

21st Century Work Life
Pilar Orti
Brought to you by Virtual not Distant, the 21st Century Work Life podcast looks at leading and managing remote teams, online collaboration and working in distributed organisations.
Join Pilar Orti, guests & co-hosts as they shine the spotlight on the most relevant themes and news relevant to the modern knowledge worker.
Join Pilar Orti, guests & co-hosts as they shine the spotlight on the most relevant themes and news relevant to the modern knowledge worker.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 25, 2023 • 58min
WLP328 The Complexity of Hybrid Culture
Our guest this month is Wayne Turmel, also co-host of Long Distance Work Life. Wayne has been studying remote work for almost 20 years. He now works within the Kevin Eikenbery group helping leaders in organisations. The word “remote” is becoming redundant as working with remote workers is now part of most knowledge workers. Wayne and Kevin have co-written three books: Long-Distance Leader and Long-Distance Team Mate (how to stay engaged and effective when we don’t share the space with our team) which are focused on the individual, and the new book, Long-Distance Team - probably the last book in the series, written to help create the environment where long-distance leaders and team mates can thrive. In this podcast episode, Wayne Turmel discusses the evolution of remote work culture, and how organizations are adapting to new work setups, like hybrid models, and the need to intentionally shape their cultures. He delves into the meaning of 'culture,' the difference between macro- and team-cultures, and the challenges of maintaining organizational culture in hybrid setups. He emphasizes the need for discussions around the formation of new work cultures, especially in light of significant lifestyle changes during the pandemic. As organizations gravitate towards a 'hybrid' model, defining it remains a challenge due to factors like time management and synchronous/asynchronous work. Wayne underlines how the diverse geographical cultures contribute to varying perspectives on returning to the office. For more detailed show notes, head over to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/hybrid-culture-is-messy

May 11, 2023 • 58min
WLP327 What's Going On: It's Messy, It's Complicated and It's Evolving Fast
Coming out of the forced-remote period is getting messy: mandates to return to the office, forced working from home, diversity at a global level in how remote work is regulated, plus the ever-evolving technology! Recorded on 19 April 2023, this episode also includes guests Guy Van Leemput and Patrick Van Renterghem, organisers of the Brussels Digital Workplace conference.

Apr 27, 2023 • 43min
WLP326 Solar Spotlight on the Startup Spirit
Today we are joined by Sergey Fedorov (co-founder and CTO) and Tatiana Ivanova (Business Manager) from A1 SolarStore. This is an unusual kind of organisation for us to feature on the podcast because they deal with physical products, and real-world customer installations - but new ways of working are increasingly pervading every kind of industry, as this case study demonstrates. You can find the show notes here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/startup-spirit You can learn more about A1 SolarStore and check out their blog on their website: https://a1solarstore.com/. You can connect with Tatiana and Sergey on LinkedIn.

Apr 13, 2023 • 41min
WLP325 Who's Up for "Head of Remote"?
A special episode, as it was inspired by a message from one of her listeners, who wanted to find out about more about the role of Head of Remote. Pilar reached out to Tyler Sellhorn, a teacher-oriented technologist who maintains the website headofremote.xyz. For the full show notes, head over to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts /head-of-remote-position

Mar 30, 2023 • 51min
WLP324 What's Going On: Control the Tech before it controls you!
In this What’s Going On episode, Maya and Pilar talk about the range of features in collaboration technology that could affect the way in which we work together, without us even noticing. Recorded on 23 March 2023, you can find the show notes over at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/control-the-tech 00.30mins Beware of the technology! 23.30mins Integration of AI 33.00mins Phones, phones, phones 35.50mins We love the tech, really! 40.40mins Other News 47.20mins Listener input Do let us know your opinion on all of this! We’d love to hear from you.

Mar 16, 2023 • 41min
WLP323 Grow Your Company through Growing Your People
Pilar welcomes returning guest Robert Glazer to talk about helping people develop and thrive in an organisation, the subject of Robert’s latest book “Elevate Your Team: Empower Your Team To Reach Their Full Potential and Build A Business That Builds Leaders.“ You can check out the full show notes over at: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/elevate-your-team

Mar 2, 2023 • 40min
WLP322 What's Going On: Shifting our Work Time and Third Places of Work
In this What’s Going On episode, Maya and Pilar discuss recent research into what people do with the time they save not having to commute to work, why people use third spaces of work and other tech updates. Recorded on 22 February 2023. Below are some time codes to guide you through the episode, but for the full show notes, please visit https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/third-places-of-work 00.30 Stats on working from home time savings and the 4-day week 21.25mins Research into third places of work 29.20mins Technology updates Do let us know your opinion on all of this! We’d love to hear from you.

Feb 16, 2023 • 39min
WLP321 Leadership Visibility and Transparency in Remote Organisations
Pilar talks to returning guest Mark Kilby about the different ways in which leaders can gain visibility in remote organisations, the need for pervasive and transparent communication, as well as the benefits of visualising our work. Check out Mark’s book: From Chaos To Successfully Distributed Agile Teams . You can find Mark over at markkilby.com and modusinstittute.com . For the full show notes, go to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/visible-leadership

Feb 2, 2023 • 53min
WLP320 What's Going On - Trends According to Humans and ChatGPT
In this What’s Going On episode, Maya and Pilar take inspiration from a post (not a very sophisticated one) generated by ChatGPT about the challenges facing those working from home this year. They also review articles by humans, on the future of work and the future of office spaces. Recorded on 24 Jan 2023. For the show notes and links to the articles we mention, go to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/chat-gtp

Jan 19, 2023 • 40min
WLP319 Lessons Learned from Scaling a Remote Business
In this episode, Shannon Teague shares her story scaling a remote business, and some of the things she learned along the way. For the full show notes visit Links: You can find Shannon and her course over at www.scalingupsimplified.com - and she’s got a free course on hiring remotely to get you started if you need help right now. And if you want to hear more from Sharon, check out her YouTube channel. The episode that Pilar mentions from Management Café is episode 34 Is delegation hard?


