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

This podcast is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (virtualnotdistant.com) where we help managers and teams transition to an office-optional approach. In today’s episode host Pilar Orti speaks with Corine Tan from emotional wellbeing platform Kona. They discuss their recently published Remote Manager Report 2021, and the product they have created - which helps teams check in with each other and share their context and emotions, via a slackbot which presents as a cute dog avatar. Download Kona’s team building guide, and keep up with Corine and Kona on Twitter.

This podcast is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (virtualnotdistant.com) where we help managers and teams transition to an office-optional approach. Today’s episode features Tammy Bjelland founder and CEO of Workplaceless, and features a deep-dive into their new product Placeless Coach. Tammy talks to Pilar about the background to Workplaceless, and the evident need for Placeless Coach, which helps teams and individuals develop better habits and behaviours around asynchronous working. Check it out at Placeless Coach - Reserve Your Spot. And keep up with Tammy on LinkedIn and Twitter, to see what else she is working on.

In this unusual episode (we rarely release an episode just about our own services), Pilar talks about the new (and not so new) workshops and programmes at Virtual not Distant, mainly for managers and leaders of remote teams.  With the increase in training for managers of remote teams by companies who have been working "in the space" for a while, as well as new consultants who have learned about working online recently, we've decided to narrow our offering to offer what we can uniquely offer.  In this episode, you can hear a little bit about each of the new 4 workshops for managers of remote teams, all delivered in-house. And Pilar shares how Podcasting for Connection could actually work in an organisation.  You can find out details on the workshops through here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/training-for-managers-overview 04.45mins List of all workshops and talking about Motivation and Visible Teamwork workshop 07.37mins Mastering Online Facilitation for Engaging Meetings 09.32 Let's Meet Less! Adop

This podcast is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (virtualnotdistant.com) where we help managers and teams transition to an office-optional approach. Today Pilar and Maya explore 2 recent research publications which both touch on boundaries in remote work in a range of ways, (just like Maya’s recent book ‘Finding Your Edge: Establishing And Maintaining Boundaries When You Work From Home’): How to create psychological safety in virtual teams and The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers  

This episode is repurposed from the Northcentral Universtiy Podcast Series, from their CAVO series.  Theresa Sigillito Holleman and Pilar Orti talk about what examples of hybrid workplaces they're coming across, the challenges that this set-up brings as well as how to spend less time in meetings!  Check out more from CAVO here: https://www.ncu.edu/center-advancement-virtual-organizations Find out more about Theresa's work here: https://www.interact-global.net/ And check out Virtual not Distant's work here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/ 

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (virtualnotdistant.com), where we help people work better together apart.   Today’s episode explores the themes of loneliness for the remote worker. This is an edited summary of a live talk with Dr Richard MacKinnon on loneliness and disconnection in remote teams back in July, as part of the Learning Lounge of the Emotional Intelligence (EI) Evolution. The live EI Evolution event it's on October 12th, featuring the godfather of EI Daniel Goleman - you can learn more and book here, using code PILARORTI10 for 10% discount.  Beyond the #watercooler 19.14 Self awareness  27.44 Remote vs colocated work 34.30 Talking about emotions You can find the full show notes over at: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/​​beyond-watercooler-loneliness

Today's episode explores facilitative leadership in remote teams, and how to successfully blend asynchronous and synchronous practices to help teams work effectively together. Pilar Orti interviews Simon Wilson, co-founder of Wilson Sheriff, and certified master facilitator with the International Association of Faciliation (IAF). He’s been working with the online space as part of his practice for many years, and co-authored Virtual Meetings a Practical Guide.  Connect with Simon on Twitter, and online for more. For the full show notes, head over to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/asynchronous-collaboration-facilitation

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (https://virtualnotdistant.com) Today Pilar Orti and Maya Middlemiss explore topical themes and publications in remote work, including: 03.10 Going back to (the) work (place)  Work at the Office, Win a New Car!  Seriously! But there are better ideas from  Ocado Group offers staff remote working abroad.    13.54 Regulating ‘work from anywhere’: Your Company Needs a Digital Nomad Policy (HBR)  Top CHROs Believe 'Flexibility Within a Framework' Is the Future of Work (Gallup, June 2021). What to do about "Global COVID Nomads",  34.10 The future is flexible… Let’s remember, in all this talk of location-hopping, that flexibility as a principle is about much more than where you work.  Future Forum study of 10,000 knowledge workers shows that 93% want flexibility in when and how they work; more than half are open to a job change. (Slack are taking care of our emotional wellbeing in an app update, and advancing their audio offering too). 41.30 Company news New cowor

From Virtual Not Distant in London (https://virtualnotdistant.com), today’s episode explores the use of the office and other environments for deliberate and mindful work in teams. We are joined by Justin Morris, Senior Customer Success Manager - Modern Communications, at Microsoft.   We discuss ‘reopening anxiety’, onboarding during lockdown, courageous and flexible leadership, and Microsoft’s 3 pillar frameworkof people, place and process. The right policies, underpinned by the right cloud-based technology, can make this work for everyone - but it requires an agile and experimental approach.   Mindful teamwork is the way Justin describes it, and being able to nurture ideas from the spark to production means involving the right people at the right time.    Our in-house Visible Teamwork framework structures this concept around a set of principles and practices which work effectively in long-term distributed teams, so here’s a quick reminder of the    Deliberate communication - passing on the right information

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, where we help people work together wherever they are https://virtualnotdistant.com Today’s episode is dedicated to coworking spaces, because we’re all about choice and office-optionality - so we need to remember that remote work does not always mean working from home.  3.18 Asia Hundley and Bree Caggiati from Shield GEO discuss the role that coworkings played in their pre-pandemic lives. 8:21 Bernie Mitchell, coworking and future of work advocate; European Coworking Assembly,  and what if everyone could walk to work? Connect with Bernie at Berniejmitchell.com, and sign up for his newsletter there too. Meanwhile do check out our brand-new podcasting for connection service - and connect and share your feedback with us.

WLP278 What's Going On: Office Dilemmas and Virtual Watercoolers Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (http://virtualnotdistant.com) In today’s episode Pilar and Maya explore ‘what’s going on’ with an evergreen perspective, looking at issues about returning to the office, some new research, and more, including: Location-independent employment in Norway Regjeringen vil ha flere på hjemmekontor, som Guro Aanerød i Lofoten. Kan skape jobber i distriktet – NRK, Facebook are going to allow Irish staff work from other European countries, The 'Zoom towns' luring remote workers to rural enclaves.  ‘You shouldn’t feel pressured’: Many Americans dread returning to the office.   A Field Experiment on Virtual Synchronous Interactions and Performance of Organizational Newcomers - data-driven contemporary research, looking at how well interns integrate and find long-term success in virtual teams, according to different ‘virtual watercooler’ protocols. You can now schedule messages in Slack Our LinkedIn que

For this bonus episode, Nadia Vatalidis talks about the onboarding process at the distributed company Remote. This show is brought to you by Virtual not Distant. You can find the full show notes over at www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/onboarding-remote-teams  

This podcast is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, where we help teams work better together wherever they are: https://virtualnotdistant.com. In today’s episode Pilar Orti interviews Mark Kilby, Mark has a course in the Lucid Meetings platform, How to Discover, Interview, and Hire Amazing Remote People, The discussion includes points of difference between remote and face-to-face recruitment and hiring, and highlights lots of positive potential created by the remote environment. Learn more about Mark at MarkKilby.com, and check out his former appearances in this podcast, especially episode 219 for more on onboarding/integration.

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, this month’s ‘what’s going on?’ remote news round-up was recorded by Pilar Orti and Maya Middlemiss on 1st June 2021. https://virtualnotdistant.com Under discussion: The evolution of hybrid work in context, and the impact on lockdown on things like creativity (because it's not just productivity that matters). Pilar’s twitter space, held at midday UK time every Wednesday - do come and share, or just listen if you want. The ‘Virtual First’ policy at Dropbox: Why Dropbox’s ‘Virtual First’ model could be the future of work; Featured Collection Virtual First Toolkit.  Global trends: Major New Zealand bank makes working from home model permanent and the Estonian e-residency scheme  expanding  e-Residency new locations | e-Residency. Google is exploring the future of video conferencing, with Project Starline: May 18 / Research Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together. And shout-outs to our listeners and LinkedIn community - we always love to hear from you.

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London: Https://virtualnotdistant.com Today’s episode we take a deep dive into the world of Online training, and how this has changed and continues to evolve. 3.03 Interview with Catherine Nicholson, Virtual Training Team Learn more about Catherine and the Virtual Training Team check out their YouTube channel (which includes loads of guides and support for your own online training), and do connect with her on LinkedIn. 35.50 Pilar’s thoughts on hybrid working We have always talked about ‘office-optional’ working at Virtual Not Distant, but this has never been such a complicated question! Keep an eye on Pilar’s Twitter at midday (UK time) on Wednesday, for ongoing discussions of this and similar themes. 

A bonus episode encouraging those who move events like All Hands / Town Hall meetings and conferences online, to approach the whole design process differently to how they would be run online. For the accompanying show notes, head over to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/engaging-online-events

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd in London (https://virtualnotdistant.com), Today's episode, recorded 04-05-21, brings you a discussion between Pilar Orti and Maya Middlemiss about  What people mean, when they talk about hybrid work? (Tl;dr - a lot of different things with no consensus on definitions); What the future might be for co-working spaces? What can we learn from the Basecamp story, about how asynchronous teams communicate and share? And our experimentations in Twitter Spaces - will we see (hear) you there?

Today’s episode features a conversation recorded back in February 2020 between Pilar and returning guest John O’Duinn about how he’s helping the government in California to show how remote work can benefit the environment, and how he’s seen people experience the sudden transition to remote work. Find out more over at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-work-environment

This podcast is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, where we help leaders of remote teams thrive. http://virtualnotdistant.com In today's episode Pilar interviews Ann Collins from Bluebottle coaching, who has been conducting some fascinating in-depth research with leaders of remote teams and the impact of COVID on their work. You can read more about Ann’s work and this research on LinkedIn, and she’d be very glad to connect with listeners there and send further details of her findings. Her own podcast is Leaders who love what they do.