21st Century Work Life

Welcome back

A small correction to a recent discussion, when we look at Dr. Heejung Chung's research about gender and remote work – we're glad to point out that the work we'd referred to as UK only actually had much broader scope, and we strongly recommend checking out the twitter thread with links to the original research: https://twitter.com/HeejungChung/status/1106489489998991360.

We love our Twitter community - and glad to shout out a few more of our friends on this episode, with gratitude for making us think and grow, always. And we have had some great conversations on LinkedIn too – so many ways of connecting in in our 21st-century work.

12.38 21st Century Work-Life: Nick Steenhout

Speaker trainer and consultant on web accessibility

Web accessibility is the practice of making web content and apps accessible to all users, regardless of ability /disability. It covers so many things from colour to responsiveness to keyboard-accessible elements… And for developers, there are so many things which can be done, all of which make sites better for people without disabilities too. And when Google remains the biggest screen reader for every site, it's definitely a win-win.

After a quarter of a century of the internet, the same accessibility issues come up time and again - and new frameworks still get developed and released without these considerations built-in. It can be an unknown unknown, which nobody addresses due to lack of foresight, through to tagging the idea on as an afterthought… 'oh, a third-party plugin can handle that'.

But none of it is rocket science (and some good baking analogies help make accessibility very accessible). And advances in tech such as voice recognition, and the cost of assistive devices, make things better all the time. For all of us.

And Nic has a very 21st Century Work Life of his own, living in a 40ft RV – when we spoke he was in national parkland in British Columbia, enjoying the digital nomad life with his partner, despite Canadian winter temperatures and rationing mobile data. He doesn't find work-life balance to be too challenging, as a wheelchair user on wheels, and has more space in the RV than some city apartments – space guaranteed to be available and accessible, and often with a lovely view.

Check out Nic's podcast, A11y Rules https://a11yrules.com/

Twitter @vavroom

And his website https://incl.ca/

31.29 What do you mean by that?

Welcome back workplace psychologist Richard McKinnon, with some great definitions for us:

Personality: Your way of looking at the world, the lens through which you make sense of it all. We all have a comfort zone and a preferred pattern of communicating and interacting. But it is plastic and subject to evolution.

Psychological flexibility: A set of thinking and behaviour skills supporting good coping and adjustment to the world around us, resilience in the face of change. The ability to put a bit of space between stimulus and response. We can learn and develop improved psychological flexibility. https://www.worklifepsych.com/psychologicalflexibility/

Locus of Control – Defining how we ascribe our influence and impact on the world, and the extent to which we attribute things that happen to ourselves, or to external factors. Developing a strong internal local of control puts you in charge of what happens to you!

Learn more in Episode 3 of My Pocket Psych https://www.worklifepsych.com/podcast/ep003-psychological-flexibility-paying-attention-to-now/

47.40 Recommended Tool: Calendly

A simple scheduling tool which works with Gcal and other calendars, to enable 2 more people to fix up a meeting when they're both free.

An easy way to avoid the endless emails back and forth about availability, and you can choose different appointment types to book (eg by length), and it also magically takes account of different time zones neatly for you.

A range of paid tiers gives you access to group scheduling too – plan meetings with groups of people, wherever they are. Which is very powerful for distributed teams, and anyone working with clients and associates anywhere in the world.

Just remember to block off all your unavailable time, so no one fixes a meeting with you!

Just Maya and Pilar's voices in today's episode, and a single 'voice behind the book' segment: because this marks the official launch of Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distributed Teams.

All these posts are curated from our own Virtual Not Distant blog https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog, and Maya selected the initial content following a thorough review. She specifically sought out the evergreen themes discussing principles which are broadly applicable across any team or workplace, and do not relate to tools or projects which are likely to date. The book has four sections:

• Laying the foundations for Remote work,
• Wellbeing,
• How are we doing?
• Looking Out.

And, at the end of each of the 13 chapters there are some leadership reflections designed to get you thinking about the material and relating it to your own experiences and situation. So the book role-models the Virtual Not Distant coaching approach, and actually, it also role models the coaching mindset, which is so essential when running a remote team.

This mindset is also reflected in the accompanying email series and follow-up course for the book, which is designed to help all readers get the material off the page and into their teams and organisations where they can make a difference.

We look forward to your feedback and reviews, because everything we create is inspired by our community here, our podcast listeners and blog readers and social interactors. Everything worthwhile is a collaboration – and we worked with a great editor, Lisa, through Reedsy.com, Manuel did our cover, and Simon designed the interior of our print version, the e-versions have been done by myself on Vellum. Thanks also to Marija for being involved at a distance and thanks to Ross for putting this episode together, as always... To bring this book to you our readers, in as many formats and stores as we can - https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books

If you are having trouble getting hold of it or if you have any thoughts on it, let us know https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us

A slightly different show today, with some new sections – we look forward to your feedback. We love reading your comments and tweets, whether about Pilar's recent blog post on Visible Teamwork https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/hello-visible-teamwork, or what you think of book Thinking Remote: Inspiration for leaders and managers of distributed teams (now available in paperback) https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books

- so do keep in touch with us! https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us

In today's main section, Pilar and Maya discuss some recent articles about remote and office-optional working which have caught their attention, and raised a range of important issues:

Engaging workers as consumers – Deloitte Insights 28-1-19 https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/talent/using-technology-for-employee-engagement.html

Just as work and life are blended in 2019, workers and clients are no longer a dichotomy, and in a digital world we all relate to brands and organisations in complex ways. But they're all rounded individuals, whether remote colleagues or clients or both! Technology enables more connection and socialisation, but can also create silos and barriers, especially as private conversations may be less visible online than in the colocated space. There are lots of ways to keep in touch within distributed organisations – including an in-house podcast!

Flexible working can reinforce gender stereotypes - The Conversation Heejung Chung, University of Kent https://theconversation.com/amp/flexible-working-can-reinforce-gender-stereotypes-109158 10-1-19

Reminding us that flexible working still takes place within a wider cultural and business context in which there remains considerable structural inequality, from the gender pay gap to unpaid domestic workload. A very thought provoking article and discussion, from 'flexibility stigma' to the difference in remote working culture between the UK and US. Unpicking perceptions from actual phenomena is always complicated, but this stuff is far from straightfoward, and it matters.

The Slackification of work

https://www.fastcompany.com/90236583/the-slackification-of-work

Well, we didn't know that Slack originally stood for 'Searchable Log of All Conversations and Knowledge' – but it has certainly had a big impact on many workplaces. The article raises questions about impacts on productivity and relationship, and there are some interesting perspectives.

This has meant some managers having to get comfortable with conversations they don't directly control. This always happened, people made their own relationships and connections at work, and the remote space is no different. But there is a distinct qualitative difference between a face to face remark and one that is put in writing in any context… "ephemeral does not mean inconsequential", sums it up perfectly.

"What do you mean by that?"

We are joined today to define some important terms, by Dr Richard Mackinnon founder and MD of Work Life Psych

Productivity: There are many definitions of this term, which may fit different industries and circumstances, but Richard describes it holistically as doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time. Framing in terms of impact rather than output, is one way to stop measuring the wrong things, and being busy instead of effective.

Procrastination: Not always correctly used, but this term defines when we delay doing something, and that delay has a negative impact. Why do we do this, tell ourselves stories, and put things off until they become problematic? Just get on and make a start – check out ep7 of My Pocket Psych for more on this!

Habit Stacking: Here's one way to boost productivity (and maybe even beat procrastination), add the thing you want to do to the thing you already do, as a reminder and trigger. "When I finish eating dinner, I am going to clean the kitchen". We won't forget to eat! So connecting the two will enable the building of the new habit we really want to acquire.

Productivity Porn: Reading about productivity, installing new apps, and thinking about how to be productive… That is the opposite of getting things done. Habits require consistency and commitment, and actually doing the work – not forever binging the latest theories and tools instead.

Keep up with Richard at http://worklifepsych.com/, especially https://www.worklifepsych.com/solutions/productivity/, and of course the podcast (where our own Pilar Orti is a regular co-host) at https://www.worklifepsych.com/podcast/

What are you looking for?

Teresa Douglas is the co-author (with Mike Webber and Holly Gordon) of Secrets of the Remote Workforce,

Teresa is researching work friendships in remote teams, because the ways we connect are different online, as we have so often discussed. Are work friends different from work friends, are online friends different from face-to-face ones? It's great to see someone exploring this, and planning to create specific tools to make things easier for remote workers in future. She would love to hear from more freelancers), as well as remote employees, to ensure breadth within the whole office-optional experience. (Research call-out specific to Spring 2019, but always good to connect anyway!)

https://teresamdouglas.com/current-research/

Or connect with Teresa on Twitter https://twitter.com/teresamdouglas

Today's episode is all about books! We're celebrating World Book Day! Pilar gives you a few titles that others recommended on Twitter; she then speaks to Maya, who talks through her book recommendation, and the episode ends with an in-depth chat with Theresa Sigillito Hollema on "The Culture Code".

SEGMENT 1 Here are the books recommended by others on Twitter: Company of One Deep Work The Start Up Way Brave New Work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Where the Action Is Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy The Job (also, don't forget our very own Thinking Remote)

And here's a long list of books… https://inthebooks.800ceoread.com/news/articles/the-2018-800-ceo-read-business-book-awards-longlist SEGMENT 2 Maya recommends The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything by and she explains what she liked about it most. SEGMENT 3 Pilar recommends: Radical Candor The Culture Map Team of Teams Work Together Anywhere Help Me by Marianne Power Smarter Faster Better and The Power of Habit Under New Management On Writing Well

SEGMENT 4 Theresa Sigillito Hollema recommends The Culture Code. Her and Pilar have a long chat about what the book covers and how what the author discovered in high performing colocated cultures, can be applied to virtual teams and remote organisations. We're all people after all!

Don't forget our very own Thinking Remote. Inspiration for leaders of distributed teams and Pilar's Hi, I'm Here for a Recording. The ordinary life of a voiceover artist, where she also explains how this podcast was born.

Thank you for listening!

Today's episode was the direct result of a Twitter conversation, in which Pilar mused about the distinction between collaboration and co-operation https://twitter.com/PilarOrti/status/1095252618941734914, and Matt Ballantine was among the people who responded – thank you to everyone who joined in this fascinating discussion, and it's great to have been able to continue it on the podcast – how much more 21st Century Work-Life can you get?

And speaking of social media, the warm reception to Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Remote Teams has been a joy to read – thank you everyone for the great feedback and reviews, we're so glad that this Virtual Not Distant publication has struck a chord. If you've read it, don't forget to let us know what you think (and if you're waiting for the paper version, it's coming very soon) https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/books

Matt Ballantine, cohost of the WB40 Podcast https://wb40podcast.com/, created this amazing 'cheat sheet' for some UK government consultation work last year, looking at the meaning of collaboration. https://mmitii.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/collaboration-cheat-sheet.pdf

It's an amazing document which generates as many questions as it answers, because making change in the first place requires commitment and engagement and very clear understanding of the purpose of changing. Why improve collaboration, and what would that look like? And how much responsibility lies with organisations rather than individuals? If collaboration is not happening, then the problem is probably not technological – so how can you address the systemic barriers and better align the incentives for all?

Matt breaks down these barriers one by one, and challenges organisations to address the issues presented. Looking at issues of trust, access and the way we frame our work social environment creates powerful new frames through which to look at ways to collaborate, and reminds us that our teams and enterprises do not exist in isolation from the rest of the physical and virtual world.

His 7 Team Persona model is a powerful way to consider your team as an entity, in ways you might never previously have considered. It can help you choose the kind of structures and set-up you need for your digital workplace - and the assumptions behind the design of collaboration tools and software are also very interesting to unpick, because the type of team who builds an application might be very different from those who need to use it.

Also a fascinating dissection of the difference between behaviour and culture within organisations, and which you should attempt to change and why. Changing behaviour within cultural context is far easier. Either way, who really owns and takes charge of the change?

Get ready to deep dive down the rabbit hole with Matt and Pilar, and afterwards you'll want to keep up with Matt's work at https://stamplondon.co.uk/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/ballantine70

"Good practice when it comes to interaction and collaboration comes from learning how to get there not from being told what best practice is".

51.24 Recommended Tool: Google Docs

Does anyone need an introduction to "Gdocs"? Well yes, because not everyone appreciates the flexibility and powerful collaboration tools built into it. And also because it has improved a great deal in recent years, to now offer word processing capabilities easily on a par with Word or Pages.

Maya and Pilar work on lots of written projects together, and find it a great way to connect and communicate as they edit, comment and even discuss a shared document in real time. You can collaborate with just about anyone, even if they're not logged in to Google or part of your team (though you might find them anonymised to a strange animal!) And you can even create tasks and tags for other users of the document.

With a range of integrations and add-ons, you might find Google Docs the free and platform agnostic tool you've been looking for all along – but if you prefer something different, then please tell us all about it – via our Contact Form or social media @Virtualteamw0rk

In today's episode we look at how the very traditional industry of accountancy services is adapting itself to the needs of 21st century clients, when we interview our own accountants! And we also bring you a Wellness segment, and a return to perennial favourite 'Oh No My Team's Gone Remote!"

Thank you for all the feedback on our recent special episode all about Twitter conversations and themes http://wlpodcast.libsyn.com/twitter-conversations-worth-podcasting-about – don't forget to join in the conversation, we're @Virtualteamw0rk. Lots going on, including updates on our upcoming book launch for Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distribute Teams. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Remote-Inspiration-leaders-distributed-ebook/dp/B07LDFGVR8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1545043447&sr=1-1

But now, let's hear from Jennifer:

5.44 21st Century Work-Life: Jennifer Denning, Founder, Finling

https://www.finling.co.uk/

Specialised in supporting entrepreneurial fast-changing businesses with particular expertise in technology, property, and business services, Finling were a great choice for Virtual Not Distant. They operate from a colocated office (in fact, a single room) in Wimbledon, London, and run face-to-face events to get to know their clients – with whom they work entirely virtually.

They help clients choose and implement the right cloud software, driven by founder Jennifer's fascination with the evolution of technology to become accessible to SMEs – businesses who now need something beyond traditional high street compliance accounting. Because the world of "beautifully organised and tabbed files" is starting to evolve beyond existence – today we need data engineers in accounting. Change is getting faster, and it's not always about growth, but the complex pivots of entrepreneurial life. Jennifer's work with their clients suggested a lot of parallels with what we do here at Virtual Not Distant in fact, bridging HR and tech to provide a holistic and flexible tailored solution.

Working on an 'open book' basis with clients, Finling are more like an outsourced finance department than a traditional supplier. This creates an unusually close working relationship based on effective collaboration, often including coaching on use of appropriate tools for secure online sharing and effective process control and discipline – because we all know that going online can expose holes in procedures where they are woolly. Everyone benefits from using software correctly, and getting the right services in place helps their clients' businesses thrive.

Whilst they work remotely with clients, their core team all work from the central office, (though some specialist contractors are more flexible, including work at home and on-site with clients) This suits their high-pressure high-trust environment of professional client service work. But they use a lot of technical collaboration tools to manage the work, which is no different to what they would do remotely – in accounting, everything needs an audit trail, so you create a task or instruction for someone electronically instead of turning around and asking them. This enables a lot of the work to be made visible without actually talking about it, creating a different quality to the interactions in the office. "Sometimes we're silent for a long time" – A really interesting perspective into how people share and connect as a team when the work itself doesn't need explaining

A really interesting conversation all round, in which we also talk about Open Banking, and how new standards are making it even easier to integrate all the financial tools and services businesses use, and work with clients as they expand internationally

You can connect with Jennifer at https://www.finling.co.uk/

42.25 Wellness: Commuting and health

We wanted to discuss this article:

https://www.vitality.co.uk/media/long-commutes-costing-a-weeks-worth-of-productivity/

We often talk about the quality of life gains which office-optional work can bring, especially for those with long commutes – but this research puts numbers on it, in quite a chilling way, including significant detriments to mental and physical health. Particularly as the commute should be unrelated to the work itself.

People with long commutes are more likely to get less than the recommended amount of sleep, more likely to be obese, even more likely to smoke…

The research distinguished between flexible working and working from home, which was interesting, as for productivity gains it does appear to be the autonomy which makes the difference.

Difference to the tune of a full extra week's productivity per year, in case you need to make a business case for it in your own work.

52.23 Oh No My Team's Gone Remote! And how will we maintain high levels of trust?

All relationships depend on trust, but building this can be more difficult without the face-to-face interactions of the traditional workplace.

The Culture Map by Erin Mayer (as recommended in our latest newsletter https://mailchi.mp/ea82ed13465e/vnd-nov2017-2916933) defines two categories of trust, and gives us a useful framework for considering our online relationships: cognitive trust is built through work interactions, the skill as well as the will to follow through and deliver. We can have high cognitive trust with people we don't feel we know well as individuals, yet can rely on utterly in a professional capacity.

Effective trust is how close we feel emotionally, in terms of shared values and character and activities... And this might be very important to some working relationships as well, and how we enjoy spending our time. Or it might not be necessary at all, to work closely and effectively with somebody.

As always in remote teams, building trust – especially the levels of disclosure associated with effective trust – requires a degree of deliberation and planning, if only to ensure the spontaneous sharing and connection has a place to occur online instead of in a shared office.

(If you enjoyed this theme, do check out another episode where we dig into building trust in more depth https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/building-trust)

A bonus episode bringing you some interesting conversations we were involved with on Twitter. Connect with us @Virtualteamw0rk These are the tweets Pilar talks about in this episode: https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec/status/1090963791532212225?s=12 https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec/status/1091101706325245954?s=12

https://twitter.com/cagrisarigoz/status/1091268897179869185?s=12

https://twitter.com/NachoEscQuint/status/1091267426518556672

https://twitter.com/theresashollema/status/1091662095521845248?s=12

Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn't a Problem https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/25/style/sleep-problem-late-night.html?module=inline

Pilar mentions the book 'Why We Sleep' by Matthew Walker https://twitter.com/pilarorti/status/1091290139899375616?s=12

https://twitter.com/gramsbottom/status/1091042226451476480?s=12

https://twitter.com/erimbau/status/1087997977929662466?s=12

https://twitter.com/lastrushhour/status/1088241920311054337?s=12

WLP189 Loneliness and the Remote Worker and Cultural Homelessness

Remote work can potentially be lonely - but we have lots of voices on the podcast today for you to enjoy, as we explore this multifaceted topic. Let us know what you think, over at https://virtualnotdistant.com or tweet @Virtualteamw0rk.

And wherever you work, Twitter is always there for company – a great community of flexible and remote workers, including Jack Nilles @JackNilles1 author of Managing Telework, with whom we discussed the discipline you sometimes need to stop as well as to start your work. And Teresa @Teresamdouglas, thanks for the shout out in your article "Join the remote work conversation - you don't have to go it alone" https://teresamdouglas.com/2019/01/22/join-the-remote-work-conversation/", which connects beautifully with today's theme.

Loneliness and the Remote Worker

The transition to working from home can have a significant effect on feelings of loneliness, especially if it's not directly from choice (such as a shift in an organisational policy). And when we talk all the time about how wonderful it is to work remotely, and there's a danger that we become afraid of talking about struggling with any aspects of it. This might apply particularly if we have exercised our rights to request more flexible working.

A lot depends on what your neighbourhood and environment is like of course, and who you live with – all of this impacts on the extent to which you expect work to fulfill your social needs.

Loneliness is becoming recognised as a significant mental health challenge, sometimes described as an epidemic – but it can affect people in any life-stage or work setting. Whether you're surrounded by people or not, how connected you feel can vary, which can also be impacted by the work itself. Even being in the office can feel lonely (particularly if others start to work more flexibly).

For leaders of remote teams, it's important to be aware of these issues, and whether or not people are talking about their emotional wellbeing generally, especially when we can't "see" their broader context.

Furthermore, we know that remote workers can end up putting in longer hours, blurring the work-life boundaries, and potentially having less time for socialising anyway.

A lot of traditional advice about overcoming loneliness can be unhelpful in the flexible work setting, and whilst there is clearly a qualitative difference between online and face to face interactions, there is always the potential for blending and interconnection – and surely in the 21st century, most of us move fluidly between the online and offline space, in our relationships both personal and professional.

You can connect around communities of interest, like Virtualteamtalk.com – but for some people who are having a very focussed, 'in your own head' day, this might even be too much! But, this just reminds us that one person's isolation is another's peace and quiet and that our own moods and mindsets vary over time. So the kind of network or support needs to prevent loneliness, that's going to vary a lot too.

This is a complex and extensive area, and it's one we're looking forward to discussing further. What do you think? We would love to hear from you –

• Do you ever feel lonely or isolated as a remote worker?
• Is this something you have discussed or tackled within your organisation?
• Do you agree or disagree with any of the things we've been discussing?

Reach out and connect! We're @Virtualteamw0rk on twitter, or use our contact form https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us/

_____

As Pilar and Maya both live in fairly busy urban areas, we wanted to understand what 'remote remote' work was like – so we talked to Laurel Farrer middle of the woods in rural Connecticut, who shared her perspectives of home working when you cannot even see the nearest neighbouring home, and the idea of informational isolation – how you can get cut off from conversation and opportunity and connection, which costs you personally and professionally.

You have to work harder to really connect online, make it human, when that's your entire network – and she found she could real relationships and social capital through her online network, by going out of her way to have meaningful conversations.

Thank you for this invaluable perspective and insight Laurel Farrer, Virtual Operations Consultant and Remote Work Advocate and Strategist - if you want to find out more about everything Laurel does, head over to her website laurelfarrer.com, or connect with her on Twitter @laurel_farrer

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52.35 What do you mean by Cultural Homelessness? Katerina Bohlec Carbonell

Katerina is half German and half Spanish, and has lived in various countries throughout her life. Her article on Cultural Homelessness really intrigued us https://medium.com/@katerinabc/are-digital-nomads-culturally-homeless-1e3770c39423 (not least as Maya and Pilar are both living long term in countries other than those of their birth), as did this paper from Science Direct https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176710001227.

When your values and behaviour are drawn from different cultures, as a result of a nomadic international lifestyle, you can find it harder to pin down this sense of identity. And whole families get caught up in this, perhaps being raised as 'third culture kids', with very different influences at home and with their peers – particularly if their families are military, expatriate or otherwise move around a lot.

But the important thing is that this isn't necessarily a negative – if you are culturally homeless, it can be liberating, you get to choose what stereotypes to manifest and which behaviours to adopt. It's very different from physical homelessness, when you embrace the fluidity of migration and create your own culture. Frequently if there is a problem, it's in the mind of other people – who cannot quickly put you in a category they can easily understand. And this can apply especially if your professional identity is multifaceted too – and lead to some fascinating conversations.

Katerina has been working with teams and studying how people interact to exchange information for over a decade, and researching professional development with digital nomadic groups – she's always interested in hearing from any interested parties on through her website netnigma.com, or on https://twitter.com/katerinabohlec

01:10:39 Recommended tool: A secret function on so many tools!

The little mic icon to the left of the space bar, in nearly every smartphone application, means you can dictate – from notes to thoughts to social media. Usually about 30 second bursts, which is great for capturing ideas and passing connections, without tapping on the tiny keyboard.

Of course you have to check and edit for accuracy where it matters, especially if you're sending a reply to someone else. But the standard of voice recognition technology has increased incredibly in recent years, and it's now appearing everywhere. Even the native voice recognition on the mac (function key twice), or pc ( - a bit more complicated but just as powerful https://www.lifewire.com/windows-speech-control-4119329)

Welcome to our first show of 2019, whenever you are listening to this podcast. And don't forget to check out the full shownotes for this and all our other episodes, at https://virtualnotdistant.com/podcast

Do listen to the end today, for exciting updates about upcoming activities. Meanwhile recent episodes of this podcast generated lots of twitter dialogue which we really enjoyed – thank you so much Dr Gloria Ramsbottom-Lemieux @GRamsbottom on twitter for engaging, it's also where we met today's featured interviewee!

And thanks also to Joao Nunes for spotting the glaring typo on our homepage! If you like this kind of attention to detail you might be interested in Joao's new startup in Portugal, we'd be glad to put you in touch.

06: 15 The Voice Behind the Blog: Markus Wermuth, "4 Things I Learned Becoming A Manager"

Our guest today is Marcus Wermuth, Mobile Lead at Buffer, who wrote an excellent piece about making the transition from being an engineer to being a manager, http://mwermuth.com/2018/09/28/4-things-i-learned-becoming-a-manager/ - and how he uses this experience to help others online with making the leap. (Buffer make a handy social media scheduling and analytics tool, and have a fully distributed global team operating with radical transparency, their blog is at https://open.buffer.com/ ).

He and Pilar discuss how his job evolved through his advocacy for the mobile team's role, and this changed the direction of his career – because management and engineering are so different, and this should not be the only route to career progression. This meant moving on from activities like coding, and having to look at productivity in a different (and sometimes less tangible or immediate) way.

The importance of continual learning and education is also something which Marcus is passionate about, and how you need to own this as a manager - but whatever your role, you have to keep updating yourself, all of the time. This helps him to help his team, and continually remove obstacles in their way.

And whether you're a Power Rangers fan or not, you'll appreciate Marcus' metaphors for creating a diverse support network – his proactive connection with others in similar roles has created a powerful basis for mutual learning and problem-solving. An interesting side-use for LinkedIn, which would be well worth more people exploring.

These activities have helped him to grow as a manager and develop his coaching mindset, enabling his team to grow through solving their own problems, rather than responding as a programmer by immediately fixing things for them –and encouraging them to support one another too. Building that level of trust and connection in the asynchronous space of a truly global team has challenges, but is worth doing.

Marcus is a thoughtful and prolific blogger, and you can read his wisdom on this subject in Fast Company too https://www.fastcompany.com/90282088/why-being-a-manager-is-a-career-change-not-a-promotion and also on his own site – he has lots more to share in 2019. And he is a powerful speaker as well, with a track record including Nomad City https://www.nomadcity.org/ and others.

39:59 – Recommended tool: Doodle

An app which has nothing to with doodling, so it's a bit confusing when you first get invited to use it! Instead, it's a super-easy tool for scheduling an event involving lots of people – always a challenge, to find consensus on a meeting time.

It does this one thing, easily and well – offering people options in their own timezones, showing others' responses, and emailing everyone to confirm the final choice.

So, skip the reply-all-email-thread-from-hell, and try setting up a doodle poll if you've got more than 2 people to try and sync up!

42:40 Remote Wellbeing: How are you doing today?

It's not as easy to tell, when you're not colocated, exactly what's going on for the people you're working with.

And they can't tell what's going on for you either – so we need to be a bit more deliberate about communicating this, and conscious of whether we're sharing the right amount of context to our colleagues. It's not dumping your entire emotional history on a team meeting, but sometimes having a framework or process for letting people know how you are, in so far as it affects the work or the team dynamic. If you've had exciting news or a terrible day, people can make allowances respectively, but only if they know.

It needn't be a big deal, to have a way to check-in individually at the start of meetings, or simply to nurture a culture where people can share things which are affecting them personally, in a positive or negative way.

Just remember with remote teams, we don't have the usual cues of body language to support it, so you might need to assume less and share more, to convey the same degree of relevant disclosure.

50.05 Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distributed Teams

Our new book is ready for pre-order, being a collection of Pilar and Maya's thoughts from the past few years as published in our blog. We've curated these into a programme of learning and leadership reflections for each section, to help you relate the material to your own situation and develop a coaching mindset to support your remote colleagues.

It's one more tool for the knowledge worker considering or enjoying office-optional work, particularly if you lead or manage others, or you aspire to do. We also offer workshops, coaching, in-house training and consulting.

We can't wait to hear what you think of the book.

And don't forget about our unique in-house podcasting service! If you enjoy listening to this podcast, why not create your own – either for your organisation, or even for your team, your very own 'team radio', a superb tool for learning-out-loud together.

See you next time!

Our final podcast of 2018 – Pilar and Maya reflect on trends and changes through the year, and what we're looking forward to in the months ahead, at virtualnotdistant.com.

2018 has been a year of many changes in the workplace and in this podcast too, as we moved to the successful new magazine-style format in May.

And the year has brought many other changes, including in workplace culture - we discussed this article: https://www.smu.edu.sg/news/2018/11/20/new-study-culture-determines-digital-transformation-success which reminds us that organisational change has to be driven from the top, with a clear vision and championing.

We've looked at flexible schedule experiments around the world in previous episodes (such as ep 179 https://virtualnotdistant.squarespace.com/podcasts/values-driven-culture ), and it's good to see change happening. Even in Spain (where Maya lives and Pilar originates from… long overdue a bit of flexibility! Follow https://twitter.com/erimbau for more). Approaching work differently has so many benefits, from wellbeing to the environment – so long may this trend continue.

We also talked about coworking trends which have continued to evolve through this year, and discussed this post https://allwork.space/2018/11/millennials-no-longer-topdog-in-coworking-environments-age-demographic-shifting/amp/ - yes, coworking is not just for groovy young startup types, and the diversity of spaces emerging in our cities reflects the way different people need different things (in terms of social contact, light, space) to do their best work – work which ranges from art to tech to the public sector. Flexibility is for everyone, and the space itself may even be impermanent https://www.onofficemagazine.com/architecture/item/5058-meanwhile-spaces-buildings-in-transition.

Pilar and Maya have both extended their own thinking and practice about virtual working through 2018 too, and some unexpected advantages of remote collaboration tools – such as automatic digitisation of conversations and decisions made on chat platforms. We talked about trustlessness, a thing Maya has been looking at a lot with her blockchain hat on – remote teamwork relies on trust, but, you can create systems and tools to minimise dependence on unproven trust, by baking-in visibility and openness. Perhaps we'll come back to this in 2019!

Certainly visibility and working out loud will continue as a theme, and we'll keep sharing ideas to make this richer and more interesting (ie not completely text-dependent). Pilar likes sketching, and a picture can convey such a lot – without any need for huge artistry, it just abstracts the thinking to a different level.

We're really distilling our thinking for office-optional team leadership, is to promote this 3-pronged model: deliberate communications, working out loud, and planned spontaneity. Look out for more on this in the new year!

As well as ecosystem and tools for remote working – Maya thinks of it as a software or app stack, (hopefully not in a top-heavy, Jenga-like pile!), and balancing innovation with her self-confessed shinything addiction. She talks about the very 21st century approach of connecting tools via APIs and getting developers to build bespoke integrations too.

Of course some software providers are more flexible than others, and we know that larger organisations and teams within them may have less discretion over their choices… At the very least the space is both expanding and converging at the same time, which is definitely interesting.

And another trend we're seeing as larger organisations move to office-optional working, is a greater need for wellbeing and other kinds of support – for homeworkers who are not self-employed entrepreneurs, but people used to a more structured environment, to whom there are both moral and legal duties of care due from an employer. From ergonomic seating to mental health, all these things will need to be better engaged with in 2019.

What do YOU think will be the important issues for the new year, in office-optional working? Apart from Maya and Pilar's new book of course, Thinking Remote: Inspiration for leaders of distributed teams https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Remote-Inspiration-leaders-distributed-ebook/dp/B07LDFGVR8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1545043447&sr=1-1

Let us know what you think, we're @Virtualteamw0rk on twitter, to keep the conversation going… Flexibly, of course.

And for now, our warmest greetings for the season, and happiest wishes