In today's episode, Pilar shares her highlights from the book:

How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be 
by Katy Milkman

Pilar shares her booknotes from: 

Black Box Thinking: Growth Mindset and the Secrets of High Performance

by Matthew Syed

Another episode from the season Booknotes, where Pilar shares the notes she made while reading a book, allowing new insights to emerge spontaneously behind the microphone.

In today's episode:

Part 1
Pilar shares her booknotes from: 

Black Box Thinking: Growth Mindset and the Secrets of High Performance

by Matthew Syed

"The paradox of success: it is built upon failure."

During the episode, Pilar shares:

Zoe podcast episode from 16 March 2026 Tim Spector's 7 health habits for 2026
https://zoe.com/learn/tim-spectors-7-health-habits-for-2026

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly
The Trial by Rob Rinder
Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths

New newsletter! Pilates and Remote Work: https://pilatesandremotework.substack.com/

And don't forget to check out Connection and Disconnection in Remote Teams, the book!

Part 2: Personal Updates

Enjoying writing about Pilates, looking for different teachers to learn from and lots of voicoever jobs last week!

If you're interested in All the World's a Workplace, sign up here.

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 

We revisit the chapter from Thinking Remote The Dangers of Working Out Loud ,  First published as a blog post in 2016.

30.40
Next up, we turn our attention to the team member, and revisit the chapter by Maya: Now that I'm remote can anyone see how hard I'm working?

39.36
Community news, we share what others are tweeting and saying from our connections

For more links and transcript, head over to www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/revisiting-working-out-loud

In today's episode Pilar catches up with long-time friend of this podcast, Marcus Wermuth to talk about his mid-pandemic transition into new role as the full-time senior engineering manager at Remote.com.

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. For detailed show notes, visit our podcast page. 

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 Pilar and Maya reflected on the changes which have taken place in remote work throughout 2021 - differentiation of terminology, the rise of asynchronous communication, new apps, and the endless talk about hybrid!

We also thank our community, and share news about upcoming workshops and themes for the new year.

36.08 Virtual Not Distant news

40.52 Thank you to our community

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 Pilar interviewed Carlos Jonay Suarez and Elsa Rodriguez from Pueblos Remotos: https://www.pueblosremotos.com/ about their exciting initiative to bring remote workers and rural communities together in Spain's Canary Islands. Connecting local entrepreneurs with international nomadic workers synergises creativity and idea sharing, while creating lasting friendships in a sustainable ecotourism environment, to benefit all participants.

Carlos would rather network with you in person than online, but meanwhile can be found on LinkedIn and also (in Spanish) SinOficina, and LinkedIn is also the best place to find Elsa - as well as keeping up with all the news and information on the main Pueblos Remotos site.

You can find out more information and get in touch with us over at www.virtualnotdistant.com

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, Pilar and Maya kick off a series reflecting on Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distributed Teams, which was published in 2018 - a geological epoch ago, in remote work terms. What has changed, what has stayed the same, and how have Pilar and Maya changed and evolved their own thinking on these themes?

The first chapter of the book dealt with designing the digital workplace, and you can read the original blog post from which the chapter derived here: Designing the Digital Workspace: What We Can Learn from the Physical Space — Virtual not Distant.

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! Adopting Asynchronous Communication 

11.01 Overcoming Loneliness in Remote Teams

14.45 Overview of Podcasting for Connection, internal podcasting to help create a sense of belonging and connection in organisations

You can find out more information and get in touch with us over at www.virtualnotdistant.com

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/ 

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/ .

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.

Listener Richard de Villiers reached out to host Pilar Orti after hearing the episode on the 3 A's of Connection. He has plenty to say on the subject of connection in remote teams, and many different frameworks to share to help other listeners think through change programmes and their own leadership.

Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddevilliers/

For detailed show notes, head over to 

https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts /connection-frameworks

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

In this episode, host Pilar Orti interviews Andreea Gătin an event and community manager who is organising a unique experience for digital nomad and remote workers in Romania. Andreea discusses her goals for the experience, which include showcasing Romania as a destination for digital nomads and fostering a sense of community among participants. It's happening in March 2025, so check it out!

Find an episode summary over at www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/experience-romania

Find out more about Andreea and the experience she's creating:

Information and Registration Form

Connect with Andreea Ioana Gătin on LinkedIn

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 

 

In this episode, host Pilar Orti talks to Sagar Chandni, who describes himself as a distributed work practitioner and a strategy leader with a heart. We talk about the nuances of these terms and the evolving nature of work, particularly in India where Sagar is based.

Sagar discusses his work with startups and the challenges and opportunities they face, and shares his approach to informed leadership, ethical business strategies, and workplace inclusiveness, as well as the importance of embracing a mindset shift and approaching work in a way that fosters meaningful connections and positive impact both personally and professionally. He also gives us a view of the startup landscape in India. Yes, we cover a lot in this episode!

Find out more about Sagar and his work:

Connect with Sagar on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagarchandni/

Check out his LinkedIn show Virtual Global Leadership Podcast

Subscribe to his newsletter: https://strivewithsagarchandni.substack.com/

For a written summary check out https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/leader-with-heart

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.