21st Century Work Life

A short update on how we're getting on with the new format, followed straight by the audio version of one of our blog posts.  Some people don't like to brag about their achievements. Some managers don't want to disturb their team members and so, they rarely check in. This results in missed opportunities for recognition and development.  To read the post, visit: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/sharing-success

Be honest: how often do you find the time to give and receive feedback in your team? In remote teams, it's very easy to avoid these kind of conversations, when they are some of the most valuable input we can receive from our team members. In this audio blog post we recommend a few ways in which you can embed feedback systems into your team's communications.  This is the audio version of one of our Virtual not Distant blog posts.  You can read the post here:  https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/feedback-in-remote-teams

In this episode, Pilar explains why the structure of the podcast is changing and the plans we have for the content. Also, you can now find the podcast in Spotify and as an Alexa skill. Plus, we're thinking of launching an in-house podcast service for companies making the transition to remote, looking for creative ways of keeping the workforce connected.  Do send us suggestions for content or any questions you have about remote work or other workplace trends/terminology.  At around 11 minutes, you can listen to the audio version of the blog post, "Now that I'm Remote, Can Anyone See How Hard I'm Working?" If you're done listening and prefer reading, here's the link to the blog post: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/presenteeism-in-remote-teams

Should technology replace trust? Are there ways of using technology so that we don’t have to rely on trust to get the work done in remote teams? How much do we need to trust each other and how much should we show our work? We try to answer these questions in today’s episode. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Are we going back to the good ol’ days of clocking in and out by using timetracking software? Can managers not go remote because their work is too important?! Is there fear that people use collaboration platforms to have private conversations? Or that they will contact anyone in the organisation, at any level? We mention this article from HBR https://hbr.org/2017/11/what-managers-need-to-know-about-social-tools And this episode from HBR Ideacast https://hbr.org/ideacast/2018/02/make-tools-like-slack-work-for-your-company.html Is middle management less prone to trust? Is there a fear that organisational dynamics might change in a way we don’t like? The difficulty of making sure we achieve results without risking team members not feeling trusted. How shall we make that work visible in a way that people don’t think they’re having to justify their work? Can we trust that people know how to be productive outside the office? There are different ways of showing how we’re working – justifying our work in hours is one. The difficulty of sharing our work in progress, or narrating our work – some of us don’t like to show unfinished work. This article from Science for Work summarises some research done about trust in virtual teams: https://scienceforwork.com/blog/virtual-teams-trust/ Turns out documenting the work and our conversations helps us be more effective without relying on trust!  

Does time tracking software have a place in remote work? Pilar talks to Rob Rawson, CEO of Time Doctor. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In the introduction, Pilar mentions this article: The CEO of Kronos on Launching an Unlimited Vacation Policy https://hbr.org/2017/11/the-ceo-of-kronos-on-launching-an-unlimited-vacation-policy and refers to this video by Crossover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbRa2csUJA8 And these episodes of Management Café, the podcast for managers. #5 The Psychological Contract https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/management-cafe-5-psychological-contract #12 Borrowing from Self-Management https://managementcafepodcast.com/2018/02/04/self-management/ Pilar speaks to Rob Rawson, CEO of Time Doctor. How does Time Doctor work and who uses it? Does this mean we don’t trust people? Are some people more trustworthy than others? Is trust a barrier to going remote or to employ virtual workers? Is the software promoting presenteeism? Do companies where there is a lot of communication need this kind of software? Should we trust people more or less depending on their salary? Can this software help employees who want to start working remotely? What about security issues? Can the software be used to increase productivity? How Rob uses the time tracking software to track his time and see who he needs to hire. The benefits of hiring remotely. How Rob’s management style has changed – from allocating tasks to allocating roles. How communication has evolved. How their weekly meetings are run: action points and discussion points are jotted down during the week in a live document, which is then used during the meeting. Should the conversation be equally distributed amongst people in meetings? Rob and Pilar disagree about the fact that you can’t build as strong relationships in a remote team as in a colocated one. Check out the Running Remote conference https://runningremote.com/ And Time Doctor https://www.timedoctor.com/  

Penny Pullan, author of “Virtual Leadership” talks to Pilar about how project teams operate in the virtual world and the skillset that individuals need to lead them. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Penny is the author of Virtual Leadership: Practical Strategies for Getting the Best Out of Virtual Work and Virtual Teams Penny's story, how she was thrown into the deep end of virtual work. What does leadership look like in a virtual team? All those involved in a project will need virtual leadership skills. Setting up the team. Freelance teams and organisational project teams. What's the connection to the project manager? Spaghetti teams! Let people know your preferences. Sort yourself out before starting to work with others: what are your strengths, your preferences, your values, etc? What virtual identity do you want to have? Some reflection questions to help your leadership style. Making sure people are being treated equally... How to deal with competing commitments in the office when you have are leading a virtual team. Visual facilitation and narrative to engage people in meetings. Learning how to use a tablet and pen for drawing and annotating. If you need help with drawing, check out Graphicsmadeeasy.co.uk How Penny helps people learn visual facilitation. Makingprojectwork.co.uk    

There are many valid reasons for resisting going remote in your team, but today we cover those reasons based on myths and common misconceptions about personalities suited to remote work and communication. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com We start with the one piece of often misquoted research, something that really frustrates Pilar in particular: 1) 93% of communication is non-verbal. The assumption of this is that therefore, virtual teamwork will never work as well as collocated. However, this statistic, which comes from Mehrabian’s work needs more context. It relates to emotional content and is more pertinent to situations where there is a disconnect between what is being said and what the listener is perceiving is going on. This article explains it all: https://www.businessballs.com/communication-skills/mehrabians-communication-theory-verbal-non-verbal-body-language-152/   2) The only way of generating ideas and innovating is by being in a room together shouting out ideas. Therefore if we can’t do this as a remote team, we will never be able to generate new ideas and be creative. Well, guess what, brainstorming doesn’t always work anyway! https://www.inc.com/melissa-schilling/the-science-of-why-brainstorming-in-groups-doesnt-work.html 3) Only introverts are suited to working from home. (We know that virtual teams don’t always have people working from home, but we thought we’d tackle this one as it also gets us going…) Well, what is an introvert anyway? And some “extroverts” make remote work anyway, they just know they need social interaction and make sure they get it in some sort of way. We challenge the fact that there is one type of personality that works best from home. https://www.fastcompany.com/3046450/do-you-have-the-right-personality-to-work-from-home  https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlmoore/2017/06/01/why-i-never-work-from-home-i-need-my-extrovert-breaks/#4b7cc2897711 We like this other article because it looks at personality traits or characterisitcs that might go best with remote work. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/289370  

What factors in the workplace affect where we choose to work with others? Dr Kerstin Sailer and Ros Pomeroy from BrainyBirdz talk to Pilar about what they’re finding out in their experiments. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com What factors in the workplace affect where we choose to work with others? Dr Kerstin Sailer and Ros Pomeroy from BrainyBirdz talk to Pilar about what they’re finding out in their experiments. What does the experiment in the workspace that Ros and Kerstin run involve? An experiential approach. You can find out more about the experiment here: https://brainybirdz.net/2017/07/10/experimenting-with-workspace/ Understanding patterns of behaviour. So, when people have the choice to pick where they work from, what have you found affects that choice? Spatial visibility Daylight Furniture Personality Type Team Dynamics Perception of Task Prospect and refuge; intimacy, visibility. Ros mentions the software DepthmapX How do organisations use this information? How can data inform decision-making? How can collaboration be improved? What are the different kind of areas we need in the workplace? For more information on Brainybirdz go to brainybirdz.net  

We continue talking about co-working, this time with Bernie J. Mitchell, who tells us about engineering connections between members of co-working spaces. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com  From freelancing to supporting freelancers. The journey from visitor to key staff member Bernie's role in WorkHubs is connecting people. "Helping people finding their voice with each other." "Finding ways of connecting people without engineering it too much." What things haven't worked - (guess what, pure socialising is not the most important). Focused meetups. Bernie shares how he arrived at the most efficient mode of communication within the community. Involving the community in the running of the space. What does co-working mean to people? Learning about their members' stories: why they do what they do and how they ended up doing it. Do online platforms help co-working communities? What has Bernie tried? Bernie mentions: https://included.co/ https://www.loomio.org/https://fizzle.co/ Coworking Europe    

Have coworking spaces lost their initial purpose? Maya and Pilar discuss three recent articles about co-working: the diverse types of co-working spaces available, the move of corporations into the co-working space and whether blockchain might well bring back the original spirit of co-working. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com We love co-working spaces because they allow people to choose to work in spaces that inspire them. To drive the conversation, Maya and Pilar have focused on three articles: Part 1 https://styleblueprint.com/everyday/coworking-spaces/  We talk about the different type of coworking spaces, how some of them mirror what you would expect what you go into a corporate office. Now we can find a place to work in that suits us. We can even belong to a coworking space that matches our values/personality, while working for an organisation where we don’t feel so attached to their physical space. There are even now women only coworkind spaces… http://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-wing-allbright-women-coworking-spaces Part 2 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/307085 Big businesses are taking over some co-working spaces for their own employees. So should we still be calling them “co-working” spaces? IBM has taken over a space for 600 of their employees, vs Microsoft that has provided co-working passes to some of their sales force. Mingling of employees with entrepreneurs: is it about checking out the competition? And are we in danger of new businesses getting mentored into the traditional way of doing business? Part 3 How are Cryptocurrencies Changing Coworking?  http://newworker.co/mag/how-are-cryptocurrencies-changing-coworking/ Maya explains what how blockchain works. Is blockchain the way in which technology can reignite the original spirit of co-working? Other episodes in the 21st Century Work Life podcast on co-working: Episode 83 The Spirit of Co-working with Alex Hillman Episode 30 Co-working at Impact Hub Episode 158 (to be released on 22 February 2018) Building Community in Co-Working Spaces with Bernie Mitchell