WLP76 Reflections on the E-Resilience Conference

On 21 April, Pilar attended the E-Resilience Conference, organised by the Switched On Culture Research Group. In this podcast, she shares her thoughts. 55:59mins

Short introduction, with reference to:

RSA Fellow's Reinventing Work Network 24 May London: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rsa-fellows-reinventing-work-network-the-metrics-of-reinventing-work-tickets-24564810008?aff=eac2

Link to the blog post on how moving to virtual can change our identity: http://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/virtual-challenges-identity/

If you're looking for the link to the Virtual not Distant ® 7 part email series, here it is: http://eepurl.com/bViJ85

Thank you to the organisers of the conference:
Dr Christine Grant,Dr Almuth McDowall,Professor Gail Kinman,Dr Cristina Quiñones-García and thank you to Anna Meller for letting me know about it! Find out more: https://alwaysonculture.wordpress.com/

07:20 mins Some of the things that Pilar found most "interesting":

David D’Souza, Head of CIPD London. 
"The Future of Work."

David talked about many things, including the question of why people, instead of growing at work, are becoming lesser beings than they are at home?
Are we discriminating when we introduce "remote"?

The question of ethics:

"Just because we can, doesn't mean we should"

Jean François Stitch, PhD Student at Lancaster University. 
"Virtual Interactions at Work, Wellbeing and Performance: The Importance of 'Person-Environment Fit’".

The Person-Environment Fit with relation to email overload.
Whether you feel overloaded by email or not really depends on how you view email overload. Interesting, eh?

Dr Richard A. MacKinnon, Insight Director, The Future Work Centre.
"Technology at Work: A Systems Perspective."

Understanding your own preference is key:

"General advice about the use of tech is pointless."

Alison Maitland, author of Future Work.
"Leadership and Self-Leadership in the Digital Age."

"The industrial age work model remains intact..."
"Future work is a place where flexibility is the norm and not the exception and where autonomy replaces permission."

Does it matter if our work eats into our personal life, if we don't experience work-life conflict?
Advice to those leading virtual teams or teams with mobile working:

Be open to change yourselves.
Let go of control.
Coach and support, rather than micromanage.
Focus on relationships, not just tasks.
Carve out time for individuals.
Use the time in the workplace to build relationships.
Work in different places to gain different perspectives.
Take responsibility for each other's wellbeing.

Find time away from your team members! (That's Pilar's advice...)

Dr Emma Russell, Kingston Business School.
"Individual Differences in Dealing with Email at Work."

Should countries bring in legislation to reduce email?
How people under the different Big Five personalities react to checking email?

The importance of self-awareness.

"We should be given control about how to deal with our in-coming email because on size does not fit all."