21st Century Work Life

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/

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/