A very short episode where I (Pilar Orti) share the reasons why the 21st Century Work Life podcast is going on pause. Stay subscribed though, as you never know when new episodes might drop!
Thank you very much for listening and all the best for 2025. 

Get in touch: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us 

It's the end of the year, but we're not making any predictions - things are moving way too fast! Instead, Pilar and Maya review some of the issues that have been blamed on "remote".

For an extensive summary of the episode, check out www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/dont-blame-remote-work

You can message Pilar through the Virtual not Distant website: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us

and get hold of Maya over at Remote Work Europe: https://www.remoteworkeurope.eu/ .

In this episode Pilar talks to Justin Gignac, co-founder of Working Not Working, and Nicolina Jennings, the company's VP and Managing Director. Our guests share the origins and evolution of Working Not Working, and how what they've learned about engagement and belonging led to their new platform NTRNL. They make a strong case for increasing employee retention by creating an infrastructure that makes internal opportunities - and hidden talents-  visible to all.

You can find a summary over at www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/working-not-working

Check out Working not Working https://workingnotworking.com 

and NTRNL  https://workingnotworking.com/ntrnl 

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:

• 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", 

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).

New coworking adventures from the Virtual Not Distant team.

What about you? Don't forget to share your questions, ideas, links, and concerns, about the rapidly evolving remote work scene.

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 in the right way, from availability to ideas to soliciting input and sharing news. How and where do we share each kind of information, at the right time, and with the right people?

• Work visibility - from project management tools and dashboards to collaborative documents, we need ways (appropriate to what we do), to share what we're working on and the progress it's making - providing updates, seeking feedback, managing resources, and sharing ideas.

• Planned spontaneity - finally, we need ways to recreate the unscheduled, serendipitous communications and connections and possibilities, by creating environments and practices which support this. And yes, the shared office can be one tool we can use for this - but it is far from the only one.

For more on the Visible Teamwork framework, please check out the following articles and episodes:

Good bye "Working Out Loud"; Hello "Visible Teamwork"

WLP241 Visible Teamwork and Trust in Remote Teams

Applications of Visible Teamwork in Remote Teams — Virtual not Distant

WLP239 Match Your Visible Teamwork to Your Team Task Workflow

You can also download our free PDF guide by signing up for the newsletter in the box below, and learn how to put the ideas into practice in your own team via an in-house workshop.

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 question of the month:  In this current work environment, how can we help or encourage our teams and colleagues (and ourselves) to avoid burnout and too much computer time while still being productive?
• Pilar is doing a talk at The Inaugural Ei Evolution Summit+ - EI Summit, and also we have a discount code if you want to book for the main summit (PILARORTI10). 
  
  

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.

We are joined by regular guest Theresa Hollema who has been doing some thinking with host Pilar Orti on the topic of Bonding within remote teams, versus Bridging, where team members create bonds with other parts of the organisation. Plus, Theresa has her own reading and listening recommendations to add to Pilar's.

You can connect with Theresa on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresasigillitohollema/

And check out the resources on her website:
https://virtualacrosscultures.com/

Let us know what you thought of the episode over at www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact

You can find an summary of the first part, plus all the links we refer to here: 

ww.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/bridging-remote-teams 

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.

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.

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

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.

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 virtual leadership, and exploring the strengths of cohort based learning  - a great strength of the online space, as People Matters agrees: Article: Ten reasons why cohort-based programs are the future of skilling — People Matters. 

People talk about missing social interaction when forced to work from home, and often the solution seems to be to arrange specific out-of-work opportunities for this. But this is to imply that social interaction at work only takes place in the pub afterwards! Which isn't how it works in the colocated workspace - so why should it be online? 

 Recent episodes with Chris Coladonato (262) and Goncalo Silva (264) have some great ideas of how to do this well, and there's also episode 170 with Jochen Lillich on the DIRECTT framework (Decision, Insight, Result, Emotion, Contact, Troubles, Thanks) for working out loud - all ways to weave engagement and sociability throughout your day to day interactions.

How are you making space for sharing and connecting in your organisation? Don't forget to let us know, and maybe our in-house podcasting service could help, if you want a new way to relate to one another in your online team.

With everything segueing beautifully today, this takes us into our LinkedIn question of the month, Now that you're not working in an office together, how are you capturing the learning in your team that happens away from each other? generating fantastic and insightful responses from friends like Bart Van Roey (episode 261) - we'd love to know what you think too. 

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

A new player has entered the field in the world of work: generative AI. As remote teams increasingly rely on asynchronous communication, have AI chatbots become go-to resources for quick answers and idea validation? What does this mean for our workplace relationships and social skills?

Maya Middlemiss and Pilar Orti discuss!


For more detailed show notes head over to www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/chatbots 

You can message Pilar through the Virtual not Distant website: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us and get hold of Maya over at Remote Work Europe: https://www.remoteworkeurope.eu/ .

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:

• 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:

•  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

• Hawaii's Remote Work Program Comes With Free Flights
• Repeople (Nomad City) 

• '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 homeworkers: Healthy Happy Homeworking Facebook group,
• Richard MacKinnon's WorkLifePsych.club 

These are not Virtual Not Distant communities, but we're always listening to you too.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Ensuring that human element of connectedness is at the heart of the new 'Podcasting for Connection' offering from Virtual Not Distant, which focuses on how we relate to and value one another outside of and around the work, which helps and supports the work we do together.

Pilar will be developing this theme through 2021, and working with organisations to focus on culture across boundaries as the future of work evolves. Please do share your thoughts with her and help us create the content and services you need, to support you through this pivotal and important time for all remote and hybrid organisations.

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:

(see also episode 211 on planned spontaneity)

 Why You Need a Head of Remote Work. 

Embracing a flexible workplace

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://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/virtual-organisation-culture, and learn more about what Virtual Not Distant has to offer.

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 

 

Host Pilar Orti talks to Henry O'Loughlin, founder of Buildremote. As he shares his journey from running a fully remote marketing agency to creating Buildremote, Henry discusses the pitfalls many companies faced during the pandemic and how his experience led him to develop a "remote operating system" playbook.

The conversation evolves into a thought experiment looking into the future of work, exploring concepts like the four-day workweek, the growing trend of freelancing and the creator economy, ending in a not-too-distant future where traditional employment structures become networks of one-person businesses collaborating globally.

Connect with Henry on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/henry-olaughlin/

Check out the Remote Operating System at Buildremote buildremote.co

For a summary blog post, check out https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/work-evolution 

05:05: Four-Day Workweek and Remote Work Connection

08:03: Future of Work and Questioning Traditional Practices

17:49: Freelancing and the Creator Economy

26:12: Resistance to Change in Traditional Work Structures

28:22: Challenges of Managing Part-Time and Freelance Workers

30:18: Remote Work: Learning Curve and Comparisons

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 when people know the theory, providing a framework and vocabulary for the interactions which support the theory is what makes all the difference. 

If you enjoyed these conversations with Tim Burgess, do follow him on Twitter, and take a look at the special series on connection and disconnection in remote work that we produced in partnership with ShieldGEO nearly a year ago - when the world was a different place, but the issues were strangely evergreen.

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:'

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.

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 this particular turn of phrase. 

Helen Jewell shared this article with Pilar at the IAF conference, about sign language for the Deaf community on video conferencing - a good reminder of the lost nuances for all when we translate a 3d face to face experience into a 2d one on-screen.

36.41 Surviving 2020

This article Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated relates intrinsic motivation to the way we're working through a crisis now, a valuable lens for understanding employee behaviour and wellbeing.

Another recent paper Tim found goes deeper still, EXPRESS: Interpersonal connectivity work: Being there with and for geographically distant others - Ella Hafermalz, Kai Riemer, which explores the impact of telemedicine (another huge focus for remote collaboration 2020, that has much to teach us all). 

So that's What's Going On, and do join us tomorrow for the events and company news section of this conversation.

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.

Welcome to episode 250 - a nice milestone to celebrate, so we even altered our usual running order to make this round number an occasion for Pilar and Maya to record together, and discuss what's going on in the world of remote work right now in October 2020, brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd in London.

Don't forget you can receive our valuable guide to leading through visible teamwork, just by signing up for our newsletter. 

For now, let's take a look at 'What's Going On'...

Beware the office politics of hybrid workplaces, we'll have to see how this emerges and unfolds - and see who really has a chance to make a choice. 

This New York Times article picked up on tensions in some big tech companies in this article: Parents Got More Time Off. Then the Backlash Started.

Eva Rimbau shared this OECD study: Productivity gains from teleworking in the post COVID-19 era: How can public policies make it happen?, demonstrating large organisation understanding of remote working's risks and rewards. 

According to Fast Company, Gitlab are quite exemplary when it comes to this stuff - Extremely transparent and incredibly remote Gitlab's radical vision for the future of work is a good read.

Maya found this article which might be the salvation of Spain's struggling tourist industry - Log on, chill out: holiday resorts lure remote workers to fill gap left by tourists. 

Whereas back in the UK, Bosses are doing weird things to get people back in the office, according to Wired. 

Thanks for this 'comfort reading' share Chris Coladonato, Seven Ways to Rally Your Remote Team in Confusing Times - some gems here in this nice fluffy listicle, also surprisingly touchy-feely for Inc.

The traits of good remote leaders · Intense Minimalism shared by Valentina Thorner on Linkedin is also a great read, including very up-to-date research.

Pilar is very impressed with Word online (in Office 365) now transcribes dictation. Amazing how this tech is evolving - do take a look!

Also, did you know you can record the pronunciation of your name, in your LinkedIn profile? So now if you want to hear the difference between Pilar's name in English and Spanish, go and have a listen.

Speaking of LinkedIn, a great conversation emerged here about asynchronous communication - do take a look this thread full of some amazing ideas from our fabulous remote community.

Pilar was featured in this recent Washington Post article How to work remotely through time-zone changes, also focusing on asynchronous communication - this time from the perspective of US nationals who had ended up remote working from afar - once again great to see this stuff reaching the mainstream conversation.

Maya's new book "Out of the Office", first in the Healthy Happy Homeworking series, is about to publish! So please sign up for presale discount notification, and news of forthcoming releases. Please do share it with any friends particularly if they are struggling with any aspects of working from home.

Virtual not Distant Ltd brings you a fascinating episode today, exploring the role of employers in the future of work, and how remote work fits in to this -  with two very different interviews and points of view.

Firstly, on the 8th October we have a webinar about sustainable asynchronous communications, in association with regular podcast guest Richard Mackinnon at Work Life Psych - classic webinar style, you can listen in passively, or join in the chat conversation of course. And on the 27th October, when Pilar will be talking about adopting Visible Teamwork in your team through asynchronous communication - to help you put it all into practice.

Erica McMannes and Liz Rodewald put Instant Teams together four years ago, to meet the employment needs of military spouses, for flexible location-independent work opportunities. They knew there were companies who needed the dedication and skills that this underserved cohort could bring to that need, so they created the service specifically to bring these two parties together.

They're industry-agnostic, building remote teams for any industry, focusing on admin, marketing, and customer success teams. They create long-term employment relationships, and have their own software system which helps them scale and build teams fast, carefully vetting and matching their educated and experienced candidates with the right firms, using trusted tools.

Art Kleiner is the co-author of The Wise Advocate: The Inner Voice of Strategic Leadership, author of The Age of Heretics and Former editor in chief of the magazine strategy+business. He and Pilar recorded this conversation nearly a year ago! BUT it follows on nicely from the interview with Erica, because it builds upon the question of how we build careers, and specifically what enterprises have to offer employees, as opposed to contractors?

So these laws and structures have shaped how we work together at a high level - but right now, everything is in flux, even more so than when Art and Pilar had this conversation in 2019! Check out Episode 244 if you like more of these 'big questions', because while they may not have clear answers, they have great potential to make you think. 

What will the enterprise of tomorrow look like, and how will those who do the work within it relate to it - economically, legally, and personally?

WLP248 Emotional Intelligence in Remote Teams

Today's episode explores the fascinating subject of emotional intelligence in remote teams, and is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd - with the help of Rowena Hennigan, and Sandra Thompson, from Rise in Emotiona Intelligence 

( also on LinkedIn)

timestamps:

Welcome to our monthly What's Going On round-up, brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd.

Today we discuss tech, the future of the office, the future of life and housing and work life balance, and an upcoming event.

AI-Driven Accountability, 

https://tldv.io/  "too long, didn't view",

UK office demand 'shifting to the suburbs' amid Covid-19 crisis,  

The age of the office is over – the future lies in Britain's commuter towns | Simon Jenkins  

MGM Resorts Rolls Out Ultimate Work-From-Vegas Package At Bellagio And ARIA

Building Work-Life Boundaries in the WFH Era -

 Microsoft Analyzed Data on Its Newly Remote Workforce -

The Basecamp/Rework team built a new email app Hey, 

 Built to Last – Audio Conference for Brand Builders.

Rowena Hennigan (see episodes 215 and 244) and Sandra Thompson have set up RISE Emotional Intelligence -

Brian Rhea has written The Manager's Guide to Engaging Remote Employees, about engaging remote workers - do have a look, it's really in depth and comprehensive.

Lisette Sutherland's Work Together Anywhere book is now in Japanese 

Pilar has a workshop on planned spontaneity on the 3rd of September with Next Stage Radicals, 

Pilar was also a recent guest on their own podcast, so that's well worth a listen.

The Visible Teamwork Guide will be published *very* soon - so do look out for that, more news asap, and the full book will follow.

And finally, Pilar has a new newsletter to subscribe to, 'Think, Write, Converse' - sign up on her site, for a glimpse into Pilar's mind!

Today's episode from London-based consultancy Virtual Not Distant is about asynchronous communication - for more on this subject check out episode 234, and also this podcast from My Pocket Psych - because being able to communicate flexibly across time and space without snagging people up in endless calls is so critical to successful online collaboration, as we discuss today with two fantastic guests.

Gonçalo joins us from Portugal, where he works as the CTO of Doist (creators of apps like Todoist and Twist), a fully remote, global, and bootstrapped organisation of 13 years, where they walk their talk and make tools which work for their own communication needs in the first instance. They have grown slowly and carefully, expanding over 34 countries, to a team of now comprising nearly 80 people. 

Gonçalo role-models the organisation's core values through his day-to-day interactions, and working toward incremental improvements - self-reflecting, and sharing and making sure his actions are congruent with his values and intentions to provide an example for the rest of the team.

Do check out the Doist Blog, and keep up with Gonçalo on Twitter.

Our next guest is the founder of a tool called Yac, and Justin explains this as voice messaging for teams - something which works because we're so used to voice messaging in the consumer space.

You can learn more by connecting with Yac and Justin personally on Twitter, to keep the asynchronous conversation going. And of course they have a podcast, which they record live and share on Youtube: Remote Voices.

In today's episode, Pilar Orti welcomes regular guest Mark Kilby onto the show, to find out how he's using generative AI. They share their personal experiences, preferences, and cautionary tales surrounding various AI tools. Plus, they have plenty of reading, listening and tool recommendations for you this month!

Recorded on 24 April 2024, so some of the tools have evolved since then.

For the show notes, check out:

https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/may-recommendations

You can connect with Mark Kilby on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby/

Or message him through his website:
www.markkilby.com

And if you'd like to keep up with his thoughts and work, subscribe to Differability
https://differability.works/

Connect with Pilar over at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us 

WLP245 What We Can All Learn from What's Going On

Brought to you by Virtual Not Distant Ltd:

There's a massive scam hiding behind Google's search results - here's an interesting story, proving perhaps that human ingenuity still beats out the algorithms,

Meanwhile, big corporations have their eyes on a flexible future, and we're seeing new practice emerge from around the world: Fujitsu Embarks towards 'New Normal', Redefining Working Styles for its Japan Offices:

Compare this to our podcasting buddy Robert Kropp's reflection on the remote transition at Siemans - another powerful reminder of just what a big deal it is, to transition to remote at this global scale, and a fascinating comment thread to dig into on this LinkedIn post.

Meanwhile closer to home at Essex County Council they have also been reflecting on recent changes and done some primary research: Digital remote working - research findings - Service Transformation, and produced this transparent and insightful report.

This depressing article from the Guardian about 'the quiet grinding loneliness of working from home' made Maya groan (especially when people kept tagging her in it), but it's good to be reminded how hard this has all been for so many people - even when journalists conflate living through a terrifying pandemic and all the impact that has on people's mental health, with the effect of working from home. 

Some serious multi-modal findings here from the big budget of Microsoft in The future of work—the good, the challenging & the unknown, we always love good solid evidence, and now we have the data.

And a big report from the EU, Regulations to address work–life balance in digital flexible working arrangements, takes a deep dry dive into the legal frameworks including the Work–Life Balance Directive (EU/2019/1158), adopted in June 2019 and due to be implemented by Member States within a three-year period.

• Maya reflected on the recent episode (241) about trust, to talk about trusting the system and the work, as well as the people. 
• A quick shout out to Lorraine Charles who joined us in episode 212 whose refugee training programme has a partnership with a new French NGO -  CHAMS to partner with Na'amal and UNHCR to provide skills for remote work - Jordan.
• Maya is working on a new book series called Healthy Happy Homeworking, with volume one coming soon (join the mailing list for pre-order opportunities). 
• Hello to Nikhil Vimal - thanks for sharing our podcast, and all that you learned from it, we love it when we spot things like this, and the feedback as well as the ego boost is invaluable.
• Pilar is running an event on the 3rd September with Next Stage Radicals, on 'planned spontaneity' - so sign up to workshop this concept here (it's going to very spontaneous).
• The question of transcripts does keep bubbling up - would you like to see a full transcript of this episode, instead of or in addition to Maya's summarising show notes? Let us know!
• A quick hello to our new team member Becky Boyd who Boldly, who is helping with some backend stuff and admin, also our LinkedIn page - so say hi to Becky if you spot her there!
• And last of all Pilar found our website strapline quoted here, on Virtual facilitation and training for remote teams – FUTOUR - we love these little echoes, from the from around the world of remote collaboration. 

This podcast is brought to you by Virtual Not Distant in London; please check out https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/questions-education-perception for full shownotes and detailed information.

In today's episode we bringing you two interesting guests dig in to some of the big questions about remote work and the future of work. 

Robert joined us in Episode 230, when he and Rowena Hennigan introduced us to Remote Work Tree, and we've enjoyed his articles before in our What's Going On segments (you can enjoy them all on his blog at Allwork.) 

John joined us last month on Episode 240 to talk about how Vermont is incentivising remote workers. 

He also wrote this really interesting article, Physical Proximity vs Employment Status.

Please note: this show returns to its previous fortnightly schedule from now on. Make sure you follow us and subscribe in your favourite podcast player, so you don't miss any episodes.

Another solo show from Virtual Not Distant Managing Director Pilar Orti, completing an unofficial miniseries around the concept of visible teamwork. Please see full shownotes for this and all our podcast episodes at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts.

Visible teamwork is a set of practices which include using technology to make our work and ourselves manifest in our remote teams - staying connected, as well as collaborating. So we need to understand what drive us to do our work in the first place: our motivations, for being part of a team and working toward common goals.

Deci and Ryan's definition of intrinsic motivation comes from the positive position that we all want to do our best, in work and in life, but the environment gets in the way of that. It follows that we should assume positive intent in others too, so that's a good place to start.

They define the components of intrinsic motivation as autonomy, competence, and relatedness (see also Daniel Pink's 'Drive' too, though he uses mastery and purpose instead of competence and relatedness).

Having a choice of where to work from feeds autonomy, so it's easy to conclude that 'remote = better'.  But right now external circumstances may constrain that, as may the structures of large organisations trying to change the way they move forward in a safe and hybrid way. Choosing how and when to do the work matters too, and even who we do it with - so creating choice wherever we can will help people feel more autonomous.

Both doing our job well and learning to improve, are important here - so asynchronous, flexible communication supports this, promoting deep work without disruption. 

We need to relate to people, the work, and its purpose - and this reminds us how much we need to stay connected to the whole organisation and the bigger picture, as well as our immediate team and work. 

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To find out more, and put the concepts of visible teamwork to work in your team through our bespoke coaching and facilitation, then make sure you contact us. And look out for our forthcoming 'podcasting for connection' service, to help you strengthen those connections, wherever you are and whatever work you're doing.