode 10 or connecting via Twitter: @PilarOrti for myself and @lightling for Lisette.We wish you all the very best for 2015!00:30 Lisette shares with us what she's been up to and her plans for next year. 04:50 Some buzzwords and concepts that became mainstream this year, including Working Out Loud.12:25 Work-life fusion.19:00 Telepresence and using video in training.30:48 Networked organisations.36:23 Flexible working goes mainstream.47:19 Third space workplaces.56:00 Jacob Morgan's article about whether the workplace can keep up

Join Pilar and Lisette for a much longer virtual coffee than usual, recapping some of 2014's work stories and picking some of the trends. Our starting point was a series of articles, which you can find in <a href="http://www.wlpodcast.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.wlpodcast.com</a>. Do share with us your thoughts by commenting on the post with episode 10 or connecting via Twitter: @PilarOrti for myself and @lightling for Lisette.We wish you all the very best for 2015! 00:30 Lisette shares with us what she's been up to and her plans for next year. 04:50 Some buzzwords and concepts that became mainstream this year, including Working Out Loud.12:25 Work-life fusion. 19:00 Telepresence and using video in training. 30:48 Networked organisations. 36:23 Flexible working goes mainstream. 47:19 Third space workplaces. 56:00 Jacob Morgan's article about whether the workplace can keep up

WLP10 The World of Work in 2014

Welcome to episode 202 of the 21st Century Work Life podcast from Virtual Not Distant, where today we’re revisiting the roles of tech - particularly chat-based platforms - in teams, and the relationship between tech and strategy… Interestingly much of which also applies nowadays within organisations we don’t think of as ‘remote’, and depends a great deal on how we agree to use the tools at our disposal (including our expectations regarding speed of reply) Don’t forget to come and say hello to us on Twitter, @VirtualTeamW0rk and @PilarOrti… we love to talk to our listeners, and we talk about all sorts of interesting things, like a new feature in MSTeams which  Pilar had a strong reaction to… Maybe there are some situations where text is better than a call, even when it’s urgent? Do join in and tell us what you think.  And please bear with us as our website is being updated, we’re bringing you a refreshed look and feel and some great new content - in particular look out for more about our self-paced learning programme to accompany the Thinking Remote book, if you’re serious about improving your remote leadership practice. 21st Century Work Life: Chris Slemp, Customer Success Manager at Microsoft Today’s guest Chris actually introduced us to one of our favourite phrases, ‘Office-Optional’, so it was great to talk to him for the third time on our podcast.  Moving from a small consultancy to Microsoft gave Chris and his wife a chance to relocate to Scotland, and his work involves helping people to be more productive with the tools they already own. To support customers they use a blend of face to face visits but also online, and of course they use Microsoft Teams. Clients include organisations like police forces and local councils and other workplaces we might not think of as ‘remote’, but actually involve people in many locations, including many non-office situations, and reminding us that it’s not only knowledge workers who can benefit from these tools. The work is not location-dependent, so the communication should not be. From a customer support point of view, it’s essential to understand and relate to roles outside of the IT dept, even if that’s the first point of contact. Technology needs to be a partner, not a supplier, to realise its potential these days, and help businesses solve their problems effectively. We should be driven by the need, not by the tech. Even within their own team they had to evolve the way they used their own tools effectively, and improving meant an ongoing blend of coaching individuals and moderating and managing the conversation itself. Perhaps the problem is that the tools now look and feel so similar to those we use in our personal lives, where we’re used to pleasing ourselves what we do with them, and we really need a team agreement or a ‘collaboration constitution’ to nail down the way we’re going to do things. In a flattened organisation, tools enable visibility which enhances influence. Different communications styles may be advantaged by different modes, and we need to learn new ways of engaging effectively. TL;DR - the person posting the right gif might get more engagement than the one with the long insightful text. Teams need different kinds of social glue, and the asynchronous space is still overly text-heavy, to its detriment. MSTeams is bringing functionality to record and stream voice calls and meetings, which creates automatic transcripts and even translations - AI is making this doable with increasing accuracy, and it means that audio becomes searchable on a par with text. The future role of AI is a fascinating area, and at Microsoft they are talking deeply about the ethics as well as the enablement it can bring. Intentionality solves a lot of problems, as machine learning frees up a lot of time from administrative tasks, and might help us avoid repeating the mistakes already made in social media. But what about areas like sentiment analysis? Yammer is looking into this functionality, as well as a bot to recognise and respond to FAQs, for everyone who would rather ask than search. Have a look at Chris’ site http://whichtoolwhen.com/ for more insight, into this and other ongoingly essentials questions. And keep up with Chris on Twitter to join the conversation.   48.08 Tools: Otter.ai Maya and Pilar talk about text into speech, using this AI-driven tool, which also works well with multiple voices too.   Instead of detailed notes on this segment, here’s the full  transcript of our conversation instead, courtesy of Otter! And a brief after-word: We did some research about the privacy angles of using Otter and similar apps…  Here’s one take on it from Zdnet which was unsurprising, and the main thing is that you need to read the small print and make your own mind up, whether use of any given tool is inline with your objectives and stated policies as an organisation. This does also remind us why many organisations are choosing to keep their entire digital workspace within a single ecosystem.  This is an important issue to which we shall doubtless return. 54:00 Wellbeing: Transitioning to remote as a journey of discovery At Virtual Not Distant we see this transition as an opportunity to dissect and discuss our teamwork, the ways we interact and work together - has this evolved unconsciously, or is this what we want to be doing? Have we got the courage to really examine this, and make bigger changes if we need to? This is much bigger than which tool we use and how, and we should be scrutinising this on a regular basis, not just when things go wrong. What do we each value about each aspect of our work?  It’s easy to assume others think like we do, and for both physical and digital workspaces to reflect the preferences of a minority. You can’t really enter into this discussion without some self reflection on what helps YOU do your own best work. If you are very specific and clear about what you do and don’t like, what you value and enjoy about your work, then you can think about how best to replicate this online. Transitioning to remote is a chance to reassess where we want to invest our energies and attention, as individuals and as a team.

Welcome to episode 202 of the 21st Century Work Life podcast from <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Not Distant,</a> where today we’re revisiting the roles of tech - particularly chat-based platforms - in teams, and the relationship between tech and strategy… Interestingly much of which also applies nowadays within organisations we don’t think of as ‘remote’, and depends a great deal on how we agree to use the tools at our disposal (including our expectations regarding speed of reply) Don’t forget to come and say hello to us on Twitter, @VirtualTeamW0rk and @PilarOrti… we love to talk to our listeners, and we talk about all sorts of interesting things, like a new feature in MSTeams which <a href="https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1140980081193390085" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Pilar had a strong reaction to…</a> Maybe there are some situations where text is better than a call, even when it’s urgent? Do join in and tell us what you think.  And please bear with us as our website is being updated, we’re bringing you a refreshed look and feel and some great new content - in particular look out for more about our self-paced learning programme to accompany the Thinking Remote book, if you’re serious about improving your remote leadership practice. 21st Century Work Life: Chris Slemp, Customer Success Manager at Microsoft Today’s guest Chris actually introduced us to one of our favourite phrases, ‘Office-Optional’, so it was great to talk to him for the third time on our podcast.  Moving from a small consultancy to Microsoft gave Chris and his wife a chance to relocate to Scotland, and his work involves helping people to be more productive with the tools they already own. To support customers they use a blend of face to face visits but also online, and of course they use Microsoft Teams. Clients include organisations like police forces and local councils and other workplaces we might not think of as ‘remote’, but actually involve people in many locations, including many non-office situations, and reminding us that it’s not only knowledge workers who can benefit from these tools. The work is not location-dependent, so the communication should not be. From a customer support point of view, it’s essential to understand and relate to roles outside of the IT dept, even if that’s the first point of contact. Technology needs to be a partner, not a supplier, to realise its potential these days, and help businesses solve their problems effectively. We should be driven by the need, not by the tech. Even within their own team they had to evolve the way they used their own tools effectively, and improving meant an ongoing blend of coaching individuals and moderating and managing the conversation itself. Perhaps the problem is that the tools now look and feel so similar to those we use in our personal lives, where we’re used to pleasing ourselves what we do with them, and we really need a team agreement or a ‘collaboration constitution’ to nail down the way we’re going to do things. In a flattened organisation, tools enable visibility which enhances influence. Different communications styles may be advantaged by different modes, and we need to learn new ways of engaging effectively. TL;DR - the person posting the right gif might get more engagement than the one with the long insightful text. Teams need different kinds of social glue, and the asynchronous space is still overly text-heavy, to its detriment. MSTeams is bringing functionality to record and stream voice calls and meetings, which creates automatic transcripts and even translations - AI is making this doable with increasing accuracy, and it means that audio becomes searchable on a par with text. The future role of AI is a fascinating area, and at Microsoft they are talking deeply about the ethics as well as the enablement it can bring. Intentionality solves a lot of problems, as machine learning frees up a lot of time from administrative tasks, and might help us avoid repeating the mistakes already made in social media. But what about areas like sentiment analysis? Yammer is looking into this functionality, as well as a bot to recognise and respond to FAQs, for everyone who would rather ask than search. Have a look at Chris’ site <a href="http://whichtoolwhen.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://whichtoolwhen.com/</a> for more insight, into this and other ongoingly essentials questions. And keep up with <a href="https://twitter.com/@cslemp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chris on Twitter</a> to join the conversation.   48.08 Tools: <a href="http://Otter.ai" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Otter.ai</a> Maya and Pilar talk about text into speech, using this AI-driven tool, which also works well with multiple voices too.   Instead of detailed notes on this segment, here’s the full <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5889b9529de4bb99f28c01aa/t/5d29b04067549100014d442e/1563013184977/OtterTest.mp3_otter.ai+%281%29.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> transcript</a> of our conversation instead, courtesy of Otter! And a brief after-word: We did some research about the privacy angles of using Otter and similar apps… <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/otter-popular-new-transcription-app-raises-privacy-red-flags/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Here’s one take on it from Zdnet</a> which was unsurprising, and the main thing is that you need to read the small print and make your own mind up, whether use of any given tool is inline with your objectives and stated policies as an organisation. This does also remind us why many organisations are choosing to keep their entire digital workspace within a single ecosystem.  This is an important issue to which we shall doubtless return. 54:00 Wellbeing: Transitioning to remote as a journey of discovery At Virtual Not Distant we see this transition as an opportunity to dissect and discuss our teamwork, the ways we interact and work together - has this evolved unconsciously, or is this what we want to be doing? Have we got the courage to really examine this, and make bigger changes if we need to? This is much bigger than which tool we use and how, and we should be scrutinising this on a regular basis, not just when things go wrong. What do we each value about each aspect of our work?  It’s easy to assume others think like we do, and for both physical and digital workspaces to reflect the preferences of a minority. You can’t really enter into this discussion without some self reflection on what helps YOU do your own best work. If you are very specific and clear about what you do and don’t like, what you value and enjoy about your work, then you can think about how best to replicate this online. Transitioning to remote is a chance to reassess where we want to invest our energies and attention, as individuals and as a team.

WLP202 Tech comes second to strategy

In this episode, Pilar explains why the structure of the podcast is changing and the plans we have for the content. Also, you can now find the podcast in Spotify and as an Alexa skill. Plus, we're thinking of launching an in-house podcast service for companies making the transition to remote, looking for creative ways of keeping the workforce connected.   Do send us suggestions for content or any questions you have about remote work or other workplace trends/terminology.   At around 11 minutes, you can listen to the audio version of the blog post, "Now that I'm Remote, Can Anyone See How Hard I'm Working?"  If you're done listening and prefer reading, here's the link to the blog post: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/presenteeism-in-remote-teams

In this episode, Pilar explains why the structure of the podcast is changing and the plans we have for the content. Also, you can now find the podcast in Spotify and as an Alexa skill. Plus, we're thinking of launching an in-house podcast service for companies making the transition to remote, looking for creative ways of keeping the workforce connected.  Do send us suggestions for content or any questions you have about remote work or other workplace trends/terminology.  At around 11 minutes, you can listen to the audio version of the blog post, "Now that I'm Remote, Can Anyone See How Hard I'm Working?" If you're done listening and prefer reading, here's the link to the blog post: <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/presenteeism-in-remote-teams" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/presenteeism-in-remote-teams</a>

WLP164 How we'll be changing the podcast and first audio blog post

We continue talking about co-working, this time with Bernie J. Mitchell, who tells us about engineering connections between members of co-working spaces. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com   From freelancing to supporting freelancers. The journey from visitor to key staff member Bernie's role in WorkHubs is connecting people. "Helping people finding their voice with each other." "Finding ways of connecting people without engineering it too much." What things haven't worked - (guess what, pure socialising is not the most important). Focused meetups. Bernie shares how he arrived at the most efficient mode of communication within the community. Involving the community in the running of the space. What does co-working mean to people? Learning about their members' stories: why they do what they do and how they ended up doing it. Do online platforms help co-working communities? What has Bernie tried? Bernie mentions: https://included.co/ https://www.loomio.org/https://fizzle.co/ Coworking Europe

We continue talking about co-working, this time with Bernie J. Mitchell, who tells us about engineering connections between members of co-working spaces. visit <a href="http://www.virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.virtualnotdistant.com</a> From freelancing to supporting freelancers. The journey from visitor to key staff member Bernie's role in WorkHubs is connecting people. "Helping people finding their voice with each other." "Finding ways of connecting people without engineering it too much." What things haven't worked - (guess what, pure socialising is not the most important). Focused meetups. Bernie shares how he arrived at the most efficient mode of communication within the community. Involving the community in the running of the space. What does co-working mean to people? Learning about their members' stories: why they do what they do and how they ended up doing it. Do online platforms help co-working communities? What has Bernie tried? Bernie mentions: <a href="https://included.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://included.co/</a> <a href="https://www.loomio.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.loomio.org/</a><a href="https://fizzle.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://fizzle.co/</a> Coworking Europe

WLP158 - Bringing People Together in Co-working Spaces

Today’s episode was the direct result of a Twitter conversation, in which Pilar mused about the distinction between collaboration and co-operation  https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1095252618941734914, and Matt Ballantine was among the people who responded – thank you to everyone who joined in this fascinating discussion, and it’s great to have been able to continue it on the podcast – how much more 21st Century Work-Life can you get? And speaking of social media, the warm reception to Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Remote Teams has been a joy to read – thank you everyone for the great feedback and reviews, we’re so glad that this Virtual Not Distant publication has struck a chord. If you’ve read it, don’t forget to let us know what you think (and if you’re waiting for the paper version, it’s coming very soon) https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books 05:01 Voice Behind the Blog, Matt Ballantine, “The Collaboration Cheat-Sheet” Matt Ballantine, cohost of the WB40 Podcast https://wb40podcast.com/, created this amazing ‘cheat sheet’ for some UK government consultation work last year, looking at the meaning of collaboration.  https://mmitii.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/collaboration-cheat-sheet.pdf It’s an amazing document which generates as many questions as it answers, because making change in the first place requires commitment and engagement and very clear understanding of the purpose of changing. Why improve collaboration, and what would that look like? And how much responsibility lies with organisations rather than individuals?  If collaboration is not happening, then the problem is probably not technological – so how can you address the systemic barriers and better align the incentives for all? Matt breaks down these barriers one by one, and challenges organisations to address the issues presented. Looking at issues of trust, access and the way we frame our work social environment creates powerful new frames through which to look at ways to collaborate, and reminds us that our teams and enterprises do not exist in isolation from the rest of the physical and virtual world. His 7 Team Persona model is a powerful way to consider your team as an entity, in ways you might never previously have considered.  It can help you choose the kind of structures and set-up you need for your digital workplace - and the assumptions behind the design of collaboration tools and software are also very interesting to unpick, because the type of team who builds an application might be very different from those who need to use it. Also a fascinating dissection of the difference between behaviour and culture within organisations, and which you should attempt to change and why. Changing behaviour within cultural context is far easier. Either way, who really owns and takes charge of the change? Get ready to deep dive down the rabbit hole with Matt and Pilar, and afterwards you’ll want to keep up with Matt’s work at https://stamplondon.co.uk/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/ballantine70 "Good practice when it comes to interaction and collaboration comes from learning how to get there not from being told what best practice is".   51.24 Recommended Tool: Google Docs  Does anyone need an introduction to “Gdocs”? Well yes, because not everyone appreciates the flexibility and powerful collaboration tools built into it. And also because it has improved a great deal in recent years, to now offer word processing capabilities easily on a par with Word or Pages.  Maya and Pilar work on lots of written projects together, and find it a great way to connect and communicate as they edit, comment and even discuss a shared document in real time. You can collaborate with just about anyone, even if they’re not logged in to Google or part of your team (though you might find them anonymised to a strange animal!)  And you can even create tasks and tags for other users of the document. With a range of integrations and add-ons, you might find Google Docs the free and platform agnostic tool you’ve been looking for all along – but if you prefer something different, then please tell us all about it – via our Contact Form or social media @Virtualteamw0rk

Today’s episode was the direct result of a Twitter conversation, in which Pilar mused about the distinction between collaboration and co-operation <a href="https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1095252618941734914" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1095252618941734914</a>, and Matt Ballantine was among the people who responded – thank you to everyone who joined in this fascinating discussion, and it’s great to have been able to continue it on the podcast – how much more 21st Century Work-Life can you get? And speaking of social media, the warm reception to Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Remote Teams has been a joy to read – thank you everyone for the great feedback and reviews, we’re so glad that this Virtual Not Distant publication has struck a chord. If you’ve read it, don’t forget to let us know what you think (and if you’re waiting for the paper version, it’s coming very soon) <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books</a> 05:01 Voice Behind the Blog, Matt Ballantine, “The Collaboration Cheat-Sheet” Matt Ballantine, cohost of the WB40 Podcast <a href="https://wb40podcast.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://wb40podcast.com/</a>, created this amazing ‘cheat sheet’ for some UK government consultation work last year, looking at the meaning of collaboration. <a href="https://mmitii.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/collaboration-cheat-sheet.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://mmitii.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/collaboration-cheat-sheet.pdf</a> It’s an amazing document which generates as many questions as it answers, because making change in the first place requires commitment and engagement and very clear understanding of the purpose of changing. Why improve collaboration, and what would that look like? And how much responsibility lies with organisations rather than individuals?  If collaboration is not happening, then the problem is probably not technological – so how can you address the systemic barriers and better align the incentives for all? Matt breaks down these barriers one by one, and challenges organisations to address the issues presented. Looking at issues of trust, access and the way we frame our work social environment creates powerful new frames through which to look at ways to collaborate, and reminds us that our teams and enterprises do not exist in isolation from the rest of the physical and virtual world. His 7 Team Persona model is a powerful way to consider your team as an entity, in ways you might never previously have considered.  It can help you choose the kind of structures and set-up you need for your digital workplace - and the assumptions behind the design of collaboration tools and software are also very interesting to unpick, because the type of team who builds an application might be very different from those who need to use it. Also a fascinating dissection of the difference between behaviour and culture within organisations, and which you should attempt to change and why. Changing behaviour within cultural context is far easier. Either way, who really owns and takes charge of the change? Get ready to deep dive down the rabbit hole with Matt and Pilar, and afterwards you’ll want to keep up with Matt’s work at <a href="https://stamplondon.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://stamplondon.co.uk/</a> and on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/ballantine70" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/ballantine70</a> "Good practice when it comes to interaction and collaboration comes from learning how to get there not from being told what best practice is". 51.24 Recommended Tool: Google Docs  Does anyone need an introduction to “Gdocs”? Well yes, because not everyone appreciates the flexibility and powerful collaboration tools built into it. And also because it has improved a great deal in recent years, to now offer word processing capabilities easily on a par with Word or Pages.  Maya and Pilar work on lots of written projects together, and find it a great way to connect and communicate as they edit, comment and even discuss a shared document in real time. You can collaborate with just about anyone, even if they’re not logged in to Google or part of your team (though you might find them anonymised to a strange animal!)  And you can even create tasks and tags for other users of the document. With a range of integrations and add-ons, you might find Google Docs the free and platform agnostic tool you’ve been looking for all along – but if you prefer something different, then please tell us all about it – via our Contact Form or social media @Virtualteamw0rk

WLP191 Improving Collaboration in Organisations

Pilar talks to Dom Price from Atlassian about how to maintain a playful, collaborative mindset in a growing organisation. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com  Introduction Pilar mentions these other podcast episodes that might be of interest: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/trello-and-coffee (with Brian Cervino from Trello)  https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/evolve-rituals-include-remote-colleagues-2/ (with Dom Price, today’s guest) The Conversation The role of Work Futurist. His job involves looking at macro-level trends in the workplace to understand the complexity of the future world of work. (Although much of it is guess work...) How Dom takes the "less hippo, more elephant" approach into his interactions with other companies/organisations. What Atlassian does and where its employees are based. From 500 to +2,000 people and the change that this brings. How Dom’s role emerged and how Atlassian developed its own way of staying agile. They have now opened up their internal ways of working: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook “We don’t want to be famous for how big we are, but for how awesome we are.” How and why the playbook was created and opened up. “As we scale, we want to feel smaller, not bigger. More creative, not slower.” As the company has grown, it has become more distributed in many ways. A shared language and way of working has become essential. Building the awareness in companies of the need to remain adaptable and the dangers of “transformations”. Preventing hierarchies from emerging as your company grows and how the fear of failure could be driving this. How you operate has nothing to do with size, it’s all to do with attitude and mindset. If we have to add something in, what other things can we stop doing? “Collaboration is about being willing to be wrong.” “Organisational structure can give you a comfort blanket that’s not real.” How remote working is evolving at Atlassian and how so many assumptions were challenged after acquiring Trello.  Dom’s article on remote working:  https://www.inc.com/dom-price/why-ending-remote-work-in-name-of-collaboration-is-bs.html @DomPrice on Twitter

Pilar talks to Dom Price from Atlassian about how to maintain a playful, collaborative mindset in a growing organisation. visit <a href="http://www.virtualnotdistant.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.virtualnotdistant.com</a> Introduction Pilar mentions these other podcast episodes that might be of interest: <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/trello-and-coffee" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/trello-and-coffee</a> (with Brian Cervino from Trello) <a href="https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/evolve-rituals-include-remote-colleagues-2/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/evolve-rituals-include-remote-colleagues-2/</a> (with Dom Price, today’s guest) The Conversation The role of Work Futurist. His job involves looking at macro-level trends in the workplace to understand the complexity of the future world of work. (Although much of it is guess work...) How Dom takes the "less hippo, more elephant" approach into his interactions with other companies/organisations. What Atlassian does and where its employees are based. From 500 to +2,000 people and the change that this brings. How Dom’s role emerged and how Atlassian developed its own way of staying agile. They have now opened up their internal ways of working: <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook</a> “We don’t want to be famous for how big we are, but for how awesome we are.” How and why the playbook was created and opened up. “As we scale, we want to feel smaller, not bigger. More creative, not slower.” As the company has grown, it has become more distributed in many ways. A shared language and way of working has become essential. Building the awareness in companies of the need to remain adaptable and the dangers of “transformations”. Preventing hierarchies from emerging as your company grows and how the fear of failure could be driving this. How you operate has nothing to do with size, it’s all to do with attitude and mindset. If we have to add something in, what other things can we stop doing? “Collaboration is about being willing to be wrong.” “Organisational structure can give you a comfort blanket that’s not real.” How remote working is evolving at Atlassian and how so many assumptions were challenged after acquiring Trello. Dom’s article on remote working: <a href="https://www.inc.com/dom-price/why-ending-remote-work-in-name-of-collaboration-is-bs.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.inc.com/dom-price/why-ending-remote-work-in-name-of-collaboration-is-bs.html</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/domprice?lang=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@DomPrice</a> on Twitter

WLP156 - Playful Growth at Atlassian

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd - head over to our detailed shownotes for more depth on the main discussion, as well as links to all our other episodes, services and content. Today’s episode is all about planned spontaneity. But firstly our regular news round-up: 01.30 What’s going on  Owl Labs has released their ‘State of Remote Work 2019’ report. It highlights a huge variety in the meaning and scope of remote work, a reminder that we should not assume it means the same thing to different people On the other hand, research from  Airtasker published by Yahoo tells us that remote workers work more and have poorer work-life balance, and paints a very different picture to the report above. But that just goes to show how hard it is to compare like with like in this fragmented space. What do you think? Here’s the link to the  original research. Co-working - apparently the best low-cost option  in San Francisco is a parking space - and why not! It might not work quite so well in London… Lots of interest here, including the idea of co-working becoming unaffordable in city hotspots, and the human connection of this ties in nicely with today’s theme of spontaneity New co-working options like And Co (UK), and CoCo (US/International) are seeking to reclaim work space on a more flexible and fractional way, so maybe this will be the future? More grassroots and user-centric than the WeWork corporate top-down stuff, maybe that’s what we need to get back to… Slack released a load of updates this week, including a tool to invite up to 1000 users to a channel. Do we want to be in Slack channels with thousands of users? Well, these tools continue to evolve in response to users, and they’re replacing intranets in large organisations. Let’s hope everyone knows how to manage their notifications! Looking ahead to an upcoming episode on social change, and the general idea that ‘remote work is the future’, we do need to make sure we’re not excluding whole industries or categories of work. Remote may be the future for knowledge workers, but let’s be careful not to generalise and create divisions. The future is blended and flexible, rather than specifically ‘remote’.    26.44 Planned Spontaneity Please see https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/planned-spontaneity - or simply enjoy the conversation.

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd - head over to our <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/planned-spontaneity" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">detailed shownotes</a> for more depth on the main discussion, as well as links to all our other episodes, services and content. Today’s episode is all about planned spontaneity. But firstly our regular news round-up: 01.30 What’s going on <ul> <li>Owl Labs has released their ‘<a href="https://www.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work/2019" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">State of Remote Work 2019</a>’ report. It highlights a huge variety in the meaning and scope of remote work, a reminder that we should not assume it means the same thing to different people</li> <li>On the other hand, research from <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remote-workers-more-less-life-160551366.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEy76a8BPR9ApMhqiNj_LB3MfJsKSGBYBEudY6McIpZ5O2ENRVJI9Z2b-GtffqWVE3jf-gEZmL_mAOKSAYIEIqtdRL7UrWIYkojICPdx8DLj3HwfriCKiJVGNoEPvSssgzwU8KA7GIqWzRoDWQXZtsx2pFrcxxKImX-jxG6JAbKl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Airtasker published by Yahoo</a> tells us that remote workers work more and have poorer work-life balance, and paints a very different picture to the report above. But that just goes to show how hard it is to compare like with like in this fragmented space. What do you think? Here’s the link to the <a href="https://www.airtasker.com/blog/the-benefits-of-working-from-home/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> original research</a>.</li> <li>Co-working - apparently the best low-cost option <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90342223/the-newest-hot-coworking-space-costs-just-2-25-an-hour-because-it-is-a-parking-spot" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> in San Francisco is a parking space</a> - and why not! It might not work quite so well in London… Lots of interest here, including the idea of co-working becoming unaffordable in city hotspots, and the human connection of this ties in nicely with today’s theme of spontaneity</li> <li>New co-working options like <a href="https://www.andco.life/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">And Co</a> (UK), and <a href="https://www.gowithco.co" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CoCo</a> (US/International) are seeking to reclaim work space on a more flexible and fractional way, so maybe this will be the future? More grassroots and user-centric than the WeWork corporate top-down stuff, maybe that’s what we need to get back to…</li> <li>Slack released a load of updates this week, including a tool to invite up to 1000 users to a channel. Do we want to be in Slack channels with thousands of users? Well, these tools continue to evolve in response to users, and they’re replacing intranets in large organisations. Let’s hope everyone knows how to manage their notifications!</li> <li>Looking ahead to an upcoming episode on social change, and the general idea that ‘remote work is the future’, we do need to make sure we’re not excluding whole industries or categories of work. Remote may be the future for knowledge workers, but let’s be careful not to generalise and create divisions. The future is blended and flexible, rather than specifically ‘remote’.</li> </ul>   26.44 Planned Spontaneity Please see <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/planned-spontaneity" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/planned-spontaneity</a> - or simply enjoy the conversation.

WLP211 Planned Spontaneity 

A packed show today, where we look at some of the issues concerned with leading and connecting over distances – as we must in the virtual workplace. Stay tuned for further developments, including our powerful new tool for ‘learning out loud’ – developing a team podcast together. Meanwhile, on with our own podcast! 3.07 The Voice Behind the Book: Kevin Eikenberry, The Long Distance Leader rules for remarkable remote leadership (coauthored with Wayne Turmel) Kevin and Wayne have been in the leadership business for 25 years (congratulations on the milestone anniversary!) – so they’ve seen many changes, in the way the workplace looks and feels. Acknowledging that some very senior people are now having to lead in a very new environment, where they don’t see their teams all the time, they wrote the book to explore the new skills and techniques this world demands… Whilst affirming that leadership in essence has not changed. Kevin walks the talk, his hybrid team is spread across the US, rarely all meeting in person. He and Wayne collaborated remotely on the book too.  And of course their work with clients is all remote, enabling them to identify common areas of conscious and unconscious incompetence in the remote leadership space.  Some great insights in this interview, about how we model everything as leaders, from use of technology to intentional communication.  Kevin has many new projects in the pipeline, so watch this space! Kevineikenberry.com, remoteleadershipinstitute.com –  ‘if you can spell my name, you can find me online’. 29.01 Recommended Tool: Proposify Maya’s latest shiny thing, is a tool for creating proposals. A bespoke app for compiling costs and deliverables quickly and effectively, and making them look nice.  Lots of great templates, but they’re fully customisable It’s a premium browser-based application with user access control, it also offers tracking and analytics – so you can see if your client has opened the document, even how long they spent on each section. And it has signature boxes, so you can use it for contracts and agreements – which would work well for internal use too. A final bonus is really good quality customer support. This tool does have a learning curve, but they do help you to get the most out of it.  Https://proposify.com   34.33 Oh No, My Team’s Gone Remote - How will team members know I value them? Appreciation can be hard to squeeze in to a busy and productive work environment. We manage what we can measure – outputs, sales, milestones… So the softer indicators of a thriving professional environment, such as pride and respect and affection, can get overlooked. Even in a colocated team, gratitude and acknowledgement might get squeezed into little looks and moments – and these can be too easily omitted from the kind of tools we use to get things done online. If you make them a part of your regular practice of ‘working out loud’, they’ll become part of your working day more naturally – check out  https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/wlp170-working-out-loud  For more on the implications of this. In this reflective piece, Pilar shares some practical ideas for making use of remote collaboration tools to express thanks, publicly and privately, for a job well done – and all that our remote colleagues bring to our working day. For more on this check out: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/appreciation-in-virtual-teams And the tool, Canva, which Pilar recommends for creating visual ‘thank you notes’, is something we explored more fully here: https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/wlp173-publishing-books Please tell us what you think, why not tweet us at @Virtualteamw0rk and share your thoughts. 

A packed show today, where we look at some of the issues concerned with leading and connecting over distances – as we must in the virtual workplace. Stay tuned for further developments, including our powerful new tool for ‘learning out loud’ – developing a team podcast together. Meanwhile, on with our own podcast! 3.07 The Voice Behind the Book: Kevin Eikenberry, The Long Distance Leader rules for remarkable remote leadership (coauthored with Wayne Turmel) Kevin and Wayne have been in the leadership business for 25 years (congratulations on the milestone anniversary!) – so they’ve seen many changes, in the way the workplace looks and feels. Acknowledging that some very senior people are now having to lead in a very new environment, where they don’t see their teams all the time, they wrote the book to explore the new skills and techniques this world demands… Whilst affirming that leadership in essence has not changed. Kevin walks the talk, his hybrid team is spread across the US, rarely all meeting in person. He and Wayne collaborated remotely on the book too.  And of course their work with clients is all remote, enabling them to identify common areas of conscious and unconscious incompetence in the remote leadership space.  Some great insights in this interview, about how we model everything as leaders, from use of technology to intentional communication.  Kevin has many new projects in the pipeline, so watch this space! <a href="http://Kevineikenberry.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kevineikenberry.com</a>, <a href="http://remoteleadershipinstitute.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">remoteleadershipinstitute.com</a> –  ‘if you can spell my name, you can find me online’. 29.01 Recommended Tool: Proposify Maya’s latest shiny thing, is a tool for creating proposals. A bespoke app for compiling costs and deliverables quickly and effectively, and making them look nice.  Lots of great templates, but they’re fully customisable It’s a premium browser-based application with user access control, it also offers tracking and analytics – so you can see if your client has opened the document, even how long they spent on each section. And it has signature boxes, so you can use it for contracts and agreements – which would work well for internal use too. A final bonus is really good quality customer support. This tool does have a learning curve, but they do help you to get the most out of it.  <a href="Https://proposify.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Https://proposify.com</a>   34.33 Oh No, My Team’s Gone Remote - How will team members know I value them? Appreciation can be hard to squeeze in to a busy and productive work environment. We manage what we can measure – outputs, sales, milestones… So the softer indicators of a thriving professional environment, such as pride and respect and affection, can get overlooked. Even in a colocated team, gratitude and acknowledgement might get squeezed into little looks and moments – and these can be too easily omitted from the kind of tools we use to get things done online. If you make them a part of your regular practice of ‘working out loud’, they’ll become part of your working day more naturally – check out  <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/wlp170-working-out-loud" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/wlp170-working-out-loud</a>  For more on the implications of this. In this reflective piece, Pilar shares some practical ideas for making use of remote collaboration tools to express thanks, publicly and privately, for a job well done – and all that our remote colleagues bring to our working day. For more on this check out: <a href="https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/appreciation-in-virtual-teams" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/appreciation-in-virtual-teams</a> And the tool, Canva, which Pilar recommends for creating visual ‘thank you notes’, is something we explored more fully here: <a href="https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/wlp173-publishing-books" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/wlp173-publishing-books</a> Please tell us what you think, why not tweet us at @Virtualteamw0rk and share your thoughts.

WLP181 Long Distance Leadership

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