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

In today’s episode, Pilar talks to Anish Hindocha, who, after working as a change consultant for over 20 years, now helps organisations improve their culture. They talk about what organisational culture is, whether it has changed in organisations during the pandemic - and how - and the opportunities to make the world of work a better place.  You can connect with Anish here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anishhindocha/ And you can find more detailed show notes over at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/culture-conversation

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (https://virtualnotdistant.com) Maya has recently published “Finding Your Edge: Establishing And Maintaining Boundaries When You Work From Home”, reflecting on issues on many minds right now as we all strive for balance between work and the rest of our lives. Pilar and Maya discuss integrators vs segmenters, using daylight and other sensory input as boundaries, and keeping tasks and roles in place when we work from home. 23.00 What’s Going On Interesting articles: I'm socially anxious, and working from home has been life-changing. Spain to launch trial of four-day working week. and 38:20 Tech updates: Being in a BBC virtual studio audience recording, How to use Slack emoji to simplify work (and cut out noise), Taming the hybrid work chimera: Tips from Slack, WordPress, & Salesforce chiefs; Why Microsoft wants Discord 59.45 Our community: Take a look at the conversations and our question of the month, over on our LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.co

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, today's episode explores mindset issues for new remote managers, and some changes which people new to this role may need to explore. (https://virtualnotdistant.com)  The episode is structured around Pilar’s article Key mindset changes for the new remote manager  and covers the need to: (4.09) 1. Adopt a coaching mindset (8.09) 2. Embrace delegation and avoid interference (10.04) 3. Make friends with your technology (Including an interview with agile coach Mark Kilby (at 18.24), about how data visualisation can help explore issues of disengagement in remote teams) (44.13) 4: Get Intentional (47.14) Finally, 5: Don't make yourself indispensable  

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, where we help teams work together better online, https://virtualnotdistant.com In today’s episode Pilar and Maya take their regular look at what’s going on in the remote work and collaboration space (which goes beyond work to include education and other spheres now using the same technology), and then explore the theme of social connection in remote teams. 04.00 What’s Going On - a focus on education Pilar took part in a panel at PA2021 for Project Access International with Bernie Mitchell (Episode 158), and Niklas Huppmann from Human Aid and Covid Africa.  It’s so interesting how the tech is changing the way we learn, hopefully leading to greater opportunity for everyone.  Despite technical challenges ( likeSingle Sign-on for Programmable Video), the panel predicted that a hybrid approach blending online and face-to-face is what to expect in future, with interesting implications for building professional networks. Pilar has also been working with BeNext on vi

In this episode, Pilar talks to guest Francisco Corzo about the future of the workplace in Guatemala and the concept of Working Near Home. You can find the full show notes over at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/near-home-in-guatemala Links to articles we refer to:  Pilar and Francisco talk about the recent Forbes article: From Work from Home to Work Near Home, the beginning of a new office trend. Pilar’s article on LinkedIn from a few years ago called Sharing Office Spaces across Organisations

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, where we help those working apart rom each other feel closer together: https://virtualnotdistant.com 5:21 Today, Pilar talks to Jennifer Riggins about the upcoming Aginext conference, (and why they're using the Spatial Chat app for their networking sessions), and then: 19.21 We share a panel recorded at Agile Tour London, October 2020, featuring: Beth Maguire from Hubspot  Gonçalo Silva, CTO at Doist Marcus Wermuth, engineering manager at Buffer,  Morgan Legge head of sales and success at Convert.com Discussing personal learning styles, embedding learning in organisational culture, practices for sharing and reflecting on learning - and much much more.  Enjoy!

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant (https://virtualnotdistant.com) in London, in today's "what's going on?" series Pilar Orti and Maya Middlemiss discuss: 02:08 The state of remote work right now  Pandemic working is not remote working  But this wasn’t what I meant, when I said working from home was great! Older employees are adapting to remote work better than younger workers 17.10 Location independent lifestyle Hawaii's Remote Work Program Comes With Free Flights Repeople (Nomad City)  23.38 New tech for remote ‘Moodbeam’: A wristband that tells your boss if you are unhappy. The Future Of Trello Is On The Horizon: Take a Sneak Peek and Going Beyond The Board: A Whole New Trello Is Here. Healthy Happy Homeworking mailing list: Don't be a Zoom Zombie!) The launch of Microsoft Viva - the 'employee experience platform'.  45.37 Virtual not Distant news A LinkedIn discussion which became  a blog post,  Making the Most of Virtual Facilitation: Using the Asynchronous Space Maya's community for homewo

Hello and welcome to episode 262 of the 21st Century Work Life podcast, brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London. Before we dive in the interview a quick reminder about our Podcasting for Connection service - podcasting is a great asynchronous tool that can help maintain a sense of belonging.  04.29 Chris Coladonato Chris Coladonato works in learning and development at a large insurance enterprise, and is a great advocate for remote work. She is very active on social media and we’ve long enjoyed the insightful content she shares and discusses, from virtual commutes to networking and connection. 17.00 Teamwork and staying connected 35.45 External social media Connect with Chris on LinkedIn, Twitter and her blog. Speaking of LinkedIn, we had a great conversation over on our own page, about getting started with working remotely… And if you love podcasting as much as we do, you’ll want to follow Adventures in Podcasting, for news about a new book from Pilar coming soon.  

A special bonus episode, of this podcast brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London (http://virtualnotdistant.com), Today we talk to Bart Van Roey and Viviane Kock about their new book “Beyond New Ways of Working" - 'dialogue book' in Dutch, which is extending the conversation about remote work and the future of work in more ways than one. Contact Viviane via her own website at Formation et consultance en télétravail - NestYourDesk and Bart at ihop : for people and business,

Welcome to our first recording of 2021, brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London. https://virtualnotdistant.com 2.39 We share and discuss a great message from a LinkedIn connection in Guatemala, Francisco Corzo. 10.09 Tech round-up: apps offline, Hey for work, Deaf people and online meetings, and MSTeams updates. 20.24 Communications and collaboration in 2021 36.10 Community news, including Minds at Work and our own Podcasting for connection service. Do keep in touch and let us know 'what's going on' in your remote work world.

Welcome to our first podcast episode of 2021, and happy new year to you wherever and whenever you are listening - from Virtual Not Distant in London (http://virtualnotdistant.com). Today we reflect further on culture in organisations, and bring you a great interview someone whose job revolves around this critical issue. 04.47 Stella Huang, head of Talent and Culture in Shield GEO Pilar spoke with Stella Huang in December 2020, Shield GEO take their retreats very seriously as a globally distributed organisation, and shifting them online during the throes of 2020 was a highly tactical endeavour. Being unable to do that the following year, they still wanted to connect people the best way they could, switching from a one-off annual get together to a regular cadence of monthly hour-long events. Please see https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/culture-virtual-retreats for full shownotes. 28.09 Getting clear on organisational culture Ensuring that human element of connectedness is at the heart of the new ‘Podc

This episode first went out in October 2019, as episode 212. We don't want this aspect of remote work to get lost amidst the pandemic forced remote work from home conversation.  Our guests include Chris Slemp, Mandy Garner, Nacho Rodriguez, Lorraine Charles and Laurel Farrer.  For full show notes visit https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/remote-social-change

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London. In the final recording of the year, Pilar Orti and Maya Middlemiss take a longer perspective on the recent transformational shifts in remote work - while being mindful of all that 2020 has taught us. We discuss: 03.34 Serendipitous encounters (listener question from our LinkedIn page) (see also episode 211 on planned spontaneity) 14.06 Designing for the interactions we want to see  Why You Need a Head of Remote Work.  Embracing a flexible workplace 25.20 A ‘work from anywhere’ future? Should employers let staff work remotely from abroad during lockdown? Google Asks Workers Who Went Abroad for Covid to Return. Time to re-energise - workingmums.co.uk  GitLab: work where you want, when you want For full shownotes please see https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/beyond-wfh-remote-spirit, and learn about the range of services and support that Virtual Not Distant can offer you as you and your team go 'beyond wfh' into 2021.

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London. Today's imterview features Robert (Bob) Glazer who previously joined us 2 years ago back in episode 179,  CEO of global partner marketing agency Acceleration Partners and author and podcaster Robert’s company is fully remote and has always valued flexibility, long before the upheavals of 2020, so is glad to see the legitimising of the remote-first approach for agencies. Robert’s Friday Forward email newsletter helps reflect and disseminate Acceleration Partners’ values and vision, bringing these to a wider audience nowadays, and also modelling a culture of learning, ownership, and growth and improvement. Do connect via his website http://robertglazer.com/, and check out the Friday Forward book too. Don’t forget to share your own thoughts about culture, identity, and team cohesion in the online space, and do look out for our new service to help you deepen your own team’s connection and relationships - podcasting for connection. For full shownotes see https://

In the final episode of the mini-series How the World of Work and our Attitudes to Work are Changing, Pilar talks to Dr. Chris Mullen, Executive Director of The Workforce Institute at UKG, about their recent research into employees' concerns "for the workplace of today and tomorrow." You can read a summary of the study here:  https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200915005303/en/Physical-Safety-Psychological-Security-Job-Stability-Employees-Worldwide-Share-Top-COVID-19-Concerns-for-the-Workplace-of-Today-and-Tomorrow And to connect with guest Chris Mullen, you can follow him on Twitter, https://twitter.com/chrismmullen or connect on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismmullen/  We'd love to hear your comments through our contact form on https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us   

This is the second of three episode of the mini-series, "How the World of Work (and our attitudes to work) are Changing". Today, Pilar talks to Andrew Saunders about the research carried out in September 2020 the exclusive survey carried out by Management Today on what leaders really think about the return to the workplace: Will Hybrid Working Ever Work? You can connect with Andrew via Linkedin or Twitter. You can download the report here: https://cached.offlinehbpl.hbpl.co.uk/NewsAttachments/OTM/Will-Hybrid-Working-Ever-Work-Mangement-Today-special-report-2020.pdf

The first episode in our three-part series on how the the world of work and our attitudes to work are changing. Today, Pilar talks to Katerina Bohle Carbonell about the results of the Remote Working during COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey, phase II. This work was carried out with the support of the Whitaker Institute, NUI Galway and the Western Development Commission. Katerina is one of the four authors.  You can check out the survey here: http://whitakerinstitute.ie/project/remote-working-during-covid-19-irelands-national-survey/ And to connect with Katerina:  https://netnigma.com/ Subscribe to her newsletter: https://netnigma.substack.com/ Connect on Twitter with her: https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec  

This bonus episode is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London, and it continues the conversation between Pilar Orti and Tim Burgess of Shield GEO, looking at what’s been happening in both companies and the events they’ve been involved with.  Pilar took part in the IAF conference, which was a week-long single track event, taking place online for the first time.  Very different was Agile Tour London  - also run on Zoom, but with the community conversation centred on Slack.  Finally, Pilar has just attended Repeople, which used to be the NomadCity event in person in Gran Canaria. Also Shield GEO have run events online for their own distributed team, instead of their usual face-to-face retreats. Dividing their 17 regions into 3 blocs by timezone, they had fun online with trivia and so on, but also dived deeply into cultural exploration and learning from each other about each other’s locally lived experiences.  Pilar has run webinars recently on Visible Teamwork, and learned from participants that even wh

We have a special guest for today’s What’s Going On episode, as Tim Burgess from Shield GEO joins Pilar Orti from Virtual Not Distant, while Maya is away. Recording on the 6th November 2020, heres:' 5.32 What's going on  Home vs Office This article The commuters who don't want to return to the office illustrates how women in particular feel less rushed and time pressured, when they don’t have to travel to work outside the home.  Business Insider Australia point out that Dutch civil servants now get $2 a day to cover coffee and toilet paper while remote working — and you should ask your boss for the same, a financial institution says. This is now law in parts of Europe, with new law in Spain to ensure boundaries, and this from Switzerland: Companies must pay share of rent for employees working from home.   21.50 Research into future of work Great to see work from anywhere entering the academic discourse with featured articles in Harvard Business Review from Prithwiraj Choudhury, and we love the uptake of

Today we’re delighted to be speaking to Theresa Sigillito Hollema, about her new book Virtual Teams Across Cultures: Create Successful Teams Around The World, in discussion with Pilar Orti from Virtual Not Distant Ltd. Theresa is a cultural consultant and team coach with Interact Global, working with virtual teams spanning cultures and borders, for many years. Pilar and Theresa discuss cultural competence, the intersection of cultural difference and remote team dynamics, team belonging, and diversity and inclusion, in this interesting conversation - please see full shownotes on our website, and keep up with Theresa on Twitter and LinkedIn for more information about her work and her writing.  Also, do check out our earlier episodes exploring some of the concepts covered in the episode, which are summarised and linked in a single big blog post here.