21st Century Work Life - WLP300 Part 3 The Evolution and Future of the 21st Century Work Life podcast

WLP300 Part 3 The Evolution and Future of the 21st Century Work Life podcast

05/11/22 • 41 min

In this episode, we focus on the 21st Century Work Life podcast: how it’s evolved and what it could cover in the future. And our guests have come wise words for you, our listeners. 00.00 mins Pilar shares how the show has evolved over the last 100 episodes. Some of the episodes she mentions are: episode 209 The Journey of the Remote Leader, episode 263 “Remote” is not the Only Challenge, episode 282 Asynchronous Facilitation and Online Collaboration, episode 286 The Challenges of Adopting Asynchronous Communication.

09.05 mins Bree and Pilar talk about the Connection and Disconnection in Remote Teams series and how the conversations around remote work in general changed during the pandemic. 15.39 mins We hear some general suggestions from guests about what they’d like a podcast like ours to cover in the future. Tim Burgess is first, he’s been leading a distributed company for a few years - he would like to hear more “secrets” from people who are in the remote space. Then we hear from Theresa Sigillito Hollema, who as a guest has talked about leading global teams, her speciality. She’s interested in the psychology of working away from each other. Theresa refers to My Pocket Psych, so its from its host, Dr. Richard MacKinnon, who we hear from next. He’s also appeared on this show as guest, and as part of the Connection and Disconnection series. He would like the show to cover the “how to” for those new to the space (especially if it’s evidence-based). He’s followed by Mark Kilby, who’s also been on this show a lot, (and who Pilar got to meet in person, in London!) and would like a mix of the “how” and the “why”. Then we hear from Pinar Akkaya, it’s the first time she’s guested on this show. She’s looking for inspiration and “what if” scenarios. 24.49 mins Other guests have more specific suggestions. Simon Wilson kicks this bit off. He’d like to hear more - and be involved in conversations - about what asynchronous communication looks like in those teams embracing it, plus deep conversations about organisational culture. We then hear from Ross Winter, our podcast polisher, who would like to hear answers to questions like, Why are we spending so much time looking for connection online? Eva Rimbau Gilabert suggest we cover the transition to hybrid (of which there are many versions), especially when we can back it up with academic research, while Bree encourages us to continue with the diversity of perspectives and deepening the conversation about the future of work. 31.32 mins Finally, the guests have some final words for listeners of the show, and Pilar. We hear from Maya, Simon, Eva, Pinar, Richard, Tim, Ross (and cat!), Bree, Mark, and Theresa, who leaves us with an inspiring aspiration. And thanks to Anish Hindocha, for contributing to the two other parts of this episode! (By the way, Pilar has “podcastinitis” and hosts many shows!) And we have some outtakes from 40.03mins for your amusement after our MANY THANKS to all of you!

Previous Episode

WLP300 Part 2 How Have Individuals Changed the Ways in which They Work and View the Work

In this episode, our guests talk about how their approach to their work and their work has changed, as well as how the view of work in relation to the rest of our lives has changed.

03.45 After an introduction to the episode, we hear from Theresa about how the delivery of her training and consultancy has changed, Pinar tells us about delivering her wine tasting workshops online and Maya reflects on what has changed at her end.

09.30 We hear from Richard about travelling less for work, Bree tells us how she’s changed where she works from and Simon reflects on all the things he’s gained from working more online.

How about what’s at the core of our work, ourselves as humans? How has the way in which we look after ourselves changed over the last three years? How about the way in which we connect with others? Mark points out the importance of “energy management”, we’ll hear again from Richard about using technology efficiently, and Eva tells us how she’s expected at more meetings now than before the pandemic - although they’re also incorporating more async. Tim and Pilar reflect on how the desired levels of interaction change.

Bree, who hosted our season on Connection and Disconnection in Remote Teams, shares how working on that season made her more aware of her own needs.

20.52 What about our relationship with technology? Tim talks about how he experiments with different communication media as business leader and Ross tells us how the way in which he works with clients has evolved. 24.34 Pilar suggests that remote work can be a great option when we don’t get on with our colleagues... And that we can control our communications more. Richard reminds us to take a break, Bree has started to experiment with her working patterns

Richard has also developed fluid boundaries between work and non-work time and Pilar has swapped her Saturday for the Friday. Is it allowed, to work on the weekend?30.50 Eva describes how the difference between separators and integrators is now more visible, Pilar suggests the work-life balance conversation is out of date and Simon thinks most knowledge workers can change our relationship with work - and shares why he thinks he’s “got it wrong”.Mark talks about getting value from his work, Tim describes his new view of his role as a business leader, while Ross describes work as a mixture of insight, knowledge and experience.37.45 Eva shares how her own organisation has changed the focus of how they work. Anish would like to know what people are using the time they save in commuting for - building a new business or career, etc? Are we going to see the rise of the portfolio worker? Tim talks about cognitive consistency between who we are and who we see we are at work. Simon points out that the missing conversation at the moment is about how the working lives are going to be different.45.00 We tackle the broader question of what we’re hearing from others. We start with the work from home experience. Mark has been thinking about the craftsmen working a few centuries ago whose workshops were tied to their homes, Richard has noticed how people have discovered the benefits of not going into an office every day, while Pinar suggests we’re looking for more meaning in our work. Tim wonders whether we’re closer to becoming a “self we recognise” at work, and this will lead to a better life experience. Ross wonders whether we’re becoming different personalities when we are online. 50.31 The conversation around purpose at work, why we work, etc will continue. Pinar goes as far to suggest that the meaning of work is being redefined. Finally, Maya suggests that all the words we’re using now to describe the location of our work and other aspects of it will disappear, and we’ll just talk about work.

Find us on https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/300-part2