21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams Pilar Orti

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

Maya and Pilar discuss some of the ways in which remote workers are networking. And very special guest Matt Ballantine shares his experiment “100 coffees”.
Recorded on 21 March 2024.

To get in touch, head over to https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us 
Maya shares a recent event she ran as part of Remote Work Europe, with Ali Meehan on “speed networking”.

Someone else organising networking-type events is Lisette Sutherland from Collaboration Superpowers, who is running virtual coworking sessions: https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/workshops/schedule/?type=1112


Maybe this kind of event is something organisations could run, instead of assuming the best way for people to connect is through face to face social events?

12.25mins
Special guest Matt Ballantine tells us about his relationship building experiment: 100 coffees.
Read about it here: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/category/projects/100-coffees/
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattballantine/
Listen to his previous episode on this show: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/collaboration-in-organisations
Listen to the WB40 podcast, or even, book a coffee time with Matt: https://calendly.com/matt-ballantine

27.15mins
What about online communities? Belonging to a public group and a private one, and a free one versus a paid one, are very different experiences.

Remote Work Europe has a public, open group on Facebook, and a private community, over at https://www.remoteworkeurope.eu/connected

Communities and relationships can exist both online and off: we mention Social Now as a conference about the digital workspace: 16th and 17th May in Lisbon, and also the online community Asynco.
And relationship building can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Virtual Team Talk, set up back in the day by Pilar and Lisette, is still around!

43.15mins
And Social Media? How’s it going over on LinkedIn? If you want to become active on the platform, join the RWE challenge: https://www.linkedin.com/events/levelupyourlinkedinspring2024-a7175914652218834945/comments/

Or, you might want to join Alison Jones’ Book Proposal Challenge.
And being part of a challenge itself is a great way of meeting new people with whom you have something in common!

52.30mins
In the absence of people, can generative AI bots help?

A cheeky transition into some resources we have around generative AI:

Maya has created the course: Generative AI Secrets For Remote Work Search Success

And Pilar is now blogging about her artistic projects with and without genAI over at Spiralling Creativity, where her latest post ponders on whether genAI is a Clown .

In today’s episode, tech journalist Jennifer Riggins talks about the impact of generative AI on the world of software development, focusing on the challenges faced by DevSecOps teams in keeping up with the accelerated pace of code creation enabled by GenAI tools. She raises important questions about the potential risks posed by generative AI, such as the introduction of vulnerabilities and intellectual property issues, and emphasises the need for organizations to establish clear AI governance policies to mitigate these risks.
You can read the full summary and show notes (created by GenAI) here:
https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/ai-developers  


Connect with Jen on LinkedIn.

Read the article: Will Generative AI Kill DevsecOps?

Read Jen’s other article: The AI governance policy engineering managers needed yesterday

Check out the State of OpenCon 24 sessions on YouTube.

You can also check out Pilar's post on her Spiralling Creativity blog, describing her recent experience with GenAI creating this episode's show notes. https://spirallingcreativity.substack.com/p/gen-ai-helpful-assistant-or-clown 

If you enjoy listening to the 21st Century Work Life podcast, you might also enjoy Management Café - look for it wherever you are listening to this. 

Today’s guest is Linda Redell, Head of Talents and Culture at the hybrid company Homelike. https://www.thehomelike.com/ 

With a diverse workforce spread across multiple countries, Linda and her team are responsible for maintaining the company culture and employee well-being. The shift to remote work has brought challenges and opportunities, with a focus on creating spaces for physical interaction, revamping onboarding, and fostering engagement.
Connect with Linda Redell on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-redell/ 

Find our more about Homelike nd what it’s like working there: www.thehomelike.com
For a summary of the conversation, check out https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/homelike
 

Today’s post is the audio companion to the Virtual not Distant monthly newsletter, which you can sign up to here. Every month, Pilar shares with readers articles she’s come across on the web, books she’s read (or is reading) and podcast episodes she’s listened to. And today, she’s joined by Marcus Wermuth, who is an Engineering Leader specialising in virtual leadership.|

Marcus is back on this show, this time talking about his recent professional transition: laying himself off from his job as Head of Engineering. This has been a very difficult decision to take, but he’s followed his own principles, and stayed true to his identity as servant leader.
Coffee Break Articles: First off, check out Marcus’ article on “laying himself off”,

If you are interested in hearing another conversation about how to strike the balance between transparency and discretion, check out episode 69 of the Management Café.

18.30 MINS

Deutsche Bank's 3-day-a-week return-to-office policy has been met with fierce criticism by staff who say there isn't enough space for everyone
via Business Insider
The title says it all, but worth looking at some of the detail to understand the risks of mandatory planning looks like.
Right to disconnect: Implementation and impact at company level
Recent research shows that having laws about the right to disconnect is not enough to prevent employees feeling like they have to be constantly available. Company culture and in-house companies are needed too.

10 Ways to Build Better Relationships Working Remotely
A blog post that could have been a short ebook. A thoughtful article with specific advice on how to build relationships .
Are Enterprise Social Platforms All Talk?
Past guest Wietske Van Osch has just released research into why enterprise social networks need to be run differently to the social networks employees might be used to, for employees and the organisation to get the most out of them.

Gifts and Greats for True Feedback
via Mark Kilby
A very useful post to guide us through formulating feedback on other people’s work, and how to structure it.
Listening Recommendations: Podcast: The Rich Roll Podcast
Episode: #815 CHARLES DUHIGG: HOW TO UNLOCK THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF CONNECTION
Date: 22 February 2024

An interview with journalist/writer Charles Duhigg, talking about building strong relationships.

Podcast: Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin
Long-form Interviews with a range of guests, from a range of industries.

Podcast: Collaboration Superpowers
Episode: Agile Retrospectives 2.0 with Esther Derby, Diana Larsen & David Horowitz
Date: 5 March 2022

Lisette Sutherland talks to the authors of the new edition of Agile Retrospectives 2.0. Pilar hasn’t listened to it yet, but highly recommends it - she’s a great fan of David Horowitz, who guested on this show back in 2017, in episode 129 on Building a Distributed Business.

Podcast: Sliced Bread
Episode: Fitness Trackers (UK link, but look for it in your podcast app)
29 Feb 2023
Book Recommendations: Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building
by Claire Hughes Johnson

Collabor(h)ate: How to build incredible collaborative relationships at work (even if you’d rather work alone)
by Deb Mashek PhD
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
by Charles Duhigg
The Coming Wave
by Mustafa Suleyman

Can’t Hurt Me
by David Goggings
Make Your Art No Matter What
by Beth Pickens

You can connect with Marcus Wermuth on LinkedIn and check out his website: www.marcuswermuth.com


Other episodes with Marcus:
WLP291 Starting a New Role Remotely

WLP219 OnBoarding (or Integration) in Remote Teams and Organisations

WLP188 - From Maker to Manager in a Distributed Company


SIgn up to the Virtual not Distant's newsletter here: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/newsletter
 

In this episode, Production Designer Kate Rance shares her diverse career spanning theatre and film. She compares design approaches across industries, her affinity for hands-on craft versus managing teams, and learning new skills through her eclectic projects.

Kate and Pilar used to work together on theatre productions (many years ago!) and Kate has designed www.virtualnotdistant.com , as well as www.adventuresinpodcasting.com 
Check out Kate's website, www.katerance.com

For detailed show notes, head over to www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/film-production