21st Century Work Life

Pilar talks to Dom Price from Atlassian about how to maintain a playful, collaborative mindset in a growing organisation. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Introduction Pilar mentions these other podcast episodes that might be of interest: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/trello-and-coffee (with Brian Cervino from Trello) https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/evolve-rituals-include-remote-colleagues-2/ (with Dom Price, today’s guest) The Conversation The role of Work Futurist. His job involves looking at macro-level trends in the workplace to understand the complexity of the future world of work. (Although much of it is guess work...) How Dom takes the "less hippo, more elephant" approach into his interactions with other companies/organisations. What Atlassian does and where its employees are based. From 500 to +2,000 people and the change that this brings. How Dom’s role emerged and how Atlassian developed its own way of staying agile. They have now opened up their internal ways of working: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook “We don’t want to be famous for how big we are, but for how awesome we are.” How and why the playbook was created and opened up. “As we scale, we want to feel smaller, not bigger. More creative, not slower.” As the company has grown, it has become more distributed in many ways. A shared language and way of working has become essential. Building the awareness in companies of the need to remain adaptable and the dangers of “transformations”. Preventing hierarchies from emerging as your company grows and how the fear of failure could be driving this. How you operate has nothing to do with size, it’s all to do with attitude and mindset. If we have to add something in, what other things can we stop doing? “Collaboration is about being willing to be wrong.” “Organisational structure can give you a comfort blanket that’s not real.” How remote working is evolving at Atlassian and how so many assumptions were challenged after acquiring Trello. Dom’s article on remote working: https://www.inc.com/dom-price/why-ending-remote-work-in-name-of-collaboration-is-bs.html @DomPrice on Twitter

There are some questions we ask ourselves when designing our physical collaboration space. We can use most of these questions to design our online collaboration space too. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Pilar attended this event: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/experimenting-with-workspace-an-interactive-experience-tickets-41004688126# The importance of the location of toilets in the workplace https://workdesign.com/2016/03/why-restrooms-matter-in-the-workplace/ Culture What’s the culture like in your organisation? Competitive, collaborative? Will you design the workspace to support this or to challenge it? Identity What can you do to remind people they belong to your organisation/team when they log onto the workspace? Check out this episode about How Zappos Lives its Culture, in the Happy Melly podcast https://www.happymelly.com/zappos-lives-its-culture/ Do We Need to Keep People Together or Keep them Apart? Do you need spaces where people can mingle and bump into each other? The coffee machine as an “attractor”. Google Docs and Trello are places where people can “bump into each other” when they’re doing the work. Some final questions for you: What’s your culture like, competitive, collaborative, something in between and what’s the use of the space encouraging? How do you make the digital space unique to your organisation or team? Have you got spaces where people can feel connected to each other and spaces where they can feel they have sole ownership of their work? Have you got places where people can bump into each other and feel connected to other people through the work? Pilar’s updates: Online Meetings that Rock https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/book-on-online-meetings/ Podcasting as an internal communication tool when introducing agile working. What do you think? Other podcasts that Pilar is involved in: Management Café My Pocket Psych    

Fernando Polo describes his company’s journey towards salary transparency, and tells us why they’re moving towards self-setting salaries at Good Rebels. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Pilar mentions this article about millenials and their attitude towards salary transparency: https://amp-businessinsider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-breaking-the-one-big-salary-taboo-reasons-why-2017-12 She recommends this episode from Ted Radio https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/567499335/transparency And also episode 137 from the 21st Century Work Life podcast with David Burkus. We start at the beginning of Fernando’s journey, when he joined the company during a very difficult period. The present Good Rebels structure, company make-up, locations, etc. Fernando mentions the book “The Future of Management” by Gary Hamel. How he shifted his mindset, from a hierarchical mindset to self-management after reading that book. Fernando’s own book, which he co-authored with his brother: “Lidertarios”. The journey begins: according to the values of openness, engagement, commitment, etc, they decided to transform the company from a family owned business company to a co-operative partnership, there are now 12 partners, “and growing”. The titles the company uses internally, eg Knights. The company is structured as Client Squads, autonomous client teams. The “Hubs” are centres of excellence to spread best practice throughout the company, eg data hub, technology hub, creativity and design. They have Hub co-ordinators, who are voted in. “Rebel ships” and “Basecamps”. Using a language that allows for remote operations and remote client work. More on the role of the co-ordinator. How difficult it is to define the role of a manager, or similar – a good one, that is! Basecamps, not “implants” in client offices. Manifestos, instead of rules and procedures. How Good Rebels work with a client remotely. Offices in big cities are less used to working with agencies remotely than those in small cities. First steps towards Salary Transparency, stemming from the value of Radical Transparency. “The Outlook” was the first meeting to be opened up to all employees. The “In Progress” ranking and what happened when this was opened up. (Hint: not pretty.) The “In Progress” has now been split into two: feedback mechanism and self-setting salaries. The question of privacy laws when publishing salaries (internally). “Transparency builds honesty.” It’s difficult to have inequality when you have salary transparency. How this affects recruitment. No longer about “owners and employees”, but more about a group of entrepreneurs. Your salary depends less on your relationship with your boss. https://www.goodrebels.com/why-an-open-salary-policy-will-make-our-good-rebels-stronger/ Research around salary transparency. https://www.worldfinance.com/strategy/pay-secrecy-could-soon-be-a-thing-of-the-past The potential to reduce gender gap by introducing open salaries! Not all organisations are ready to introduce open salaries – just notice the long journey Fernando has been talking about… A new way of deciding / formula who gets a raise in the company. A system that takes into account that some people know better than others the quality of the work of others. Twitter: https://twitter.com/abladias

Current research suggests that having text-based debates can diminish our perception of the other person and that audio-only conversation can build more empathy than that involving also visual elements. What does this mean for virtual teams? visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Pilar and Maya discuss the article: Why You Should Never Ever Argue with Anyone on Facebook According to Science https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/you-should-never-ever-argue-with-anyone-on-facebook-according-to-science.html Is the phrasing “according to science” trying to prevent us from questioning the findings? Do Emojis communicate emotion or belittle it? And what happens when we add contradictory emojis? Are managers nervous about giving negative feedback and causing conflict or upset? Maya gives an example of how easy it is to misinterpret a text message’s intentions. Are even full stops conveying emotion?! If you are nervous about how a message will be received, when possible, get on a call. Moving onto voice/video call also signals that the conversation is important. Pilar mentions this previous episode 115 on Managing Up in Virtual Teams with Eva Rimbau-Gilabert https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/managing-up-in-virtual-teams How polarization can easily turn into the wrong image of someone. When did we need to start asking for an appointment to ring someone up? So how does this influence how we communicate in virtual teams? For example, should we stop “working out loud” in writing? Not always, we just need to be mindful and this article by Jochen Lillich Founder and CEO of freistil IT. has a great description of how. https://blog.freistil.it/working-out-loud-doesnt-mean-being-noisy-c71010e0d236 Yale Research on Voice and Emotion: Five Experiments and What it Means for Speakers https://rogerlove.com/yale-research-on-voice-and-emotion/ (Pilar mentions the podcast Evidence Talks, which looks at evidence-based practice in organisations.) “Empathic accuracy”. Empathy is only a part of business, using video does have some benefits, like keeping the team conversation fluid and a sense of team unity. But as always, it really depends. The context in which the experiment was run was different to that we experience “in vivo”. Pilar mentions episode WLP136 https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/happiness-at-automattic And the article on hiding your own face from view during video calls http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/videoconferencing-workplace-productivity-1.4053566 Maya’s been in the virtual space for ages, before Facebook! How switching on video can actually help us to focus when in a distracting environment. Our backgrounds during video calls.

Laura Roeder, founder of Meet Edgar, talks about how her company is structured and the role that clarity and transparency play in ensuring the right culture-employee fit. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com What is Meet Edgar, why it was set up and how. https://meetedgar.com/ Bootstrapping it, decisions around funding in the company. How Meet Edgar was/is funded and why Laura decided not to raise any venture capital for the business. How this funding model influences how people make decisions in the company. Apart from salaries, the company's financials are shared throughout the company, so that employees can understand why profit margins need to be high, where the money is coming from and where it's going. Company make-up and structure; the need for manageable timezones. Mainly working with others synchronously, but working from home. Products, Customer experience, Marketing, Operations. The company has set working hours, there is some flexibility but you're expected to be "at work" during core hours in the normal workday. You know when you're online, you know when you can schedule meetings with them. Slack is main hub, or use Zoom or Slack's call feature for video calls. Have a rule: You should be on video as much as possible, seeing someone just adds a strong extra layer of communication, seeing facial expressions, and whether someone is paying attention or not. "If we're not typing, we want to be talking on video." Regular meeting rhythms. Every Monday, company wide meeting; each department has a Monday planning meeting and Fridays are for retrospectives. Set up early in this way from the beginning to be able to scale. Ideal is that developers, writers can spend their time doing what they love to do, not managing or being part of other structural roles. The online employee handbook is a great tool for recruitment, letting prospects know if the fit is right, especially for a remote company when people can't come and visit. https://meetedgar.com/careers/ What does "we're really collaborative, etc,we have free beer" what does that mean for the day to day? http://handbook.meetedgar.com/ Clarity around what it's like there. Shares so that it can help others. https://lauraroeder.com/opening-up-our-internal-handbook-add655179251 Documenting the handbook is time consuming, but small details are very helpful for people. Eg if you are offering to cover learning, what expenses are appropriate? Non-believer in Unlimited Vacations, because it can be unclear. Clarity and transparency and what values mean to employees. What does following values mean for my behaviour? The Culture Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12mv0roRKL5qULoV_JUcDC8OD6lnF0YlVktuyMlFka7A/edit#heading=h.ssrcdfb4qpvk "Advocates", the managers. What are their responsibilities in Meet Edgar? The manager should be at the bottom supporting their team. They are advocate for their area, their team and team members. What does having a great conversation look like? Learning hands on and training for managers. Studying books together as a company. "We don't have to do it like everyone else does, let's just use our common sense, let's think about how we want to work together, how we want to be treated at work and let's base our policies around that." Laura's own journey as CEO and how fascinated she is with the way in which companies can be structured. Connect with Laura: lauraroeder.com Laura Roeder on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lkr meetedgar.com  

Pilar has a go at translating this great summary of the world of work, written by the Spanish organisation Future for Work Institute.  You can have a look at the original article here:  http://www.futureforwork.com/noticias/nuestra-primera-navidad-juntos Don't forget to visit www.virtualnotdistant.com for more on remote work. Happy 2018!

Pilar and Lisette review the last year and look forward to see what 2018 might bring. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com “Leadership in Remote Teams” online course 12 – 23 Feb 2018 www.virtualnotdistant.com/open-workshops/ Why Lisette won’t be joining us for the first two months of 2018. The difficulty of saying “no” and how difficult it is to hear it. Last year’s episode was episode 104 www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/2016-headlines This was the article predicting 2017 10 Workplace Trends You'll See in 2017 http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2016/11/01/workplace-trends-2017/#6954cfed3457 What we’ve seen happen in 2017 Skype for Business seems more popular while individuals seem to be moving away from Skype. How “co-working” means different things to different people. If you find it isolating to work from home, you need to be proactive in reaching out. The shift in mindset is slow… The use of technology in recruiting. “Experiences” as rewards. The gig economy. If you would like to know more about this, check out episode 19 of Evidence Talks. What’s been happening in 2017 in our own work lives Virtual not Distant Ross Winter took over the podcast polishing https://podcastpolishing.com/ Maya Middlemiss has joined the company! www.mayamiddlemiss.com Pilar and Lisette co-interviewed, and they also recorded an interview that will never air! Join us for Virtual Team Talk http://www.virtualteamtalk.com Online learning communities Lots more podcasts have been created. Pilar’s doing lots of podcasting, including Word Maze. Tom Petty and Ueli Steck died… Lisette delivered a TedX talk! 2017 Developments in the World of Work Are we working longer hours if we work from home – so what about employment law? Office 365 – the integration of tools More conversation around what is an office space for? ONE SIZE OFFICE DOESN"T FIT ALL https://www.standard.co.uk/business/will-the-traditional-office-exist-in-the-future-a3693196.html?amp At Deloitte, 83 per cent of the consultancy firm’s 16,000 UK employees use agile working — working from home or elsewhere when it suits them, and the business. Companies are also embracing the idea of collaborative working, in which they share office space with each other. Regus, which provides shared and serviced offices, has 300 sites in the UK serving 250,000 businesses including Uber. Clients can pay-as-they-go from £15 per person per day. https://www.wired.com/story/why-wework-is-buying-meetup/ Unlimited Vacation https://hbr.org/2017/11/the-ceo-of-kronos-on-launching-an-unlimited-vacation-policy  Distributed agile Thanks to Heidi Araya - @HeidiAraya on Twitter “Building career lifestyles” Pilar appeared in this Spanish podcast http://www.futureforwork.com/podcasts/equipos-virtuales-pero-no-distantes What We Look Forward to in 2018 Coaching online also works!  https://scienceforwork.com/blog/workplace-coaching/  Talk of how much home and work life should overlap or not. Online meetups and conferences – what will happen in that space? What will be different? An article about trends to look for in 2018: https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/22-trends-to-look-for-in-2018.html Automation and of course the books “Collaboration Superpowers” and “Online Meetings that Rock”!

Maya Middlemiss shares her experiences as a freelancer and joining Virtual not Distant and Management 3.0. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Check out our new open course Leadership in Remote Teams, starting in February 2018. We also deliver in-house. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/open-workshops/ Find out more about the VIRTUAL not Distant® framework from this episode with Pilar on the More Time More Profit podcast https://www.moretimemoreprofit.com/podcast/069/ Maya is a freelance writer, who’s moved on from running a virtual company to joining two teams (and more!) online. Check out our About Us page to see Maya and Ross, our podcast polisher. Connect with Maya www.mayamiddlemiss.com She also contributes to this: valencia-property.com/denia/ She tells us a bit about her work – adopting different voices as a freelance writer and keeping the “heart” of it. The need to build up your repertoire of tools when joining virtual teams. How free are freelancers? Accountability, trust and measuring output, when most of your work is not measurable… The face to face component – the social and 360 degree aspect. From manager to employee. How do you sense how much you can adapt something in a team so that it works for you? What helps during the onboarding process and as a freelancer. (Last time Maya was onboarded, it was the 20th century!) She shares the experience of being a freelancer for a mainly full-time, colocated company. And the early internet days! Looking out for the unspoken during the onboarding process. Observing the culture – being deliberate about communication. Piece on security https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/virtually-secure-is-not-enough We talk about this article https://work.qz.com/1118489/your-job-as-an-employer-is-to-make-sure-every-voice-is-heard The separation between people who are embracing technology and those who don’t. And also different levels of comfort with change. The new open course: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/open-workshops/ What can Maya see when she looks out of her new window?

Pilar hops on the microphone for this Fickle Friday episode:  Reflections on one of my jobs today as a voiceover. No personal stuff, no quick round robin of how everyone was feeling or any "chit chat". And yet we did a cracking job. So, why do we insist on sharing so much when we work with others in a team? (And to find out more about Pilar's work as a voiceover artist, check out "Hi, I'm Here for a Recording. The ordinary life of a voiceover artist.")

In this episode, Pilar talks about the fears that arise around the use/overuse of technology when we introduce a remote setup. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In this episode, Pilar talks about the fears that arise around the use/overuse of technology when we introduce a remote setup. In the second part of the episode, she talks about the new open course run by Virtual not Distant. Check out this new, two-week course (though you’ll only need to commit about 30-60 minutes a day) on leadership in remote teams. With voucher code. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/open-workshops/ https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/sickness-remote-teams This episode will be of use to team members, managers and those responsible for supporting the shift to remote work / agile working in organisations. What are the fears of tech overload? - That all our interactions will be online and we will lose our human connection. - That we won’t be able to switch off. - That learning to use new platforms will be stressful and take up too much time. Human connection and overload Move away from email onto platforms/tools. (We’ll talk about tool overload later.) Different people have different relationships with email. The problem is that our inbox tends to mix our team communication with our organisational/external communication. We haven’t trained ourselves in using it and we haven’t agreed how to use it. Most emails don’t have a personal picture, but collaboration platforms do. Sense of connection. Tool overload Agree on what will be used for what. What is “urgent”? (Saturday email from Santi.) As you get to it, send messages to say things have been updated. Adjust your notifications. It’s your responsibility to check. Hypercommunication until you get into a rhythm. False sense of security with Office 365. (Still lots of choices and updates.) Make yourself comfortable / Create comfort for those in the office to work remotely with others Practical aspects: Devices, wireless, adjustable desks, screen behind you (separate home) I use a Kindle to read, dictate emails into phone and use pen and paper! In office, create a space for meetings and necessary equipment – simple equipment! Work Life Balance Fusion Interference (episode 120 with Lisette) https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/work-life-what   Our Open Course 12 – 23 February 2018 https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/open-workshops/ VIRTUAL framework Lots of questions for you, make the material your own Become a tech DJ, navigate through tech. First time we run it so we have a discount for you: 15% off just enter code PODCAST at checkout.