The Collaboration Superpowers Podcast

Spencer Coon is the COO and CoFounder of Hibox, a tool that offers group chat, task management, and video calls all in one! In this interview we talk about hiring remote employees, dealing with time zones, being always on, tools, and IT security. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

We all know that taking regular vacations is healthy. But I don't think we always recognize that a digital vacation is something different - and we need those too. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Beata Green is the Strategic Director of HeadChannel, a company with teams in London and Poland. We discuss hiring remote employees, being productive, women in IT, and focusing on building what the client wants. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Co-located teams get continuous feedback simply because they are together a lot. Virtual teams need continuous feedback too. Whatever system you choose to try will be better than having no system at all. Just start and improve all the time. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Bjoern Zinssmeister recently co-founded the startup, DesignInc, which began as a remote company, and is now mostly co-located. We talk about why being colocated during certain company phases is beneficial, how to hire remote rockstars, and productivity tips for all teams. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

In the office, we gather for birthday parties, lunch, drinks after work, and company outings. But remote workers don't have that luxury. How do we celebrate together as a virtual team? For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Charlie Birch is the Co-Founder at Rebel + Connect, a company that designs custom retreats for remote teams. Remote workers can suffer from loneliness, burnout and being too sedentary. We discuss how businesses can use retreats as a playful, strategic way to build the team and create a healthy company culture. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Technologies have developed a lot over the last 20 years. From online project management tools to instant messaging systems and everything inbetween, there are literally hundreds of tools to choose from. In this episode, I give some of my favorite tips for managing technology on virtual teams. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Kirsty Thompson works with Coworkation.com. They host retreats in beautiful locations and teach how to live a location independent lifestyle. Think of it like an incubator for digital nomad businesses. We discuss how to prepare to go remote and what it takes to have a successful location independent lifestyle. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

We've reached Episode 100 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.

Michael Sliwinski is the founder of Nozbe, an online task management tool. He's also a speaker, author of the book #iPadOnly, chief editor of Productive! Magazine, and a triathlete. In other words, a real life superstar! We have an action packed discussion about getting things done, trust, productivity, remote working, banning emails, gadgets, and results oriented working. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

When we work remotely, our performance is based more on the results we produce rather than the time spent producing it. How can we be productive remotely? In this episode, I share my favorite productivity tips. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Many people are trying to downsize their lives and minimize their possessions. But for remote workers, a tiny house is a fantastic alternative to a home office. I speak with Reinoud Boland about building tiny houses in The Netherlands. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

We all have different needs when it comes to productivity and being social. Some people, like me, love working alone. But many remote workers struggle with loneliness and isolation. Depending on your situation and your personality, you'll need to customize a solution that works for you. I've interviewed over 50 people who work remotely and wanted to share some of their tips for how you can combat the loneliness of working alone and build connection into your day. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Peter Wilson is the managing director of KIStaffing, a company that connects Australian businesses with talent in the Philippines. We discuss why the Phillippines and Australia are so compatible and what the hiring and onboarding process looks like for an offshore team. Peter also shares some great advice for companies who are just starting their journey with hiring offshore staff. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

In this episode, we talk about what challenges people and companies face when they make the decision to go remote. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Dave Hecker is a seasoned tech executive, speaker, and author with an exclusive focus on distributed team software delivery. His company, SourceSeek, matches software projects with development teams globally. We discuss why companies are outsourcing, how to manage client and team expectations, culture, and the importance of face-to-face time. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Remote workers are a misunderstood bunch. Today, we take a look at the top three misconceptions that people have concerning working from home and then we uncover the truth. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Leslie Truex has been sharing work-at-home information and resources since 1998 through her website, WorkAtHomeSuccess.com. She is the author of several books about how to be successful working at home and has great tips to share for how to approach your manager about flexible working. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

I'd like to share with you some of the most common reasons I've heard for why people and companies are making the decision for going remote. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Fernando Garrido Vaz is a freelance Product Manager with experience managing distributed teams, multiple nationalities, and different time zones. Living abroad as a teenager helped form his empathy for working with other cultures and he has used this empathy in his work ever since. Garrido advises freelancers to dedicate time to work on their online brand and focus on doing great work. Referrals are gold in the freelance economy. "You don't need a large audience, you need the right audience." For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

How do we deal with culture on virtual teams. In this episode I dive into different ways of understanding each other no matter what country we're from. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Johanna Rothman is a management consultant for software managers and leaders. She is also the author of many books. She started working with geographically distributed teams in 1988. The breadth of communication tools was very limited in that time, so resolving conflicts had to be done mainly through coming to an understanding through conversations and trying to see each other points of view.Geographically distributed teams were originally set up for saving money. And the teams were usually set up from West to East meaning the testers were East, and the developers were West, which is the wrong way for "follow the sun", especially if you are doing product development. It's not about the money you save, it's about the speed of the throughput of the features. Teams are now experimenting with organizing themselves more from North to South which gives more opportunities for collaborative team building. For more stories, visit CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Inspired by something Tim Ferriss did on his podcast, this episode focuses on distilling remote work down to its essentials. I went through a huge list of ideas and came up with what I think are the essential things that make remote work... or not. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Jessie Shternshus is the Founder at Improv Effect and the Co-author of “CTRL Shift – 50 Games For 50 ****ing Days Like Today”. She uses improv to help software teams with onboarding, communication, team building, and more.Improv is a great tool for learning about and accepting each other’s uniqueness, thinking on the spot, and being self aware. It’s useful for finding similarities amongst team members, creative problem solving, understanding other peoples ideas and stories, and improving presentation skills. Improv ends up being a fun and powerful way to help teams practice interpersonal communication. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

In the past, we had to go to a specific geographic place in order to access the information we needed for our work. Now, that information is likely accessible from anywhere. And this gives us the opportunity to play with new ways of working and new business models. We’re at a point in history where work and life are blurring. I want to share some stories with you. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

rLoop started when someone on reddit posted in the SpaceX forum "Let's work on a submission for the Hyperloop design competition". One year later, they are a team of 400 volunteers, entirely distributed around the globe. From a pool of 1800 competitors, they've made it to a final group of 30. Talk about remote teams doing great things! Here is a prime example of what a passionate group of distributed people can do. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Saxonia Systmes has teams in different cities in Germany, with the main headquarters being in Dresden. The eteoBoard was initially built by their own developers because they were looking for a way to improve their daily stand ups between intercity teams. eteoBoards has helped the team get to know each other better, build trust, and stay on the same page. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Trust comes up in every single interview that I do. Along with communication, lack of trust seems to be one of the top reasons that remote teams don’t work. In this episode I consolidate great trust building tips from the experts I've interviewed. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Jesse Fewell is a writer, coach, and trainer in innovation and agile methods. He founded the PMI Agile Community of Practice, co-created the PMI ACP Agile certification, and wrote a MiniBük called “Can you hear me now? ...Working with global, distributed, virtual teams”. Agile is about compressing distance. In the past, the best way to do that was by being co-located. But that was then and this is now and companies are struggling to let go of old habits. Technology has advanced, prices have dropped, and it’s starting to make more sense to spend money on bandwidth instead of travel. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

To combat the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality, remote teams need to work harder to increase that sense of team and improve communication. In this episode I give some great tips for team building. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Ade Olonoh is the Co-Founder of www.Jell.com (a product of Formstack). We discuss why and how his company transitioned from co-located to remote, the tools they use, and how they connect their daily tasks with the company’s long term goals. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

One of the most common questions from managers of remote teams is "How do we know what our remote teams are doing?". In this episode, we explore the key ingredients for aligning ourselves on our remote teams. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Christian Kreutz is an author, speaker, strategic advisor and expert in open and social innovation. He is the Director of Crisscrossed, the makers of WE THINQ, social software for change makers. We talk about how to hire remote workers, how to create horizontal organizations with less managers, working with time zones, trust, and the value of minimizing your tools. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Remote working is awesome, but it does have its virtual vulnerabilities. Recognize what those are for you and plan for when disaster strikes. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Dave Blum runs Dr. Clue Treasure Hunts, a teambuilding experience. We have a great conversation about collaborative teamwork, the building blocks of trust, awesome virtual icebreakers, travel tips, company culture, and more. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Creating a thriving virtual office is more than just having a place to share files and calendars. It's about how we simulate the experience we have working in the office together, online. How do we make online communication lightweight, real-time, and easy? How do we know what each other are doing? For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Andrea Zabala is an Information Systems Engineer from Argentina focused on business development and offshore projects. She went freelance after years of working at big companies. We discuss the challenges of being "always on", how to develop trust with new clients, how to deal with cultural differences, and how to maximize your time working remotely and co-located. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

From differences in opinion to flat out misunderstandings, conflicts with our virtual teams are inevitable. Differences in language, culture, and working styles can cause all kinds of issues. So what can we do to prevent and resolve these conflicts when they arise? For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Egor Sviridenko is the Managing Director for Targetprocess Germany, a tool that virtually visualizes and manages work. We discuss how Targetprocess works with teams in Minsk, Buffalo, London, Berlin, and Toronto. We also talk about how creating space for unpredictability can help grow and bind a team. Know your people, use the right tools, and go for quality. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

When part of a team is co-located, and part of the team remote, we often struggle with how to keep our remote colleagues in the loop and connected. Today, I highlight my favorite tips for connecting hybrid-remote teams. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Colleen Johnson is the Co-Founder of ScatterSpoke, a tool for conducting remote team Agile retrospectives. We discuss how ScatterSpoke helps remote teams stay connected through giving feedback, why minimizing multi-tasking and setting clear expectations are important, and why the future of Agile is in staying collaborative no matter where your team members are. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Online meetings have a bad reputation for being full of technical problems, strong personalities, going in too many directions and having unengaged participants. In this episode, I give my favorite tips for hosting great online meetings. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Stephan Dohrn is a Managing Partner at Radical Inclusion, a company specialized in new ways of working and helping teams work better together remotely. We discuss the importance of connecting meaningfully, having an experimental mindset, and what the defining qualities are of a good remote leader. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

I recently gave a workshop in Lebanon via the Kubi, and in Palo Alto, California via the Beam Pro. In this episode, I talk about what I learned giving workshops via the robots. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

ScrumDo is a tool that supports online Scrum and Scrumban, a combination of Agile and Lean Kanban on top of Scrum. I speak with Co Founder, Marc Hughes, about how his company uses ScrumDo to build ScrumDo! We discuss the benefits of having a flexible organization that can shrink and expand according to the available work, staying aligned with colleagues from all over the world, and why it’s so important to keep teams small and hire only the best. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Online meetings seem to be online hell for most people. But technology has come a long way in the last few years and there are a number of things we can do to improve our online meetings. Lets stop wasting time and do it! For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Carrie McKeegan is the Director of Greenback Expat Tax Services, a global, virtual business that prepares US federal tax returns for American Expats living all over the world. We discuss how they work remotely with accountants all over the world, how they communicate to keep everyone on the same page, and why they focus on hiring only the absolute best people. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

How do we hire great remote workers? What are the personality traits and skills we should be looking for when we're building our remote teams. I've collected some great tips from all the interviews, and present them to you in today's podcast. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.

Sococo is a virtual office where you can see where all your remote colleagues are on a virtual office floor plan. Go to an office to have a group discussion (with video and screensharing), stand by the virtual water cooler, or focus on your work in the Do Not Disturb Room. We discuss the benefits and downsides of working in a virtual office and how this way of working can create a strong sense of community and connection with remote colleagues. For more stories, visit www.CollaborationSuperpowers.com.