21st Century Work Life

Visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In this episode, Pilar and Lisette discuss five articles that have caught their eye in the last few months. (1) Scraping data from LinkedIn to get insights into your employees. Hmm… “The law's authors could not possibly have envisioned such a scenario when drawing up the bill. (You’ll hear that often - this isn’t the first time an ancient law has been crowbarred into a modern dispute.)” Are laws falling behind the world of work? (And the world!) https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-40932487 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/court-rejects-linkedin-claim-that-unauthorized-scraping-is-hacking/ https://www.hiqlabs.com/legal (2) Are we going too far with sensors in the office? The fine line between being watched and gathering data in the office to improve the use of space. Communication – do employees know why they’re being monitored? https://qz.com/1002705/herman-miller-creator-of-the-aeron-chair-wants-to-make-your-desk-more-like-a-fitbit/ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/barclays-bank-sensors-a7901566.html (3) VR in the workplace, coming soon? http://www.dogheadsimulations.com/doghead-blog/2017/9/4/how-to-apply-vr-collaboration-to-your-business (4) Flash Organisations, the future of work? Platforms that help freelancers create teams and organisations on a per-project basis. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/business/economy/flash-organizations-labor.html (5) Free online courses from top universities. The future of education. https://medium.freecodecamp.org/ivy-league-free-online-courses-a0d7ae675869

Before contacting me to appear in the podcast, or on behalf of a potential guest, please listen to this episode.  If you are a listener, go ahead just sent me a note, we don;t have to record a full episode, anything will do. Just email me and we can talk. Or go to virtualnotdistant.com and use the contact form. If you've just come across the podcast and think it might be good to appear in it, make sure you like the tone; make sure you will enjoy talking to me (not everyone does!) and make sure what you have to offer is in line with the show. The show is broad, but it does have a few themes running through it. If you are contacting me on behalf of someone else, if they've asked you to contact me, great. If not, same goes, make sure they are the right fit - not that on paper they sound like the right fit, please listen to the show first. And before we start scheduling the show, make sure they ok with appearing in it. So there you go, in a nutshell, podcasts seem like a great way of promoting yourself and your business, but to podcasters, they are more than a vehicle for exposure. They are a creation; there is continuity; and each host and show has a very particular style and audience. So, if you want to hop on the microphone with me, go ahead, feel free to use the contact form over at virtual notdsitnat.com

Just touching base with you today while I catch up with the backlog of conversations. Here's a little blog post that was quite popular last month: "How to Stop Worrying about Whether People are Getting the Work Done at Home". If you prefer to read the blog post, here's the link: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/how-do-you-measure-results-in-remote-team

In this episode, Pilar explains the benefits of having regular update meetings with your remote team. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com Pilar mentions this article by Amy Edmondson and Bror Saxberg Putting Lifelong Learning on the CEO Agenda. http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/putting-lifelong-learning-on-the-ceo-agenda (We cover Psychological Safety also in Episode 9 of Management Café.) If you would like to be a Beta Reader for “Online Meetings that Rock”, sign up here https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/meetings-book/ 08:00mins The kind of team Pilar is talking about: Those with a decent timezone overlap. Don’t Cancel your Regular Team Meetings! Conversations not Presentations Nurturing Connections Technology becomes Your Friend Soon They Will be Everywhere! Check out episode 136 on how Automattic uses video to engage with customers. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/happiness-at-automattic There’s reference to episode 557 of HBR Ideacast “Restoring Sanity to the Office” with Jason Fried, founder of Basecamp. https://hbr.org/ideacast/2016/12/restoring-sanity-to-the-office.html He mentions that the reason why meetings are often seen as interruptions is because they involve “Talking about something right now that generally has very little to do with what's happening with our work right now”. What Do You Want to Get from the Meeting? If you just want to reconnect with team members, voice this or else your silence can be misinterpreted. Can’t Make the Meeting or Don’t Want to be There? Also check out Episode 119 Making Video Meetings Comfortable https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/comfortable-virtual-meetings And https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/audio-meetings

In this episode Pilar talks to Nancy Settle-Murphy about the challenges of working with people based in other countries. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com In the introduction, Pilar shares the different reasons why people might not be acting on feedback, or asking for clarification: Avoiding losing face Seeking harmony Unconditional respect for authority Lack of trust She mentions this previous episode with Hugo Messer on working in global teams: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/across-continents You can also listen to Nancy and Pilar’s previous conversation on “Facilitating Virtual Meetings”, https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/facilitating-virtual-meetings A hierarchical view of the world: My way is the only way. How much is Headquarters imposing a way of working? “Assumptions in a way are shortcuts to finding a solution.” Should we be making generalisations and assumptions about how people work because they belong to one culture? Maybe it’s our best first guess… What areas of working life might be affected by geographical cultures? Decision-making; how trust is built. Hierarchy and decision making. It’s not as simple as it looks. We talk about this article by Erin Meyer, on the HBR July 2017 issue: https://hbr.org/2017/07/being-the-boss-in-brussels-boston-and-beijing In podcast form: https://hbr.org/ideacast/2017/07/how-authority-and-decision-making-differ-across-cultures.html Nancy recommends Erin Meyer’s “The Culture Map” http://amzn.to/2vJAP9V (affiliate link) Tool confusion even in the same company. How different people give feedback. Not your way, or my way, but a third way, that is beneficial to the end client/user/product. What happens when the people who we expect to change their ways, actually change their behaviour? The importance of informal communication to get used to people who exhibit emotions. How do different people like to interact informally? How ready are people to talk about their personal life at work? Be aware of questions that could be seen as intrusive. Cultural differences are worth talking about. Connect with Nancy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nsettlemurphy And check out her website: https://www.guidedinsights.com/ https://www.guidedinsights.com/articles-guides/  

In this episode, Pilar talks to David Burkus, author of “Under New Management”, an overview of those organisations experimenting with new ways of leading teams and managing people. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com If you would like to be a Beta Reader of “Online Meetings that Rock”, please click here: http://bit.ly/betameeting David Burkus is the author of Under New Management: How Leading Organisations Are Upending Business as Usual. Grab the book now! We reflect on what a long way technology has come and how we’re so lucky to have seen how it has evolved. David’s work as Professor. His location is fantastic for going to and from speaking engagements! How much David takes from the classroom to your work as author and speaker and viceversa? What do business students expect to learn? What are their attitudes towards the world of work? David talks about the sports’ “team captain” as the analogy for the leadership roles business students are likely to adopt when they enter the world of work. David refers to this article: “Let’s Hear it for B Players”, HBR June 2003 Pilar refers to this episode of Radio Free Leader. http://davidburkus.com/2017/07/0820-how-the-best-leaders-make-everyone-smarter-with-liz-wiseman/ How David decided which practices to include in Under New Management. They needed to have a few examples, influenced by academic research and covering a broad type of companies. David’s realization about how the book should have been written. We talk a bit about the topics in the book and how best to approach the book practically. How come nothing like “remote work”, “working from home” has been included in the book? What he discovered about the best organisational leaders as he interviewed them. David also teaches creativity, we talk a bit about that. (He’s written the book “The Myths of Creativity”.) Pilar recommends the book “Impro”, by Keith Johnstone David’s collaborative writing process and his plans for a third book. David’s journey as podcaster and how he numbers his episodes by season. Still, he’s been podcasting for eight years now! Check out his podcast: Radio Free Leader http://davidburkus.com/category/podcast/ We talk about the world of podcasting and how it’s evolving. David has been reading: “Stealing Fire” by Steven Kotler and Jamie Weal “The Marshmallow Test” by Walter Mischel Kindle and local libraries. Connect with David through his website: http://davidburkus.com/

Have we got a treat for you today. In this episode, both Lisette and Pilar talk to T Briseno, Happiness Engineer at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. visit www.virtualnotdistant.com T. shares what her job as Happiness Engineer entails and how she interacts directly with customers through video meetings. This really helps her to feel connected to the work and see the results of her work. (Plus, she loves seeing all the different blogs around.) How does someone start working for Automattic? T. shares her own story and the onboarding process. Communication across a company with over 560 distributed employees. How do people talk to each other and collaborate in a company with no physical office and how is the organisation structured? (To find out more about why Automattic ditched their San Francisco office, check out this article: https://qz.com/1002655/the-company-behind-wordpress-is-closing-its-gorgeous-san-francisco-office-because-its-employees-never-show-up/) Most of the long-form, thorough communication in Automattic takes place through the P2 blogs. Tish shares how she’s learned to write posts aimed at others in the company and how she receives feedback from colleagues. The role of the Team Lead at Automattic. The autonomy of the job; staying connected with people in her team and acting on her own initiative.  

In this episode, Pilar talks about the importance of thinking holistically about introducing “remote” into an organisation: how will it change a company’s culture? How will it challenge people’s identities? Visit www.virtualnotdistant.com  It’s the summer, and things have slowed down, which I really appreciate. London is quieter, the internet is quieter, which means I have more time to think and to write. But I’ll tell you about the writing a little bit later. Today’s episode: well, I’d like to dedicate it to people in organisations who are in charge of implementing remote working (or some other way of working that involves working away from the company’s premises) or indeed, if you are championing this kind of work in your organisation. Last year, the Work Foundation predicted that 2017, this year, would be the tipping point for 50% of the UK’s population to go “mobile”. And indeed, it’s really felt like that this year. (To hear more on the Working Anywhere report, have a listen to episode 72.) More organisations – both in the public and private sectors – are introducing “agile working” which means different things to different people, but which always integrates some sort of remote work. So there is a lot of potential for individuals to organise their lives around their work, for getting rid of unhelpful processes and work habits that we’re used to in the collocated space that get in the way of people doing great work, of concentrating on the work that needs to be done, rather than worrying about whether people look like they’re working at their desks, all those things that we talk about on this podcast… At the same time, I worry that this change is being introduced without understanding the profound change that it will have on people’s lives and ways of working… In some cases, the change is happening because organisations want to retain their employees by giving them more autonomy and flexibility, but in some cases, it’s being introduced to reduce the real estate bill, and for some employees, it might not be a welcome change. So, I thought I’d have a reflective episode on all of this: whatever the reason for the change, it’s worth remembering that remote work is not just supported by giving people laptops, it needs a lot more support… So I think the first thing to consider is that introducing remote work should give employees more flexibility around where, when and how they do their work. It’s a shame to enable remote working and then restrict this freedom. And this involves seeing whether there are more options beyond 1) working at the same desk every day and 2) working from home. It’s worth remembering that people working from home, especially if it’s for the first time, might need help and practical support. Some will love it, they will be happy to check emails on their sofa and work on the kitchen table. Others might have a dedicated room they can use as an office. But some people might just not have the space, or they might have conflicting schedules at home which means that they long to get out of the house to have some time to themselves. If the ability to do this by going to work is removed, we might be taking away something valuable to them. So, if your reason for introducing remote work is reducing office space, then make sure your people have the necessary alternative spaces where they can get their work done. If, on the other hand, you are introducing remote work to give your people flexibility, make sure that no-one feels like they are expected to start working away from the office – just because they can, doesn’t mean they should. We really need to remember that not everyone wants to work from home, that not everyone CAN work from home. However, some people might be able to use alternatives, like coworking spaces, or maybe there are spaces within your organisations’ building where they feel most inspired, or where they just feel more connected to the work. There might be ways of rearranging the space you already have to create different types of spaces to accommodate more people (rather than the one fixed desk per person); there might be ways of partnering with other organisations to offer your employees spaces that are more convenient for them – think broad, think beyond fixed desk space or home, there might be more alternatives… (I talk more about this in episode 131, Office Optional) Sometimes having people work away from the office – away from their desks – is met with resistance from managers, from colleagues, and I think this is often because we’ve lost our connection with the work; its nature; its purpose. It might be necessary to stop and reflect on what is the work we do? What do I do at work? Why do I need to work with others? I can’t give you an answer to any of this because it will be really specific to your work and situation. It could be that what you do at work is answer questions from visitors to your website. That type of work can be done from anywhere where you are comfortable at a computer. But you might feel like you need to be with others, for troubleshooting, for moral support, because the work itself is actually quite monotonous, or unrewarding, and being with your colleagues is what keeps you engaged. How will you make sure those people in the organisation who need that social contact continue to get it? At an organisational level, you need to have an idea of the kind of work people do and whether it’s location-specific or schedule-specific; that will help us decide whether the work can indeed be done from anywhere and how. In addition to this, you need to understand the environment you want to offer your people, and make sure that introducing some kind of remote set up is not going to remove what you most value. But in order to do that, you need to be able to break down the experience your people have at work and what they need to be happy at work; not just how much more productive they’re going to be because they’re not going to have interruptions when working separately from others – if that’s the case. Sometimes transitioning to a remote setup, or even just a more Office Optional approach can seem like turning everything upside down, but it could well be that in looking at our work, we realise that we’re already using technology in a number of ways and that we might need to preserve many of the ways in which we currently work. And then we might also see that the work we do actually can take a lot of flexibility regarding when and where, and even how we do it, even though at first it looked like there was only ONE way of doing the work, the way in which we’d been carrying it out until now. But finding this out will take time and some thinking. It could well be that “going remote” starts to throw up questions about how the whole organisation is working. This is where the whole discussion around introducing remote work in an organisation can start to get quite broad. There might have been an emphasis on team members sitting together, on different functions being located on different floors, increasing the separation between different parts of the organisation and maybe even, without realising it, nurturing a culture of competitiveness. This might have been deliberate, or actually, it might have been a practical decision that had unforeseen consequences. Now that we understand that tools, processes and environment can affect workplace culture, we can’t overlook that introducing “remote” can have positive and negative consequences. Going remote could mean that you think about how to enable connections between everyone in the company, regardless of function; knowing that collaborating across functions can lead to innovation, and that to get things done in a company it often helps to know people outside of your team. Instead of thinking how you can enable people “bumping into each other” in the corridors and breakout areas, think about how you can enable this through technology. As people get used to using technology for every day communication and to enable collaboration, why not incite people to broaden their network, beyond their team members? On the other hand, remote can lead to isolation and even more separation between different parts of the organisation, as communication can become more segmented because exchanging a few words around the coffee machine, or in the queue to get your food becomes quite difficult. Unless you plan for it, informal exchanges between people not working directly with each other can become less frequent. This is something we need to think about: how will the company work as a whole, rather than just how will people work in virtual teams? If you want people’s networks to strengthen within your organisation, you need to plan for that. So, on the point of reducing silos, I’ve been talking for a while here now- it might be a good point at which to introduce a new voice.   Those of you who have been listening to this podcast for a while might remember that a few episodes ago, in episode 127, Brie Reynolds joined me to talk about career progression in remote work and her own work in FlexJobs. I preparation for the interview, I downloaded the 2017 State of Telecommuting in the US Employee Workforce. As a result of doing that, I then got an email through inviting me to request an invitation to the TRaD works Forum. With a lineup of speakers from Dell, Gallup and Harvard Business Review, I thought it would be interesting to have someone tell you a little bit more about the event – one, in case you are interested in attending, it’s an in-person, in the flesh event taking place in Washington DC at the end of September and two, I always like to share events I come across about the world of work. So here’s Mike Gutman, Director of Marketing from Flexjobs telling you a bit about the company, and a bit about the event.   Well, thank you Mike for adding a different voice to this solo episode. And the url for that event is trad.works and of course, check out flexjobs.com or their sister site remote.co I think that the focus that the event has on making remote “scalable” and something that is seen as an organisation-wide programme reinforces what I was saying earlier, so that’s another reason why I wanted to include the segment here. So, back to introducing remote in an organisation, I’ve mentioned understanding the type of work we’re doing and its flexibility, as well as understanding the Culture of the organisation and the effect that can have on how remote is implemented, as well as the other way around of course. And it will also work the other way round: Going remote will have an effect on culture, whether we like it or not. If the transition is planned and deliberate, we can strengthen those aspects of the current culture that are helpful; but if we leave it to chance, we could well end up with a culture of people disappearing at home behind their computers or, at the other end, we could end up with a culture of people constantly checking up on others. In addition to culture, there is the question of individual identity. Just something like not coming into the office every day to be with colleagues can challenge someone’s identity. For example, if you are someone who prides themselves in being the person others turn to when they need cheering up and you think that your optimism and ability to help others to see things in a positive light is the main thing you bring to your team, you might have trouble adopting to a new way of working when you spend a lot less time in person together, and where connecting with others takes that little bit more effort. Or, if you are a manager who sees themselves as approachable, and enjoys having “lightning coaching chats” in the corridor with people and always being available when people spontaneously ask if you’ve got five minutes, it might take a while to take the more deliberate approach to these conversations that is necessary in the remote space. And in the beginning, it can feel that the essence of what makes you special and valuable, that approachability, is being overlooked or even undervalued. These are all subtle consequences of starting to work in a more location-independent way, and they are usually overlooked… Some people, some teams, even some companies will be able to adapt to a location- independent, even schedule-independent way of working quite quickly. But in other places, we might actually be asking people and teams to change how they see themselves, not just how they work. And that is hard and takes time. So to wrap up this short episode of the 21st Century Work Life podcast, I suppose what I’m advocating for here is a deeper approach to changing the way in which we work when going remote or mobile.., that goes beyond training people in the new technology and making sure they have the right equipment and set up. Although maybe I still need to highlight the importance of doing all that too – I run the danger of taking for granted that that will indeed be the very first step… So let’s remember that we also need to provide the right equipment, some way of people to assess whether they are being productive in the new set up, whether they’re adapting ok, how work is affecting other parts of their lives, etc. Then keeping an eye out on culture, work satisfaction etc, especially if you have introduced new tools, as these might well change the dynamics and quality of how people communicate and collaborate… This is not something that will take a month or two to implement, it’s something that is worth introducing slowly, monitoring, evaluating, adapting, because the short-term effects might be different to the long-term effects. It’s a change programme, so as well as looking after the tech, you’ll need to look after the people… I’m probably preaching to the converted, but I just hear more and more stories of managers, specifically managers, being told that people can now work from home, without providing them with the support necessary to make the change successfully. We’ve developed strong habits around how we do the work, about what working feels like and looks like; while some people can adapt incredibly well, for some people, it challenges the core of how they see themselves as professionals and how they view the world of work. To sign up as a Beta reader for Online Meetings that Rock, click here: http://bit.ly/betameeting

In this episode, Pilar talks to Syrus Lowe about his work in the theatre, in role-play companies and presenting. The diverse things that Syrus has been doing over the last 12 months. Being involved in the live streaming performance of St Joan at the Donmar Warehouse. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/saint-joan-donmar-warehouse-london-review-gemma-artertons-joan-radiates-a-gentle-simplicity-and-a7486861.html How the nature of auditions has changed and how the industry is becoming more demanding. Syrus’ work as a role-play actor, facilitator and his masterclass. https://www.roleplaymasterclass.com/ Giving feedback and training actors to give feedback in role-play sessions. Syrus’ article about unconscious bias: Syrus Lowe: Confusing me with another black actor is no laughing matter https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2017/syrus-lowe-confusing-another-black-actor-no-laughing-matter/ Using an actor’s public image to advocate for equality and other issues. The difficulty in managing public and private persona. Syrus’ work as a presenter. How City Hacks has evolved… and some interesting news! Check out the youtube channel City Hacks London https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtICc4-FCa7Xt-SN3yYJpQg https://www.roleplaymasterclass.com/ Next classes in London 19th August and 20th September 2017 @SyrusLowedown on Twitter and Instagram

  In this episode, Pilar and Lisette talk about the kind of mindset remote team managers can embrace that will make their lives easier.   Lisette tells us about her experience running a webinar in Japan. This is the article Lisette and Pilar use to guide us through the conversation. Six Traits of Leaders Who Successfully Manage Remote Employees https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2016/06/10/6-traits-of-leaders-who-successfully-manage-remote-employees/#a69d5b14032e Do we really want to be indefatigable? The manager as “company evangelist” or advocate? How much do you need to love your company? Should we always be “positive” or will we start to sound like PR machines? Authenticity comes into play. Being approachable and available. Physical distance and Psychological distance. Writing letters! And writing, are wired for communicating through writing?