Remote Working - Special Edition

Still struggling with remote working? If not, but you know someone who is, please share.

Join this special edition of Get Amplified with guest Adam Harding, Chief Technologist for Workspace at Softcat. Sharing our joint experiences of remote working that span over 50 years we hope we can help as we discuss;

• Best practices of remote working
• How best to deal with the tech
• And how to act as a leader

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Transcript

Speaker 3 0:10

Welcome to a special edition of Get Amplified, the podcast for tech industry leaders and aspiring leaders, covering topics from keeping up with the pace of change, staying fulfilled in your role, and looking out for the well-being of your team and yourself. This is brought to you by the Amplified Group. As always, we're virtual, as is pretty much everybody across the UK and probably wider than that. I'm as usual at home in Bucks. Vicky's in deepest darkest Oxfordshire, Sia's over in the Netherlands. We have a special guest joining us from also somewhere in Oxfordshire, I think, Adam. Is that right?

Speaker 1 0:43

Yeah, close enough, just outside Oxfordshire, hidden in my little cottage. Yeah.

Speaker 3 0:48

Excellent. Good stuff. So yeah, as I mentioned, this is a uh a special edition today, um, brought to you by the current uh pandemic situation around the world. And uh Sia, would you like to just say a little bit about this episode and why we've decided to do something just a little bit different today?

Sia 1:04

Yeah, I think Sam, we we talked about it as a little amplified team and thought whether we would do this episode or not. But you know, in everything we do right now, we're just trying to help and we're hoping that what we do will help and and add value. And I think, you know, for us um and a lot of people in the tech industry, it's the norm to work from home. It's it's the norm to be remote. Uh, but some people are really struggling, and um, they just don't understand how they can make this their norm. So we thought this topic would be of huge value to some people who are struggling in lots of ways.

Speaker 3 1:45

Brilliant, thank you for that. Um, so I'm absolutely delighted it's my turn to introduce a special guest today. So uh mentioned Adam earlier. Um, Adam and I worked together for something like 17 years, even though he doesn't look much older than 21 still. Um you are my father. Well, in in soft in soft terms, I suppose I can have Adams. So um yeah, Adam and I have worked together for a very long time. Um, you are currently chief technologists for are we calling it digital workspace or modern workplace or something like that? What's the current vogue terminology?

Speaker 1 2:21

Uh well I've gone with workspace because then that just simplifies it down. But yeah, I mean it's it's gone through um uh end user computing, it's gone through digital workspace, it's gone through mobility, it's gone through all kinds of words that essentially mean trying to help uh people people work. Yeah, not not necessarily work from home, but just work. Yeah, yeah, just just work really. Obviously, with the current situation, remote working has come into sharper focus than it has been for a very long time. Um, and the last little while has seen uh myself and the and the troops mobilized to to try and help out however we can across the public sector, across the private sector, uh to keep things as normal as we can do um for the people that are out there. Brilliant. That's really good.

Vic 3:10

You know, remote working is not a new thing. I was trying to work out, and I think it was 96 when I was first demonstrating Winframe as a remote access product and getting people to unplug their fax machine so that they could demonstrate a performance of remote access down a 28-8 motor line.

Speaker 3 3:35

Wow, that's amazing. That's cool.

Vic 3:37

So it's it's not a new thing, is it? But my goodness, where would we be without it now?

Speaker 3 3:43

I mean, we we'd be in a right old mess if it weren't weren't for uh remote working right now, I suppose, in these interesting and crazy times. And you know, it's actually great to have Vicky and Sharp both on this conversation, of course, but both having worked for Citrix and both having worked for VMware and been in and around that kind of remote working and having access to that sort of technology and been in roles that have involved remote working, distance managing, and that sort of thing. So we're really pleased to be able to share some of our mutual experiences about that. So, Charlotte, let's start with you, I guess, and maybe you could tell us about your experience of working remotely and probably really importantly managing teams remotely, if that's okay.

Sia 4:29

Yeah, sure. So, really the the turning point for me was that I was moving from the UK to the Netherlands and I needed to demonstrate to my management that that wouldn't be a problem because I wanted to keep my job basically. Um, but the office near yeah, but the office near where I live was um, you know, the distance just didn't make sense. So this was probably 20 years ago that everybody agreed I was going to be one of the first people in that team, as a senior leader of teams, to work from home. And at first it was all great, my manager said we're gonna do it, and then we had a new VP come in, um, and he said, nope, don't want to do that, don't think it's good, sets of precedence. Anyway, I was lucky to have the trust of my management team that said, no, this is going to work and we're gonna make it work. And I moved over to the Netherlands in 2001 then, and uh I had a team in Milton Keynes, I had a team uh in Switzerland, and I also had some other teams around Europe. And I just had to really think about how that was um that was gonna work for me and work for them. So, you know, I had to knuckle down and think about over-communication. But uh so it's been a very long time since I've worked from home. So for me, it is very normal. So when I'm hearing now some tales of people struggling working from home, I felt as though I was pretty much um talking well-qualified to be able to do this.

Speaker 3 6:04

Exactly. So, what what what are the struggles that you hear that people are having?

Sia 6:08

Well, I'll give you a very simple example. I have a neighbour who has a really senior position and she is used to working at the office, and all of a sudden she's working from home. She has a small laptop, she doesn't know where to sit in her house, she's uncomfortable sitting where she's sitting, and she just didn't have the infrastructure. So without thinking about her environment first and getting that infrastructure right, she really struggled to work on a small screen. So we we went over there, we set her up with a big monitor, we set her up in a different place in the house, we gave her a you know a remote um mouse, and and she sent me a message the next day and said, It's a completely different experience for me, thank you. I was really, really struggling and thought, I can't do this, I can't do this. And she was starting to get really anxious as well. So um that's just one of the examples I've used.

Speaker 3 7:00

Thinking about the environment and making it as conducive as possible to comfortable and productive homeworking.

Sia 7:07

Yeah, and I actually wrote an article following uh a post that I did recently, which had the most amazing response I've ever had to any post I've done. And the article really set out three different things that I think are really, really important. So I want to just share those three things. One of which is is trust. So it's about your manager trusting you to work from home and you trusting yourself to just get the job done. You have to have that open conversation, you know. I am not going to be on back-to-back Zoom calls all day because that's not going to be productive. But trust me to do my job. So it's very much at first, even before all of this happened, you know, if anybody's thinking about working from home, they have to have trust as the foundation.

Speaker 3 7:56

It's almost more about managing by results or by output than managing by input. You know, nobody actually minds if you if you're there precisely from 7.59 until 5.01 p.m.

Sia 8:09

No, totally. And right now you absolutely can't be, right?

Speaker 3 8:12

No, not not with kids and things as well.

Sia 8:15

No, exactly. And Vicky'll explain that. I don't have small children, I have one very large child who's 20 who's 24, and I hope he he looks after himself. But absolutely, you know, it's it's it's about getting that environment right. Talk of environment, I think uh this is probably the most important thing to me is making sure that you have what I call an office environment. Now, we don't all have the privilege of having a dedicated office, right? At the moment, you might be sharing your space with a lot of people, but you have to find yourself a space that you call office, and it might be a corner of a bedroom where you tell everybody in the house this is where I'm going to be working. I might be working here for one hour or two hours of a day before I take a break and give you my time. But right now I am working. One of the places that I want everybody to think about avoiding is the kitchen. Because the kitchen is where most of the traffic happens in the house, and you cannot stop your children going to the kitchen for a drink or walking past to go out the back door, whatever it is. So if if you if one tip I can give you, that's a one place to avoid and having that environment where you can say this is where I work, equally it's important that you can also say this is where I'm not working. So at the end of the day, you can decompress, you put that laptop down, and you say, I'm no longer working, and you walk away from that space. Um, and that's somebody something that I think a lot of people forget. You know, at the moment, people have maybe been used to getting in their car and leaving the office, and they feel like that's your separation, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Separation is a really good way of describing it. You know, you have to separate yourself from the other people in the house just for the time you've decided to work, but it needs to feel like it's an office environment. You've got your notepad there, you've got your all of your equipment there, but equally you need to put that away. The final thing that I wanted to say is, you know, it's also about headspace, right? So you need to structure the way you work from home. And I mentioned earlier about doing back-to-back Zoom calls, and I think a lot of people are struggling with that right now because they they feel as though they've got to be seen to be working and they've got to be on the webcam.

Speaker 3 10:41

Um that pr pres presenteism, you know, where where you you have to show up in the office just doing it virtually.

Sia 10:49

Yeah, absolutely. And and you you don't have to have back-to-back course, you've got to give yourself headspace, you've got to be able to say, I'm gonna walk the dog, or I'm gonna just listen to music, or because if you were in the office, you'd be chatting to somebody about some inane thing that you decided you wanted to chat about, but you're not doing back-to-back to back. Is that it's just unhealthy.

Vic 11:11

And actually, sorry, Shaw, I was just gonna say, I actually saw somebody had done a post on LinkedIn saying, Can somebody give me some advice? I am back to back on Zoom and I feel like I'm already going crazy.

Sia 11:27

Well, that's the advice. Actually, block in your calendar, your time out, and people will start to recognize that that's the time that you're not actually because if you're on back-to-back calls like you're on back to back meetings, how can you possibly do any work? So you're not you're just not being productive, full stop. So you have to be able to build that in. And I I do a lot of coaching and mentoring, and I actually ask people to map out their whole day for me and tell me how you structure your day, and I can guarantee that they have not put any time in their headspace.

Speaker 1 12:02

Yeah. Yeah. I I was just gonna I was just gonna echo some of the sentiments. I think that um, broadly speaking, with the last couple of weeks have proved is that the barriers to remote working uh have been toppled by the technology. That's not really the problem. I can get you access to devices, to applications, to data, I can do it securely, I can bring people together, whether it via a good old-fashioned telephone call or via a Zoom call or a Teams call or whatever, you know, the technology's there. You know, the remote working itself isn't the issue, it's more how do we manage and work with remote employees? You know, how do we stop managing remote workers as if they were on site? You know, little things that are really significant, like um the bump. You know, if you're if you if you're running remote teams, then it's important to appreciate the simple fact that people are not going to bump into each other daily, you know, in real terms, that effortless, informal intermingling is the breeding ground where we get our ideas from, you know, we socialise updates, we foster some kind of community, and we support each other, those types of things. All that disappears when you all overnight you've distributed and dispersed all of your workers to the far-flung corners of the galaxy. So I really think that it is that the last week and the week before was how do I physically turn all the systems on for the next maybe months? It's gonna be how do I recreate that bump? How do I stop, uh avoid overloading people with too many emails and too much chat by the priority of communications, you know? In my view, it should be video, audio, chat, and email in that order. You know, if we can when we're talking to people, to try and make the world a little smaller, to make people people feel less isolated, more inclusive. You know, do a video chat if you can. Um, if you can't, then have an audio call. If you can't, then have a live chat. And if you really have to, then pull back to email. Because I think in this distributed world, we need to go for the richer, more immediate forms of communication, uh, rather than the operators at the end of the scale, which is where email.

Speaker 3 14:07

Makes a lot of sense. It always used to wind me up when people start to use email as if it's an instant message form of communication.

Sia 14:14

You're totally right, because you know, I was I was going to come on to the structure piece, but it it lends itself very much to what you've just said. You know, you you do need to build in a structure of how you think you're best going to work. We all have different personality types, and and I think Vicky will talk about that later, but that is actually very poignant right now because my way of communicating is very much like I would put together a team meeting and go in and start talking about the points that we needed to get across for that project. But that's not necessarily the right way for the rest of the team. And now, more than ever, we have to think about having that space for chat, just chat. How are you doing? Are things okay? But definitely structure the way that you build your day. Am I going to have a team meeting in the morning that's going to result in an hour off to do the actual work I need to do? That then gets me ready and prepared to work with the US in the afternoon or the evening. And that's all about putting together that structure and having a self-motivation and a rhythm. Right now, you're still in that shock mode of how on earth am I going to make this work from a technology point of view, from a home environment point of view, making sure I communicate with my team point of view and as well as keeping myself healthy, yeah. And all of those things come to finding your rhythm. And if we can all find our rhythm of working from home and actually keeping the kids and the family involved in that rhythm, communicate it with them. This is how I'm going to be working going forward. This is what I'm going to be doing, and you need to understand that, and then you know, we need to have a conversation as a family, because this is going to be for a while, as you say, Adam. So uh, yeah, it all it all links in into finding your rhythm and making sure that you've got that trust, you've got your environment set up, and you've got your structure and you're motivated to to to work from home.

Vic 16:19

Just a point to add, and you and I have talked about this. We can't work in the way that we were doing two weeks ago. And you know, we've we've worked virtually for quite a few years now since we set up the Amplified Group. You know, you're in the Netherlands, I'm in the UK. We have worked virtually, but you know, we're doing homeschooling in the morning now and setting out that time and making sure that people are not too hard on themselves, I think. I think that's really important at the minute.

Speaker 3 16:45

Yeah, we used to talk a lot about um work-life balance. I think it was probably six citrix terminology when they started to talk about work-life splicing rather than balance, where you'd sort of, you know, you it was important actually to dip in and out of both during the day, because sometimes you had to do something to support your kids or run an errand for your nan or something like that. And actually that that's kind of okay. In fact, right at the minute, that's priority one. You know, unless unless you're working for the NHS or the police or the government or something like that, right now, actually, that human connection, that thing that you can do to go and get some eggs for your elderly neighbor, or you know, phone the lady down the road who can't get out of the house. Well, we all can't get out of the house in a minute, but you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 17:31

That stuff is actually probably priority one, really. Yeah, I think that's that that human connection thing is is going to be one of the greatest things that comes out of this whole catastrophe, as awful as it is, just a stark reminder of what's important versus what we what what we kidded ourselves about. So I've I've used uh I've been using the the the term uh consistent flexibility um with organizations we've been helping, you know, with with greater flexibility that's afforded by members of a team when they work remotely, you know, life does not keep regular hours. Um so we need to build in these anchor points, we need to build in, as uh Sharon said, uh the the rhythms uh are that we check, you know, lots of check-ins, whether it be little meetings or an offhand session or whatever it might be, building in that little regular cadence that isn't so heavy that it becomes cumbersome, but gives us some structure to our day. I think that's that's really important. Otherwise, people drift off in very different directions as new remote workers.

Speaker 3 18:34

Adam, do we want to do a couple of minutes on tech and best practices and things like that, if you don't mind, as you as you're the the technologist.

Speaker 1 18:42

I think what I've seen, and and uh the in practice people have been taking the simplest step they can to keep them functionally moving forwards. Quite often they've relaxed the user experience side of things, uh, and equally they've given ground on their security posture to keep them moving when they just haven't had a chance to do anything else. Simplicity has seen people um focus on does the user have a device? If not, let's buy them one. If we can't buy them one, let's rent them one. The same thing with their smartphones, because if we give somebody a phone and we give somebody a device, uh laptop, then actually we're quite a long way along the line of helping them work. Then it was looking at the applications. Is the application installed on those devices? If not, is it available as a SaaS platform so we can give them quick access? And if you've still got applications that are only available on premise, then it's it's jumped back to um using either remote desktop platforms, uh VDI platforms, straight VPNs back to base, or even remote PC uh solutions such as TeamViewer and Splashtop to give you access to the to all of the things that are actually already set up, you just happen to be in the wrong place. Um there's been uh a lot of ground given on uh bring your own device uh scenarios whereby um all of a sudden companies are quite happy um to allow people to use their own technology. Um where there is still issues in more secure environments and more and more secure um and highly regulated industries, we've actually seen a resurgence of the little USB key that I put out there by IGL and I put out there by Bcrypts, the meaning.

Speaker 3 20:26

Sort of a software thin client, basically.

Speaker 1 20:28

Yeah, like a software thin client. So that's it's been as far as possible, and I think it's absolutely the right approach. Keep it, do the smallest thing you can to solve the issue today. Buy yourself enough time to have a breather, have a cup of tea, and think about how you'd like to improve this user experience and get back to a point where you're at the level of security and resilience you'd like to have moved forward. Yeah, and it's been the same thing.

Speaker 3 20:49

It's a little bit, it's a little bit make do and mend for the time being, isn't it? You know, just make it happen. Yeah, and yeah, as you say, re retrofit the user experience, retrofit the security backups to the level that you need it to be because we're in a crisis situation. Actually, you can afford to let those things slide just a little bit.

Speaker 1 21:07

Yeah, and and that said, the consumer what's really happened in quite a lot of situations is we fall on back on consumer technology. Turns out it's pretty good. Um, you know, the consumer devices, the consumer video platforms, all of them uh actually uh are perfectly good for keeping conversations going over WhatsApp, you know, over using the the the smartphones and devices that people already have. So um it's been a bit of a safety net. But yeah, I think people have learned fast. What it's made them do is be is made them be a little bit more brave. So all of these soft concerns about I can't manage my people, I won't be able to track what they're doing, and all that type of stuff. We just have to get on with it. So it's like the big it's like the biggest pilot we've ever had for remote working ever. And we've already got um certain bit uh fair fairly sizable organizations that have got for us to. come in six months' time and do a deep tech and do a deep technical debrief with them to understand or where were the gaps how did what worked what didn't in practice so that we can then finesse the finesse the solutions and um and I'll be very interested to see when when we do reach the end of this and the world goes back to a new normal it won't be the same normal.

Speaker 3 22:22

Yeah is there going to be so much resistance to remote workers to freelancers to uh to individuals from British they want I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that in the medium term if as and when things settle down and I'm convinced they will settle down if you know I hope that's sooner rather than later but it it it will get back to as you say some semblance of normality. I actually think the world will be a slightly better place because people will work from home home, will work more flexibly there won't be as much commuting there won't be as much drive or demand to travel to meetings that you don't necessarily physically need to be there at we you know we'll move away from this present presented culture and I actually think that will you know the legacy of this will eventually be a positive one in that regard you know clearly it's pretty horrible right now um but there will be some positives to come out of it in the long run.

Sia 23:25

Yeah yeah I've just taken a photograph screen because it came up and said Sam's bandwidth is low at that's what you were doing.

Speaker 1 23:34

Oh funny funny are you seeing anything on the on the bandwidth side in the early days saw uh some of the collaboration platforms struggle a lot um Cisco it's well documented really struggled to maintain just the overwhelming surge in demand over the first few days of this Microsoft had a similar issue but they they they addressed it more quickly that's actually why we've seen things like Zoom do so well because it was a bit more of a niche player it didn't have this massive wall of demand overnight you know these these organizations are probably pretty pretty good to grow 50 60% in capacity quite quickly but not yeah nine 900% has been the case in some of the providers I've seen that's uh so so I think that we've we've felt that um but realistically it's been a lot about tune tuning the applications and because of the way these the the world works now that these are SaaS based applications it's up to the vendors just like Netflix and a dialing down you you were not doing ultra hd this week guys we're gonna go down to uh standard definition that type of thing and uh the same as as Spotify can just dial down the audio it's really up to Zoom it's up to Microsoft it's up to Amazon it's up to uh Cisco it's up to all of these technology companies to reduce the amount of bandwidth required by as much as possible and actually that is where you'll start to see over the coming weeks if people are going to continue to invest in technology you will start to see some of those citrix conversations coming back in those VMware conversations coming back in because actually it will be about the bandwidth it'll be the old school conversation that we no longer have about not to use ICA because it just we're only sending screen scopes and it's going to be about using PC over IP and blast because they are kinder to the band we haven't had those conversations in in 10 years because everybody got it. Or all of a sudden the fundamentals are really important again. But that said um I think that the network providers have done an absolutely cracking job.

Speaker 3 25:46

Yes there were a few blips and bumps over the first few days but there was a massive surge of demand uh over the over the broadband uh environment and and they've dialed up they they seem to be meeting it and okay we're gonna have to look at um more grainy pictures of each other but that's all right I didn't like looking at Sam anyway well yeah face for face for radio as I've said a million times I mean I was watching a film last night um yeah and I thought oh this is this is interesting so I I decided before all this happened I decided I'd subscribe to the New Disney thing in the hope that I'd get the the uh the last Star Wars that I didn't quite get around to going to see in the cinema um yet and uh so I I I put a film on there and thought this isn't quite as good quality as as I expected and then I thought well you know that's probably because everybody is at home absolutely cane the bandwidth probably doing much the same as I am.

Speaker 1 26:43

When it comes down to connectivity actually the things that have been catching people out is just assuming that they have enough uh VPN connections you know things the little again little fundamental things that we've never ever got near saturating the amount of links we paid for and all of a sudden we've got to turn them all on so it really is the little basic things that are catching people out but um there's in the spirit of things vendors and providers are from topic on that yeah showing yeah showing huge flexibility on all of that stuff.

Vic 27:16

Cool so Vicky what's your take on the culture and and and for working from home for flexible working for remote working yeah well you know as as um Shah talked about earlier so working from home is not is not new to us at all in fact when I first started out in tech I used to uh commute down south from Manchester and work remotely all the other days so but I wasn't at home all of the time but then when I had a global job at Citrix I tended to do an awful lot of of work working from home because it didn't make sense for me to to go in the office because none of my team were there they were they were all distributed around the world. But coming back to the the the point here this is a a situation that none of us could ever have imagined isn't it and I I I think from s conversations that I've had within within my family and people that they work for through to clients that we work with I really do think this is going to be a time that is going to make or break leaders and and what I mean by that is those that get this right and have that empathy and understanding for their employees will be remembered for it and those that get it wrong will equally be remembered for it. And you know just just a couple of extreme examples that I have I heard a wonderful story from a tech company whose VP of EMIA had got his leadership team together and they'd all had to paint cupcakes and show their cupcakes on on Zoom. But that whole thing about reconnecting as as human beings which is something that that is fundamental to to what we believe at the Amplified group and it's just it's the need for it is more than ever. So we've got that fantastic example that I've just given there of and the and the team that I'm talking about they are making more time they are asking each other how how they're doing and spending a lot of time doing that. And then you've got other organisations one that are some of them are are still asking their employees to go into the office when they don't have to and there's a there's a worry of redundancy if they don't to to them that they are now letting them work at home but they still don't necessarily have the trust and I've heard of a an organisation that middle of last week decided to make a you know lots of loyal employees redundant and you know it's it's heartbreaking that they haven't figured out how to support them and how to think about their wellbeing and it doesn't it doesn't help the business in the long run because in theory at some point the situation is going to swing back around and I hope that we'll go back into growth because you know the health of the economy is important for the health of the individuals within it.

Speaker 3 30:31

And businesses like that that have made people redundant in summary fashion and who have not treated their staff very well will lose the engagement of their employees will find it very difficult to rehire and and you know that won't be a positive for their business in the long run in my opinion.

Vic 30:52

I I agree with you and I I don't think they will be looked on well by their customers either. So so I do think this is going to be a time for making or breaking leaders and those leaders that really show empathy and make time to to care. I also think for for leaders it's really important to show their vulnerability and they are not needed to have all the answers at this time we're all working this out to to our point at the Amplified group that we believe if organizations are going to thrive in this fast-paced world they need to have a high trust culture well vulnerability breeds trust so for people to to let their guard down and say talk about the things that are worrying them the more human I think we are um the the better for everybody I don't know what you think about that Sam.

Speaker 3 31:47

Well we're all humans at the end of the day and you know we we're all in in it together aren't we you know across our organizations our friendship groups our countries across the planet you know this is an unprecedented time and I think you're absolutely right those that maintain a human connection and organisations that act with humanity um will come through this and will come through this stronger and perhaps it will bring people closer together whereas I hope that perhaps we'll be beyond pure profit as a motivation as we get through this. Ethical capitalism that's the way forward.

Vic 32:22

There we go.

Speaker 1 32:24

So to to I've I've also got a couple of other things one is as a leader I think it's really really important to overcommunicate and what I mean by that is if things are changing if the strategy needs to change employees need to understand why and they need to hear it more than once I think Adam you were talking about it earlier weren't you you know get on a get on a a video call and make sure that you're communicating constantly why they've changed and what the implications are on the business because if people understand why they're much more likely to to commit just going to agree with you I think that um you can't people will forgive leaders for overcommunicating they will um crucify them for leaving them in the dark um realistically with all of this stuff um when it comes down to it you know no one likes to feel like they're in the dark people like to feel uh that their the expectations are set clearly that uh that the motivations are communicated uh and like you said then people rally around and rally behind you and and those are the cultures that organizations want to to foster anyway and it's that cultural it's how this is a real testing time for the company cultures that is often very lauded in the marketing blurb but now we've got to see it in action. Yeah absolutely not just talk the talk.

Vic 33:52

Yeah the last point uh and actually again Adam you really made me think about um the way you were talking about tech about um how can we dial what we're just talking about down to the lowest common denominator for gosh you can tell I've been doing fractions this morning can't you the lowest common denominator for us and what can we do differently what's the most simple thing that we could do so so you've just triggered this thought for me Adam and and Sha and I haven't talked about this um at all so I'm just gonna put it out there but I do think that what we have experienced because things are are are more fraught at the moment to be frank with having two children at home and having to do homeschooling um we're we're used to doing this remote working but actually it's really important that we understand each other's different approaches to doing things. So Sha and I had a conversation yesterday we listened to a a Webex and one of the suggestions on there was do a team call and rotate so once a week get a different person's family on the call so that they can meet everybody else in that team virtually so I for example would get my family on and then Shah would be able to see them not that she doesn't know them already of course she does but that that's the example that I'm giving and I said to Shah I think that's a lovely idea because I'm uh if you think of disc I'm on the I side and I want to be having these interactions with people and that's really important to me Shah said I don't like that idea that that's not for me at all that's just not it did you Shah I did I did because you know as you say we have different personality types and it went back to what I said earlier our team are also all different personality types you've got to take that into account and the thought of me having this virtual group with all my family standing around I'm like no this is my work I'm doing work right now and Vicky is like yeah let's just open it all up yeah so so what what I was thinking about though was um things don't get blown out of proportion and that people are really having empathy for each other and understanding different people's perspectives and maybe one what's right for one person isn't isn't right for another and if there's some way that that we can help and what I'm thinking about is the disc profiles that that we do and the the podcast that we did on what shadow do I cast I think there's a lot of value in that podcast that people should listen to and I also think we should maybe have a look at um seeing I know um disc assessments are a cost to us so we can't offer them for free but maybe there is a way that we can offer them to people at some discounted rate so that they they can take advantage of that if they want to find out and want to get their team to do it so that they can share that. I don't know what you think Shah but I'm it was just like what what is the lowest common denominator that we can help people better understand themselves and each and each other.

Sia 37:28

Yeah and there are so many people out there aren't there if you looked on LinkedIn and you look all over that are just doing stuff what they say for free or they want to help or they could do it complimentary I'm donating my my mentoring time at the moment for free because I think it's the right thing to do. So I I agree with you I think more important if you if you think about when when not if when we'll come out of this if we come out of this knowing each other even better and be able to go hit the ground running with the fact that you have established who you are personality wise on a team that can only be for the good so I I definitely would well it is it was it was a combination of two things.

Vic 38:12

It was what Adam was saying about what can we do from a a lowest common denominator to do something. And it was that conversation that you and I were having this morning of I think this is a brilliant idea and you saying well I didn't at all and I could understand that because I know where where our personalities were but that could have gone in a horrible way had we not known that.

Sia 38:33

Yeah had we not known that we have very different personality types and therefore I accepted your version of it and you accepted mine rather than me you know so why do why doesn't she think the same way so no I think I think that's a brilliant idea so maybe if anybody does are is interested in in um finding out what their disc profile is if if they just drop us a message on LinkedIn maybe that's the easiest uh yeah easiest thing to do.

Speaker 3 38:58

Yeah makes sense because actually you know for some businesses their worlds will be slowing down a little bit you know I know for SoftCat if anything it's got busier because people have a voracious need for technology to to solve problems right now. For other businesses it's it so if your business is not that busy right now for whatever reason maybe it's a great opportunity to work on your business rather than work in your business when you when you can't work in your business because there's not so much going on. And be ready to when we do eventually come out of this ready to come out stronger and ready to ready to grow again.

Vic 39:42

Yeah yeah I heard somebody say um we need to survive now because when we come out of this we want to thrive.

Speaker 3 39:50

Yeah yeah survive and then thrive exactly the idea yeah yeah yeah yeah brilliant so I think we should just wrap up maybe by quickly going around the virtual room and seeing what everybody's everybody's day looks like under under worldwide pandemic uh conditions so Adam is our our esteemed guest perhaps you would be so kind as to go first uh well I work remotely a lot anyway but what but uh the distinct difference now is my wife and I are strictly avoiding each other in the house I work where I work she works where she works and I actually went for a walk around the garden this morning before coming back in and pretending not to walk to work.

Speaker 1 40:37

So um yeah that's me your commute was a walk around the garden. Yeah I just wanted to make it feel like there was a start and I'll probably walk back when I go home. Fantastic I love it that's great.

Speaker 3 40:49

What about you, Sean? You're probably not a million miles off your normal situation.

Sia 40:53

Well well I kind of am Sam because normally I work from home and everybody knows that but I've been kicked out of my office. My husband has taken over my office because he has back to back Zoom calls and I don't at the moment although I'm trying to get him to stop doing that after my advice earlier. Also the dog walking situation has changed somewhat because I now have three people in the house walking the dog instead of just little old me and my dog walker. So my 24 year old the dog's knackered yeah exactly it's great every evening he just cuddles up and he's no trouble. So uh so that's the difference to my day pretty much.

Speaker 3 41:31

And Vicky how about you when you come off mute?

Vic 41:35

Oh that's really good I was on mute then I'm thrilled about that I was just uh I saw um I see it keeps me controlled I saw a fantastic um picture that said dogs could not now be happier they're getting more walks than they've ever had people are at home with them all the time maybe maybe they they've got something to do with this yeah but my my world has changed quite a lot because I as I mentioned earlier I'm now homeschooling as well so I've got um Drew is six and Brooke is 12. So I've got two different schools two different approaches that I'm trying to figure out what to do but and and I started life my working career as a teacher so you think she's got this she knows what she's doing first day of homeschooling let me tell you it was horrendous by 11 o'clock I was out of the house I was walking the dog I was bringing shard going oh my goodness how am I gonna do this it was just awful um second day I got up an hour earlier to try and get myself organized to go and do some exercise that I'd hoped to fit in the day before and not managed at all. So I'm I'm being really quite structured in that I have two hours of schoolwork with my son that I'm doing with him. I've remembered that I can give him holding topics as well and stuff to do that I don't need to sit him open all the time I'd forgotten that so that's pretty helpful. And then I'm also um then scheduling and figuring out when Brooke needs her help and putting that in and then Shara and I are working in the afternoons and I'm locking myself away in the bedroom they know they can't disturb me and I can really focus on doing some work and I heard somebody saying this isn't about being efficient this is about being effective and I think it really has helped focus the mind actually so so that's that's how my my world has changed.

Speaker 3 43:35

Brilliant does that mean that I'm being effective now rather than I don't know I was never efficient before so who knows let's hope so let let let's let's hope we're all being effective on and under uh interesting and and crazy circumstances what about you sam yes sam don't think you're getting away with it well I I hardly feel qualified to comment as I'm sort of lying A gentleman of leisure these days. I'm gonna do my do my dabbling for a few bits and pieces. But you know, my day at the minute consists of um get up, hit the garage for a bit of exercise, or take the dog round round the garden a few million times, um, spend an hour trying to turf my daughter out of bed and get her doing some schoolwork. That's probably the most energetic part of my day because that's blooming hard. Um, and then sort of dipping in and out of of uh of things like this, a little bit of gardening, and trying to coach Iris through her school day. Um I seem to be constantly pumping out food for her. You know, my my main role seems to be commi chef, room almost room service delivery. Yeah, managing managing the food stocks situation and uh you know the food thing. You might not be able to get pasta, you might not be able to get rice. Today, the local butchers in Marlowe they've just started doing deliveries literally this morning. Um I was one of the first on the list, so I've had a you know what they call their survival box, um, and also a load of fresh scallops delivered today. So you can get you can get fresh scallops, but you can't get pasta for love no mother. How funny is that?

Sia 45:19

Hey Sam, I just realized we didn't do we didn't do uh hero time and I'm missing it a little bit. So can we can we just agree, all of us, that our hero is pretty much gonna be Zoom at the moment?

Speaker 3 45:30

Yeah, I think that's legit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vic 45:33

And and I'm gonna make a prediction that where we we now say we're gonna Google something, Zoom is gonna become a verb.

Speaker 3 45:41

We're now gonna zoom somebody. You know, I even used it on Friday night. I got about six or seven different households together for a for a virtual pint or two on Friday night using Zoom. I know that's not its legitimate use, but it it worked really well. And you know, we had a we had a a communal pint, which we would not otherwise have been able to do. So thank you, Zoom.

Sia 46:04

Yes, yeah, thank you. Yeah, there's a new app, the party app, that I use a lot of party, house party with a group group of eight of us. It was fantastic, it was really good fun. What I couldn't understand is if it was a virtual party party, why I woke up with a hangover.

Speaker 3 46:24

Virtual party, very real hangover. I like it, that's great. Fantastic.

unknown 46:31

Cool.

Speaker 3 46:32

Well, thanks everybody, and particular thanks to Adam Harding from SoftCap for joining us. Yeah, we really appreciate your your your involvement and your insight. Thanks for listening to Get Amplified from the Amplified Group. If you liked it and enjoyed this special edition, please be sure to subscribe, and we'll see you next time when we're back on the usual track. Stay safe, stay well.