The Collaboration Superpowers Podcast

Every once in a while, life delivers us bad times. I'm going through one of those bad times right now and through reading self help books and talking to friends, I've collected a long list of tips for great self care. These tips are not specific to remote workers, but instead, they are for everyone. I hope they are useful for you. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Peter Smit is the Founder at Collabogence, a company that helps measure how well your teams are collaborating and how productive they are. They use big data analytics to measure collaborative performance before and after a company makes a major transition (for example, going from colocated to remote). We discuss where leadership is failing, the importance of social networks, and the value of searching for more information. For more stories, visit CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

We often talk about all the advantages video has for remote teams with respect to increasing engagement in meetings, creating camaraderie, building trust... I could go on and on. But in today's episode, I want to focus on some of the disadvantages of using video conferencing. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

The number one roadblock I heard time and again in my interviews when asked why companies were not going remote was shockingly swift and direct: Management! Managers simply fear the loss of control. They don't trust that people will work without oversight. In this episode, we explore the things that make for a good remote team manager. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

It's not uncommon for colleagues in an office to get together and work on a project. And remote teams can do this too! More and more online tools are being built specifically for simulating an office (co-working) environment: Google Hangouts, Zoom, Sococo, and PukkaTeam, just to name a few. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Nenad Maljkovic is a cultural creative, network entrepreneur, and permaculture advisor who work works with a global organization of remote volunteers. He also wrote the Virtual Team Quick Guide which outlines a series of principles for virtual working. We talk about what they struggle with and how they make remote working more comfortable for themselves. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

In the "Up and coming tools" series, I highlight a few tools that looked particularly interesting and great for the remote community. This week's episode features EverBlock Systems, BlueJeans video conferencing, Sococo virtual office, Kubi, and Lucid Meetings. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Diversity on any team increases innovation and helps solve more problems. On remote teams, we can take advantage of being location independent and hire diverse people from anywhere! For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Lily Snyder is the COO at Doghead Simulations, a company that is creating virtual reality software for remote teams. Their team works from the US, Brazil, and New Zealand, but they meet every day in virtual reality. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

We've reached Episode 15 0 on the Collaboration Superpowers podcast. In this episode, I highlight 5 of my favorite segments from the last 50 interviews. Join me on this epic journey through the history of the last year. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Erin Thomas-Wong is the CEO and Founder at Making Mumpreneurs, a company dedicated to empowering mums to build businesses through information, tips, and inspiration. After having her first son, Erin left a career in television production to focus more on her family. She is now the mum of two boys and loves the freedom that she has by working for herself and helping other mothers to start businesses that work around their family life. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

This podcast episode is dedicated to the ingredients and tips needed to build a successful online community. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Sharon Koifman is the Founder and CEO of DistantJob, a boutique recruitment agency specializing in remote employees. He shares why companies are choosing to outsource and why people want to work remotely. We also discuss management techniques, hiring strategies, and work-life fusion. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

There are a lot of tools for remote teams. In this new series of episodes, I highlight a few that looked particularly interesting and great. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

In many colocated offices, we have office managers. So it only makes sense that in a remote office, we would need a remote office manager. In this episode, I discuss what a remote office manager does and how it can help a remote team. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Sue Thomas is a writer on nature and technology. Her books include 'Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace (2013), Hello World: travels in virtuality (2004), and a travelogue/memoir of life online; the novels Correspondence (1992). She most recently wrote Nature and wellbeing in the digital age which focuses on practical activities to help you feel better without logging off. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

It can be hard to make fast decisions on remote teams. Outside of regular meetings, it can be hard to get everyone together to make decisions on the fly. Ralph van Roosmalen is experimenting with a way for remote teams to make decisions fast and with everyone's input. And on this podcast, I want to describe what he has created. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com

Elizabeth Weinstein is the Founder and Lead Attorney at EPW Small Business Law PC. She works with international clients who start their own businesses (often online). She helps entrepreneurs, artists, coaches, consultants, and online publishers get the legal stuff out of their way so they can get back to helping their clients and changing the world. Elizabeth practices law from her home office and actively encourages a remote working culture among her own staff. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

In a previous job, I helped organizations build private social networks for their members. I was often asked "How do I create a feeling of community online?" In this podcast episode, we explore the tips and techniques for developing a sense of togetherness even when we're far apart. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Emma Joy Obanye and Irene Frances built mindful.team to help teams measure happiness, boost productivity, reflect, and take action. In this interview we discuss how their tool can help remote teams. Their own team works from Belarus, London, and Barcelona and their tips for remote startups: build, measure, and test. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

A "communities of practice" is a group of people who share a craft or profession. It's a way to share experiences, learn and develop competence together as a collective. CoP's are not new, but advances in technology allow people to form them online. In this podcast, I will discuss the four ways I've seen remote teams form CoPs. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

What's special about Jerry Koch-Gonzalez's meetings is that they are sociocratic. How often have you been part of a call where one person in the group hardly had any chance to speak? Their ideas and experiences are lost for the group if we don't make sure everyone can speak. "No one ignored" is the essence of Sociocracy and it ensures both effectiveness and equivalence of voices in a meeting. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

We can really focus and get a lot done in our productive workspaces, but we have to be careful about not holing up for days and isolating ourselves from the outside world. We all have different needs when it comes to being social. Some people, like me, love working on our own. Others like the buzz of being around others in a coffee shop or coworking space. Regardless of our preferences, remote workers need to be actively focused on getting enough social activity. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Frank Cottle is the CEO of Alliance Virtual Offices and Chairman of the Alliance Business Centers Network. He is a recognized expert on flexible working, the virtual office movement, and 'third place' working. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Telepresence technology has two main challenges for global companies to consider. The first is the cost and time investment to implement. The equipment can be expensive and there must be a fast, stable internet connection for the quality to be sufficient. It also takes time to learn and adopt new etiquettes when working with virtual colleagues. The second challenge is the security risk of having a remote controlled robot roaming around your office or warehouse streaming information online. In this episode, we explore the downsides of using telepresence technology on remote teams. For more information visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Alexandra, Jonathan, and Michael curate 30-day coworking experiences around the world for digital marketers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and people going through life transitions who want to experience location independence. Unsettled wants to encourage people to live outside of their routine as a way to build a fulfilling lifestyle. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Feedback is a critical component for continuous improvement on any team. But for remote teams, creating regular feedback loops is critical. In this Superpower Hour, we revisit 5 interviews for great advice for giving feedback on virtual teams. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Andy Willis is a Facilitator, Mentor, Speaker and Director of Working From Anywhere. His company helps small business operators, managers and other employees to fit "work around their life" rather than "life around their work". Andy spends several months every year cycling and hiking in the French Alps, and the rest of the year enjoying the beautiful coastal town of Tathra in NSW, Australia. He lives by the mantra "Carpe Diem", seizing every moment of every day. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

What does it mean to be a Remote First company? If you were going to go into somebody's workplace and they were a Remote First company, what would be different about their office? This episode will highlight the things you would find. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Rohan Smith is a Jamaican born software developer living in Trinidad & Tobago. He is an entrepreneur at heart and founder of the Remote Software Developer Community where he helps software developers make the transition to remote work. He is a remote software developer at Bluespark, a distributed web development company, where he works on interesting and innovative projects using Drupal and open source software. He is a remote work enthusiast and he's always ready to advocate its benefits. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

As knowledge workers, we do a lot of sitting. Remote workers have an advantage over our colocated colleagues. We have the freedom to create our own routines and to work where we are most productive. In this episode, we explore how we can build mobility into our days. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Nick Jaworski transitioned from being a music teacher to being a business owner through the use of online platforms like Upwork. His modus operandi? Building authentic relationships with his clients. He believes that it's the human touch that allows for such a great remote connection. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Being in the same room together is powerful because of all the sensory input that we have. We can see when someone is tired. We can sense when someone is frustrated. We can give high fives. All of these things create a sense of team. When we go remote, we lose some of that physical and visual input. Building community through our screens is harder than doing it face to face, but that doesn't mean it has to be worse.In this SuperPower Hour, I highlight snippets from various interviews about how to create camaraderie on your remote team. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Jeff has been a trainer for almost a decade, working with over 700 people. His degree is in pre-med/pre-pharm and he is dual certified in exercise science and sports medicine. He focuses his talents to online entrepreneurs looking to stay healthy and maximize their business. He says "Your health is your absolute wealth, so my clients feel better every day and their businesses grow because of it". For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

What's the digital version of "management by walking around"? Management by working out loud! It's a way of having continuous communication, fostering camaraderie, and inspiring water cooler chats on remote teams. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Originally from California and now living in Hungary, Brandon Brown describes himself as the Swiss Army Knife of virtual assistants. Brandon finds interesting work from clients all over the world using UpWork. We talk about building trust with new virtual clients, productivity tips for staying motivated and social, and how to get started working online. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

We each have different needs when it comes to productivity. Some prefer a quiet space on their own, while others thrive with people around. Some like going to the office, while others prefer to work on the road. Whether you work from home, a cafe, or a co-working hub, what's most important is that you're able to get work done. In this SuperPower Hour, I highlight a variety of different virtual offices. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Holidays are a great way of learning about the different cultures on your global remote team. And parties are an important part of the ritual. How do we throw virtual holiday parties for remote teams? For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

David Mansilla is the CEO of ISU Corp, a 100% remote software development company headquartered in Canada. We talk about how his colleagues stay visible to each other and to the clients, how to hire rock stars, and how he builds trust. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Many of us have to travel for our jobs. This episode is dedicated to things to consider when working on the road. How do we create the best virtual office while on the go? For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

In order to produce high quality results, we can't work 24/7. We have to not only take care of our clients, but we also have to take care of ourselves. And that means setting our own boundaries. This week's episode is the first of the Collaboration SuperPower Hours where I take snippets of past interviews about one topic. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

There are a lot of managers who are not comfortable letting their employees work from home. But more and more employees want a flexible work schedule. This episode is dedicated to helping you show your boss the benefits of working from anywhere and going "Remote First"! For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Clare McNamara is the Co-founder of Global Team Coaches, a company that helps global teams develop working relationships that deliver results. We discuss the importance of giving teams the space and time to get to know each other, evaluate themselves, and develop their own culture. We also dive into how women can become great leaders in the digital workplace. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

The world is not divided into 24 equal time zones like you'd think it would be. There are weird zigs and zags all over the place because of politics and geography. And then there's daylight savings - which changes at different times - or not at all - depending on where you on in the world. At one point or another, you will schedule a meeting with someone and get it wrong because of time zone confusion. In this episode, we explore tips for making time zones more manageable. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Corey Grusden is the CTO of SoFetch.io, a company that designed and built a Slack plugin for stand up meetings called Standup Bot. We talk – from the train – about what it takes to work remotely, advice for those just starting out, and the importance of having a solid, well-rounded plan. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Many people want to work remotely but don't know where to start. In this episode, we talk about the tips and resources for finding a remote job. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Mariana Rego is a Co-Founder of Leadwise, a new initiative from Ricardo Semler, which helps modernize management practices at companies across the world. We talk about how they run their team of all-remote employees. Specifically, how they know what each other are doing, how they build trust, design thinking, and how they are reengineering corporate leadership. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Onboarding someone onto a remote team is similar to onboarding someone onto a co-located team. A successful onboarding process gets a new colleague integrated into the team and contributing to the project in as little time as possible. In this episode, we talk about what makes a successful onboarding plan for virtual teams. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Patrick Linton is the Co-founder and CEO at Bolton Remote, a company that outsources talent in the Philippines. We discuss why companies are outsourcing, what they struggle with, how to work with time zones, management, and how to be "remote ready". For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

All teams hire new people, and transition when someone leaves. Is there anything special we should be doing on a remote team when someone leaves the team? In this episode, I highlight the farewell process that the remote Happy Melly team uses. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.