WLP361 Can Chatbots Affect Connection in Remote Teams?

A new player has entered the field in the world of work: generative AI. As remote teams increasingly rely on asynchronous communication, have AI chatbots become go-to resources for quick answers and idea validation? What does this mean for our workplace relationships and social skills? Maya Middlemiss and Pilar Orti discuss! For more detailed show notes head over to www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/chatbots  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/ .

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 Business1 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

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