Remote work

Remotely work is no more the extravaganza. It’s the reality of many people. It’s not easy. It requires a good strategy, a swift execution and constant retrospective and adjustments. But it gives a freedom, flexibility and in the end more time to focus on what matter the most. For me it’s my family.

Team agreement | Good practice for high performing teams

Why high-performance teams need team agreements

We start the new team. We gathered a group of talented individuals and we want to grapple with the new challenge. How can we accelerate the team forming, storming and norming phase? We should start with team agreements. Once done, this exercise will boost team productivity. It will also help to create and maintain the team identity. It shouldn’t be the detailed documentation of the team proceedings in the wiki-style procedure. Instead, we should agree on things that are important for our team. Let’s take a look.

I work remotely. What does it even mean?

Piotr Zagorowski
July 17, 2022April 5, 2023
Leadership, Remote work

I’ve recently done my quarterly retrospective. One of the topics I chose to review was my workflow, especially in a remote work context. A couple of recent years accelerated the remote work movement. The most popular variation nowadays seems to be the hybrid approach. We spend some time working from home and some time in the office. If we spend even one day working from home and if we have even one person working from home – we work remotely. But what does it even mean?

🏨 Remote work from the hotel? Why not?!

Piotr Zagorowski
July 8, 2022April 5, 2023
Intentional life, Leadership, Lifestyle, Remote work

We have a few bank holidays in Great Britain. Usually, the extra day off is Monday. The week is shorter, or, looking more optimistic, the weekend is extended. This fact inspired us to do a little experiment. We decided to visit our friends who had moved out of London. The place is three hours away by car, so the trip should be longer. We decided to do something crazy.

Mastering the art of remote working

Piotr Zagorowski
January 26, 2021April 5, 2023
Leadership, Remote work, Technology

I had the great privilege to be a guest in Cisco Solutions IT Huddle. I met with a fantastic DevNet community talking about technology, friendship, family and mastering the art of remote working.

How to Baseline Remote Team Culture

Piotr Zagorowski
September 24, 2020April 5, 2023
Leadership, Podcast, Remote work

I was recently a guest in The Align Remotely podcast, where Luke Szyrmer, the host, focuses on leading distributed teams and everything associated with that subject, like leadership and operations to help achieve together. It is particularly relevant now when nearly everyone works from home. It was a broad-ranging conversation, but we mainly focused on the topic of how to baseline the remote team culture.

3 lessons from The Unicorn Project

Piotr Zagorowski
September 3, 2020April 18, 2023
Leadership, Remote work, Technology

I try to read (listen) one book per month. It’s been mainly self-development books. And to be honest I got a bit tired. However, recently I talked to a friend and a colleague who recommended me a fiction book with a unicorn in the title… I read the full title and immediately started to listen. I could not stop, I emerged completely. Today I would like to share three main lessons I learnt from The Unicorn Project book. Let’s go!

3 practices that will help to stay sane in crisis

Piotr Zagorowski
April 9, 2020April 5, 2023
Leadership, Lifestyle, Remote work

Have you noticed that working these days seems more tiring? I do pretty much what I was doing before. The “only” difference is that kids are always at home. And of course, we have constant information noise about the current situation. Even if we limit access to the television, the news comes to our minds one way or another. I compare the current situation to a long-haul flight with no noise cancellation headphones. There is a constant sound of engines and air that makes us more tired at the end of our journey. I would like to propose three practices that will help to stay sane in a crisis, but also be more positive about the surrounding world.

On-line resources for working from home with kids

Working from home with kids and your partner at home is challenging. We need to create a new routine. We need to be flexible. Work needs to be synchronised with your team and spouse, especially if they can also work from home. But how about kids? They need to carry on education. Children need to be entertained and taken care of. First of all – take it easy – try to agree with your partner when you can take care of children and when your spouse can spend time with them as you need to take this call or do something on your list for today. And secondly, make sure you get creative and prepare a routine for your kids and yourself. Below is the list of some online resources that can help to compile some activity lists for our little ones.

First aid for work from home

Piotr Zagorowski
March 19, 2020April 5, 2023
Leadership, Remote work

Working from home for the first time may and will feel awkward. We used to go to the train station, get our morning coffee on the way, read the newspaper or listen to our favourite podcast. It’s been taken away. We open our laptop and work is supposed to flow. However, even getting to sit in from of laptop seems difficult, there is no buffer and preparation time. In theory, we have more time, but on the other head we feel like time is shrinking. We even struggle to keep up on what day is today. Is there any first aid for work from home situation? There are many good resources in the webs, I am going to share what is essential for me. Check it out, experiment and see if something work for you.

What is a jet lag and how to mitigate it?

What is jet lag and how to mitigate it?

Piotr Zagorowski
March 5, 2020May 16, 2023
Leadership, Remote work

Remote work is excellent. It has a lot of benefits; it saves you time on the commute, and it helps with life and work balance. And what’s been important recently, it limits your exposure during seasonal flu outbreaks. Technology, team agreement and procedures can help with day-to-day team operations, but nothing will replace face-to-face communication. Even fully remote teams and whole companies must meet every so often to ponder on the past, plan the future and just spend some time together. That means travel. And that usually means long flights, at least for some members of the team. Is there anything we can do to be prepared for a long trip? How can we mitigate jet lag?