21st Century Work Life - Remote Working, Virtual Teams And Flexible Working

visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In today’s episode, Richard A. MacKinnon explains the concept of psychological flexibility and how we can change our behaviour to be values-led rather than emotion-led. If you enjoy this episode, check out the ten episodes of the Management Café podcast and Evidence Talks. http://www.worklifepsych.com/ Richard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WorkLifePsych Psychological Flexibility – it can be developed. The fact that professionals are being trained in this skill shows that we are acknowledging the wholeness of people coming to work. Emotions! Values! Can we talk about these at work? So, what is psychological flexibility? A set of skills that support each other (thinking and behavioural skills) that allow you to step aside from troubling thoughts and emotions and not let them take over the situation. Values-led action rather than emotions-led action. Are emotions heightened when we go remote? Letting our values guide us. Checking assumptions before we let our emotions guide us.

Further reflections after yesterday's episode on how employees are being tracked so that customers can get better service.  I also came across this article to complement our short discussion on the nature and future of education:  Who's Building the Infrastructure for Lifelong Learning by Linda Gratton. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/whos-building-the-infrastructure-for-lifelong-learning/

Visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In this episode, Pilar and Lisette discuss five articles that have caught their eye in the last few months. (1) Scraping data from LinkedIn to get insights into your employees. Hmm… “The law's authors could not possibly have envisioned such a scenario when drawing up the bill. (You’ll hear that often - this isn’t the first time an ancient law has been crowbarred into a modern dispute.)” Are laws falling behind the world of work? (And the world!) https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-40932487 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/court-rejects-linkedin-claim-that-unauthorized-scraping-is-hacking/ https://www.hiqlabs.com/legal (2) Are we going too far with sensors in the office? The fine line between being watched and gathering data in the office to improve the use of space. Communication – do employees know why they’re being monitored? https://qz.com/1002705/herman-miller-creator-of-the-aeron-chair-wants-to-make-your-desk-more-l

Before contacting me to appear in the podcast, or on behalf of a potential guest, please listen to this episode.  If you are a listener, go ahead just sent me a note, we don;t have to record a full episode, anything will do. Just email me and we can talk. Or go to virtualnotdistant.com and use the contact form. If you've just come across the podcast and think it might be good to appear in it, make sure you like the tone; make sure you will enjoy talking to me (not everyone does!) and make sure what you have to offer is in line with the show. The show is broad, but it does have a few themes running through it. If you are contacting me on behalf of someone else, if they've asked you to contact me, great. If not, same goes, make sure they are the right fit - not that on paper they sound like the right fit, please listen to the show first. And before we start scheduling the show, make sure they ok with appearing in it. So there you go, in a nutshell, podcasts seem like a great way of promoting yourself an

Just touching base with you today while I catch up with the backlog of conversations. Here's a little blog post that was quite popular last month: "How to Stop Worrying about Whether People are Getting the Work Done at Home". If you prefer to read the blog post, here's the link: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/how-do-you-measure-results-in-remote-team

In this episode, Pilar explains the benefits of having regular update meetings with your remote team. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Pilar mentions this article by Amy Edmondson and Bror Saxberg Putting Lifelong Learning on the CEO Agenda. http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/putting-lifelong-learning-on-the-ceo-agenda (We cover Psychological Safety also in Episode 9 of Management Café.) If you would like to be a Beta Reader for “Online Meetings that Rock”, sign up here https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/meetings-book/ 08:00mins The kind of team Pilar is talking about: Those with a decent timezone overlap. Don’t Cancel your Regular Team Meetings! Conversations not Presentations Nurturing Connections Technology becomes Your Friend Soon They Will be Everywhere! Check out episode 136 on how Automattic uses video to engage with customers. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/happiness-at-automattic There’s reference to episode 557 of HBR Ideacast “Restoring Sanity to the O

In this episode Pilar talks to Nancy Settle-Murphy about the challenges of working with people based in other countries. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In the introduction, Pilar shares the different reasons why people might not be acting on feedback, or asking for clarification: Avoiding losing face Seeking harmony Unconditional respect for authority Lack of trust She mentions this previous episode with Hugo Messer on working in global teams: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/across-continents You can also listen to Nancy and Pilar’s previous conversation on “Facilitating Virtual Meetings”, https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/facilitating-virtual-meetings A hierarchical view of the world: My way is the only way. How much is Headquarters imposing a way of working? “Assumptions in a way are shortcuts to finding a solution.” Should we be making generalisations and assumptions about how people work because they belong to one culture? Maybe it’s our best first guess… What areas of working life m

In this episode, Pilar talks to David Burkus, author of “Under New Management”, an overview of those organisations experimenting with new ways of leading teams and managing people. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com If you would like to be a Beta Reader of “Online Meetings that Rock”, please click here: http://bit.ly/betameeting David Burkus is the author of Under New Management: How Leading Organisations Are Upending Business as Usual. Grab the book now! We reflect on what a long way technology has come and how we’re so lucky to have seen how it has evolved. David’s work as Professor. His location is fantastic for going to and from speaking engagements! How much David takes from the classroom to your work as author and speaker and viceversa? What do business students expect to learn? What are their attitudes towards the world of work? David talks about the sports’ “team captain” as the analogy for the leadership roles business students are likely to adopt when they enter the world of work. David refers to t

Have we got a treat for you today. In this episode, both Lisette and Pilar talk to Tish Briseno, Happiness Engineer at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Tish shares what her job as Happiness Engineer entails and how she interacts directly with customers through video meetings. This really helps her to feel connected to the work and see the results of her work. (Plus, she loves seeing all the different blogs around.) How does someone start working for Automattic? Tish shares her own story and the onboarding process. Communication across a company with over 560 distributed employees. How do people talk to each other and collaborate in a company with no physical office and how is the organisation structured? (To find out more about why Automattic ditched their San Francisco office, check out this article: https://qz.com/1002655/the-company-behind-wordpress-is-closing-its-gorgeous-san-francisco-office-because-its-employees-never-show-up/ Most of the long-form, thorough

In this episode, Pilar talks about the importance of thinking holistically about introducing “remote” into an organisation: how will it change a company’s culture? How will it challenge people’s identities? Visit www.virtualnotdistant.com  It’s the summer, and things have slowed down, which I really appreciate. London is quieter, the internet is quieter, which means I have more time to think and to write. But I’ll tell you about the writing a little bit later. Today’s episode: well, I’d like to dedicate it to people in organisations who are in charge of implementing remote working (or some other way of working that involves working away from the company’s premises) or indeed, if you are championing this kind of work in your organisation. Last year, the Work Foundation predicted that 2017, this year, would be the tipping point for 50% of the UK’s population to go “mobile”. And indeed, it’s really felt like that this year. (To hear more on the Working Anywhere report, have a listen to episode 72.) More organisa

In this episode, Pilar talks to Syrus Lowe about his work in the theatre, in role-play companies and presenting. The diverse things that Syrus has been doing over the last 12 months. Being involved in the live streaming performance of St Joan at the Donmar Warehouse. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/saint-joan-donmar-warehouse-london-review-gemma-artertons-joan-radiates-a-gentle-simplicity-and-a7486861.html How the nature of auditions has changed and how the industry is becoming more demanding. Syrus’ work as a role-play actor, facilitator and his masterclass. https://www.roleplaymasterclass.com/ Giving feedback and training actors to give feedback in role-play sessions. Syrus’ article about unconscious bias: Syrus Lowe: Confusing me with another black actor is no laughing matter https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2017/syrus-lowe-confusing-another-black-actor-no-laughing-matter/ Using an actor’s public image to advocate for equality and other issues. The difficulty in m

  In this episode, Pilar and Lisette talk about the kind of mindset remote team managers can embrace that will make their lives easier.   Lisette tells us about her experience running a webinar in Japan. This is the article Lisette and Pilar use to guide us through the conversation. Six Traits of Leaders Who Successfully Manage Remote Employees https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2016/06/10/6-traits-of-leaders-who-successfully-manage-remote-employees/#a69d5b14032e Do we really want to be indefatigable? The manager as “company evangelist” or advocate? How much do you need to love your company? Should we always be “positive” or will we start to sound like PR machines? Authenticity comes into play. Being approachable and available. Physical distance and Psychological distance. Writing letters! And writing, are wired for communicating through writing?  

In this episode, Pilar talks to Olivia Jones, a freelance copywriter based in London about being freelance and dealing remotely with clients.  Check out Olivia’s blog: http://goldenpulse.co.uk/ The transition to freelance and deciding what area to focus on. Working with freelancers in other countries when she was a project manager. How being a project manager has helped her to go freelance. How can you figure out if a client is going to be a good person to work with and what the barriers might be to fruitful collaboration.  What is copywriting? How Olivia initiates the conversation with a client. Would anything they say put her off? Olivia’s creative process; how she creates the right work environment for herself. Olivia’s health and fitness blog and the opportunities it creates. http://oliviathecopywriter.co.uk/ Working remotely with clients. (She might sound like one, but Olivia’s not a “millennial”.) Freelancers are always learning! Olivia on Twitter @imissolivia

In this episode, Pilar advocates for an Office Optional approach, where the office becomes one more place where we can work from and how the nature of how we work in those spaces needs to change.   Why “Office Optional” is a slightly better term than using some of the words that suggest there is a large physical distance between team members. (There is a complementary blog post to this episode: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/office-optional ) When will sitting next to each other benefit our work?   How “agile working” and “flexible working” are being used as terms that refer only to the physical space where we work from. If we don’t have an option to use an office and we are missing sharing a physical space, why? Pinpoint why and see whether there are ways of working to fulfill those needs. (eg. Push to talk, set times at the computer etc.)   How some companies use their often unused spaces to bring external ideas into the building. Check out the article: Smart Office Buildings: What Features do

In this episode, Pilar and Lisette discuss a few articles that have caught their eye over the past weeks.  (1) Pilar and Lisette discuss a worrying new statistic: one in five employees in the UK are afraid to ask their managers to move onto flexible working. What's going on? Articles about flexible working: http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/news/one-five-employees-afraid-ask-flexible-working/ https://www.fastcompany.com/3059295/inside-three-companies-that-are-innovating-flexible-schedules https://cms.aviva.com/media/upload/Aviva_Working_Lives_Report_2017_INTERACTIVE.pdf (2) We talk about Apple's new headquarters. The dangers of silos vs a great place where people want to work. Can buildings adapt as fast as they need to? The article about Apple’s New HQ https://hbr.org/2017/06/why-apples-new-hq-is-nothing-like-the-rest-of-silicon-valley (3) Article on the perils of being the only remote worker. The need to have empathy with those who are remote when most of us are collocated.  https://www.hanselman.com/blo

In this episode Pilar talks to David Horowitz, co-founder and CEO of Retrium about why he created a tool to guide teams through retrospectives and how he’s growing a distributed business. How we fall in and out of love with tools. The origins of Retrium. Pre-build facilitation techniques in a package. https://www.retrium.com/ (If you would like some inspiration on running retrospectives or review meetings, check out episode 19 of this podcast. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/retrospectives) From idea to finding a co-finder and building a business. Recruiting in a distributed team. Finding the right people for a remote team. What helps people gather as an online community? What helps a person create connections in a community? Do people need to be good at “being remote”? What can you tell if a person is a good match for your distributed company? Retrium’s latest hires and the role that social media can play. The importance of culture in remote teams and distributed businesses. (Yes, it do

In this episode, Pilar and Lisette talk about their recent experience being involved in a day online event on working in virtual teams. This might be of interest if you are involved in organising a virtual event for your team or community.  visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Lisette’s update, she’s found the perfect editor! The Internal Affair and Virtual Team Talk The diversity of opinions even in a group that shares a passion for making remote work, work. What happened at this event? Why it was an “internal affair” and not a “conference”. How we organised the event collaboratively, asynchronously. Pilar’s experience facilitating an audio-only session and how she discovered what she needs as a facilitator. Thoughts from the chats on building culture asynchronously and taking an “office optional” approach. “The company behind Wordpress is closing its San Francisco office because their employees never show up.” https://qz.com/1002655/the-company-behind-wordpress-is-closing-its-gorgeous-san-francisco-of

In this episode, Pilar talks to Brie Reynolds, Senior Career Specialist at Flexjobs, about taking control of your career when working remotely. www.virtualnotdistant.com Flexjobs has been around now for ten years, enabling people to find telecommuting jobs and other flexible jobs. Brie works there as Senior Career Specialist.  Brie's job is to help people find those jobs and she does so in a variety of ways, including organising webinars where representative from companies looking for new employees can interact directly with job seekers. Can you imagine the cost of doing that in the collocated space? In this episode,  Brie shares how she built a team of writers at FlexJobs How and why she moved from full time to part time https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-leaning-out-actually-helped-me-lean-learning-from-brie-reynolds Why she created a course for people who are recovering from a layoff.  https://www.linkedin.com/learning/recovering-from-a-layoff/ She talks about career progression in remote work. And

In this episode, Pilar and Lisette analyse a recent article by Patrick Lencioni where he recommends to stay away from working as a virtual team. Visibility in Virtual Teams from the website. Scroll down the Inspiration page. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/inspiration Other podcasts: Management Café Evidence Talks 1) Lisette's holiday Why it's so important to keep down stress levels. David Burkus podcast Radio Free Leader episode The Art and Practice of Breakthrough Thinking with Judah Pollack http://davidburkus.com/2017/05/0816-the-art-and-practice-of-breakthrough-thinking-with-judah-pollack/ (2) Catch up on Agile conference and Work 2.0 Aginext http://2017.aginext.io/ For more on Work 2.0 listen to episode 125 of this podcast. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/work-2-conference https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/four-cs-teamwork (3) We recap the five dysfunctions of a team and analyse this article. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/virtual-teams-worse-than-i-thought-patrick-lencioni (4) How M

Welcome to a special episode of the 21st Century Work Life podcast, where I share with you my main reflections after attending the Work 2.0 conference last May 2017, in London and where I bring in the thoughts and opinions of other attendees. Don't forget to visit www.virtualnotdistant.com   Thank you too to everyone who very kindly agreed to taking part in this episode, it means that listeners get a much more varied view of the world of work, and it’s always great to hear different voices.   Work 2.0 consisted of the Future of Work conference and the Wellbeing conference. I attended mainly sessions on the Future of Work track – but I also managed to pop into a couple of sessions of the wellbeing track. I won’t go into the content of everything I heard, but I just wanted to give you an idea of what the main themes were. The first thing that I noticed when looking through the programme was the focus on Activity Based Working. Now, I hadn’t really heard of this in the context of organisations, but it’s basic