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

In this episode, Pilar and Lisette share their favourite online tools and why they work for them. Can you add any to the list? visit www.virtualnotdistant.com How important are tools? Get out your pen and paper - or your favourite note-taking app! Lisette mentions HuddleWall (though she hasn't tried it out yet). TRELLO We talk about Trello!!!!! (Planner is the Microsoft 365 version.) Find out more about Trello and the company behind it in episode 68.  http://virtualnotdistant.com/trello-and-coffee/ SOCOCO To find out more about Sococo: #118 What Virtual Coworking can Teach Virtual Teams https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/lessons-virtual-coworking.com Join Virtual Team Talk www.virtualteamtalk.com IDONETHIS For narrating the work. What do you prefer: to know about people's tasks or their thinking process? Take diversity into account when selecting your tools.  Spying vs Working Out Loud Narrating the work shouldn't be linked to Performance Management, or else it becomes something else...  P

In this episode, Pilar talks to Chris Slemp about working out loud with teams, creating a collaboration environement and I how remote work has the potential of changing the structure of society.  visit www.virtualnotdistant.com A little bit of an intro from Chris. https://medium.com/@cslemp/leaving-a-global-company-to-change-the-world-b083839a2d0e How Carpool works and how they track how communication flows through an organisation. http://carpoolagency.com/ The "collaboration environment" and building the ecosystem. When the reality and our perception of what's going on is different - the importance of data. An anecdote. Will people misbehave in social networks? Working with clients as a remote company. Working Out Loud within the team and with the client. Role-modelling transparency and collaboration through a tight relationship with the client. The transition of Carpool to remote and the differences in the generations - not the ones you would expect... http://425business.com/the-anywhere-office/ The oppor

Steve Holyer shares why he works as Product Owner coach (amongst other things) and the importance of allowing teams to find how they best have fun together. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com for information on our training, coaching and consultancy services A short description of "Agile" and why Steve coaches Scrum Product Owners. The ever-changing role of the Product Owner. Working with distributed agile teams and what happens when they start to play hard during retrospectives. How retrospectives help teams work better together. Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen. https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Retrospectives-Making-Teams-Great/dp/0977616649/ Working collocated and working distributed. When retrospectives get hacked. Finding out what "fun at work" means for your team and working within that. Pilar mentions "The Science of Great Teams", a study by Sandy Pentland. How this playful team continues to work together. www.coachingcocktails.com Creating a live community meet

The programme of the Work 2.0 conference, in London, 25 & 26 May 2017, gives a good overview of what companies are addressing when they plan for the future of their workforce. In this episode, Pilar shares some of the session titles that have grabbed her attention.  You can find the programme here: http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/work2/index.stm Pilar will be covering the conference in a future episode. If you would like to attend the conference, we have a 15% discount for you. www.terrapinn.com/virtual  use the code: WXWW

Pilar talks to Paul Thoresen about developing teams, trust, and using surveys in organisations.  Visit www.virtualnotdistant.com for information on our training, coaching and consultancy services.  Paul on Twitter https://twitter.com/surveyguy2 Paul on Medium https://medium.com/@SurveyGuy2 Paul talks about what he learned during his attendance to the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology' conference in Orlando. http://www.siop.org/conferences/17con/ The importance of change management for organisational psychology professionals, most of what we introduce in organisations is going to involve change. Experimenting vs piloting; they're different things. Look for Episode 9 of the Evidence Talks podcast with Paul http://www.futureworkcentre.com/what-we-do/education/evidencetalks/ There's a lot of research at the moment around teams. Paul recommends us to check out the work of Suzanne Bell https://twitter.com/TeamsLab Teams and groups; not everyone forms a team and that's ok! Sentiment anal

Pilar mentions this episode from HBR IdeaCast, broadcast on 14 July 2016 "We Can't Work All the Time" https://hbr.org/ideacast/2016/07/we-cant-work-all-the-time.html Challenging the identity of the person who sees themselves as a different individual at work and at home. Work-life balance doesn't always mean work-family balance. You might want to check out the 27 March 2017 episode of Business Daily. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04xd4jy Are customising your notifications the key to achieving separation of work and non-work activities? Work-life balance Work life integration Work-home interference https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2017/working-anytime-anywhere-the-effects-on-the-world-of-work Does job insecurity contribute to stress if you work from home? Unusual suspects who want flexibility in the work: Lisette and Pilar! Don't forget to visit www.virtualnotdistant.com

In today's episode, Pilar talks through the things we can tweak as individuals, to make our virtual meetings comfortable. 19:25mins Virtual meetings are gradually becoming one more way of talking to those you work with. And if organisations want their employees from different departments to network with each other, to increase the chances of innovation, they should be encouraging the use of video meetings.  Talking to others through a screen might feel a bit unnatural if you're not used to it, so here are five things to look out for to help you feel at ease.  (For episodes on running virtual meetings, check out episode 107 Facilitating Virtual Meetings with Nancy Settle-Murphy and episode 13 on Collocated and Virtual Meetings (1) Pay attention to your background and any windows behind you. (2) Remember that you have a chat function. (3) Remember that you can mute yourself. (Don’t wait for others to get so fed up with you they mute you!) (4) Do you need to see yourself? Pilar mentions this article htt

In today's episode, Pilar and Lisette share their experiences in virtual coworking and highlight those elements that can be applied to working in a virtual team. Check out www.virtualnotdistant.com for coaching and training for managers of virtual teams or to help with the transition to remote. Check out www.collaborationsuperpowers.com for the Work Together Anywhere Workshop Updates - Lisette shares her experience hiring virtual freelancers - and she has great tips! - We share this article which suggests you're better off hiding your image from yourself during video meetings http://www.hrdive.com/news/study-videoconferencing-is-more-effective-when-you-cant-see-yourself/439772/ - Amazon has created 5,000 new US remote jobs http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/amazon-to-hire-5000-at-home-workers-in-massive-hiring-binge-of-30000-part-time-employees/429755118 - Pilar has been listening to the Leading Wisely podcast with Ricardo Semler and guests and she's loving it! http://podcast.leadwise.co/ Lessons f

What contributes to team members trusting each other in virtual teams? In today's episode, we present a range of thoughts, questions and suggestions to help maintain trust in virtual teams. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com “If we don’t have the trust, eventually you don’t have a team, you have a bunch of individuals that are sort of working together, but not really working together towards the same purpose.” (Mark Kilby) History of Virtual Team Talk and this project 06:50mins "What level of trust does my team need, right now, to be effective?" Calculated Trust: You follow the rules because the cost of not doing so is greater then the value of breaking the rule. How Trust Emerges 13:10mins Self-Awareness: What helps us to build trust, how does my behaviour impact how others trust me You can read the blog post about the first meeting we had in virtualteamtalk.com In this episode you will hear the voices of Mark Kilby, who’s an agile coach working in a company called Sonatype, which is 95% distributed. They ha

This is the full version of our live broadcast earlier in the year. For an edited version of the conversation, with other thoughts and reflections, and show notes, check out episode 117.  visit www.virtualnotdistant.com

In today's episode, Lisette and Pilar continue their conversation about how the collocated space can evolve by adopting virtual teamwork practices. (Don't forget to visit www.virtualnotdistant.com to check out our services and more blog posts and podcast show notes.) Quite a long catch-up today, but it's all related to our theme... How Sococo is now the first place where Pilar looks for Lisette when she needs to speak to her online and how the different rooms can induce a different mindset. (Hello, Terrance!) (Join Virtual Team Talk to experience virtual co-working and be part of a group of people championing great ways of working remotely with others.) Lisette met Voranc and Ralph in person at a Management 3.0 retreat and it confirmed how much of a bond they'd already built just through online communication. Pilar went to a launch party of a game she voiced and she noticed how strange it feels to watch photos of people working in the office together. We talk about this recent article in Quartz about th

In today's episode, Pilar talks with Eva Rimbau-Gilabert about a recent piece of research on how "managing up" tactics differ between collocated and virtual workers (those in close physical proximity to the manager and those working away from the office). The research that Eva shares was conducted by Sebastián Steizel, who is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the University of San Andrés (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Eva was director of the thesis. http://www.tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/369313/Sebasti%C3%A1n%20Steizel%20Tesis%20Doctorado%20.pdf?sequence=1 Eva Rimbau-Gilabert's Twitter handle: @erimbau 06:20 Different tactics that people use to influence their boss and how they differ in use between virtual workers and collocated workers.  Ingratiation Rationality Assertiveness Coalition Intermediation Upward appeal 13:00 The use of technology and how this changes when people try to influence their boss.  Synchronous vs asynchronous.  16:54 The importance of synchronous communication to give

Pilar introduces the concept of Cognitive Tunneling, after a couple of things that happened yesterday to her. And she recommends "Smarter, Faster, Better" bu Charles Duhigg, once again... visit www.virtualnotdistant.com

In this episode, Pilar and Lisette talk about how having a remote set-up and a flexible workforce affects how we work in the office. 55mins  visit www.virtualnotdistant.com What is "remote" anyway? Even people working across different floors perceive themselves as being distant from each other. Another great advocacy point for adapting the office to remote working. It will benefit teamwork that happens across floors, not just those working outside the building. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SupportingDistributedTeamwork.pdf Where is the information rather than who has the information. http://blog.idonethis.com/remote-company/ This doesn't just make us more productive, it also stops hierarchies forming around who holds the information. Not to mention that people can leave on holiday (or leave the company) without leaving gaps of information in the team. Can some behaviours around availability and reflection become more acceptable? It seems to be more acceptable not to b

In this episode, Pilar talks about what happens when people speak different languages in the office, how many people still reject having online interactions and the difficulties of working out loud in virtual teams.  Get in touch with your thoughts through www.virtualnotdistant.com When speaking a different language in the office is a problem. Finding out whether it's a sign of something else going on. Having informal conversations and avoiding directives.  Pilar mentions this Today programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g2ty8  which talks about how The Care Quality Commision in the UK has issued a warning about two online doctor services, which can also prescribe medicines. If you want to read more about this particular issue, go here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/03/cqc-warns-online-doctor-services-may-pose-risk-to-public  Leaving the whole unreliability of some services to one side, and the state of the health service, why are we not embracing online video interactions? A video

In today's episode, Pilar and Lisette share some of the ways in which they learn about themselves, their work and their colleagues. Online Learning does not mean watching videos! (1) Overview What do we mean by "learning"? Kolb's cycle. Involves change. A lot of our learning is experiential. Experience (concrete experience) Reflect (reflective observation) Theorise, generalise (abstract conceptualisation) How could it work next time? Plan. (active experimentation) From "How do I use the tool?" to "How do I approach you?" Just in case (most formal learning) vs Just in Time (most informal learning)  (2) Informality Spectrum Social aspect of learning - learning from others through their point of view; building empathy From chatting over coffee to structured events.  (3) Specific examples of learning through Virtual TT Trust - learning about topic but also about turning knowledge conversations into content. Formal - learn about trust; informal, learn about others, myself Lean coffee and mentoring - formal / sel

Sam Mednick introduces herself. She's an audacious journalists and also a member of the Happy Melly team.  Sam talks about what it's like to work in Happy Melly One. It seems difficult to separate happiness at work from happiness in life in general. It's ok now to admit that what happens in life affects our work and viceversa.  What makes trust possible in this virtual team? Sam talks about sharing values and having honest conversations and touching base with each other on video.  Pilar mentions "Faster, Smarter, Better" by Charles Duhigg and psychological safety.  Executive Coaching and current challenges executives face.  The nature of coaching, it need not be remedial.  Check out Sam's website: Blueprint Coaching.  Sam's podcast series around Courageous Conversations Sam shares what has helped people to have these difficult conversations. (Yes, step by step...) Sam's "appointment with herself". Why does she do it and what is this "high-level meeting"? What drives Sam to conflict zones? What does sh

We talk about protecting our work when working outside the office.  INTRO and Catch-up Duncan featured us! http://banoffeesolutions.co.uk/archive/podcasts-for-remote-working/ Programming and Data Science blog by Duncan Thomson We recommend that you watch The Newsroom Join us for Virtual Team Talk.  Sococo has a new "meetings" feature, which makes it easy to organise meetings in the space and also to tap someone on the shoulder to let them know you want to talk to them, and they can easily refused. The Main Conversation We're looking at security from three points of view. From the organisation: Can I trust the people? Can i trust the tools? And for both organisations and individuals "Am i/Are we safe?" Having a policy.  Remember that people can look over your shoulder and read your emails... Can employees from the external tools we use read our data? Business Daily Protecting Your Online Data, 1 Feb 2017 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04qnwh4 In Business How Safe Are your Secrets Aug 2016 http://www.b

In today's episode, Pilar talks to Caroline Crampton, Assistant Editor of the New Statesman magazine.  Get in touch through www.virtualnotdistant.com Caroline explains her role as Assistant Editor of the New Statesman, where she works mainly on the print version of the magazine. What does a "hybrid publication" look like? How does it sustain itself? Caroline talks us through the different tasks that make up her role and gives us a brief history of the New Statesman. Caroline's podcast with Anna Leszkiewicz, the SRSLY podcast. Why she started the podcast and how she engages with her listeners through live events. Listening for pleasure or professional interest: work/life integration From podcast listener to podcasting and Caroline's Podcast column in the New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/podcasts/2016/10/why-it-s-time-start-writing-about-podcasts-culture Caroline mentions one of her latest posts: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/podcasts/2017/02/who-tells-your-story-how-hamilton-fans-are

A short, on the go episode inspired by a recent conversation from a manager who had been told that people "could now work from home". Find out what works, don't rely on your experience when you do it on ad-hoc basis. You can't just say, "Ok, you can now work from home". You need to lay down a new infrastructure. It's a change programme!