21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams Pilar Orti

Host Pilar Orti talks to Henry O'Loughlin, founder of Buildremote. As he shares his journey from running a fully remote marketing agency to creating Buildremote, Henry discusses the pitfalls many companies faced during the pandemic and how his experience led him to develop a "remote operating system" playbook.
The conversation evolves into a thought experiment looking into the future of work, exploring concepts like the four-day workweek, the growing trend of freelancing and the creator economy, ending in a not-too-distant future where traditional employment structures become networks of one-person businesses collaborating globally.


Connect with Henry on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/henry-olaughlin/
Check out the Remote Operating System at Buildremote buildremote.co


For a summary blog post, check out https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/work-evolution 

05:05: Four-Day Workweek and Remote Work Connection

08:03: Future of Work and Questioning Traditional Practices

17:49: Freelancing and the Creator Economy

26:12: Resistance to Change in Traditional Work Structures

28:22: Challenges of Managing Part-Time and Freelance Workers
30:18: Remote Work: Learning Curve and Comparisons

In today’s episode, Pilar Orti welcomes regular guest Mark Kilby onto the show, to find out how he’s using generative AI. They share their personal experiences, preferences, and cautionary tales surrounding various AI tools. Plus, they have plenty of reading, listening and tool recommendations for you this month!

Recorded on 24 April 2024, so some of the tools have evolved since then.

For the show notes, check out:
https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/may-recommendations


You can connect with Mark Kilby on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby/

Or message him through his website:
www.markkilby.com

And if you’d like to keep up with his thoughts and work, subscribe to Differability
https://differability.works/

Connect with Pilar over at https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us 

Today’s show notes are a little bit different. We’d like to keep Jack’s story in his own words as much as possible, so we’re sharing a polished version of the transcript over at: 
https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts /jack-nilles-telework 
Talking to our host Pilar Orti, Jack takes us on a journey through the very early days of telecommuting, sharing the challenges and triumphs he experienced while pioneering this new concept. From convincing skeptical companies to adopt telework to exploring the societal benefits of reduced traffic congestion and pollution, Jack's story is a fascinating glimpse into the birth of a movement that continues to shape our world today.

LINKS:


Get in touch with Jack through his website (you can email him from there) https://www.jala.com/

Jack’s blog: https://www.jalahq.com/blog/
WORK DIFFERENT, the documentary https://www.nfb.ca/film/work-different/


You can connect with Pilar on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/pilarorti/
Or message her through https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us 

In this episode, Pilar interviews Jaap Linssen, the founder of OrangeTrail, a company that helps organisations navigate change and adopt new ways of working.
Jaap has been helping people in organisations collaborate and communicate through harnessing the power of technology since 2011. Through Jaap’s examples, they talk about asking questions to drive engagement, developing team narratives to strengthen teamwork, the adoption of genAI in organisations and social learning. And building a business exporting farm cheese. Of course.

Here are some links for you to check out:


Find out more about OrangeTrail on their website.

Connect with Jaap on LinkedIn.

And don’t forget to watch the video New experiments in self-teaching by Sugata Mitra
Plus, if you’re interested in using genAI for creative projects, you might want to check out Spiralling Creativity, Pilar’s new blog.

For a full summary and show notes, check out 
https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts /team-narratives

We’ve struggled this month to create a collection around remote work, so we’ve gone a bit “around the edges” - but it’s still all relevant to our audience. There is much content around hybrid work at the moment, and it tends to have more of a “how to” angle to it , so we often give it a miss.

So, please send through anything you think we might add in future episodes. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us
 
Coffee Break Articles 05.00 MINS

The Pyramid Principle
Via Sketchplanations 

How Remote Workers Are Reshaping Corporate Travel Policies
via Skift

E-voice in the Digitalised Workplace. Insights from an Alternative Organisation
via Human Resource Management Journal (Wiley)
Grabbed from Eva Rimbau-Gilabert’s profile on previously-known-as-Twitter.

Airchat Is Silicon Valley’s Latest Obsession
via Wired.com



Article + Documentary 15.50 MINS
Work Different
a documentary by Julien Capraro

This was recommended by Jack Niles, reader of the newsletter, and author of Managing Telework: Strategies for Managing the Virtual Workforce published by Wiley in 1998.

You can read about the documentary here: https://www.createastir.ca/articles/work-different-rendez-vous-french-film-festival and watch the documentary here: https://www.nfb.ca/film/work-different/
Books 18.12 MINS

The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World
by Dorie Clark

(You might also want to check out Entrepreneurial You.)
 
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
by Adam Grant

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
by Cal Newport

How To Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
by David Brooks
(thanks Bernie J MItchell for the recommendation!)
 
Audio Recommendations 30.25 MINS

Deep Questions with Cal Newport
294: A Tactical Assault on Business
1 April 2024

The Long-Distance Worklife podcast
Episode: Press Start on SoWork: How Gamers are Influencing the Future of Remote Work
15 April 2024

Remote Work Life
RWL203 From office manager to international remote work expert w/ Laurel Farrer, Founder Distribute Consulting
4 March 2024
What’s Going On with Maya and Pilar


Check out our own work!
Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distributed Teams, a collection of our blog posts.
And Maya’s “Out Of The Office: Making the transition to working from home” and “Finding Your Edge: Establishing And Maintaining Boundaries When You Work From Home”

Pilar is back on Twitter (X)!

Maya’s mainly on LinkedIn, and… during RWE’s LinkedIn’s challenge, Maya posted about Getting Things Done, and got a comment from David Allen on it!
Maya is speaking at Bansko Nomad Fest.
Use her code for a discount! 𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗥𝗪𝗘_𝗯𝗻𝗳𝟮𝟰

Our newsletters:
Pilar’s “Spiralling Creativity” https://spirallingcreativity.substack.com/
Maya’s “Remote Echoes” https://mayamiddlemiss.substack.com/

You can message Pilar through the Virtual not Distant website: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us and get hold of Maya over at Remote Work Europe: https://www.remoteworkeurope.eu/ .

In today’s episode, Pilar Orti interviews Amale Ghalbouni, a former executive strategy director turned coach. Amale shares her experiences navigating career pivots, rediscovering purpose, and helping individuals and teams foster deep human connections. They talk about the changing nature of work, and the importance of preventing burnout.


Find out more about Amale on her website.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Check out The Brick Coach website

For a summary blog post, head over to 
https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts /coaching-and-burnout