21st Century Work Life

Please visit www.virtualnotdistant.com/blessing00:30 Pilar's short intro. 04:55 Lisette's off-piste adventures and her next speaking event. 11:20 We begin our conversation. How organisations are becoming more networked, less hierarchical. 13:30 The curse of "being always on". How technology is helping people taking charge of their own development. (Check out the episode on Yammer, 42:03). The origins of Working Out Loud. 17:40 Pilar mentions the book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking (affiliate link.) 18:55 Prioritising. 19:45 Work-life balance, work-life fusion and choosing the location where you want to live, not where you want to work. Feeling "boxed in". The down-side of non-location specific, the freelance aspect. Pilar mentions a "housing crisis in London" - it's actually in the UK. Here's an article about it Article in The Guardian. 27:30 The curses. Is communication more difficult or easier when we're working with others remotely? What to do when you get stuck. Lisette mentions the podcast Entrepreneur on Fire and the book Borrowing Brilliance: The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others (affiliate link)35:40 How Lisette has created her own feedback loop. OKRs in teams and accountability partners. Lisette mentions this meetup in Holland: http://www.meetup.com/Het-Nieuwe-Werken-Meetup/46:55 Lisette's interview with Teo Haren.54:10 Pilar mentions an episode from The Bottom Line on Going Global 12 March 2015. This is the Zapier article Pilar talked about: How to Avoid Burnout in a Remote Team.Lisette mentions Cocoon Projects in Italy

00:30 Pilar introduces the podcast, talking a bit about her own experience dubbing e-learning and corporate videos. She has a few tips for you if you're creating products/training to reach your global employees. (For script visit www.virtualnotdistant.com/language-localisation) If you're interested in the world of voiceovers, you should listen to Episode 16 Mike Russell and Music Media Creative and if you're interested in expanding your business globally, listen to The Bottom Line episode on Global Business.

12.50 David welcomes Pilar into the studio and we go on a short tour, including meeting Adrian, one of the engineers.

15:50 David tells us his story, how and why he set up Golocalise.

23:10 Does a good demo always mean the voiceover talent is good?

26:00 What is localisation and how is it different to translation?

29:50 The different clients and products that Golocalise works with and how their services have developed.

32:35 Corporate learning and localisation. Some tips towards succesful localisation.

41:30 The benefits of bringing the voiceovers into the studio.

43:45 What's next for Golocalise? David shares some of the ways in which he's marketing his business: content marketing and building your marketing funnel.

Technology is at the heart of the work revolution. We wouldn't be talking so much about virtual teams if we couldn't easily access many, many tools to help us work with others many miles away. But, there are so many collaboration tools out there: how do you choose one for you and your team? Lisette and Pilar hope this episode will help you make a start.For the full show notes, visit www.virtualnotdistant.com/tools00:35 Pilar's very short introduction. 03:30 Lisette and I were quite chatty this week. We talked about:Happy Melly’s dance party and Muse cubes. 07:45 Hired an online personal trainer through FitOrbit. 11:30 Pilar got a nice message from one of her connections – podcasting with integrity. 13:45 Pilar is now listening to the Fizzle Show. Lisette enjoyed the Adam Corolla show, Entrepreneur on Fire, This American Life: Serial , Start Up

17:20 We finally get down to talking about collaboration tools.How the tool LIsette was using went bust overnight, a cautionary tale….

We start talking about tools, which Lisette divides into six categories.

22:50 Visualising and Brainstorming –

28:45 Project Management

36:40 Task Management

37:50 Knowledge-based Tools

44:20 File Storage 47:50 Informal Communication and Meetings 54:45 Best practices when using collaboration tools with your virtual team:

01:02:30 Pilar's afterthoughts

For more thoughts on this festival and to see the slides from the talk Virtual, not Distant, visit http://virtualnotdistant.com/no-pants-festival-reflections/

Today's guest covers a wide range of subjects: why he set up his blog The Couch Manager, why everyone should set up a blog for professional, personal and financial reasons and we even talk about failure. He's very recently (yesterday!) set up Ganttopia.

Hassan Osman is an entrepreneur, author of the Amazon Kindle bestseller Influencing Virtual Teams: 17 Tactics That Get Things Done with Your Remote Employees and works as Senior Manager at Cisco. I've kept my introduction extremely short today because our conversation was very meaty and I had little to add on the subject.

Here are the links and show notes.

00:30 Pilar's short intro. 04.20 The conversation starts. Hassan and Pilar catch up. 05:50 Hassan talks about why he set up his blog The Couch Manager where he blogs about virtual work and productivity.

Do something small and just launch. Everything else will be easier after that.

Hassan recommends David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity and Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Work Week

12:00 How the basics of working in virtual teams can be applied to corporations.

13:30 How we can now influence beyond our workplace. Growing your career as a start up. Hassan recommends The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career and talks about being in "permanent beta".

16:00 Hassan explains why he believes every company is now virtual and why we should not lose the face-face connection.

"The fact that you can hire someone virtually opens up a huge talent pool that you can pick from."

22:00 How virtual team working changed in the last four years.

25:30 How writing Influencing Virtual Teams came about and why everyone should start a blog from a professional, personal and financial perspective. (If you are interested in this, check out Mariano Tufro's interview, where he talks about raising your profile through social media.)

29:20 Hassan talks about the popularity of his blog post about how to design the ultimate home office encouraged him to start creating e-books and how he tests the potential of his new products.

35:00 "Making money is a muscle too" and, be ready to fail. Pilar mentions her blog post on "Think Like a Freak".

38:00 Using illustrations to present concepts. Hassan recommends Back of the Napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures. Check out his post on How to Create Hand Drawn Pictures to Explain Anything Even if You Don't Know How to Draw.

42:30 Ganttopia: Hassan's new project where he offers templates for gantt charts to project managers.

And don't forget that Hassan has a very popular course on Udemy, full of video tutorials on managing virtual teams: How to Manage and Influence Your Virtual Team.

In this episode, we tried something a little bit different. Lisette and I "hanged out" with Phil Montero from The Anywhere Office and talked about the role of the leader and the manager in virtual teams. Most of the conversation involved identifying what teams need to operate and whether it's always the responsibility of the person with the official title to provide this.

Virtual teams are turning organisations into flatter hierarchies and we need to consciously adapt our leadership style to what the team needs.

04:40 Different virtual teams need different forms of leadership. The different types of relationships we have with our team. Lisette introduces the role of "wrangler" (as in person "rounding up", not disputing).

08:30 Does someone always need to be in charge? Someone needs to take care of the process - in this case the team leader or manager needs to take on the facilitator role. Or is it always the person with the official title, or the top of the organisation, that needs to look after the process, or to enable (or remind) the group that the process needs to be looked after?

13:30 An important part of the person in charge is to Ask Questions - of course, as in all teams, the person in charge should be asking questions. In the virtual setting, there is more autonomy and flexibility, so people might expect to be more involved in the decision-making. The importance of outlining the constraints.

16:00 The "boss" role. Someone is financially responsible for the outcome and will need to take the tough decisions and hold people accountable. Is it always the official leaders' responsibility to remind us of the constraints and rules? Balance between what's good for the individual and what's good for the team?

The new way of work has completely shifted and has a more network feel to it.

22:50 We need to be more "conscious communicators" and make sure the processes are in place for people to talk to each other. How can we create an environment where team members are able to have uncomfortable conversations? Creating feedback cycles for the team - this process can be decided by the team, not necessarily by the person in charge. But the team leader has to make sure this decision is taken and implemented.

31:00 Task, process and relational conflict can be avoided by continuously sharing information across the three domains. What about the co-ordinator role? A broker between people so that the relationships between the team members are happening?

33:00 What's the role of the team leader in solving conflict? We agreed that it's their role to make sure it's solved, but not necessarily to solve it.

40:15 Phil quotes Star Trek - the leader who has enough humility to ask those around him for their opinions. Collaboration vs Competition.

48:35 The relationship of the team with the wider context - be it the organisation or wider context? The role of the team leader as advocate, how do we strengthen the relationship of the team with the rest of the organisation?

Make sure that the conversations that need to happen, happen.

Let us know your thoughts about the role of the official leader or manager in a virtual team.

Today's episode includes a Virtual Coffee with Lisette, where we talk about how to organise and lay down the foundations for useful team retrospectives. (We are borrowing the main aspects from the Agile world.)

00: 30 Pilar has some updates, including the live online virtual coffee with Phil Montero and Lisette, next week on Virtual Team Leader: Boss or Facilitator?

04:40 Lisettes's updates. Standing desks, focusing saying "no" and feedback from @guidostevens11:30 Pilar talks about two people she's met recently who energised her.14:40 What are agile retrospectives? (the basics) How they're different to away-days or staff meetings.22: 30 "As soon as one person is remote, the team is remote." Practical considerations for succesful virtual retrospectives. 24:25 The use of the sticky board: what's going well, what could be better, questions, suggestions. The importance of language in processes.Luke Hohmann: Co-located teams talk first and then swarm to the whiteboard later; virtual teams swarm first, then talk about it. (Listen to Luke and Lisette's chat.)Sticky boards mentioned: Linoit, Ideaboardz, Groupmap, Google Docs Template. Taking responsibility of the team process.Lisette's tips:31: 05 (1) Have an organiser (best if it rotates).33:05 (2) Don't go on too long and risk "virtual fatigue".34:30 (3) Take breaks. (Listen to Lisette's talk with NASA here.)How do people get to the point where they can speak out?How do we lay down the foundations for successful retrospectives?The importance of having them regularly.41:40 (4) Try new sticky notes. (5) Try new types of retrospectives. Luis Gonçalves' "Agile Retrospectives". The importance of play.44:45 (6) Share results between offices. (Listen to Lisette's talk with Ralph Van Roosmalen.)46:50 (7) Plan for chat time. (Listen to Lisette's talk with Tom Howlett.)48:15 (8) Capture the conversations and actions. What do we do about those things that keep coming up?"Take the temperature in the team." (Pilar recommends "The Skilled Facilitator" by Roger Schwartz.)

00:30 Pilar recommends a TED talk by Ricardo Semler. (transcript can be found in wlpodcast.com)09:30 Mariano talks about Agility, Mindfulness, Global Teams and Connectivity as four crucial aspects of modern leadership development. 14:20 Reassesing leadership development in the context of global teams.17:55 Looking for local talent. 20:40 Mariano talks about his own practice in leadership development. 27:00 Positional authority versus respect.38:00 Making the move from the corporate world to setting up on your own.

Check out www.wlpodcast.com and Mariano's company www.leadershipminds.co.uk

This podcast focuses on working productively from home. 00:30 Pilar introduces the theme of productivity and some blogs. (Transcript in wlpodcast.com.)04:13 Kirstin ODonovan, Productivity Coach has a few words to say.07:15 The importance of clarity.08:50 Lisette's updates including update on the Happy Melly team and what do we mean by "working well together". Pilar's updates.18:15 Productivity - Top Five tips26:00 Have great equipment.30:55 Move your body.34:40 Plan your day the night before. 38:40 Pair collaboration.43.10 Collect metrics - evaluate your happiness.

For more links, look for episode 17 in www.wlpodcast.com

The guest in today's episode is Mike Russell, Creative Director of Music Radio Creative, amongst other things. 00:30 Pilar talks about how the world of voiceover has changed and she has some updates. virtualnotdistant.com/leading-virtual-teams-course/09:50 Mike talks about Music Radio Creative and how they help podcasters, djs and other broadcasters.18:30 New Media Europe 12-13 Sept 2015. What's happening there?23:05 Mike talks about how he started 'Youtubing' about Adobe Audition.27:45 Mike's journey as an audio professional.35:45 Working with people you can't see: trust and letting go.40:45 The different uses of social media. Personal vs personable

Links:

New Media Expo

New Media Europe

Music Radio Creative and his personal website.

@imikerussell

Mike's Udemy course Adobe Audition Tutorial CC Audio Production Course Basics to Expert

Mike's YouTube channel

UK Podcasters Group