Latest / Hope + Possibilities: Trust, Leadership + Strategic Foresight / Presence, Work, and AI: Stories Beyond Location

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Presence, Work, and AI: Stories Beyond Location · Hope + Possibilities: Trust, Leadership + Strategic Foresight

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Find yourself in.
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Thank you for joining the Hope and Possibilities podcast.
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I'm Nola Simon, and today I wanna talk about my theory about presence.
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So I, long story short, I had applied for a TED Talk.
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It was actually Global TED Talk, which I've never actually
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seen them do that before.
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And.
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Spoiler alert, I didn't get chosen because honestly, there were only
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10 people out of all of North America who would've been chosen.
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And then what happens is there's, various different locations around
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the world, and then each person who wins in each particular location and
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goes to Tet in Vancouver in 2026.
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Odds were never in my favor, but I applied just because I wanted to at least put
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the Saudi out there in the universe.
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And I thought Ted was actually a good place to start because
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if I got it, that's great.
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And if I didn't, it at least gave me an excuse to actually start.
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Publicly talking about the idea.
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So essentially what the idea is that we need to really look at the way that
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we talk about work and how the stories that we tell are embedded in presence.
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Because quite honestly, if I look back at the way that my career has
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evolved, when I tell stories of success, a lot of the stories of success
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that I have are not actually based.
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On location because the work that I did was really never
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in person.
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My clients were always like, somewhere between 1500 and 3000 kilometers away
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because I was based in Toronto and the majority of the time my clients were in
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the US they weren't even the same country.
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So the.
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Success that I have that was directly related to the work
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that I was responsible for.
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It happened in the ether on a phone call, in a webinar.
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I did get to visit some clients, but the majority of the time that I
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was with that company over 17 years.
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I didn't actually meet the majority of my clients, and the majority of the work
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that I did was done over computer, over phone, and it wasn't directly in person.
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So this is where I tell stories about my work and my success
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in a very different way.
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I don't really talk about the fact, that I was based in a cubicle and that
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I was surrounded by 60 other people.
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In a department of 300 because most of the time those people were irrelevant to me.
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We had two meetings that we had to attend each month, and I would have
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coaching session here and there with my manager, and the majority of the
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time I was on my own talking to clients over the phone or using the computer,
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and the rest of the people in the department weren't really relevant
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to the way that I actually function.
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And even if I did have to ask for help, I wasn't really asking for
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PE help from the people around me.
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I was still going to other departments and most of the time using technology
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to, to do that interaction.
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So I tell stories about my work success in a very different way.
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I don't talk about body language.
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I don't talk about, what I wore that actually was influential.
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I don't talk about, how it felt to walk into a room and present.
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And the change that I did, because honestly, when I did do those
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types of presentations, I was
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virtual.
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I did one leadership presentation.
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They were all in a conference room because they had been selected to
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actually be part of the leadership team.
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I had actually been declined from that particular opportunity.
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Two core, two or three cohorts be before that, and I was asked to speak to them,
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but it was something that I did virtually.
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So I talk about my successes in a very different way because I
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haven't found in person to be
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where my career really evolved and developed.
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Honestly, even with podcasting, it's not in person.
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A lot of times I don't even have the cameras on.
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It really depends on the guest.
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A lot of what I've done is all been audio, right?
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But I know that certain people make choices based on the fact that
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they are valued in a different way.
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They, perceive themself in a different way.
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So I'm gonna tell you two stories.
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So one is of my coach.
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She does a lot of work, asynchronous, asynchronously.
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She does a lot of work over the phone using technology.
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But recently what last year, she actually decided to go back to work
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in person because she's someone who values being recognized for her energy.
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And so she felt that by working at home, she wasn't.
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Necessarily being seen as a whole person and her influence and her impact
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was being reduced because she was at home and couldn't necessarily bring
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everything to each moment that she had.
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To interact with people.
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And so she wasn't, she might've been having impact and value to
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the people that she was impacting, but she felt she could do more.
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And it was more about how it felt to her on a regular day, daily basis
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because her days were the same and she wasn't necessarily seeing a whole
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lot of people and everything would wrap up by four o'clock, four o'clock,
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and they would have dinner and.
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A lot of times she felt that no one had actually witnessed her energy.
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So going back in person allowed her to have that visibility to be
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witnessed in a way that she felt was missing in her day-to-day life.
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And I understand that with her also, she lives in a city and can
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actually walk into the downtown core.
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So it's not like it's a significant commute for her to actually rejig her life
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and actually go back to work in an office.
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For me, hearing the story, if I was going to do the same thing and say
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I wanted to have a more in-person impact and be able to walk into the
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types of corporations that would be looking for my types of skillset, I
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still have a two hour commute each way.
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So the value that I place on actually walking into an office.
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Is impacted by that.
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So there has to be something really motivating.
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What am I getting out of it that's beyond paycheck, beyond rewards and recognition.
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That intrinsically makes me feel that work has value and I
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can't do it in any other way.
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The bar is much higher for me than it is for somebody who happens to live.
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Close to the downtown core.
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But I also had a friend, and again it's about how their perceived physically,
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the coach was a better energy.
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The friend that I'm gonna tell you about, she was extremely tall.
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She was almost six feet.
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She was very voluptuous and she had.
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Red hair and she was loud and she was fun and she liked to laugh.
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And again, that energy that she brought in person, she was
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recognized in a certain way.
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Whereas when you're working from home and the Zoom screen, all those
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boxes are all the same size and you have no control about where you
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end up and how you're perceived.
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And if you're on mute and you know how people are actually.
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Reacting to you.
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It's very different, right?
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Like people, she walks into a room and people immediately look up and she
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feels that she's got impact, right?
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I, we were friends.
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She was almost six foot tall and I'm five foot one.
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I don't have that sort of impact physically.
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I walk into a room and my hair's been white for a very long time.
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White hair.
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My hair is not actually white because of age, it's because of Wardenberg syndrome,
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but there's an association with that.
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So me walking into a room, I am short.
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I have white hair and the impression that I give in person is often devalued.
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Because of societal norms, in terms of ageism and possibly even misogyny.
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Now obviously she had the misogyny aspect available to her as well too.
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It's not necessarily just related to me but it's that pretty privilege, right?
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That energy that.
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Perception that in person you have a certain impact on the
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way that people value you and.
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Your presence, how you look, how you feel, the energy you bring,
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all of that really impacts it.
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So I've got this theory that if you are someone who's actually used
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to impressing people because of how you look, how you make people
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feel the energy that you you bring.
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And you are used to people reacting to you in a certain way and recognize you, you
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in a certain way, because of your physical presence, you have a harder time adapting
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to actually working from home because that
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impact is filtered by technology.
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On the Zoom screen, everybody's the same height.
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People always think that I'm taller than I am.
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Because most of the time they've only met me over the phone or on technology, right?
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I have a personality that translates well virtually.
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I know how to make my presence known.
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I know how to make an impact with force or personality, with how I speak, with
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how I. Get people to listen to me and pay attention to me, that ability to
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build visibility remotely is something that I've developed over the years.
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I don't rely on physical presence because quite honestly, I've had
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better success doing it virtually the majority of my career, right?
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So this is something that I think, is unacknowledged by people when
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they're debating whether in person or virtual is the best scenario because
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quite honestly, it depends on the person and their individual skills,
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abilities, but also their individual version of presence and the stories
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that they tell themselves related to how they actually make an impact.
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If you are used to making an impact because of your energy, you might
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be able to adopt that in the virtual world, but it's harder, right?
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If you are used to people noticing how tall you are, how ous you are,
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you know how loud your laugh is that's something that you might be
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able to convey on a screen, but.
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It's harder, right?
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Again, it's what gets noticed without actually being verbalized
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without actually being.
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Made concrete.
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So that impact of body language again, it can be conveyed on a screen.
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This is where, movies and videos and everything that we watch virtually as well
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too, obviously gets conveyed on a screen.
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But in a corporate environment that reliance on body language
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isn't necessarily as explicit, isn't as necessarily as put in
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the forefront as your presence is.
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So how do you still make that impression without being
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explicit about the changes there?
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Because everything also is filtered through professional behavior and
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what does that look like, right?
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Like the stories that are told in Hollywood and music videos and all
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that stuff, they tend not to be.
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They tend to be very different types of stories that you would actually
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be telling in corporate, right?
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They've got a lot of emotion, they've got a lot of dependence on relationship.
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There's a sexuality to it that's usually hopefully not ev present
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in corporate environments, right?
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Because you wanna make sure that, everybody feels safe, right?
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But this is the type of thing that I think needs to be.
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Discussed and we need to develop language about how we actually talk about that.
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And this is where autonomy comes into play as well too, is people aren't
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necessarily resisting the office because
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they just want to be contrary.
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They might be adapting to the office.
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And working from home actually helps them avoid things that
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are detrimental to the work.
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For example, if people don't know that my hair is white and I don't
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tell them, nobody ever knows, right?
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Only when they see me or they see a picture of me would
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they actually even know.
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A lot of times people mistake me for blunt, right?
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It creates a whole different story than when you actually see me in person, right?
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That storytelling that underlies our reputations, how we're
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perceived, really makes an impact.
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And so when there's autonomy, where does what fuels the work?
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I might choose something.
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That's very different from somebody who actually feels that their
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energy, their physical perception, their physical presence really
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is what fuels the work, right?
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Because we're doing work in different ways.
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We're using our influence in different ways, and that I think is part of the
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story that gets overlooked because.
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If you look at the reports in terms of the height of CEOs and if you've
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ever had the pleasure of walking into a sales conference where it's
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dominated by men, especially in the Midwest US and everybody's over a six
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foot four and you walk in and it's like a sea of suits with shoulders
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that are a foot taller than you are.
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Your understanding of how you make an impact in that audience is going
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to be very different if you're five foot one versus six foot.
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If your energy is not necessarily that of an extrovert, but of an
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introvert or an ambivert, and you need time to actually recharge after
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you've actually been super social, how you make an impact and how that.
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Changes your energy, that's going to be very different.
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And this is where, for years, for decades, honestly, we've had to work in person.
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And the people who have
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personalities and energy that's less suited to that extroversion,
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that has always had pri priority.
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We've had to adapt.
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We haven't had a choice.
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What's happened with the whole work from home and working virtually
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and working from anywhere, whatever you wanna call it, is.
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Those people, which I am myself, am included in those people.
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We've seen that we can make an impact in different ways that doesn't drain us.
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So we have options that we've never had to be able to do the work that is work
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that we're perfectly capable of doing, but in a way that doesn't drain us.
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So that's another aspect as well too.
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And that's where the agency and the autonomy to work in
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a way that fuels the work.
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It is really honestly individual, and
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that's an aspect that we haven't talked about either.
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And then you add in ai, how does this really impact thing?
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The interesting thing about AI is that we have this perception that AI might
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really just come in and start doing work the way that humans would do that work.
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We don't understand AI enough, but there are, stories dating back to
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like when IBM was running artificial intelligence and doing chess with
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computers, so they would pit humans against computers and how Big Blue would
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actually play chess against a human.
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They, the computers play chess entirely different from the way
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humans do because they look at.
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All of the games that have ever been played to look for the optimized
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moves, whereas a human doesn't have the brain capacity to do
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that at a really quick pace, and humans never play chess like that.
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So how does AI really impact how the work gets done?
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The work that some people feel depends on presence might be
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done completely different.
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When you've got AI involved and presence is not really the focus of anything
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because you're using an AI agent that doesn't actually have physical form.
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So that's another aspect of the storytelling as well too, is you know,
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this is the way it's always been done.
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This is how people feel about it.
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Add in ai.
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And how does physical presence
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either become less important or more important?
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That's another aspect that I need to explore as well too, and I think this
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is a fascinating way to think about what the future of work is going to
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be like and how we influence that.
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And what we're drawn to will be very different based on
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how we prefer to work and what opportunities are available to us.
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So anyways, that essentially is the Ted Talk idea that I had in
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mind, and I will be fine tuning that and looking for more stories.
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I'd love to have people submit stories to me about, either the fact that you.
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The way that they've worked in person really makes a difference.
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And this is why explaining it, because honestly, I'm fascinated to
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see what the biases are there, right?
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Because there's bias one way or another.
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So what is the commonality?
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I'd love to see more stories that you explain your success
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stories, but focus on.
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How the location, the presence, who was around you, how those factors really
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either made or break or broke the success, and how you tell those stories.
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It would be fascinating to know.
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So if you want to email me, it's Nola, sorry nola@nolasimon.com.
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It's on my website.
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If you find you can't find it, but it's www.nolasimon.com.
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Again, email is nola@nolasimon.com and I'd love to hear your stories of success,
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specifically focusing on location and what you are either able to achieve in
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person or what working virtually and removing the physical presence as a
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factor really allowed you to do that.
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You weren't able to get accomplished in person.
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So either story is something that I'm interested in reading about.
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I'd love to collect those, so if you are interested in sharing
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with me, that'd be great.
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Find yourself in.