21st Century Work Life

In this slightly shorter episode than usual, Pilar and Lisette talk about Digital Detox. How about you? Do you take breaks from your tech? Visit www.virtualnotdistant.com

We catch up after almost a month of not podcasting together! Lisette tells us about her honeymoon (not a virtual one!) and her book developments. Pilar talks about.. podcasting. Check out GuideDoc if you like documentaries. https://enclavedepodcast.com/ Lisette went on a digital vacation. Read Lisette's post here: https://redbooth.com/blog/digital-vacation Professional and personal life are led through the same devices. Finding a sense of balance between on and off screen time. The need and addiction of being connected to others. FOMO. (Tell us if you take these digital vacations or digital detox!) How some people have an out of office that says that all emails received during time off will be deleted, email again. Who should set our own boundaries. A digital holiday or just a holiday?

Pilar talks to Dr Clue about how the adventure of a treasure hunt can bring team members closer together and how this adventure is being taken online.

Introduction

Some links Pilar mentions: The Management Café podcast blog: https://managementcafepodcast.com/ Mentoring programme starts Weds 14th September http://virtualnotdistant.com/virtual-not-distant-mentoring-group/ Episode 86 with Mandy from Sococo: http://virtualnotdistant.com/collaborative-workspace-sococo/

You can join us for Virtual Team Talk by applying here: https://virtualteamtalk.com/

If you would like to give your opinion on products and get paid for it, head over to:

https://www.sarosresearch.com/participate/join-saros-research/?id=100243

The Conversation with Dr Clue 07:20mins Check out www.drclue.com

How a treasure hunt is created.

Seeing your city with new eyes.

The team experience of the treasure hunt.

Why do teams go on treasure hunts? New teams, teams in flux, mergers and acquisitions.

The role of appreciation and trust.

The tension between competition and collaboration. Our competitive nature.

Tribes in organisation.

Moving the treasure hunt online, using Sococo.

What's the difference between the in person treasure hunt and the online version?

"Teamwork doesn't necessarily mean holding hands every second."

Levels of trust in teams:

• Sincerity
• Reliability
• Competence
• Caring
• Transparency / Vulnerability

"Competence doesn't mean perfection."

Why you want conflict in your team.

http://drclue.com/trump-trustworthy-5-criteria-judging-trust/

http://drclue.com/hillary-clinton-trustworthy-5-criteria-judging-trust/

We're taking another week off but we're using this episode to introduce you to the Management Café podcast, a new show by Pilar Orti (a solo show, ahhhhh!) where she will cover an aspect of managing in the 21st Century. This here is episode cero, but episode one is already out and it's on Great Team Communication. You can subscribe now to Management Cafe, through your podcast app or on the blog www.managementcafepodcast.com

Pilar and Lisette have plenty of thoughts and advice on how best to make the transition from office-based to virtual, in organisations and teams. Introduction

Pilar's homage to Federico García Lorca, in case you like this Spanish playwright. http://www.spainuncoveredpodcast.net/lorca-podcast/ ‎

Grab the PDF with questions to help you identify the tools and processes you might want to keep while making the transition to virtual here: http://virtualnotdistant.com/your-transition-to-virtual/

Mentoring Group starts 14th Sept. More details here: http://training-for-virtual-teams.teachable.com/courses/mentoring-group Flipping the Online Classroom bit.ly/flipsept

Let us know if you want to join Virtual Team Talk. http://virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us/

Subscribe to the Management Café Podcast https://managementcafepodcast.com/

If you would like to give your opinions on products and get paid for it, in the UK and Ireland, register with Saros through this link. https://www.sarosresearch.com/participate/join-saros-research/?id=100243

09:02mins Pilar recommends The Fizzle Show

Should you read emails while you're on holiday? When should you stop making up stuff for yourself to do?

19:20mins Virtual teams as the excuse to create a new form of team, that operates differently.

Virtual gives us an excuse for change.

Being clear and honest about why we're making the transition is really important and it will inform how the change is brought about. Is it because the company needs to cut costs or is it because the employees are asking for it?

Are we seeing that pockets in the org are already doing and do we want more of that and help them do it better?

Different parts of the organisation will need to come together to collaborate to make this work.

Should the transition be fast, so that we just get on with it?

Or do we want to take more time to make the transition so that it's less painful?

See what tech you're already using and evaluate whether you want to ditch, change or sustain.

http://virtualnotdistant.com/your-transition-to-virtual/

26:00 mins

Visibility How do you share information? How do people find out about company news? How do you share availability?

Identity

How do you review your team process? When do you feel most connected? When and how do you gather together?

Results

How do you make decisions as individuals? How do you make decisions as a team? What do you need to make decisions?

How do you solve problems?

Trust

When do people talk honestly to each other? How is work delegated / taken on? How do we share our values?

Upgrowth

How do you receive feedback? How do people learn from each other? How do people learn from their experiments (or "trying things out")?

Appreciation

How do you show appreciation?

How do you celebrate? How do people know they're contributing to the team?

Leadership When do you innovate? When do people take the initiative? How is change introduced?

30:20mins Set up the home office and put processes in place – don't make a big, elaborate plan but you need to set some targets.

Start small with small experiments.

Get people go equipment – a webcam, noise cancelling head set, pay for a coworking space.

Do an assessment of where things are now and what will people need.

How do you want your people to feel about the transition if it's been made for them? Do you want them to feel supported or made to work in unsuitable conditions from home?

These are not "work from home days" when you work at home in order to focus and have some quiet time. You need to think of working from home but still communicating with colleagues.

People are thinking You're giving me unsuitable conditions and You're disconnecting me from my colleagues – even before we've made the change, let's take a day when we work from home, but when we do need to be working together and see how it feels. Do it little by little before you have to go full on?

Even try from the office itself using laptops.

Breaking the psychological contract. You are changing what people expect from them employers.

Turn this into an obvious opportunity to make things better.

How much choice can we give people within those restrictions? Sense of autonomy – we don't like to feel like someone else is being in charge of our destiny.

People might feel like they have to do the same amount of work but in worst circumstances.

39:50mins The separation between home and work life. This might be difficult to do for people when they're working from home. You're asking people to stop that split.

Beware that when you start working like this, you need to define your working hours and space differently.

(Rant about coworking spaces and real estate…) Use coworking spaces, they can help to make the transition!

http://virtualnotdistant.com/spirit-coworking/

Online communication. Pilar mentions The Open Organization

Different platforms / email lists depending on the complexity of the conversation.

• Will you need some form of quick, immediate communication? (like Instant Messaging)
• What should you do if you can't get hold of someone? (telephone, email?)
• Will you need to have conversations real-time, that others can access later? (eg video conferencing with recording available)
• How will you have short, sharp conversations as a group? (maybe through a collaboration platform)
• How will you have in-depth conversations one to many? (does the collaboration platform allow for blog post type postings/)
• How will you have one-one in depth conversations?

It's not about the technology it's about the right technology thoughtfully applied.

Are you restricted by the IT department? How should you involve them in the decision to go virtual? How should the IT dept and other staff be communicating?

Should you push back so that the old infrastructures get changed? Make sure they understand why you want to introduce those tools?

Yes, we know it has been done for ages without using all these new techs, but do we want to continue operating in that way when we can now make it easier?

Involve everyone in the process and have transparency. It will show that you care if you involve everyone in making the decision.

Start small and start now!

Can you visualise the mood of your virtual team? Yes, you can, with the tool today's guest is creating. Pilar talks to Melanie Pürschel about how she's building the Mood Matrix.

Introduction

Pilar is running with Judy Rees a course on delivering your workshops online. More info here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flipping-the-online-classroom-delivering-your-workshops-online-six-90-minute-classes-tickets-26919136863

More information on the Mentoring Group for Managers and Leaders of Virtual Teams here: http://virtualnotdistant.com/virtual-not-distant-mentoring-group/ Thanks to Saros Research!

If you would like to get paid for your opinion on products, register with Saros through this link: https://www.sarosresearch.com/participate/join-saros-research/?id=100243

Melanie explains what the Mood Matrix is. How will the experience be in a team using this tool?

It works well as an early warning system.

The Mood Matrix shows how the mood is changing. You then need to use the information to continue the process with the Team Mood Tracker. The next questionnaire starts to help you decide in what field of the team process you need to make changes.

The most important factors for virtual teamwork we should look at to understand where we could change something if the team's mood is changing. We also need to look out for the team's mood being split.

Some scenarios when you might want to move onto the next stage of tracking your team's mood.

Consider the bio-rhythm of people when implementing the matrix.

How Melanie developed her matrix through research, started back when she was at university.

The subject of anonymity. Personal and team level results.

Mel's own journey and her recent partnership building the product. (Pilar refers to Hugo Messer's story in a previous podcast episode.)

Get in touch with Mel if you're at all interested in the product and if you have any suggestions of what tools it might integrate with. Who would find this tool useful? http://www.teammoodtracker.com/

In today's podcast, Lisette and Pilar try to figure out best practice in meetings in hybrid teams.

Leila's post: How to Give Feedback that Really Hurts. http://virtualnotdistant.com/feedback-hurts/

Pilar recommend the platform MeetingSift for hybrid meetings.

New podcast coming soon, you can subscribe here for email updates: https://managementcafepodcast.com/

Mentoring Group for managers and leaders of virtual teams, starts September. http://virtualnotdistant.com/virtual-not-distant-mentoring-group/

New course on running workshops online: Flipping the Online Classroom. (Also starts in September!)

Thanks to Saros Research for sponsoring this podcast. If you would like to share your opinions on products and get paid for it and you are based in the UK or Ireland, follow this link

https://www.sarosresearch.com/participate/join-saros-research/?id=100243

06:31 mins Our updates The peanut butter conversation. Lisette's ELMO moments... The importance of buffer time in virtual meetings.

Here's the ELMO card and a link to Leila using the Supercards! http://virtualnotdistant.com/greatmeetings/

Pilar's been working with Sam and Yoris from Happy Melly One on a feedback system, using a Trello board based on the Learning 3.0 Canvas.

Problems/Issues Possible Roadblocks Expected Results - what do we want to see? Stories/Experiences Options and Considerations Ideas What should we try immediately?

19:35 mins Our Conversation A few more reflections on the Audacious Salon at Agile 2016. (You can hear all about it in Episode 85.) http://virtualnotdistant.com/audacious-salon/ Lisette's 100th episode! http://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/100-greatest-hits-volume-2/

Bear in mind noisy rooms - if you're in an open office, bear in mind that your ambient noise will go straight into somebody's ears.

Permission to speak for remote team members during a meeting. You can read people in an office space or if everyone is virtual, you learn to read each other. How are we going to structure the discussion so that we know when we want to speak or when we need to move on?

Think about how you're going to keep the conversation going and open with the technology you've got.

When one person is remote... we have to redefine how we work together.

"When one person is remote, the whole team is remote" is really about putting everyone on an equal footing.

What are the problems in the real time meeting in a hybrid team? When should we have hybrid meetings? Try not to make the remote participant as if they were in the room, they are not, and therefore your process needs to change. Use online tools to capture ideas - you can then carry on the discussion asynchronously with your online records.

Find a new rhythm and revisit how you work.

Find a new way of operating together which involves adapting your practices. Breaking down your current ones and deciding whether it's going to be useful in the new context.

Think about how you're allocating tasks. Decide whether you want cross-over between collocated and remote or separate tasks and projects to remote teams and collocated ones.

Link to blog post on Sococo blog: https://www.sococo.com/blog/use-cases/agile/the-audacious-salon-at-agile-2016-distributed-agile-delusion-or-evolution/

Why does the agile community seem resistant to adopting working in distributed teams? The agile practices are perfect for this way of working!

In today's episode, Pilar talks to Mandy Ross from Sococo about how the tool is helping team members stay connected through technology.

Introduction

Link to episode on Coworking in Sococo: http://virtualnotdistant.com/online-coworking/

Pilar recommend the Kellogg Insight podcast episode on Managing Conflict in Virtual Teams because it focuses on multicultural teams, though they also take a broader view. http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/podcast-tips-for-managing-conflict-at-work

Check out the Mentoring Group http://training-for-virtual-teams.teachable.com/courses/mentoring-group

Thank you to Saros Research for sponsoring our podcast! If you would like to give your opinion on products and get paid for it, use this link to register with Saros: https://www.sarosresearch.com/participate/join-saros-research/?id=100243

Sococo, what it is, what it looks like, what it was designed for. How this workspace works.

"At a certain point after you work all the time in Sococo, the technology disappears and all that's left is the relationships between the people that are there."

The history of Sococo. How the Cloud presented a threat and an opportunity... The mindshift when going opensource. Let Mandy know if you want to test out the mobile version of Sococo. @SococoMandy

The importance of a fan base when you want to make an important change to your product. (Shout out to AgileBillKrebs)

The early adoption system on mobile app stores. Mandy's job: Director of Marketing and Agile Coach Mandy's work history. Sococo in Japan.

What kind of companies are using Sococo and in what ways - agencies working with freelancers, customer services, HR, dev-ops.

Pilar reports back straight after her experience as a remote participant in the Audacious Salon. Part of the Agile 2016 conference, the session was an experiment with a very important aim: finding the right questions to ask about distributed agile. This episode is not really a summary of the session (we will talk about that in episode 87) but a reminder of some of the things we should look out for when collocated and virtual people meet in real time. For more on remote agile, visit remotelyagile.info

In today's episode, Pilar and Lisette talk about what factors affect motivation in virtual teams - and indeed most teams.

It's a short one today. Maybe this mentoring group for managers of virtual teams is for you... http://virtualnotdistant.com/virtual-not-distant-mentoring-group/ Would you like to join Virtual Team Talk?

And, of course, many thanks to Saros Research. If you'd like to share your opinion and get paid for it (and you're based in the UK or Ireland), follow this link.

https://www.sarosresearch.com/participate/join-saros-research/?id=100243

07:00 mins Our Updates

Lisette is going to be on Entrepreneur on Fire!!!! (Yes, you read right!) Meanwhile, Pilar is getting ready to launch two podcasts in August: En clave de podcast with Craig Wealand and 21st Century Management

Some stuff that's happening in the Virtual Team Talk Group. (Wink to Mark Kilby and the Sketchtogether guys.) Lisette mentions this popular interview on her Collaboration Superpowers podcast: Leslie Truex's interview on Be a Work at Home Success

27:40 mins Our Conversation

This is the article by Liz Ryan (@humanworkplace on Twitter) that inspired today's episode: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-kill-your-teams-motivation-without-really-trying-liz-ryan

"Management should be a profession, not a promotion."

Should managers be responsible for motivating their team members or should they just get out of the way? You need to know the individual.

Self-determination theory and Daniel Pink's adaptation of it. What is at the heart of what motivates us to do a good job?

"Motivation is a function of your environment."

Technology plays an important part in motivation, as it is a key component of your environment. The role of leadership and management in being visible. Our own relationship with hierarchy. Managers beware... If you want to find out more about Dan Ariely's work on motivation. https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work?language=en

Visibility of our work in organisations. Barriers to making decisions and how to ask others for help.

In this episode, Pilar talks to Alex Hillman, founder of Indy Hall, "a community of people who choose to work together, more productively, to make our work, our lives, our cities and communities better".

Thanks to Mark and Bernie for their feedback on the Brexit episode. If you would like more info on the Mentoring Group for managers and leaders of virtual teams, check this out: http://virtualnotdistant.com/virtual-not-distant-mentoring-group/

Listen to this episode on The Coworking Weekly Show, where Alex Hillman, today's guest, reflects on how the coworking spirit can be adapted to make the broader way of work a better place. http://listen.coworkingweekly.com/episodes/27649-ep20-ten-questions-about-the-future-of-work

If you enjoy giving your feedback on products and would like to get paid for your opinions, register with our sponsor, Saros Research.

https://www.sarosresearch.com/participate/join-saros-research/?id=100243

11:50mins The Conversation with Alex Hillman from Indy Hall

Thanks to Bernie J Mitchell for introducing us!

Indy Hall - the story... http://www.indyhall.org/

Coworking - the verb, not the physical space.

Finding opportunities to be around each other.

First steps in coworking... Finding like-minded people.

Coworking that goes beyond the building. And what is the role of the person/s in charge?

"Organisations have many examples of when people need to be working together in order to accomplish their goals, but they don't work together and in some cases, they work against each other [...] Then you have examples in coworking places when people don't need to work together, but they do."

The role of trust in the workplace.

Opportunities / successes and trends happening worldwide in the world of coworking.

"Coworking" can mean different things to different people.

Do photos of your coworking space have people in them?

Where are the shared spaces for non-start up organisations or artists?

"Real estate is straight forward because it's concrete. Community is complicated because it is not."

The People at Work Summit.

Would you like more of Alex? These are his two podcasts:

The Coworking Weekly Show: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com/ Stacking Briks https://stackingbricks.simplecast.fm/

And his reversed audiobook: https://theindyhallway.com/ten/

More from Alex:

@alexhillman on Twitter dangerouslyawesome.com coworkingweekly.com