21st Century Work Life

Today’s episode was the direct result of a Twitter conversation, in which Pilar mused about the distinction between collaboration and co-operation https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1095252618941734914, and Matt Ballantine was among the people who responded – thank you to everyone who joined in this fascinating discussion, and it’s great to have been able to continue it on the podcast – how much more 21st Century Work-Life can you get? And speaking of social media, the warm reception to Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Remote Teams has been a joy to read – thank you everyone for the great feedback and reviews, we’re so glad that this Virtual Not Distant publication has struck a chord. If you’ve read it, don’t forget to let us know what you think (and if you’re waiting for the paper version, it’s coming very soon) https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books 05:01 Voice Behind the Blog, Matt Ballantine, “The Collaboration Cheat-Sheet” Matt Ballantine, cohost of the WB40 Podcast https://wb40podcast.com/, created this amazing ‘cheat sheet’ for some UK government consultation work last year, looking at the meaning of collaboration. https://mmitii.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/collaboration-cheat-sheet.pdf It’s an amazing document which generates as many questions as it answers, because making change in the first place requires commitment and engagement and very clear understanding of the purpose of changing. Why improve collaboration, and what would that look like? And how much responsibility lies with organisations rather than individuals?  If collaboration is not happening, then the problem is probably not technological – so how can you address the systemic barriers and better align the incentives for all? Matt breaks down these barriers one by one, and challenges organisations to address the issues presented. Looking at issues of trust, access and the way we frame our work social environment creates powerful new frames through which to look at ways to collaborate, and reminds us that our teams and enterprises do not exist in isolation from the rest of the physical and virtual world. His 7 Team Persona model is a powerful way to consider your team as an entity, in ways you might never previously have considered.  It can help you choose the kind of structures and set-up you need for your digital workplace - and the assumptions behind the design of collaboration tools and software are also very interesting to unpick, because the type of team who builds an application might be very different from those who need to use it. Also a fascinating dissection of the difference between behaviour and culture within organisations, and which you should attempt to change and why. Changing behaviour within cultural context is far easier. Either way, who really owns and takes charge of the change? Get ready to deep dive down the rabbit hole with Matt and Pilar, and afterwards you’ll want to keep up with Matt’s work at https://stamplondon.co.uk/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/ballantine70 "Good practice when it comes to interaction and collaboration comes from learning how to get there not from being told what best practice is".   51.24 Recommended Tool: Google Docs  Does anyone need an introduction to “Gdocs”? Well yes, because not everyone appreciates the flexibility and powerful collaboration tools built into it. And also because it has improved a great deal in recent years, to now offer word processing capabilities easily on a par with Word or Pages.  Maya and Pilar work on lots of written projects together, and find it a great way to connect and communicate as they edit, comment and even discuss a shared document in real time. You can collaborate with just about anyone, even if they’re not logged in to Google or part of your team (though you might find them anonymised to a strange animal!)  And you can even create tasks and tags for other users of the document. With a range of integrations and add-ons, you might find Google Docs the free and platform agnostic tool you’ve been looking for all along – but if you prefer something different, then please tell us all about it – via our Contact Form or social media @Virtualteamw0rk  

In today’s episode we look at how the very traditional industry of accountancy services is adapting itself to the needs of 21st century clients, when we interview our own accountants! And we also bring you a Wellness segment, and a return to perennial favourite ‘Oh No My Team’s Gone Remote!”  Thank you for all the feedback on our recent special episode all about Twitter conversations and themes http://wlpodcast.libsyn.com/twitter-conversations-worth-podcasting-about – don’t forget to join in the conversation, we’re @Virtualteamw0rk. Lots going on, including updates on our upcoming book launch for Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distribute Teams. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Remote-Inspiration-leaders-distributed-ebook/dp/B07LDFGVR8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1545043447&sr=1-1  But now, let’s hear from Jennifer:   5.44 21st Century Work-Life: Jennifer Denning, Founder, Finling https://www.finling.co.uk/ Specialised in supporting entrepreneurial fast-changing businesses with particular expertise in technology, property, and business services, Finling were a great choice for Virtual Not Distant. They operate from a colocated office (in fact, a single room) in Wimbledon, London, and run face-to-face events to get to know their clients – with whom they work entirely virtually.  They help clients choose and implement the right cloud software, driven by founder Jennifer’s fascination with the evolution of technology to become accessible to SMEs – businesses who now need something beyond traditional high street compliance accounting. Because the world of “beautifully organised and tabbed files” is starting to evolve beyond existence – today we need data engineers in accounting. Change is getting faster, and it’s not always about growth, but the complex pivots of entrepreneurial life.  Jennifer’s work with their clients suggested a lot of parallels with what we do here at Virtual Not Distant in fact, bridging HR and tech to provide a holistic and flexible tailored solution. Working on an ‘open book’ basis with clients, Finling are more like an outsourced finance department than a traditional supplier. This creates an unusually close working relationship based on effective collaboration, often including coaching on use of appropriate tools for secure online sharing and effective process control and discipline – because we all know that going online can expose holes in procedures where they are woolly. Everyone benefits from using software correctly, and getting the right services in place helps their clients’ businesses thrive. Whilst they work remotely with clients, their core team all work from the central office, (though some specialist contractors are more flexible, including work at home and on-site with clients)  This suits their high-pressure high-trust environment of professional client service work. But they use a lot of technical collaboration tools to manage the work, which is no different to what they would do remotely – in accounting, everything needs an audit trail, so you create a task or instruction for someone electronically instead of turning around and asking them. This enables a lot of the work to be made visible without actually talking about it, creating a different quality to the interactions in the office. “Sometimes we’re silent for a long time” – A really interesting perspective into how people share and connect as a team when the work itself doesn’t need explaining A really interesting conversation all round, in which we also talk about Open Banking, and how new standards are making it even easier to integrate all the financial tools and services businesses use, and work with clients as they expand internationally You can connect with Jennifer at https://www.finling.co.uk/    42.25 Wellness: Commuting and health We wanted to discuss this article: https://www.vitality.co.uk/media/long-commutes-costing-a-weeks-worth-of-productivity/ We often talk about the quality of life gains which office-optional work can bring, especially for those with long commutes – but this research puts numbers on it, in quite a chilling way, including significant detriments to mental and physical health. Particularly as the commute should be unrelated to the work itself. People with long commutes are more likely to get less than the recommended amount of sleep, more likely to be obese, even more likely to smoke… The research distinguished between flexible working and working from home, which was interesting, as for productivity gains it does appear to be the autonomy which makes the difference.  Difference to the tune of a full extra week’s productivity per year, in case you need to make a business case for it in your own work.   52.23 Oh No My Team’s Gone Remote! And how will we maintain high levels of trust? All relationships depend on trust, but building this can be more difficult without the face-to-face interactions of the traditional workplace. The Culture Map by Erin Mayer (as recommended in our latest newsletter https://mailchi.mp/ea82ed13465e/vnd-nov2017-2916933) defines two categories of trust, and gives us a useful framework for considering our online relationships: cognitive trust is built through work interactions, the skill as well as the will to follow through and deliver. We can have high cognitive trust with people we don’t feel we know well as individuals, yet can rely on utterly in a professional capacity. Effective trust is how close we feel emotionally, in terms of shared values and character and activities... And this might be very important to some working relationships as well, and how we enjoy spending our time.  Or it might not be necessary at all, to work closely and effectively with somebody. As always in remote teams, building trust – especially the levels of disclosure associated with effective trust – requires a degree of deliberation and planning, if only to ensure the spontaneous sharing and connection has a place to occur online instead of in a shared office. (If you enjoyed this theme, do check out another episode where we dig into building trust in more depth https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/building-trust)      

A bonus episode bringing you some interesting conversations we were involved with on Twitter. Connect with us @Virtualteamw0rk These are the tweets Pilar talks about in this episode: https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec/status/1090963791532212225?s=12 https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec/status/1091101706325245954?s=12 https://twitter.com/cagrisarigoz/status/1091268897179869185?s=12 https://twitter.com/NachoEscQuint/status/1091267426518556672 https://twitter.com/theresashollema/status/1091662095521845248?s=12 Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn't a Problem https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/25/style/sleep-problem-late-night.html?module=inline Pilar mentions the book 'Why We Sleep' by Matthew Walker https://twitter.com/pilarorti/status/1091290139899375616?s=12 https://twitter.com/gramsbottom/status/1091042226451476480?s=12 https://twitter.com/erimbau/status/1087997977929662466?s=12 https://twitter.com/lastrushhour/status/1088241920311054337?s=12    

WLP189 Loneliness and the Remote Worker and Cultural Homelessness Remote work can potentially be lonely - but we have lots of voices on the podcast today for you to enjoy, as we explore this multifaceted topic. Let us know what you think, over at https://virtualnotdistant.com or tweet @Virtualteamw0rk. And wherever you work, Twitter is always there for company – a great community of flexible and remote workers, including Jack Nilles @JackNilles1 author of Managing Telework, with whom we discussed the discipline you sometimes need to stop as well as to start your work.  And Teresa @Teresamdouglas, thanks for the shout out in your article “Join the remote work conversation - you don’t have to go it alone” https://teresamdouglas.com/2019/01/22/join-the-remote-work-conversation/”, which connects beautifully with today’s theme.   Loneliness and the Remote Worker The transition to working from home can have a significant effect on feelings of loneliness, especially if it’s not directly from choice (such as a shift in an organisational policy).  And when we talk all the time about how wonderful it is to work remotely, and there’s a danger that we become afraid of talking about struggling with any aspects of it. This might apply particularly if we have exercised our rights to request more flexible working. A lot depends on what your neighbourhood and environment is like of course, and who you live with – all of this impacts on the extent to which you expect work to fulfill your social needs. Loneliness is becoming recognised as a significant mental health challenge, sometimes described as an epidemic – but it can affect people in any life-stage or work setting. Whether you’re surrounded by people or not, how connected you feel can vary, which can also be impacted by the work itself. Even being in the office can feel lonely (particularly if others start to work more flexibly). For leaders of remote teams, it’s important to be aware of these issues, and whether or not people are talking about their emotional wellbeing generally, especially when we can’t “see” their broader context. Furthermore, we know that remote workers can end up putting in longer hours, blurring the work-life boundaries, and potentially having less time for socialising anyway. A lot of traditional advice about overcoming loneliness can be unhelpful in the flexible work setting, and whilst there is clearly a qualitative difference between online and face to face interactions, there is always the potential for blending and interconnection – and surely in the 21st century, most of us move fluidly between the online and offline space, in our relationships both personal and professional. You can connect around communities of interest, like Virtualteamtalk.com – but for some people who are having a very focussed, ‘in your own head’ day, this might even be too much! But, this just reminds us that one person’s isolation is another’s peace and quiet and that our own moods and mindsets vary over time.  So the kind of network or support needs to prevent loneliness, that’s going to vary a lot too. This is a complex and extensive area, and it’s one we’re looking forward to discussing further. What do you think? We would love to hear from you – Do you ever feel lonely or isolated as a remote worker? Is this something you have discussed or tackled within your organisation? Do you agree or disagree with any of the things we’ve been discussing?  Reach out and connect! We’re @Virtualteamw0rk on twitter, or use our contact form https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us/  _____ As Pilar and Maya both live in fairly busy urban areas, we wanted to understand what ‘remote remote’ work was like – so we talked to Laurel Farrer middle of the woods in rural Connecticut, who shared her perspectives of home working when you cannot even see the nearest neighbouring home, and the idea of informational isolation – how you can get cut off from conversation and opportunity and connection, which costs you personally and professionally. You have to work harder to really connect online, make it human, when that’s your entire network – and she found she could real relationships and social capital through her online network, by going out of her way to have meaningful conversations. Thank you for this invaluable perspective and insight  Laurel Farrer, Virtual Operations Consultant and Remote Work Advocate and Strategist - if you want to find out more about everything Laurel does, head over to her website laurelfarrer.com, or connect with her on Twitter @laurel_farrer ______________- 52.35 What do you mean by Cultural Homelessness?  Katerina Bohlec Carbonell  Katerina is half German and half Spanish, and has lived in various countries throughout her life. Her article on Cultural Homelessness really intrigued us https://medium.com/@katerinabc/are-digital-nomads-culturally-homeless-1e3770c39423 (not least as Maya and Pilar are both living long term in countries other than those of their birth), as did this paper from Science Direct https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176710001227. When your values and behaviour are drawn from different cultures, as a result of a nomadic international lifestyle, you can find it harder to pin down this sense of identity.  And whole families get caught up in this, perhaps being raised as ‘third culture kids’, with very different influences at home and with their peers – particularly if their families are military, expatriate or otherwise move around a lot. But the important thing is that this isn’t necessarily a negative – if you are culturally homeless, it can be liberating, you get to choose what stereotypes to manifest and which behaviours to adopt. It’s very different from physical homelessness, when you embrace the fluidity of migration and create your own culture.  Frequently if there is a problem, it’s in the mind of other people – who cannot quickly put you in a category they can easily understand. And this can apply especially if your professional identity is multifaceted too – and lead to some fascinating conversations. Katerina has been working with teams and studying how people interact to exchange information for over a decade, and researching professional development with digital nomadic groups – she’s always interested in hearing from any interested parties on through her website netnigma.com, or on https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec   01:10:39 Recommended tool: A secret function on so many tools!  The little mic icon to the left of the space bar, in nearly every smartphone application, means you can dictate – from notes to thoughts to social media. Usually about 30 second bursts, which is great for capturing ideas and passing connections, without tapping on the tiny keyboard. Of course you have to check and edit for accuracy where it matters, especially if you’re sending a reply to someone else. But the standard of voice recognition technology has increased incredibly in recent years, and it’s now appearing everywhere. Even the native voice recognition on the mac (function key twice), or pc ( - a bit more complicated but just as powerful https://www.lifewire.com/windows-speech-control-4119329)    

Welcome to our first show of 2019, whenever you are listening to this podcast. And don't forget to check out the full shownotes for this and all our other episodes, at https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcast  Do listen to the end today, for exciting updates about upcoming activities. Meanwhile recent episodes of this podcast generated lots of twitter dialogue which we really enjoyed – thank you so much Dr Gloria Ramsbottom-Lemieux @GRamsbottom on twitter for engaging, it’s also where we met today’s featured interviewee! And thanks also to Joao Nunes for spotting the glaring typo on our homepage! If you like this kind of attention to detail you might be interested in Joao’s new startup in Portugal, we’d be glad to put you in touch. 06: 15 The Voice Behind the Blog: Markus Wermuth, “4 Things I Learned Becoming A Manager” Our guest today is Marcus Wermuth, Mobile Lead at Buffer, who wrote an excellent piece about making the transition from being an engineer to being a manager, http://mwermuth.com/2018/09/28/4-things-i-learned-becoming-a-manager/ - and how he uses this experience to help others online with making the leap. (Buffer make a handy social media scheduling and analytics tool, and have a fully distributed global team operating with radical transparency, their blog is at https://open.buffer.com/ ). He and Pilar discuss how his job evolved through his advocacy for the mobile team’s role, and this changed the direction of his career – because management and engineering are so different, and this should not be the only route to career progression.  This meant moving on from activities like coding, and having to look at productivity in a different (and sometimes less tangible or immediate) way. The importance of continual learning and education is also something which Marcus is passionate about, and how you need to own this as a manager - but whatever your role, you have to keep updating yourself, all of the time. This helps him to help his team, and continually remove obstacles in their way. And whether you’re a Power Rangers fan or not, you’ll appreciate Marcus’ metaphors for creating a diverse support network – his proactive connection with others in similar roles has created a powerful basis for mutual learning and problem-solving. An interesting side-use for LinkedIn, which would be well worth more people exploring. These activities have helped him to grow as a manager and develop his coaching mindset, enabling his team to grow through solving their own problems, rather than responding as a programmer by immediately fixing things for them –and encouraging them to support one another too. Building that level of trust and connection in the asynchronous space of a truly global team has challenges, but is worth doing. Marcus is a thoughtful and prolific blogger, and you can read his wisdom on this subject in Fast Company too https://www.fastcompany.com/90282088/why-being-a-manager-is-a-career-change-not-a-promotion and also on his own site – he has lots more to share in 2019. And he is a powerful speaker as well, with a track record including Nomad City https://www.nomadcity.org/ and others. 39:59 – Recommended tool: Doodle  An app which has nothing to with doodling, so it’s a bit confusing when you first get invited to use it! Instead, it’s a super-easy tool for scheduling an event involving lots of people – always a challenge, to find consensus on a meeting time. It does this one thing, easily and well – offering people options in their own timezones, showing others’ responses, and emailing everyone to confirm the final choice.  So, skip the reply-all-email-thread-from-hell, and try setting up a doodle poll if you’ve got more than 2 people to try and sync up!   42:40 Remote Wellbeing: How are you doing today? It’s not as easy to tell, when you’re not colocated, exactly what’s going on for the people you’re working with. And they can’t tell what’s going on for you either – so we need to be a bit more deliberate about communicating this, and conscious of whether we’re sharing the right amount of context to our colleagues. It’s not dumping your entire emotional history on a team meeting, but sometimes having a framework or process for letting people know how you are, in so far as it affects the work or the team dynamic. If you’ve had exciting news or a terrible day, people can make allowances respectively, but only if they know. It needn’t be a big deal, to have a way to check-in individually at the start of meetings, or simply to nurture a culture where people can share things which are affecting them personally, in a positive or negative way. Just remember with remote teams, we don’t have the usual cues of body language to support it, so you might need to assume less and share more, to convey the same degree of relevant disclosure.   50.05 Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distributed Teams Our new book is ready for pre-order, being a collection of Pilar and Maya’s thoughts from the past few years as published in our blog. We’ve curated these into a programme of learning and leadership reflections for each section, to help you relate the material to your own situation and develop a coaching mindset to support your remote colleagues. It’s one more tool for the knowledge worker considering or enjoying office-optional work, particularly if you lead or manage others, or you aspire to do. We also offer workshops, coaching, in-house training and consulting. We can’t wait to hear what you think of the book. And don’t forget about our unique in-house podcasting service! If you enjoy listening to this podcast, why not create your own – either for your organisation, or even for your team, your very own ‘team radio’, a superb tool for learning-out-loud together. See you next time!

Our final podcast of 2018 – Pilar and Maya reflect on trends and changes through the year, and what we’re looking forward to in the months ahead, at virtualnotdistant.com. 2018 has been a year of many changes in the workplace and in this podcast too, as we moved to the successful new magazine-style format in May. And the year has brought many other changes, including in workplace culture - we discussed this article: https://www.smu.edu.sg/news/2018/11/20/new-study-culture-determines-digital-transformation-success which reminds us that organisational change has to be driven from the top, with a clear vision and championing. We’ve looked at flexible schedule experiments around the world in previous episodes (such as ep 179 https://virtualnotdistant.squarespace.com/podcasts/values-driven-culture ), and it’s good to see change happening. Even in Spain (where Maya lives and Pilar originates from… long overdue a bit of flexibility! Follow https://twitter.com/erimbau for more). Approaching work differently has so many benefits, from wellbeing to the environment – so long may this trend continue. We also talked about coworking trends which have continued to evolve through this year, and discussed this post https://allwork.space/2018/11/millennials-no-longer-topdog-in-coworking-environments-age-demographic-shifting/amp/ - yes, coworking is not just for groovy young startup types, and the diversity of spaces emerging in our cities reflects the way different people need different things (in terms of social contact, light, space) to do their best work – work which ranges from art to tech to the public sector. Flexibility is for everyone, and the space itself may even be impermanent https://www.onofficemagazine.com/architecture/item/5058-meanwhile-spaces-buildings-in-transition. Pilar and Maya have both extended their own thinking and practice about virtual working through 2018 too, and some unexpected advantages of remote collaboration tools – such as automatic digitisation of conversations and decisions made on chat platforms. We talked about trustlessness, a thing Maya has been looking at a lot with her blockchain hat on – remote teamwork relies on trust, but, you can create systems and tools to minimise dependence on unproven trust, by baking-in visibility and openness. Perhaps we’ll come back to this in 2019! Certainly visibility and working out loud will continue as a theme, and we’ll keep sharing ideas to make this richer and more interesting (ie not completely text-dependent). Pilar likes sketching, and a picture can convey such a lot – without any need for huge artistry, it just abstracts the thinking to a different level. We’re really distilling our thinking for office-optional team leadership, is to promote this 3-pronged model: deliberate communications, working out loud, and planned spontaneity. Look out for more on this in the new year! As well as ecosystem and tools for remote working – Maya thinks of it as a software or app stack, (hopefully not in a top-heavy, Jenga-like pile!), and balancing innovation with her self-confessed shinything addiction. She talks about the very 21st century approach of connecting tools via APIs and getting developers to build bespoke integrations too. Of course some software providers are more flexible than others, and we know that larger organisations and teams within them may have less discretion over their choices… At the very least the space is both expanding and converging at the same time, which is definitely interesting. And another trend we’re seeing as larger organisations move to office-optional working, is a greater need for wellbeing and other kinds of support – for homeworkers who are not self-employed entrepreneurs, but people used to a more structured environment, to whom there are both moral and legal duties of care due from an employer. From ergonomic seating to mental health, all these things will need to be better engaged with in 2019. What do YOU think will be the important issues for the new year, in office-optional working? Apart from Maya and Pilar’s new book of course, Thinking Remote: Inspiration for leaders of distributed teams https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Remote-Inspiration-leaders-distributed-ebook/dp/B07LDFGVR8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1545043447&sr=1-1 Let us know what you think, we’re @Virtualteamw0rk on twitter, to keep the conversation going… Flexibly, of course. And for now, our warmest greetings for the season, and happiest wishes

Following yesterday's episode, Pilar saw a few tweets she wanted to share with you, after she reached out to @erimbau to ask her about this article (article in Spanish, tweets in English!):   https://mba.americaeconomia.com/articulos/entrevistas/eva-rimbau-de-la-universidad-oberta-de-catalunya-un-3-de-los-empleados Here are the quoted Twitter threads: On telework: https://twitter.com/erimbau/status/1072804504045871105 https://twitter.com/erimbau/status/1072813925241159681 https://twitter.com/erimbau/status/1072813433962287104 On attitudes to flexiwork: https://twitter.com/erimbau/status/1073177103447875584  

Today’s unusual episode brings us an interview originally recorded for another show, but it’s a great fit for our audience here, with whom we often share and discuss interesting research findings from the changing world of work. Journalism and scientific evidence have always had an uneasy relationship because results don’t usually fit neatly into soundbites. Headlines can be very misleading. Libsyn’s podcasting podcast The Feed recently cited the statistic that “28.4% of all podcasts have ads” – and it was easy to overlook the detail that this referred to 28 of top 4% of all shows.  https://thefeed.libsyn.com/132-all-the-pandora-and-podcasting-questions-and-information. These misunderstandings are far from new, and once a popular myth displaces the reality it can persist for decades – the Freakonomics podcast recently mentioned the way the ‘Kitty Genovese’ case study about the Bystander Effect is frequently cited as being about a trend of societal decline, whereas it’s really a universally consistent bias of human behaviour in groups (that the more people there are around, the less likely each individual is to step up and go to the aid of another). Good research is reported badly, completely distorting the message.  Learning to read for the detail and critically evaluate the real stories and details behind the headlines and tweets is vital, and there are good resources for this, like the BBC’s “More or Less” podcast. When it comes to distilling the evidence behind business and work research, we really enjoy the valuable content created by non-profit Science for Work - which is why we’re glad to share this interview with executive coach Mark Seabright with you today, writer of this post.https://scienceforwork.com/blog/effective-virtual-teams-big-picture/ This article addressed a 2008 meta-analysis, examining elements of both theory and practice in virtual teams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, social factors and task factors were both identified as important, in determining performance outcomes, a result which wouldn’t greatly surprise us in 2018 either. But a meta-analysis can only draw on the data already present, which can leave lots of holes in the bigger picture. Science For Work (scienceforwork.com) have many other evidence summaries which help to fill the gaps and highlight areas where additional research might be needed.  As Pilar and Mark discuss, what’s missing can be just as interesting as what is present in the results! Terminology and time can also affect how research is viewed, never more so in the fast-moving space of virtual team collaborations – and comparing studies carried out even a year apart can be tricky. Consistent definitions are a challenge. But an evidence-based approach does not mean taking your favourite bit of evidence, and following up with some cherry-picking confirmation bias! Rigorous research requires you to look at what’s really happening, even when it’s messy and complex, and comparing the perspectives of a range of stakeholders (including viewing organisations from the inside and the outside). And perhaps unsurprisingly Science For Work note that many of the management challenges we were concerned about 20 years ago are far from resolved – the same issues, about how we communicate and collaborate, resolve conflict, etc, remain to be solved - regardless of the tools or the tech involved, or whether the team is remote or colocated.  Good practice and principles also remain unchanged – and that includes scientific empiricism, when it comes to testing the effects of changes in our own organisations, and evaluating and critiquing the results. Science For Work are an international remote team themselves, and endeavour to apply all they learn within their own organisation. They focus on the social cohesion factors, and despite all being academic psychologists they try not to get too bogged down in the task detail and debate.  They’re perhaps an unusual group, of voluntarily-collaborating experts, and Mark’s comments offered some intriguing insights into how they collaborate.  They pay attention to the getting to know the whole person they are working with, and establishing agreed norms about how to use the different tools to communicate – many of the things we talk about regularly in our own client work at Virtual Not Distant, which is very reassuring. And research is still needed in so many areas – humility and team effectiveness correlation is one thing that Pilar and Mark identified as a gap, so please let us know if you have any good evidence-based research about that! Meantime we'll be back soon with our 2018 wrap up, and a little look ahead to the new year.    

Today Pilar interviews her colleague and co-host Maya, who is wearing her ‘non – Virtual Not Distant hat’, and speaking in her role as CEO of BlockSparks OÜ. This business has some unique 21st Century Work-Life aspects, which we felt it was time to discuss. 06.30 21st Century Work-Life: Maya Middlemiss, CEO of BlockSparks ÖU – “your creative communications partner for the blockchain world” Apart from Maya’s passion for remote working and location independence, she’s really excited about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Earlier this year she was ready to formalise her status of freelancing with a small group of trusted associates by forming a limited company - but despite being a Brit living in her adopted home of Spain for a decade, she decided to constitute the company in the small Eastern European country of Estonia. Estonia offers a unique e-residency programme specifically aimed at location-independent entrepreneurialism, and an entirely digital identity. And once Maya had set herself up as an e-resident of Estonia, it was easy – with the help of business service specialists LeapIn, to set up BlockSparks as an Estonian limited company.  Later in the year she did visit Estonia to open a proper business bank account, but she ran the business for several months without visiting her new e-domicile. She wrote a blog post about the experience, and the rationale behind this decision https://www.blocksparks.io/why-blocksparks-chose-estonia-for-our-business-incorporation/ An Estonian location based on digital identity was a great fit with the BlockSparks business activity of providing marketing communications services for blockchain and cryptocurrency startups.  So of course we had to get Maya to briefly define and describe how blockchain works – though she only had a few minutes, and if you want to understand in greater depth you can check out her own podcast, The Crypto Confidence Show, https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/crypto-confidence-podcast/id1435700693 to dig into the details. We did touch briefly on some non-currency application for blockchain, for example for storing academic records – imagine being able to prove that the person you were hiring actually had the qualifications they stated they had, because the record was embedded permanently in a publicly-accessible, tamper-evident distributed ledger? This is just one example of the innovative projects being tackled using blockchain technology, that Maya is so excited to be writing about. You can find out more at https://www.blocksparks.io/ and follow them on Twitter at @BlockSparks  42.52 Oh no, my team’s gone remote!  And we’re going to spend all of our time in online meetings! Working away from the office isn’t the peaceful isolated place it used to be, with the array of communications tools at our fingertips. So there’s a real danger we can end up in endless meetings and video conferences, instead of doing the work. If we’re clear about when we are around to talk and interrupt each other versus when we’re engaged in deep concentrated work, we can communicate as we go along – saving our meetings for important strategic matters and decision-making. And if we use our collaboration tools appropriately, we can make our work visible and shared whilst we’re doing it, instead of having to report on it in our face-time. Even when we have our meetings, we do need to be able to question whether we all need to be 100% attentive, all of the time. If we trust each other and our motivations and roles, we can connect and attend when it’s needed and relevant to the work – rather than trying to replicate the way we work in the colocated space at all times.  50.29 Tool: Remarkable tablet Pilar is in love with her new tablet, which combines the free-flow creativity of handwriting with being able to store and search that digitally afterwards. It has an e-Ink screen (like the kindle), making a change from looking at backlit screens, and she uses for editing and note-taking, as well as brainstorming and note taking. It also lets you draw beautifully. Recent software updates include optical character recognition, which has provided the only ‘missing link’ in the creative workflow, and made her fall even more deeply in love with it. Maya wonders whether it software would be able to read her own writing though, when frequently she herself can’t… How interesting that the range of preferred tools continues to diverge and offer something for everyone.  See you next time, and do keep in touch with us at Virtualnotdistant.com!            

Former co-host of this show Lisette will be familiar to long-term listeners, who might have wondered where she’d got to – well, wonder no more! She was busy writing “Work Together Anywhere”, which gave us a great excuse to catch up in our featured segment today. And don’t forget to join us over on twitter (@PilarOrti or @Virtualteamw0rk), where one discussion this week has been all about what we call that bit on the screen where our colleague’s head appears. Not as obvious as it sounds! Can you add any suggestions? https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1053025198188965891 Speaking of social media, we were so happy to be included in Geoff Watts’ video about his top 10 agile podcasts – he’s a great entertaining Youtuber and podcaster, and we’re in some great company here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYxiqUdpp0&feature=youtu.be      The Voice Behind The Book: Lisette Sutherland, author of Work Together Anywhere   It’s been a long time since we had a ‘virtual coffee’ with Lisette, so this was a great trip down memory lane for us both!  We don’t always have this degree of intimacy with our interviewees, at least not to the extent that they admit they started writing their book as an excuse to talk to people who might hire them for a job…  But the director of Collaboration Superpowers soon realised there was a genuine demand for a practical ‘how to’ handbook, to underpin the workshops they delivered. Written over a span of 5 years in the end, the book project morphed from a neon coffee table design vision to a practical, highly-navigable and structured guide, to help readers solve their own problems by being able to find the information they need most in the moment. Lisette’s insight into the collaboration process with her designer and editor will be valuable to anyone embarking on challenge of bringing a book into the world. As well as the practical stuff, Lisette’s work with Happy Melly (and long-term quest for aligning work and personal fulfillment) helps keep the focus on why working flexibly and remotely is so rewarding. In her extensive career helping teams work better together online, she’s seen some changes, including improved acceptance and technology – but sees that there is still a long way to go, and lots of work to do.   But she also reminds us that nothing beats a direct conversation, when working remotely. We shouldn’t be afraid to get on a call – or to try something completely new and different. There are so many blended and creative ways to communicate now, from video messages to picking up the phone, so don’t think about a dichotomy between text and ‘real’ connectivity. Above all Lisette reminds us to keep learning, stay humble, and continually evolve our practice and mindset – so our work can stay fresh and at its best. However many years of remote work experience we might have, we can still grow and develop. We never said remote was easy – but work in general isn’t easy.  With the right tactics and information, we can make it better. And there is no universal formula or single right way of doing this stuff. Personalities, energies and motivations combine differently on every team, however they are located.  As well as the book, you can enjoy Lisette’s podcast https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/podcasts/ (and don’t forget our own archives, talking to Lisette, through to the end of 2017!)   Recommended Tool: Loom A powerful way to share little videos, recording your screen in real time along with narration – and it’s a great way to share learning and ideas in remote teams.  It’s available as a chrome plugin, free, and super-easy to share and distribute. There’s no need for an account to view the videos – in fact you can see one right here https://www.useloom.com/share/91a03bf43a0a49908368e3b1bc0530f7 Wellbeing: Are you a Lark or an Owl?  It’s been a while, and we should not take wellbeing in remote work for granted.  And today Maya and Pilar reflect upon is the tradition of the ‘work day’, and how we can still end up following a habit from the industrial revolution… Could we be more productive, fulfilled and effective, by listening to our own energy levels and circadian rhythms? We talk a lot about the tools we have to collaborate asynchronously with colleagues in different time zones, so perhaps we could use them to work more flexibly with each other, and ourselves? To create a culture where we share stuff like ‘I am going for a walk to clear my head’ or, have a special Slack status to signify a siesta?   Team leaders can take the initiative and make sure that true temporal flexibility is part of your “work day”.