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Transcript

Making Remote Work Launch Party · Humanity Working

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Or garbage man.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of the one of the two things.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Flip a coin.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's fine.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Flip a coin.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, welcome to 2023.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_04: Hey Matt.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Matt.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: What's up?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I guess we have a big announcement to make.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: We are renaming this podcast.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's now going to be called Making Remote Work.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about that.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: What's up with that, Ryan?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we needed something that more reflected our focus.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we we've always been about helping people, let's say, navigate the new normal of work, um, which has been changing drastically over the last 10 years.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, you know, COVID poured a ton of gasoline on that fire.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but our our focus really now is on helping enable people to prepare for the remote work day specifically.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's where we're seeing the greatest challenges in the new normal of work, is that effectively most people have not had enough experience or time to develop a set of skills to really do it very well.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: And also, I think about the the old podcast name, it's so weird to say that it's old already, um, way too busy, really reflected more of, let's say, the problem statement.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, it's very, very difficult to thrive in a world where we're constantly being bombarded by information, where our work world has become more unstructured and ambiguous in our lives and the rest of our work have been integrated.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and it's become very, very challenging to deal with.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I think way too busy sums up uh the way that we all feel.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um but really now that we start thinking about the fact that you know billion people work outside of an office at least a day a week, aka working remotely, um, that we really want to start talking more about the solution, about things that we're seeing in terms of uh how to make that scenario work for everybody, um, how to help people to um craft a remote workday that works for them personally, that works for their employer, that works for their colleagues, their team, um, that works for everybody that's in and around their lives.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that making remote work uh really reflects uh where we're headed in terms of thinking more about the solution to the problem, not just focusing on the problem.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so we put it out on LinkedIn.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: We we put a few different titles out there that we thought would work and uh and the the people voted.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: And unlike Elon, we abide by the polls.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: So that's what it will be.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Making remote work.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so so let's do a bit of housekeeping for listeners.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you're already subscribed to the Way Too Busy podcast, you shouldn't have to do anything.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the logo will change just a little bit for now, and of course the title.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So look for making remote work in your feed.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we do have one favor to ask though.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Please do review and like us and share us on the on uh your favorite podcasting medium there, whether it's Apple or Google Play, wherever, wherever you're listening to podcasts, Spotify.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to help us move the algorithms a little bit so other people can find us, and especially in the light of this name change.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So um so, Paul, a little bit about what's up, what's up coming for the season uh our 2023 season of making remote work.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, I think I think from memory we called the last season the great resignation season.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so uh uh for folks that will recall, um, we were really kind of in that early part of what was being considered to be the great resignation, or at least it'd been identified as being uh as being the great resignation.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_04: I think we all learned a lot from that period, what it uh what it actually meant, the underlying reasons that were uh that were behind it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um and um I think that this season is really more centered around the reality of remote and hybrid work settings.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: I think one of the things that has uh has really frustrated us um at Billion Minds around this whole conversation around remote and hybrid has been that it's been very black and white, right?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's been you on the on the one side of the equation, you've had all the people that love remote work and all of the people that love hybrid work.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: And on the other side of the equation, you've got all the people that think it's awful and terrible and et cetera, et cetera.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: And most of the time, that's just a statement of how the individual feels about it, right?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's an emotional statement about whether you like getting work done out of your home office or whether you like getting work done out of a coffee shop, or whether it just feels better for you that people will uh the um, you know, people will be gathering in a place that has your logo on the uh on the front of it.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_04: And that applies to individuals and their own feelings about remote work, and it also applies to to leaders inside organizations and their and their feelings about remote work.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_04: But the point about that is that that's a very like, I don't know, it's a very I guess it's a very 2022, very, very 23 position.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we live in a world where that's what people do on social media elsewhere, and they just pick a side and they just argue from that side.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_04: But in reality, it doesn't move anything forward, right?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_04: There are the the reality of the world today is that in almost every organization, there will be some accommodation for remote work ins uh inside those organizations, even if there isn't today, there will be at some uh at some point in the future.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: And so arguing whether it's good or bad is sort of irrelevant.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_04: The question, the mu the more interesting question is um, how do you make it work really well?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_04: And in particular, how do you make it work for your organization as a source of strategic advantage if you're an employer and if you're an employee, how do you make it work well for you so that you can grow yourself as an individual, grow your career and all of that kind of stuff?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: So if people are listening to this podcast who believe that remote work is just a fad and will go away, and then we'll and if we look in two years' time that there will not be anybody working remotely and everybody will be pulled back into the office and we'll be a better place for it.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: If people firmly believe that, they might as well switch off this podcast now because they're not going to get a lot a lot of discussion around uh around that.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_04: As far as we're concerned, the debate over that is done.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_04: There will be a uh there will be remote and hybrid elements in the in the workplace.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_04: And so by focusing on those other elements, our hope is to be much more practical and much more centered around what uh what needs to happen.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: And so if we do our job correctly, then uh the the people that are listening to this podcast will have that deeper understanding as to how to turn their environment, their hybrid or their remote work environment into that source of strategic advantage.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_04: And employees will will gain a deeper understanding of how they can grow their career while they're working out of the office.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Could you even imagine?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't even know what it would sound like to argue for a commute.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like to say, no, we're you guys, like I live in Los Angeles, okay?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's insane.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: If I had to go downtown every day, you would oh wow, that's crazy.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that it's it's a beautiful thought experiment.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_04: It really is, Matt, because like like imagine we've we've written about this a little bit, but imagine a scenario whereby this is this has already been in place for say 10 years or something like that.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: And you come up with this idea and you're gonna form a head office in uh in Los Angeles, and your idea is that you're gonna take all these people and you're gonna have them commute into your office.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_04: So now you're gonna spend millions of dollars on your real estate for that, uh, for that office.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna put into place a mechanism that causes people to take two, three hours out of their day every day in order to gather into this space that you've put your uh that you've put your sign over at the front of it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_04: And then you're gonna try and make a business case for that.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: Forget about all the other elements.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna try and make a business case for that.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't make sense.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: And this is why some organizations that have already flipped, right, that have already gone in that direction and are now trying to effectively remake the business case to bring people back in.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's a difficult thing to do.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're ever in that kind of argument, ever in that situation, no matter what it is, whether it's remote work or whether it's anything else, if you're ever in the situation whereby it's tough to make a business case for doing the thing that you're supposed to be doing, it's possible you're actually on the wrong side of the argument associated with this.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: So anyway, it's it's we like I say, we're not gonna uh we're not gonna convince folks that that firmly believe that it's that that that everything must be 100% uh back in office.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: And so that's why we're not gonna focus on it in this is in this season.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, without a holodeck or like the you know beaming places, it really is impractical to like expect.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, it's great to be in the office together and all that stuff, but like it's so crazy to get there.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Making remote work is brought to you by Billion Minds.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Remote and hybrid is a new reality for organizations all over the world.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to support remote work, but entirely another to get strategic advantage from it.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Billion Minds helps organizations make remote actually work by giving employees and managers the critical skills they need to thrive in a world that is not centered around the traditional office.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization, visit us at billionminds.com or email us for a free organizational assessment at infoblionminds.com.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And be sure to mention making remote work in the subject line.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Billionminds, making remote work for everyone.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you mentioned uh remote work and hybrid work.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So is is this going to be about both?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like where are you where are you gearing this?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's it's kind of the problem.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, um terms are part of the problem here.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it's just that everybody's got their own.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, really what we're talking about is the distributed workforce.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think the challenge that that we face, because look, we we don't like the term remote work, not not really, because it doesn't really accurately describe the situation.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the most accurate description is a distributed workforce, people that work in um different times and different spaces.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and so that's great.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Too long of a title for a podcast.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's great that we like a term, but that doesn't really matter because what our job is is to help the billions of people now that that are working in that.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: And if they self-describe their scenario as remote, then then that's the way that that's essentially the lexicon that we need to subscribe to.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um so yeah, so really what we're talking about is um is that the fact that sometimes people are in the same time and sometimes they're in the same space, and then sometimes they're not, right?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um and that is like our the remote work is our our cheat shortcut term for for that.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: And it just seems to be what people resonate with the most, and and that's kind of why we stuck with it.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, so let's give a little sneak peek.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what's what's gonna be happening?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: What can people expect from this season, Paul?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, it's gonna be overall, I would say pretty similar in terms of our structure of the episode.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: So folks that have been listening to the old podcast, the Way Too Busy Podcast, for uh for some time will know that we tend to uh to fluctuate a little bit between discussions between us as a team.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um and those discussions are really generally centered around something maybe that's happened in the news around remote work or just something that we uh um some kind of like real insights that we've developed from our work inside billion minds.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um and we'll continue with those, and those will be um those every so often we'll be we'll be dropping those as we as we see fit.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um and then we will also uh intersperse it with great uh with great interviews.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_04: I th I will say that uh for this year in particular, I'm not nothing to say against the wonderful guests that we've had previously, but I'm really excited about the guests that we've got coming up um this year.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um so there are a whole cluster of uh of really great guests that that will be coming up really right away, right, over the f over the course of the next uh next two to three months.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_04: We've got some of the most important thought leaders in the remote and hybrid work environments.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um we've got uh futurists who are looking at what remote work is going to be over the course not just of the next year or so, but the next uh you know five to ten years.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um and we've got specialists in workplace psychology as an ex uh as an example as well.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh specialists that are really looking at what it means to have like human-centered organizations in a world where technology is becoming more and uh more and more of a play here, folks that are really looking deeply into the relationship between uh between synchronous and asynchronous work and how you go about accommodating that inside uh inside different environments and so on.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_04: So that's uh that's really, really, really exciting.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_04: So, as an example, our very next episode is with Bob Johansson for the Institute for the Future.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and we're gonna be talking about how the I uh IFTF believes that office environments will evolve over the next 10 years or so.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_04: It is really fascinating stuff.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um but all that said, um, it won't all be theory.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we're committed to making sure that there's tons of practical guidance in here um from ourselves and from leading experts in the in the field.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um I remember, Matt, when we were kind of discussing the overall name uh of the podcast, you wanted to call it the quintessential remote work podcast, which frankly I love because quintessential is one of my is one of my favorite words.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: The um we're not called the quintessential remote work podcast, but we certainly want to be that.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: So if you are a uh if if you are an employee or an employer and remote work forms you know an important part of the identity of your organization or an important an important part of your identity as an employee, then we should be the podcast that you're choosing to listen to.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_04: And of course, we want and thrive of regular feedback from our listeners to let us know if we're making the mark on that.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_04: And if we're not, then let us know that too.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um also, um, as I say, we've got a great roster of guests coming up, but we are always looking for new interesting voices as well.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_04: So who else is out there that we're not speaking to that you think we should be speaking to about this topic?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um so that also I think would be a very uh would be a very interesting question, and people should definitely provide their feedback in terms of uh of guest ideas as well.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Paul, quintessential made it from your lexicon into one of the options, but literal didn't.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: And that's your other favorite most used word.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm surprised you didn't come up with like literally the best podcast on the planet.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_04: Or how about literally the quintessential?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, let's think about that too.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people love a comma in the title.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's always helpful.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: Quite the the quintessential remote work podcast.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_04: For some reason, that's reminded me of that show that used to what was that the sports one that was on something, the best damn sports show, period.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so kind of reminded me of that.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right, guys.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, frankly, I can't wait.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm looking forward to this uh this season quite a bit.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it's it's it's crazy that this is the third season, and they are years, right?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we had the whole first year figuring it out, personal effectiveness, and and then last year's with the great resignation, and now it's like we have our arms around it, and we're gonna help more than even we, you know, you guys thought you could in the beginning, is because all this research has really paid off.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so I'm looking, I'm really looking forward to this uh this season.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So quick reminder for everybody to please rate the podcast, review us and share us, let us know.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you should be able to hear us on any of the podcasting platforms.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and if you actually want to see our faces for some reason, you can do that on YouTube.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you uh want to reach out to us, you can always do so at podcast at billionminds.com.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: So look out for the next podcast very soon.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And here's to another great season and a great 2023.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much, Matt.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Matt.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, huh.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Are you one of the more than one billion people who work out of a formal office setting at least one day a week?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you are, and you want to keep doing it, it's essential that you can show your employer you have the skills to do it really well.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the Billion Minds Remote Work Certifications come in.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Billion Minds offers certifications for employees and managers that help you grow your career without ever needing to set foot in an office.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, making remote work listeners can get 15% off their remote work professional or remote work manager certification.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just visit billionminds.com slash cert.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is billion minds forward slash C E R T and enter MWR at checkout.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Billion Minds, making remote work for everyone.