21st Century Work Life

00:45 Pilar talks about "the problem with trust" at work and the Trust Equation, created by the Trusted Advisor. (for transcript check out wlpodcast.com)10:36 Virtual Coffee with Lisette.11:20 Pilar and Lisette plug the No Pants Festival. http://www.nopantsfest.be/13:00 Lisette talks about her Collaboration Superpowers workshop. 14:30 Trust at work19:15 Why does video help to build trust? Likeability and the power of small gifts.27.40 Should we use "tricks"?30:48 Trust starts with ourselves. 33:40 Propensity to trust and our own experiences. 39:40 Retrospectives and addressing the breakdown of trust. LINKShttp://www.thefutureorganization.com/future-work-podcast-episode-4-charles-h-green-trust-future-work/http://www.apaexcellence.org/assets/general/2013-work-and-wellbeing-survey-results.pdfhttp://trustedadvisor.com/articles

Pilar talks to Marta Texidor, Customer Success Manager for Microsoft, about how organisations are using Yammer. For the full show notes and pics of both guests, go to www.wlpodcast.com and search for episode 14.

00:30 Pilar shares an event she's taking part in on 25 January 2015.02:30 Pilar talks about some of the features of Yammer and things to look out for when you're thinking of introducing a new tool. (Transcript can be found in wlpodcast.com)

11:45 Marta talks about Yammer and her role in Microsoft.

15:35 What kind of organisations are using Yammer at the moment and the problems they're trying to solve.

25:21 The importance of having Leadership present in the network. How do we involve the CEO and Senior Management? Who can introduce the tool?35:30 We need to change our mindset to get the most out of these tools. 42:03 - 45:04 We move onto Alan, who's just integrated Yammer into their communications process

00:30 Pilar talks about why meetings might be going wrong. ( 08:30 Virtual Coffee with Lisette. Lisette talks a bit about her book Collaboration Superpowers. 12:55 Facilitating Online Meetings and distributing responsibility to make the meeting succesful. 15:30 What can we do to make online meetings succesful? 24:36 Having a back channel to communicate. 32:11 Why are people not "present" in meetings? Engagement. 40:50 Does everyone read the handouts?

We mention a very funny video from 2014. Here's a link: http://virtualnotdistant.com/why-you-should-keep-conference-calls-down-to-a-minimum/

http://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/about-the-book/

http://virtualnotdistant.com/using-yammer/ https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/surgeons/surgical-standards/professionalism-surgery/gsp/documents/good-surgical-practice-pdf

00.30 Pilar talks about MOOCs and the use of technology in learning. 12.43 Shannon introduces Udemy and the story of its founder.16.30 What people are seeking to learn and how the way in which we interact with online learning is changing. 26.00 Udemy for Business and how corporate learning is evolving. 39.50 Pilar introduces her own Udemy course on Leadership and Change.

For show notes, visit wlpodcast.com and look for episode 12.

Welcome to a tiny episode of 21st Century Work Life. I was actually just going to release a note saying that there wouldn’t be an episode today, but as I was about to do that, I got thinking about some work life related stuff and I thought, why not share some of it with you and make a mini-episode out of it.

I’m currently away from my usual base but I’m still able to have a presence in social media for example, thanks to the way that some of these applications allow us to create content one moment and release it the other. Blog posts can be scheduled, podcasts can be pre-recorded and scheduled in advance so that they come out when I want them to, I can automate my tweets so that it looks like I’m active, when I might actually be completely unplugged and doing something completely different… To be honest, I didn’t schedule many tweets during the Christmas period, and that also made me think, I don’t really celebrate Christmas, I’m self-employed, and the kind of work I do means that I can pretty much set my own hours, and yet I still seem to follow conventional working patterns.

If I don’t do any work over these days, I don’t feel that guilty and I just say to my employees, that’s myself, it’s fine, take a break, everyone else seems to be taking time off. What’s even more baffling to me is that even though I’ve been living in the UK for more than half my life now, I still take the Christmas period as ending on the 6th January, which is when it ends in Spain, on epiphany. So for me, I think it’s all right to take a break until then. Again, even though none of my clients expect me to work all the time, and even if I schedule a lot of my own work, there is this voice in my head that keeps saying, there’s a time to work and there’s a time when it’s ok not to work.

Maybe it’s because still, the majority of the workforce works for 8 hours a day, on 5 days of the week, that the self- employed also seek some kind of structure by following the more conventional timetable. For example, yesterday I was listening to a podcast, the Rocking Self Publishing podcast (which by the way if you’re a writer or inspiring one, is well worth a listen) and the guest, Libby Hawker, said that every day, she sits down and writes for eight hours, as it’s her job. Very interesting that she didn’t say, I aim to write 5,000 words a day as that’s my job. Or, I work 2 hours in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 2 in the evening.

And it’s true, that I’ve heard many writers, especially those who’ve moved from full time employment, saying this kind of thing. There are also those who have a more flexible approach of course and in the end, everyone finds different patterns that work for them, but I find it interesting that even when you follow what might be considered a less conventional career, you still, or should I say, I still, follow the more conventional work patterns. I suppose, it’s still what I grew up with and it’s still how most of the world works, so it’s easier to find some kind of structure to adapt to it.

So this is probably as much as I’m going to say today. I just wanted to say hello as it’s Friday, and I do like following a schedule with my podcasts, as in, the podcast comes out on Fridays, as is the case with this one, or Tuesdays, with the Spain Uncovered. This gives me a deadline, and so gives my work structure which is even more important when you’re organizing your own work. It also means that you listening and looking forwards to the podcast, know when to expect it. Of course, last week was a bit different as I didn’t want to release a podcast on boxing day for some reason (I suppose I’m going back again to conventional schedules) and so I released the retrospective on Tuesday. And talking of this episode, which by the way was great fun to record as it was only myself and Lisette talking about certain aspects of work and the future of work that had caught our eye during 2014, talking of this episode, thanks very much to David Roswell for the comment on the blog and also, thanks to Robert Svenson for the lovely tweet about that same episode. He described it as “an engaging conversation on workplace dynamics and trends” – I really liked the way you summarized that, Robert, thank you.

So, see you next week. If you don't fancy popping onto this site every week to listen to the podcast, just look for the 21st Century Work Life on your podcast app, iTunes, Stitcher, whatever you use and Subscribe. Over the next few weeks, look out for interviews with Marta Texidor from Yammer and Shannon Hughes from Udemy, and of course, for more virtual coffee with Lisette.

Have a great start to 2015!

Join Pilar and Lisette for a much longer virtual coffee than usual, recapping some of 2014's work stories and picking some of the trends. Our starting point was a series of articles, which you can find in www.wlpodcast.com. Do share with us your thoughts by commenting on the post with episode 10 or connecting via Twitter: @PilarOrti for myself and @lightling for Lisette.

00:30 Lisette shares with us what she's been up to and her plans for next year. 04:50 Some buzzwords and concepts that became mainstream this year, including Working Out Loud.

In this episode, Lisette shares her experience of recruiting four new people onto the virtual team of Happy Melly, of which she is part of.

00.30 Pilar gives a brief intro to the podcast, with some reasons of why this episode might also apply to co-located teams.03.50 Virtual coffee starts. Lisette talks through what she's up to, including her workshop at the NoPants Festival, 9 March 2015. 10.18 Lisette talks through the recruitment process for Happy Melly. 23.37 The onboarding process.

For the show notes, visit wlpodcast.com

What is a coach and why is coaching an important skill to have at work? Pilar talks to Phil Hayes, Chairman of Management Futures.

00.31 Pilar talks a bit about coaching and how our new attitude to work has enabled this profession to grow. (Transcript below.) 09.10 Phil explains what coaching is. 14.30 How leadership in organisations has changed in the past years and how coaching can become an integral part of management. 21.50 Social value in organisations and inclusivity. 24.35 The importance of self-awareness and values.

For more show notes, visit www.wlpodcast.com

00.30 Pilar talks a bit about why sharing our values might help us work better together. 07.46 What is 'ethical blindness'?13.45 Virtual coffee with Lisette Sutherland14.28 Lisette reports back on her experiment on Feedback.18.45 What do we mean by "values"? Why is this important for virtual teams?31.50 Cognitive dissonance.

How can digital skills be employed in the workplace? Sinead MacManus talks about the work that Fluency is doing in London and globally to help young people improve their digital skills.00.30 Pilar talks a bit about Sinead' s work (transcript below)08.00 Sinead talks about her work with Fluency and the blended learning approach17.23 Sinead explains what .io stands for20.35 Are schools (in the UK) addressing this shortage of digital skills in young people?

For the show notes visit www.wlpodcast.com