In today’s episode, tech journalist Jennifer Riggins talks about the impact of generative AI on the world of software development, focusing on the challenges faced by DevSecOps teams in keeping up with the accelerated pace of code creation enabled by GenAI tools. She raises important questions about the potential risks posed by generative AI, such as the introduction of vulnerabilities and intellectual property issues, and emphasises the need for organizations to establish clear AI governance policies to mitigate these risks. You can read the full summary and show notes (created by GenAI) here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/ai-developers   Connect with Jen on LinkedIn. Read the article: Will Generative AI Kill DevsecOps? Read Jen’s other article: The AI governance policy engineering managers needed yesterday Check out the State of OpenCon 24 sessions on YouTube. You can also check out Pilar's post on her Spiralling Creativity blog, describing her recent experience with GenAI creating this episode's show notes. https://spirallingcreativity.substack.com/p/gen-ai-helpful-assistant-or-clown  If you enjoy listening to the 21st Century Work Life podcast, you might also enjoy Management Café - look for it wherever you are listening to this. 

Today’s guest is Linda Redell, Head of Talents and Culture at the hybrid company Homelike. https://www.thehomelike.com/  With a diverse workforce spread across multiple countries, Linda and her team are responsible for maintaining the company culture and employee well-being. The shift to remote work has brought challenges and opportunities, with a focus on creating spaces for physical interaction, revamping onboarding, and fostering engagement. Connect with Linda Redell on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-redell/  Find our more about Homelike nd what it’s like working there: www.thehomelike.com For a summary of the conversation, check out https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/homelike  

Today’s post is the audio companion to the Virtual not Distant monthly newsletter, which you can sign up to here. Every month, Pilar shares with readers articles she’s come across on the web, books she’s read (or is reading) and podcast episodes she’s listened to. And today, she’s joined by Marcus Wermuth, who is an Engineering Leader specialising in virtual leadership.| Marcus is back on this show, this time talking about his recent professional transition: laying himself off from his job as Head of Engineering. This has been a very difficult decision to take, but he’s followed his own principles, and stayed true to his identity as servant leader. Coffee Break Articles: First off, check out Marcus’ article on “laying himself off”, If you are interested in hearing another conversation about how to strike the balance between transparency and discretion, check out episode 69 of the Management Café. 18.30 MINS Deutsche Bank's 3-day-a-week return-to-office policy has been met with fierce criticism by staff who say there isn't enough space for everyone via Business Insider The title says it all, but worth looking at some of the detail to understand the risks of mandatory planning looks like. Right to disconnect: Implementation and impact at company level Recent research shows that having laws about the right to disconnect is not enough to prevent employees feeling like they have to be constantly available. Company culture and in-house companies are needed too. 10 Ways to Build Better Relationships Working Remotely A blog post that could have been a short ebook. A thoughtful article with specific advice on how to build relationships . Are Enterprise Social Platforms All Talk? Past guest Wietske Van Osch has just released research into why enterprise social networks need to be run differently to the social networks employees might be used to, for employees and the organisation to get the most out of them. Gifts and Greats for True Feedback via Mark Kilby A very useful post to guide us through formulating feedback on other people’s work, and how to structure it. Listening Recommendations: Podcast: The Rich Roll Podcast Episode: #815 CHARLES DUHIGG: HOW TO UNLOCK THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF CONNECTION Date: 22 February 2024 An interview with journalist/writer Charles Duhigg, talking about building strong relationships. Podcast: Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin Long-form Interviews with a range of guests, from a range of industries. Podcast: Collaboration Superpowers Episode: Agile Retrospectives 2.0 with Esther Derby, Diana Larsen & David Horowitz Date: 5 March 2022 Lisette Sutherland talks to the authors of the new edition of Agile Retrospectives 2.0. Pilar hasn’t listened to it yet, but highly recommends it - she’s a great fan of David Horowitz, who guested on this show back in 2017, in episode 129 on Building a Distributed Business. Podcast: Sliced Bread Episode: Fitness Trackers (UK link, but look for it in your podcast app) 29 Feb 2023 Book Recommendations: Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building by Claire Hughes Johnson Collabor(h)ate: How to build incredible collaborative relationships at work (even if you’d rather work alone) by Deb Mashek PhD Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggings Make Your Art No Matter What by Beth Pickens You can connect with Marcus Wermuth on LinkedIn and check out his website: www.marcuswermuth.com Other episodes with Marcus: WLP291 Starting a New Role Remotely WLP219 OnBoarding (or Integration) in Remote Teams and Organisations WLP188 - From Maker to Manager in a Distributed Company SIgn up to the Virtual not Distant's newsletter here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/newsletter  

In this episode, Production Designer Kate Rance shares her diverse career spanning theatre and film. She compares design approaches across industries, her affinity for hands-on craft versus managing teams, and learning new skills through her eclectic projects. Kate and Pilar used to work together on theatre productions (many years ago!) and Kate has designed www.virtualnotdistant.com , as well as www.adventuresinpodcasting.com  Check out Kate's website, www.katerance.com For detailed show notes, head over to www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/film-production

Maya and Pilar tackle the topic of "digital culture" in organisations, with this article as a springboard:  "What is digital culture? The teams best prepared for change use modern digital communication tools, feel comfortable learning new ones and continually adapt how they work." By the team at Slack, 29th July 2022 https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/blog/collaboration/what-is-digital-culture Pilar mentions the book "The Rise of the Frontline Worker"    35.00 mins In other news… “The winners and losers of London’s work from home economy” City.com 17 Sept 2023   39.00mins Personal updates: Remote Work Europe keeps growing, with new countries joining: Belgium, Cyprus and Turkey now have their own groups, check them out:. And if you want to join the premium community, go to https://www.remoteworkeurope.eu/connected And RWE even has a presence on TikTok! Pilar isn’t on TikTok but is doing a lot of podcasting - both hosting and guesting. She’s now doing a monthly version of the newsletter.  You can listen to her on the Remote Work Life podcast with Alex Wilson-Campbell. And remember that we have a course on asynchronous communication for remote team managers. For the full show notes go to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/digital-culture  

  In this episode, Barbara Mutedzi describes conscious leadership and its role in transitioning to remote work, with particular reference to her work in Zimbabwe. Throughout the episode, Barbara advocates for the need for leaders to embrace self-awareness, adaptability, and empathy to create more resilient, inclusive, and effective work environments. Find Barbara over on LinkedIn. Find out more about her conscious leadership practice and her coaching programmes. For a summary of the episode head over to: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/conscious-leadership  

Today’s post is the audio companion to the Virtual not Distant monthly newsletter, and you can subscribe to it via email here. Every month, Pilar shares with readers articles she’s come across on the web, books she’s read (or is reading) and podcast episodes she’s listened to. The newsletter also has a digest of the Virtual not Distant content - but this podcast version has an update of Pilar’s own work. Coffee Break Articles: The dark side of remote work via Asynchronous Agile Remote work stifles innovation, a massive new study finds  via Gallant CEO, based on a study in Nature Apple knew AirDrop users could be identified and tracked as early as 2019, researchers say via CNN Business 'I had £3,000 stolen via WhatsApp job scam message' via BBC UK (This month’s articles are all a bit dark, but it’s just a coincidence!) Book Recommendation: This month’s book recommendation is "Four Thousand Weeks: Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count" by Oliver Burkeman. It is NOT a book on how to manage your time. It's a philosophical read. Listening Recommendations: Podcast: The Tim Ferriss Podcast Episode: Matt Mullenweg — The Art of Crafting a Sabbatical, Tips for Defending Against Hackers, Leveraging Open Source, Thriving in an AI World, and Tips for Life’s Darkest Hours (#713) Date: 29 December 2023 Podcast: Work from Home Forever Episode: Eileen Tanner, 27 Years of Remote Work from Fax Machines to Virtual Meetings Date: 18 December 2023 (And if you want to find out more about Don Voltaire, host of Work from Home Forever , check out the latest episode of Adventures in Podcasting: Ep 71 Adventures in podcasting with your son, finding guests and the life-changing potential of remote work) Podcast: Hard Fork 

In today’s episode, Maya shares her challenges trying to embrace the “work from anywhere” spirit. Our co-hosts also talk about how the popularity of Chat GPT has opened up the need to reinvent education, how they’re using the bot and why we should all be vigilant when reading current research on the impact of remote work in organisations. Recorded on 29 January 2024. For the full show notes, head over to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/ep346 If you have something to add to the conversation, please let us know: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us   Other relevant links: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/remote-anytime-anyplace-anywhere  https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/work-life-what https://chat.openai.com/g/g-x2K9hqH3L-healthy-happy-homeworking-advisor https://chat.openai.com/g/g-A51yp1KCy-beat-procrastination https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nick-bloom-86b79510b_wsj-news-exclusive-when-layoffs-happen-activity-7156670698369732608-6m2K/  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jason-salt_remote-worker-job-changes-in-2023-activity-7156690158833082369-pK25/ La Gran Renuncia episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4p7x6PHwVKRkZWWCzAkacd?si=XkQvUHkBTLmUbeawMRc_zA https://www.remoteworkeurope.eu/connected  

Hello dear listeners of the 21st Century Work Life podcast. This is a little bonus episode, what some would call, a piece of content marketing, as I’ve put it together to introduce you to our audio-first course, for managers and leaders of remote teams: Navigating Asynchronous Communication. And in this episode, I’ve selected three sections to share with you, to give you a flavour of the course - in case this is something for you, or your colleagues. If you want to check out the copy, head over to our website. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/audio-first-course I’ve talked about the format before - but in case you’re new to the show, it’s a course to help you lay down the foundations of asynchronous communication in your team, and it’s narrated by my colleague Simon Wilson and myself. It has nine modules, formal modules with title and everything, and some reflection questions at the end, and then it has three informal conversations between Simon and myself, like those you might find on this podcast. Before I go into the content, I’m experimenting with the delivery of this course, as to how YOU access it. And at the moment, you can take the course in two ways: one is through an app, which is actually designed for Audiobooks. And you can mark the audio if you have favourite bits etc, and also, you get a the text version of the course and the transcripts of the conversations. That’s it. (And for those of you who are used to buying online products, that’s being delivered through Gumroad.) Now, we’ve also got a more traditional way of laying out an online course, through the platform Thinkific. It’s still audio only, but everything looks more like an online course, and you have a few worksheets you can download and fill in in PDF form, plus some quizzes, which are a way of getting you to think through the material, although to be honest, they’re mainly for fun, because it’s difficult to create multiple choice quizzes that really test you. But, for testing you, we do have a certificate option. And for that we have a choice of assessments that you can take, and then send to us for marking. This can be text, audio or video even. And all of that is explained in the course - but if you want more information on that, le me know.  Before I move onto the sections from the course, let me tell you some of the topics we cover. Coffee Break Conversation 1: Introduction - to your tutors and the material Module 1: Benefits and Drawbacks of Asynchronous Communication Module 2: Foundations of Asynchronous Communication Bonus: Psychological Safety in Asynchronous Communication Module 3: Different Conversations at Work Coffee Break Conversation 2: Why is Asynchronous Communication so Hard to Get Used to? Module 4: Collaborating on Tasks Asynchronously Module 5: Decision-making and Alignment Module 6: Capturing Your Team's Knowledge Module 7: Integrating Meetings into Our Process Coffee Break Conversation 3: Working with External Parties Module 8: The Technology and the Team Agreement Module 9: Your Next Steps Right, if you’re still with me, let’s move onto a section from module 2, foundations of async, a segment of the coffee covnersation about how hard async can be to get used to, and then, I’ve included most of the module on Capturing your team’s knowledge, as this is one part of remote teamwork that those relatively new to remote work miss. Do get in touch if you need anything from me - thank you for listening. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us

Founder of FPS, Jeanna Barrett, shares insights on setting up a values-driven distributed business, remote hiring challenges, balancing time freedom, and adapting to a lifestyle-centric work culture. She discusses company culture, use of EOS system, and podcasting for networking in the remote work era.