21st Century Work Life

Pilar talks to Elise Keith, co-founder of Lucid Meetings. We talk about why “training how to run meetings” often fails and why you should take a holistic approach when trying to improve meetings in your organisation. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Pilar mentions the new course on Leading Remote Teams, which will run from 12 – 23 February 2018. More information here: https://virtualnotdistant.squarespace.com/open-workshops/ In this episode, Pilar talks to Elise Keith, co-founder of Lucid Meetings, a company providing a software product to help meeting leaders prepare and run their meetings, as well as offering consultancy/training on improving meetings in organisations. What does “scaling effective meeting habits” in an organisation refer to? Understanding what the purpose of each meeting is, what are you trying to achieve? There are lots of different types of meetings! https://www.lucidmeetings.com/glossary Should we stop calling “meetings” meetings? Specially in the online space. “The perverse psychology of meetings”. When someone has a problem with a meeting, they rarely have a problem with a meeting. Why learning to run a meeting doesn’t mean you’ve learned how to guide a conversation. How and why Lucid Meetings was founded. http://blog.lucidmeetings.com/blog/why-were-focusing-on-meetings We need a shift in perspective not “training on running meetings”. How Lucid Meetings’ is evolving, from helping them run better meetings, to helping then have better conversations. How the templates in the software support this. The software as the “bad guy”. The Effective Meetings Results Programme – a more holistic approach to improving meetings in organisations and why our approach to meetings NEEDS to be holistic. https://www.lucidmeetings.com/effective-meeting-results-process Elise’s favourite meetings. www.lucidmeetings.com Follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/lucidmeetings  

A short rambling by Pilar on how the word "learning" is usually used to mean information-absorption or acquiring new skills, rather than the broadest meaning, whereby we are constantly adjusting our behaviour and changing how we do things.  Plus, how assumptions landed Pilar on the wrong side of town to her friend. 

Working out loud takes effort and energy – and it becomes really hard to do when we are struggling with the work or when we are afraid of breaking the “good vibe” of the team or of not being a “positive team member”. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Links mentioned in the updates: Our listener Steve recommends: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secret-behind-happy-productive-companies-brian-de-haaff Pilar’s family friend was a pioneer in 2009 of “Mobile phone-based telemedicine system for the home follow-up of patients undergoing ambulatory surgery.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19566396/  The article that inspired today’s conversation: The 6 Exercises We’re Doing to Help With Artificial Harmony from the Open Buffer blog https://open.buffer.com/artificial-harmony/ The benefits of Working Out Loud. (For more on this check out episode 48 https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/working-out-loud ) We recall a conversation on the Virtual Team Talk Slack. Having a channel/group/section for disagreements. Building relationships so that we can then have candid conversations. Pilar recommends the book Radical Candor by Kim Scott. Direct messaging vs open conversations. Making the transition involves changing how we communicate, including talking about when we should make our conversations public. There is value in talking about how we will disagree with each other and even in giving permission to disagree. If we’re not disagreeing, do we care? Language matters: does the way in which we express our values discourage disagreement and healthy conflict? Having a place for team members to share “stuff” that’s not easy to read or talk about. If emotional support is important for you, decide how you will reach out. It’s better to communicate, even if we communicate badly. In remote teams, it’s easy to disengage.    

Morgan Legge from Convert.com shares the company’s journey adopting a “holacratic approach”. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com What Convert does and what the original team looked like. www.convert.com Why the company decided to go down the Holacracy route: “to give people the freedom to make decisions that would grow the company in the direction that it needed to grow.” They haven’t yet formally adopted the constitution – Morgan explains what this would mean. SO 21st Century that we can find enough information online to digest it and start to implement change. Where did she find the information? “We’re kind of making it up as we go along, and we’re ok with that.” Who makes up Convert? Distributed over 9 timezones. Holacracy – a structure about the work, not the people. How does that look like in practice. The “tensions” between the current reality and where you want to be. The freedom also leads to you failing or succeeding in a very public way. Roles and assigning tasks. (The company uses the software Asana to do this.) Morgan gives an example of how a task can be assigned (as a request) to another role, but you can’t hold onto how they manage it. They can also give it back to you. To be able to do this, you need to know who to reach out to in the company. What are circles in Holacracy? If you want to find out more, go here: https://www.holacracy.org/constitution Morgan’s shift from a more traditional setup to a “holacratic” distributed organisation. The similarities and the change in mindset. Recruiting for the company – the hiring process and what they look in a person. How do you find someone who can take the responsibility that comes with the freedom? Values and being yourself at Convert. Morgan’s piece: https://medium.com/optimize-everything/how-convert-turned-down-over-100-000-in-revenue-and-profited-7211ba33bc52

There are many ways of learning from others in our remote team: through asking for feedback and running activities where we can learn from each other. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com A few updates: Lisette is looking for beta readers and there will be a range of ways in which to give her feedback on her book. To do so, sign up to her newsletter: https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/ Why are companies still asking people to work from home without providing them with the support they need? Are there two “camps” of organisations working with remote teams: those that have been doing it for decades (and will not change their ways) and those making the transition who can see the potential of integrating a wide range of tech into their communications. The main conversation: Asking for feedback. Lisette shares how she’s gathering feedback on her TedX Talk. The kind of questions / directions we can use when asking for feedback. Using Google Docs to gather feedback and turn it into a conversation. Latte and Learn sessions. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/learning-remote-teams Learning from each other asynchronously. Happy Melly’s weekly challenge. Using online apps/tools to capture thoughts as they come – and then sharing them so that others can build on them. We are really talking here about building a learning culture, so that people get used to trying things out, sharing their experiences and focusing on improvement. Nurturing curiosity – it’s something that can be developed given the time, space and structure. And encouragement, of course…    

Is asking “which tool when” the right question to be asking? And how is a training programme for remote team managers different to that for office-based managers? visit www.virtualnotdistant.com We welcome Maya to Virtual not Distant. You can read her first contribution to our blog here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/presenteeism-in-remote-teams Thanks to guest Chris Slemp, who tells us about his new venture/conversation-starter: Which Tool When? http://whichtoolwhen.com/ You can find out more about what Chris does, how he views the world of collaboration and why he advocates for an “office optional” approach by listening to episode WLP123 Building a Collaboration Environment https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/collaboration-environment? To read the article on which this episode is based on, head over here: https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/deliver/training/how-to-design-a-development-programme-for-managers-of-remote-teams There are three steps to developing the programme: 1) Getting yourself ready by assessing how culture will affect remote work, what technology is available to managers and their teams and what support people will get, how and when. 2) Develop the content, bearing in mind that you might need to cover self-awareness (in relation to communication preferences and tech preferences in particular), working out loud, designing for spontaneity, creating/adapting a team charter and technical training on tools. 3) How will you deliver the training? There needs to be an experiential component to the programme, including participating in video meetings and taking part in thorough asynchronous conversations. Can we help? Check out our services. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/services/

visit www.virtualnotdistant.com We meet Sandra Lewis, founder and CEO of Worldwide101, a company made up of premium virtual assistants.Please note, that Worldwide101 has rebranded as BOLDLY. Sandra talks about how she set up the company, after noticing the number of freelancer websites popping up. She talks about how she assembled the team, the importance of values and of loving to work remotely. How the company is organised: a small management team plus +100 virtual assistants, working in the US and Europe. Not micromanaging makes working across timezones easier. They ensure this works by recruiting highly qualified people. The difference between premium virtual assistants and regular virtual assistant companies. How do you match clients and VAs? A stable team, but one that’s growing… How they recruit. If you would like to join the team, get in touch with Sandra. https://boldly.com/jobs/ How long does it take to assess whether a potential team member shares Worldwide101’s values and why does it matter? And when do you realise if someone is suitable? Not everyone really understands what it’s like to work remotely… Is it still more acceptable for women to work remotely and have flexible schedules than men? How Sandra works from home and how her approach has changed over the last few years. Communication within the management team and amongst team members. Using a range of options to stay connected. Providing a company where people can continue learning.

visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Why does everyone want to be “busy” all the time and why are so many of us rushing around? Join Pilar and Lisette for today’s virtual coffee. Thanks to our listener Louise for her feedback on the article we discussed in episode 140 on sensors in the workplace. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/barclays-bank-sensors-a7901566.html Pilar mentions two other shows: Management Café and Evidence Talks If you have any articles or topics you would like to know more about, let Pilar know and she can cover them in the next season of Management Café. https://managementcafepodcast.com/ Pilar and Lisette discuss these articles: https://blog.trello.com/hurry-worry-time-urgency-plaguing-team-productivity#.WarItKCkK7g.pocket https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-headline-available-1386352891?tesla=y Looking out for signs of “work martyrdom” https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/presenteeism-in-remote-teams The rhythm of collaboration platforms. We mention the characteristics of those tasks we’re always procrastinating on: Task attributes that make us more likely to procrastinate on a certain task: Boring Frustrating Difficult Ambiguous Unstructured They lack personal meaning or intrinsic rewards (Extracted from the Smart Passive Income podcast, episode 258 https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/podcasts/the-productivity-project-with-chris-bailey/) The importance of paying attention to the link of body-mind-environment. https://qotoqot.com/blog/improving-focus/ Join Virtual Team Talk! www.virtualteamtalk.com Here’s that poster Pilar talks about:

visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In today’s episode, Richard A. MacKinnon explains the concept of psychological flexibility and how we can change our behaviour to be values-led rather than emotion-led. If you enjoy this episode, check out the ten episodes of the Management Café podcast and Evidence Talks. http://www.worklifepsych.com/ Richard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WorkLifePsych Psychological Flexibility – it can be developed. The fact that professionals are being trained in this skill shows that we are acknowledging the wholeness of people coming to work. Emotions! Values! Can we talk about these at work? So, what is psychological flexibility? A set of skills that support each other (thinking and behavioural skills) that allow you to step aside from troubling thoughts and emotions and not let them take over the situation. Values-led action rather than emotions-led action. Are emotions heightened when we go remote? Letting our values guide us. Checking assumptions before we let our emotions guide us. Behaving in alignment with our values. “I don’t need to be angry.” We’re not talking about not having emotions. “Defusing” thoughts and emotions to identify the thoughts. The concept of “rigid self” – here comes the “flexibility” in psychological flexibility. Letting go of thoughts. Showing up. Get moving in the direction of your values When working at home, we run the risk of disconnecting from our values as well as from our organisation. Discomfort in change. What else does WorkLifePsych do? http://www.worklifepsych.com/ Check out episode 81, also with Richard, this time talking about his work at the Future Work Centre. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/futureworkcentre

Further reflections after yesterday's episode on how employees are being tracked so that customers can get better service.  I also came across this article to complement our short discussion on the nature and future of education:  Who's Building the Infrastructure for Lifelong Learning by Linda Gratton. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/whos-building-the-infrastructure-for-lifelong-learning/