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.

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

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.

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  

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.

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  

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  

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?

We'll be back to our normal programme next week, but in case you're looking for something to listen to around leading remote teams, here's a conversation between Tim Burgess and Pilar Orti on tackling the challenges of the asynchronous environment as managers/leaders. This is episode 38 from Management Café, where the co-hosts talk about an aspect of management for about 20 minutes. Join them for this informal style every week! Search for Management Café in your favourite podcast app, or head over to the Management Café site for timecoded show notes.  If you'd like to be a test listener for our new audio-first course on asynchronous communication, register here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/your-opinion  Today's conversation: What happens for managers when work moves away from real time meeting focussed and more towards asynchronous? Communication and team interaction can be as unique and nuanced as each individual human. So how do we navigate management when our team are spending large parts of their time working async?

In this What’s Going On episode, Maya and Pilar review how new ways of working have landed in organisations and how the freelance landscape is evolving - mainly in relation to remote work. Recorded on 5 December 2022. They cover the following articles: Is it time to revisit unproductive flexible working arrangements? https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1803235/time-revisit-unproductive-flexible-working-arrangements Article about hybrid at Hubspot https://www.hubspot.com/hybrid  Resource from GitLab on Head of Remote: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/head-of-remote/ Pointer Remote newsletter: https://pointerremote.com/newsletter/  Freelancing: The Future is Freelance podcast https://futureisfreelance.buzzsprout.com/ They refer to guest John Lee speaking on tax rules  The Number of U.S. Independent Workers Continued to Surge in 2022: https://www.smallbizlabs.com/2022/12/the-number-of-us-independent-workers-continued-to-surge-in-2022.html Pilar mentions the podcast After Hours, episode 17 Nov 2022. Solopreneurship and e-⁠residency: when small is beautiful. https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/blog/posts/solopreneurship-and-eresidency   (Check out the section on digital nomads in episode 309 https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/august2022) You can find the full show notes at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/recap-2023 We'd love to hear what you think about all this: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us