Your website has loads of content, where do I start?

Start with the question that brought you here, and use the search box on our home page to drill down through our podcasts and blog articles. Follow a path that interests you, and you’ll find many of the different articles and show notes documents cross-reference each other, to help you build your base of knowledge in a particular topic, and if you’re not sure what you need then here are some suggestions:

• Need help to manage a team that is suddenly a remote team? Check out the Management Café.
• Tired of meetings and want to adopt more asynchronous communication in your team? Check out our blog post and podcast episodes on Visible Teamwork here, here, and here.
• Explore the bigger picture, and how remote work is driving socioeconomic change in the world.
• Bust a few myths and cliches about remote work, with this reality check.

If you want to dig deeper or keep your own reference to hand, we recommend our books, Leading through Visible Teamwork: Adopting Asynchronous Communication in Your Remote Team and Thinking Remote: Inspiration for Leaders of Distributed Teams.

And if there’s something you’re not clear about, just ask us - send us a question here.

The terminology associated with remote work can be confusing - what is the difference between remote work and office-optional work and everything else?

While not everyone uses the same words for the same things, at Virtual Not Distant we adopt and recommend the following broad definitions:

• Office-optional - our preferred term to embrace the idea of work which can be done from anywhere, and the office becomes just another tool to help you work better or collaborate with team members
• Working from home - wfh - or home-based working: when your main centre of operations is your home, whether that’s a permanent office or desk, or you work in a mobile way with your base being at home
• Smart or agile working - terms used within some industries to encompass home-based working or office-optional working, often with some flexibility too, driven by the ideas of being efficient and pragmatic for best results (not to be confused with Agile software development frameworks).
• Flexible working - while this can include flexibility about location, this phrase more often includes flexibility about how and when work is delivered, for example working something different to the traditional ‘9 to 5’ day, working part-time, job sharing etc.

What is a remote-first workplace?

There is a world of difference between tolerating and accommodating remote working, and truly transitioning in approach to really benefit from all that working remotely has to offer.

In a remote-first workplace it is quite possible for some people to be working in a colocated office, for some or all of the time. But they will be doing so in a way which prioritises the digital workplace and visible teamwork, making the work and communication transparent and accessible regardless of location. Visible teamwork means that the work itself is available to be seen whenever and by whomever that is needed, without having to interrupt anyone doing it.

As soon as one person in a team is working remotely, it makes sense to adopt a remote-first outlook and approach - but often this doesn’t happen as fast as it should, leaving the remote team members isolated or less integrated as a result.

What is the digital workplace?

In a traditional work set-up, your workplace is the office where you go to interact with your colleagues and get your work done.

In remote work, your online or digital workplace becomes your “home” and hub of operations. How it looks and feels will depend very much on what your work involves and what your team does, but it’s likely to include both synchronous and asynchronous communication, places to have meetings, to share files and other assets, to communicate with the outside world, and perhaps some way to manage tasks and projects collectively.

Sometimes the digital workplace evolves organically with bits added together in response to need, but we’d suggest that planning and designing it consciously will usually lead to a better outcome.

What is Visible Teamwork?

Visible teamwork is a framework we have created at Virtual Not Distant to illustrate the components of a successful remote-first approach.

Visible teamwork consists of:

Deliberate Communication - This is how you share information about your activities, mood, context, availability, everything that you experience as a person that affects how you work day to day.

Work Visibility - This is about having conversations in the open, making your workflow visible and accessible to those who may need it, and the tools you use within your digital workplace to provide relevant information about who is doing what, when and how

Planned Spontaneity - This is what adds the personal touch to teamwork, communicating that you're ok with being interrupted, organising time for interactions which are not just about the work, and having an ecosystem that allows you to “bump into each other" online as you're carrying out the work.

If you would like to know more about Visible Teamwork, you can download our free guide here.

What is different about managing and leading remote teams?

Many executives have attained senior career progression responsible for large numbers of other people, without ever having to manage them at a distance.

Successfully leading remote teams requires new combinations of skills and approaches, which require the adoption of a coaching mindset to help people develop resilience and problem solving skills of their own.

It means being able to set up the right combination of tools and systems to measure what matters, and being able to develop trust and assurance in your colleagues to deliver on what they are accountable for, without your being physically there to look over their shoulder or even look them in the eye (other than through a screen).

At Virtual not Distant, we train and coach remote leaders at all levels to establish the competencies and confidence needed not only to supervise and manage at a distance, but also to lead and inspire.

What technology and tools do I need to do remote work?

That depends! As it’s not about the tech...

How do you run your workshops, is it online or in person?

The answer to this question is - that depends. We do both. You can find more information on our workshops here.

I’m an individual, can I work with you?

While we have a focus on teams, everyone can benefit from better understanding the principles and ideas we offer through Virtual Not Distant, and we offer one-to-one coaching and support to leaders of teams of any size. Coaching is a great investment in your personal and professional development at any stage in your career, and if you see leading remote teams as an important part of your present or future role, this is a great way to work with us individually.

Of course, a lot of our free content is there to learn through on your own too, such as our articles, our podcasts and our monthly newsletter. And our books, which are available here in a range of different formats, including audio.

You can also ask a question through Twitter or LinkedIn or via our contact form, and we may even answer it on the podcast…

Even when you’re working on your own or finding the journey to remote a lonely one where you are, at Virtual not Distant you’re part of a wider community of location-independent advocates who are here to support you.

Are you on social media?

Oh, yes! We are most active on Twitter and LinkedIn and love to interact there. Some of our threads end up in our What’s Going On podcast episodes.