The Future of Remote Work

Transformed by the 2020 global pandemic, the workplace will never be the same.  While full-time Zoom meetings, home schooled children, and isolation are temporary the impact of this shift will have lasting effects on how we work and live. In this episode, Mike J. Walker is  speaking with Michel Bowman, a modern workplace expert at Microsoft about his vision for the future of remote work.

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Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Next. I am your host Mike Walker. And today we are going to talk about the future of work. Yes. This is a bit of a part 2 to the solo thing that I did earlier. Im going to provide a link to that. But today were going to be talking with Michelle Bowman. He is a Microsoft teams collaboration expert and hes going to give us some of his insights on only from a technology perspective because that stuff is fairly straightforward, but hes going to help us understand how to use it how he uses it as a collaboration expert and so its going to be super interesting and I think youre really going to enjoy it. Like what all episodes all the links and show notes will be on V Next pod.com. Thats v-neck pod.com Alright guys, lets get into it. Hello, Michelle, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me great to be here. Yeah, so, you know, its an ever-changing world. And you know, weve been talking a lot about the future of work and you know what it could mean looking into a crystal balls and youve been doing a lot of work in this space and itd be good to start off with a little bit about you. Do you want maybe give us an overview of who you are your role at Microsoft and smooth things are working on. So, my name is Michelle Obama won the official title with a Microsoft his territory channel manager for more than work. Whats your name? Right. So basically the roll is why I try to spot what the opportunities are in the market. I look at customer Trends and ask Microsoft. We do most of our cells through our partner Network. And so then I try to combine both the partner ecosystem and the customer you go system Bing bring those two worlds together to ensure that the partnership. Open the right solutions for our customers. Thats my main priority as so my focus is all on the teams meetings calling in the end devices and its I think thats all that has been top of mind for the past. What is it now six seven months already. So thats all thats been on top of my mind for the pasta for the past month. And you know, I believe youve been at Microsoft for a while. Ive been at Microsoft for a while. At least Im a boomerang her at least a I guess but you know as far as the products that Ive observed over the years, I havent seen quite the dynamic of what were doing with Microsoft teams with any other product. I mean just a level of change and agile agile mess around teams and in nunnelly catching up with the market, but also innovating Is Microsoft weve always been good at catching up but as far as out innovating thats something unique. I think at least what do you think? I think we saw some of it with the service line up. Thats all the stuff that were doing. Now with surface do always definitely a step forward that thinking the direction of what device is my look like in the future, but kudos to the team steam in the developers there were doing an amazing job where we we first priority security, right? That should always be the main priority. So I think in the first few months we were in playing catch up again some of the amore amore Point Solutions. Now, I agree that its all about Innovation. I think that the base is super solid with the 7 by 7. Which everybody was asking for an hour with the breakout rooms, which is now going to be a generally available in October, but I think Ill see if you look at the new Innovations with to get ammo Which I think is super exciting and we just had Microsoft ignite what we knows the bunch of stuff and Im sure well get into it around well being that its more about people and thats so much about technology. Thats what I like about. The direction to teams is going yes to take knowledge. Hes there and all the features are cool and and will join them. I think were taking it one step further where its more about people and less about the technology. I I couldnt agree more and you know on that thread being about people, you know, Im curious, you know as a technologist working for Microsoft focusing on collaboration tools through this pandemic. Whats your world look like on a day-to-day basis? Im a father of four months. So I think my wife and I had all kinds of roles have for the past six months. We were at the teacher to tutor the babysitter. Although Im not sure if I can use the word as a father we can cuz I am the father of the household in Microsoft. I tried to be a first responder because I dont understand why people would just panicking those first two weeks, right? Have you seen so many companies that always had said we can never work remotely just doesnt fit our culture or our company and then all of a sudden from one day to the other day had to go through this massive cultural change and I just try to be the first responder Dash. I think it was a bunch of different roles both personal and professional at that really made a big impact on the way that Ive been living for the past six months that for me now, its always working from home. There is a Softail Play Hindi video song from the Netherlands at the soft opening in deduction City very off of Microsoft. So were allowed to come into the office. But only if you have a good reason nothing to maximum amount of people that are welcome in the building is about 50. So its not that many. I dont really go there. I do think and again, Im sure well get into it that the whole role and function of the office is changing rapidly, but its for sure that weve seen a year of digital transformation in each month. I think weve seen six years of progress when it comes to technology and digital transformation within companies in these past six six months over the past and I want to say yeah for 5 months, you know, theyve said the same thing theyve said, you know, the pandemic hasnt slowed things down its rapidly accelerated their digital transformation. And I like what you said and you gave a great segue into what we want to talk about next which is what does the future look like and you know, obviously us has technology professionals historically, weve never really been good at this but you know, lets pretend like were good at it. And you know, we we do see some leading indicators here. We see that you do not only Microsoft and doing soft openings. I mean the Redmond headquarters campus is not open and thats not going to open for for quite some time. But you got big companies like Twitter saying hey, you guys could just work remotely forever. I dont care Facebook announcements made an announcement mini many companies that are saying weve got to rethink how we think about work and more specifically where we work. And so In your mind as a person that is on the Forefront of the communications Technologies and working with customers. Whats in your crystal ball? What do you see split it out here. Lets split out from near-term over the next can a year and then lets think about this from a longer-term perspective. Maybe two to five years out. Yeah, I think thats the last party super difficult. We were expected this right and and the way that technology is moving now, its super fast. And so I think looking five years ahead can be challenging but its fun to have a conversation around it. I think short-term. I think were kind of depending on where this is going with the with kogats. We can we have to really adjust lot of companies had to adjust from 0% virtual to 100% virtual and now we have to readjust to some hybrid form. Like you say many companies from smallest of these two big Enterprises. Im not saying this new world of work and and but working remotely isnt so bad after all that people managers are really moving from managing by having control to managing by having trust in people and Ive had people that Ive talked to you thats have said they dont want to go back not only will it work, but theyre like look I prefer this mode and I dont think I can look at the traditional office the same again. I think the whole roll of the office has drastically change lights in the office is now more a meeting point just a place to meet other people and not so much a place to work. So if you look at Microsoft in Indianapolis, weve been called the new world of work. And weve been practicing this for think about 11 years. So it might be something in that unless we can kind of determine when we work where we work and how we work bench. If I want to be in the office. Its perfectly fine the big Advantage for me again being a father before I get to take my kids to school every morning. Im never stuck in traffic. I just look at the traffic. Is there a lot of traffic Im not going to the office yet, wherever I need to be trying to leave a little bit earlier so I can spend some time with the family and then when the kids are in bed and my wife is binge watching Netflix, which Im not really interested in then I do my email right and that really works for us as a family also think its not so much about that. We should definitely touch on work-life balance. Its more about work-life comedy Rachel. How do you say I think thats what people are struggling and then we have done some research, but how do you choose ye that Harmony between work and the private life? Showing now that over 30% of remote at first and workers said its been Democrats increased burnout at work, which I think is so its quite scary night in the end of something and Im raising my hand. Yes, I agree on average people are spending between almost an hour in the in Germany in almost 2 hours more in Australia on teams a day or so. They log on earlier the log off later the richest areas if your own back-to-back meetings that youre going to burn out really fast, and then another research is showing the one youre on these video calls your brain your did your brain starts to get real tired and you see meeting fatigue after like 20 to 30 minutes. So I think its crucial super important that we look at well-being and stuff such as a focus hour. To implement in your day and beautified this New Harmony between work and in life after you remote workers the saying it that its that theres a lot of work clothes thats their biggest issue the remote works for saying he doesnt like a separation between work and that in life short-term. We have to find a way to deal with meeting fatigue and and and the risk of burnout the midterm. We have to go going to have to readjust to this hybrid world where well have some people that are in the office and well have some people thatll be remote which is interesting in meeting and then long-term. I think its difficult to say Id like to think that augmented reality is going to play a big role think whats half Garys super interesting around with you with the hollow lands for this stuff as well. I think augmented reality could be super interesting. So the difference between virtual and augmented is virtual is all computer. So you have your visor on and all you see is Computer World with augmented to say Its a combination between computer and Holograms and then the real world. I think its super interesting. If you could do meeting Cindys holographic worlds I think thats going to be interesting. I think in the next 5 to 10 years a little bit more long-term. I agree. Were splitting hairs here. But you know, he had the the Augmentin the virtual and you know, Im super excited about more in the augmented world in in in the the mixed reality world where Ive got my home office and Ive got iot sensors everywhere and you cant see behind us camera, but behind this camera there is a wall that I have completely painted with whiteboard paint. And so Ive got one big white board and it would be great to be able to have you no standing virtually next to me my colleagues and Im able to draw on the board because I got a sensor in the pain. Ive got a sensor in the board and I mean, who knows maybe Im not even riding on anything. Maybe its just, you know, 3 augment a real whatever maybe but I think youre right. I think you know what this is going to open up is its going to open up more meaningful experiences digitally and you know what that means is not this two-dimensional of you that we deal with everyday but something much much more interactive thats bringing us closer to the analog world which were trying to move away from but I think you know, its were going to see more of a blend in. Analog world with the digital world. I agree. I agree and still we have to crack this code on on how do you find the work-life harmony yet? So thats going to be at Harmony and I really like that because balance, you know, I have I havent found a balance. Maybe its just me, but Ive been a remote worker for over a decade and its very situational in my life. Theres different events. My kids are at different ages as they grew up and theres different demands theres different rhythms of businesses that Ive worked for. And so try to trying to find a balance has always been extremely difficult for me and I I like the harmony concept that youre putting out into the universe here. Can you maybe expand upon out a little bit cuz you know, I think it be beneficial dig deep run that Yeah, actually got this from our CEO such Anna Dello you visited the Netherlands think a little over a year ago or something like that and I asked him to question the questions and how do you deal with work-life balance? Any imagine this topic about Harmony balance? Dallas kind of feels like it always needs to be right, but thats super difficult. There are times when I need to spend more time or work. And a half cant have less attention at home. There are times when I need to fully focus on home. And work has to move to the background and its never in balance. It never is I think it all comes down to communication. Right. So so were recording this and in and its its almost 6 p.m. Over here sit at dinner time now, usually just the time Im downstairs spending time with the kids helping the misses weight limit dinner and all that stuff. Now Im spending time recording here with you after weve been we we are at become great communicators in the household to set expectations of what we have to do to find that harm me and be okay with whatever is happening and and that makes it okay for for sometimes the your personal life to move to the background a little bit and then at other times its all the way personal and less work to work for a company in Microsoft where where we are empowered to to do stuff like this. And I realized thats thats moren to culture and I think were making steps in the right direction forced now and what you just mentioned about people having to go and and used tools such as Microsoft teams because that was basically the only way to communicate with their peers. I think were going to make an extra Leap Forward when it comes to culture and and the beauty of the truly the definition of work and what work is and what it isnt. Thanks Harmony for me is everything and Im having to write communication in the house and at work feeling comfortable with saying though sometimes I think thats fine as well. One of the things that we implemented in our culture a Microsoft in the Netherlands is is one that. We call making conscious decisions. Its a how often are you in a meeting? Its funny because my phone just started saying something to me often. Are you in a meeting where youre where you being distracted by your phone, which is happen to me that youre doing the email was he somebody do an email or there may be the only thing or wherever they are only fair to the people that Im in a meeting see if you not seeing any added value if youre being in a meeting. Its perfectly fine to say no just dont go right. But if you commit to it should you make the conscious decision to go to a meeting that your dear fully 100% focused the focusing on not not looking at anything else not being distracted by anything else, but every one hundred percent committed Focus, I think thats Jet ski in and also find a new small hacks. To implement. My 60-minute meetings are no longer 60 Minutes. They are 40 or 45 my one at my half an hour meeting. So I no longer half an hour that 20 or 25 minutes this leaves. If you look at the one-hour meeting, which has been scaled back to 40 or 45 this leaves 5 minutes to enter meeting. It gives me 5 minutes to take a breeder have a drink whatever you need to do. And if 5 minutes to fully prepared to go to the next meeting, which is really helping you deal with that meeting for teak and Avenue B back-to-back a meeting. I think its those small things but they have to be embedded in the culture in a culture. Where is perfectly fine to say. Hey, Im not going to be joining that meeting if theres no clear agenda or do I dont see how I can add value or take value from this meeting. Its perfectly fine to say no and I think thats something that we have to have to have stealing companies as well. No, I think I think thats that brilliant and a lot of these principles have been around for her for some time. And and Im sure youve used these I know that you know, my my mentees, you know, Im very big on saying no because you know, its like you said its unfair if youre going to be checked out but also you might not be the right person so say no but have a solution have an alternative for folks and say you know what, its not me. I really shouldnt be at this meeting but Bob and Sally should be at this meeting or maybe it shouldnt be a meeting at all. Maybe it should be a virtual Workshop or or just an email communication. Hey, I think this could be much more effective. If you just send send out a email or a teams message, whatever it may be. So what what its doing is this flipping it to be much more actionable. Now in that in that vein Michelle, I hate you know, youre your you know in the field you are working with customers on these Technologies on a day-to-day basis. Do you would you be able to share maybe some examples of some of the customers youre working with that are sources sources of inspiration that are doing it right. Do you have a few even if you have to say a company in the Netherlands in the manufacturing world does X Y and Z even if they remain anonymous due to some examples come to my for you one of one of the examples that inspires me a lot is the one of Tonys chocolonely. So Tony chocolonely is a they sell chocolates, right and they called they dont call themselves a chocolate company that call themselves an impact company thats making chocolate lab because what they stand for is 100% slave free chocolate in the world. So what they do is they Go to the farmers Inn in Africa who get paid Billy little because the supply chain is is really complicated. And what they do is they pay your premium to these Farmers on top of the money that they already gained to earn a decent living in to really remove slavery from the from the exchange modern slavery from these chains, which I think its an awesome mission to have I know theyre doing some work already in the US as well as their chocolate bars are really interesting so she could check it out. Tonys chocolonely is the name of the company. So what they do is they now leverage teams, they stopped communicating through through email. For one and it did you mean afternoon to through teams to communicate to their first line workers in the store. So they have a couple of retailer stores and then they use teams in all these different subsidiaries that they have to have three in Europe and into in the US and then one in Africa right to really communicate what I like what theyre doing is there Really building their culture around collaboration, which I think is is is is is in it and it take the extra mile with it as well. So what they did is they a day or a pigeon if you have a bench Amsterdam, everybodys always talking about the wooden shoes in the pigeons are by the way and I just a form of emphasizing to change they buried the pitch in saying were no longer sending emails were doing everything through team spend doing all these kind of activities to promote working more remotely to promote a to promote leveraging technology. Is that somebody but not too much about teams or whatever it is, but leveraging technology to assure that their meet their own kpi switch is creating 100% slave free chocolate in the world. So I think you have those examples. What I really like is to companies that are now showing a lot of resilience and Whats the companies that have there is a the company that I work with quite a lot and they hosted Workshops. The whole business model was around that the Body Language Academy their whole business model was based on in person workshops and theyre doing really well and it from one day to the other Kobe just destroyed their whole business model. Right but and then the first week 2 weeks panic and then and then the weeks after the show is so much for resilience and Agility that within three months. They had created a full online course, which I think its just its just amazing of people thinking about okay, how can we find new ways to to still have a decent Revenue stream? Same thing farthest, by the way, if you look at some of the artists that are out there musicians, Im impressed by how they are now leveraging social media to still find ways to to to get driving you stuff such a traitor to artists and indie hip hop and R&B Spacek old Timberland and Swizz Beatz age of major producers net creative thing called versus where they celebrate talent and then doing versus battles between two artists and that you can just see dere dere stream stand numbers skyrocketing to make up for the money that theyre now losing because they cant do any any shows. Thats some of the examples that Im super impressed by just looking at new things and not so much looking at at at all the old stuff that we were doing. So I think thats whats whats needed. If youre right and you know that the example of musicians is that is a great example. Ive seen, you know, whether it be mainstream bands, you know. Like, you know Metallica just came out with a new album and they were partnering with the San Francisco Symphony and all that and threw some of their media tours. What was interesting when they were asked you know, so, how do you guys rehearse are you guys were courting music and theyre like, yeah, were pretty music daily. We get together and do a virtual session and you know, we just changed our workflow and in some cases band members that didnt have as much as say before now, its much much more democratic and its bringing a new element into what they produce but but you know, also, you know, its just fascinating to see also all these artists out there just doing new and interesting things and they are communicating perhaps better than theyve ever of communicative before during the Its all youve got, you know, you know other the Green Day lead singer, hes going out and youre doing a bunch of covers of of different songs and your why just for the hell of it. Lets do this right. And so, you know, I think that in a lot of ways its increase the visibility and increase the collaboration as well. Yeah. Let me see the stuff that the NBAs doing the National Basketball Association with the virtual virtual Fan Experience for those that havent seen is is you dial into a Teenage Mutant you get into together mods will try not to get into together mode and youre there in a fan section with 30 other fans and there are about take about eight or nine stiffen directions. So you did with dirty fans are you can talk amongst the fans the players on the court can actually hear you they can see you as well. So they said of his big LED screens. They can see you as well. And then you have so you have The Fan Experience where you can talk amongst each other and then you have the stream for whatever television station is broadcasting the year the game and if so much fun, I was on the Walking was in Mavericks. I was in the Mavericks game. Im a big basketball fan and its so much fun to talk to other fans instead of just sitting behind my TV Obama computer watching the game. Ill be like what theyre doing same or Formula 1 and Formula 1. Some of the teams are using the teams life events to do chores through the pit Lane and we talked about the mechanics behind the car. Were getting were seeing new business models that are just popping up everywhere. You could do fan fan Q&A and meet and greets all this kind of stuff. You can do now through technology. I think thats the thats the cool part about whats happening right now. yeah, and I dont know if its because this particular sport is deeply rooted in Tradition or not, or if theyre just completely behind the eight-ball but you know, Im a big fan of Major League Baseball and a lot of the teams in Major League Baseball are her actually Queen fairly old school and you can send them a picture and well create a cut out a actual printed cut-out which side is it is interesting because youre always there and you can say hey this is go check out this seat and in this and that but as a technologist, you know, I I I want more of that together mode like what you see in the NBA as well to be much more dynamic in an in fluid, but theyre trying aromatic with I think Major League Baseball what I like about baseball games in the fortune. I havent been able to visit with my family just with some college because it was a game what I liked. What I saw in the stadiums is the event to go to with your family. But since its a family event what you meet other families and its I think thats the big difference between what you see in the NHL ever in the NBA or soccer cleats, whatever. Its such a family event and how cool would it be to create that family event. Im talking to a customer right now thats doing classical music concerts. And what they try to do is to create these VIP experience what would happens when people go to this concert? Its always the same group of people that know each other and 1/2 this interaction. Now we can create virtual stands for you dont have to cut out but you can actually see each other and talk to each other then enjoy the concert still without being able to be in the end of annuit self. Its always the best. Obviously I rather be Live in the stadium. Theyre sitting in The Virtuous and now but for now, I think its such a such great things. I would love to see MLB doing the same thing where they can create this family experience, which I think is super great about what theyre doing is probably one of the best streaming apps that Ive seen this done. They were an early adopter of that technology and that theyve done a phenomenal job. Ive got you know, even though I dont live in the area for the team that I root for I can still have access to all their games on any device that I want which is super cool. So which one I like thats what I like. Thats what I like about the NBA so be in Europe, Its difficult for me to to visit NBA games have to be lucky to be normally our biggest events are around the summertime. So whenever Im in the US, those are the times that Im in the u.s. Are there no season go watch anything luckily for me to pass two to three years and I was able to visit some family games that were in Vegas while we were in Vegas but having all these Fan Experience are the best for me so I can be watch every game even though I do have to get up at 3 a.m. In the morning to watch. Well, I also you might be picking the wrong clients. I mean you need to go with ESPN. So actually its its the Walt Disney Company. You need to really Target the Walt Disney Company and I get get on property into an extended engagements and interact with the ESPN focus and youre in about you know, other companies. We talked a little bit about what to expect here over the coming months or maybe maybe years but transitioning into day today and it would be interesting to find out for me because I theres all these life hacks and work hacks out there that I think are really helping people be more productive and efficient through all this and I guess you know, what I like to do is understand from you as as as the expert here in collaboration whats in your tool kit, you know, Im sure teams is part of it. But you know, what are some of the other things that you use on a day-to-day basis that are just vital for your success and productivity of courses Beauty sculpt around the Microsoft stack and all the stuff that we have. I try to have a clear goal. So what Im trying to achieve personal week, and so I leverage planner which is it to where you can basically plan and manage projects but I use it as my personal to-do list some set it up with with to do switch has a long list and then every Monday morning or sometime Friday afternoon, I do the wedding from this list and then move them into what Im going to do next week or if Im doing it on Monday that week and then each morning I take tasks from my weekly to do some put them in the daily to watch that gives me a solid idea of what I want to achieve during that day. One thing thats important to me is like I just talked about is focus hours until within my analytics, which is a tool with in Office 365 for you can see some daidone. Well be in someone collaboration someone after our works are some of your network. Now you can also leverage that Outlook is automatically scheduling Focus hours for you. If you would look on my calendar right now, I have two hours of focus time thatll automatically block 2 weeks ahead every day on my calendar. So that gives time for me to really do those tasks because the risk is youre constantly in back-to-back two back-to-back meetings. Most of those are our big to me. I block my lunch as well. So I wasnt sure that I have a a good lunch and I usually combine it with combined it with a walk if the weather allows it and Im just some form of relaxation sound. Of course, Im using technology thats super important to me. But I really try to focus on the human aspect as well. Make sure you got your stuff way too together here. Yeah, I barely take lunches. I I dont think Ive taken a lunch and the past maybe even remember thats how bad this is like at least a week and a half and you know, just like oh, yeah, you know, Ive got my coffee. Ive got a plethora of almonds and you know at least healthy stuff by my desk, but you know, I just like cranking through and nuts. Thats not healthy. Thats how I found out the hard way on those first few weeks. They just sitting in my office all day long. And for me, it was an advance of his chocolate too much sugar and I will be in my office as soon as I at taking my kids to school and be back in my home office around 8:45. 9ish. I would sit here until 5 each or Ill prepare dinner age shower the kids take the kids to bed and then work I spend way too much time and that went on for two weeks and I was like, we cant go on like this because youre going to burn out Billy. Thats a damn. That was my wake-up. Call. Okay. I need to ensure that I schedule time to focus. And schedule time to focus schedule time to take breaks with it with the little life hack 45-minute meetings just to even it can even be something as simple as this opening a window and stick your head out of the window get some fresh air for 5 minutes and I doubt this relaxes your whole brain. What I still need to get better on is how do I end my day went to a boy now implementing in Microsoft teams and it should be available later this year or early next year. Its a thing called well-being insights. So youll get on your teams manual you get an Insight app where you can see stuff such as how many how much time you spend working on after hours and how have you been collaborating because collaboration off of these is a big thing which is still need Focus time as well and also introduced is what we go virtual commute because Not being able to commute now might seem like a great thing and it is because its safe to save you a lot of hours the downside of that is that Im not sure how you usually communicates. But when I was in the car, I would either turn off my music completely. I just left my brain do whatever you wanted to do for half an hour while I was in the car driving from the office to home or I would crank the music all the way up and sing. Like I was on Metallica or Boyz II Men or whatever. Its saying it just relax right and now because we dont have that commute actually thats actually a downside to that and NFL what were introducing in the in March of Team soon. If this thing called virtual commute and during your virtual commute, which is only 15 to 20 minutes what you get is an overview of things that youve committed to during the day. She can say any mail or in teams. Hey Mike, Ill send you the slides next week. Better than the graph API is what its called will will grab that day and then offer to you a prior to today that youve committed to it might make sense. But so what what is virtual can be does its its showing you this and hey Michelle, have you committed to Mike to deliver a PowerPoint which is due in the three days. Should I do yes or no, please do so. Yes, and it will be in your to do but it also does this is going to offer you meditation Rancho studies showing that meditation can fight burnout and stress during the work day and were collaborating with with headspace, which I think is one of the most used apps out there when it comes to meditation. I will collaborate with them to bring headspace and meditation into the virtual commute just released shut down and create the the difference. Between work and in life Maybe funny story something that one of my peers does is he has his light in his office? And when he works the light is on and as soon as he turns off the light that is the end of his work day for me to believe that is why I care for him. I think its definitely worth something trying theres something to try is that his brain is so used to okay the lightest on now, Im in work mode. The light is off. Im now going personal life modes. I think thats super interesting. If you can try to trick your brain into do that you can again create the difference between work and in life find those small little tricks really really insightful and then there are some wrinkles though. You just grabbed it and I described it here when we start our conversation, which is our lives are Dynamic and In a lot of ways not having this fixed rigid schedule is actually really good at least how to make for myself. Its really good for me. Its really good to say. Oh, well, my sons got a concert at 3 p.m. And I can just step away and have the freedom to be able to do that and log back on at you know 9 p.m. After I put the kids to bed. You know that thats an incredible amount of Freedom. Its working within how I want to work. But also what I would love to see it because you know, I am not a morning person at all. I mean, Ive given up that fight it may be a you know, the scientific Community has given me enough ammunition to say Im done with it, but Im a night owl and so Im sure that if there were some statistics in metrics on me that my managers and such saw they be like what the Heck is going on with my key is you know 2 in the morning, you know, plowing through emails and this and that but you know, Im at my Prime at around 11 p.m. You know, I know most alert and not even exercise in the evening and so, you know, I think that having these tricks for what works for you, but also hearing those tricks to situations and so there are some hard-and-fast rules that I follow being, you know, cuz Ive dealt with remote work for a very long time and I havent you wouldnt believe that the number of miles on my car how few miles are on my car cuz I havent driven anywhere outside to an airport in many many years, but there are certain rules like, you know, dont take your laptop into the bedroom. Yeah, you know because I think one aspect here psychologically that we have to understand whether its if youre a morning person or a night owl but also as human beings we associate work with specific areas are event. So if Im in bed and Ive got my laptop and Im working well now my mind is starting to associate laying down in bed with work. And now Im going to sleeping problems likewise. I very rarely take my work outside of my office and thats by Design because just like the example that you gave where that that person had flipped off the light essentially I close the door. Yeah. Thats what you doing. What you think about just a friend talk? the concept of email if I send an email. Im determining when youre going to get the email how interested would it be if technology would know that your night out and that you would use me start work or that youre in your Prime know that youre planning to email every day at 2 a.m. Because that works for you. How interesting would it be if I would send my email now, and I know its still early over there, but you will receive it. You wouldnt receive it until 2 a.m. Because the technology knows when youre when you have your best moments in the flow. The flow is the key word here in your flow to do email. How do you think about that? Its hey, lets have Im going to use the old school word. Lets use a wizard Whenever you set up your teams and say what were going to do a personality assessment on you. It just open up with that is part of the configure is a shade configuration personal you could bring it under personalization of your teams in Computing experience and you can volunteer that information to say like like I already know I dont need an AI algorithm to tell me that Im a night owl. I already know so, you know being able to do things like that but also figure out the right methods of communication as well cuz maybe email it isnt the best form of communication for what youre trying to do. So, I think that theres things from a proactive perspective that you could configure and personalize your experience and then two for the more fluid and dynamic aspects of your life have a I start to do pattern recognition on not the past week. Maybe the past few months like oh, I notice that And this isnt a true story but lets say lets say if we were out of the pandemic and we had 18 happy hour, you know twice a month on Thursday. And so the algorithm looks back and says, oh, well, Im noticing that Mike not planning a whole lot Friday morning for whatever reason and hes looking a lot of busy time admin time excetera to go back and say, okay. Well if someones trying to book a meeting and Im going to suggest new times for that person. Im not going to put Friday morning. Im going to put Monday or Tuesday or whatever. Maybe I think thats right. Im looking already do and is it going through workplace analytics in mind and let things is it cannot you? Bet you could say I like to do email at night as well. I do it usually little after 8, if I send an email Outlook essay me show you. Where did you send me an email at 8 p.m. In the evening? Do you want to send it when the work day of the purse that youre sending it to actually starts right? I think those are the first steps and I liked it would just saying about a i a I can have such a big impact on how we work as well. Ive stopped managing my whole calendar. Im running everything through a I so if I want to schedule a meeting with you, Im sending you the email I meeting with you. Im Im sending you the email I put Cortana and CC theres a service thats currently in preview. Is course scheduler and Im sending you the email Cortana to see and say Hey Cortana. Can you help me schedule 25 minutes with Mike and please add a a team snake and if it would be Whats it mean in a room, please? Add a meeting room with wall. Whats Cortana will do. Is it all check your calendar and Ill check my calendar even across time zones show book the meaning for us whenever we are available and then add two teams ranked as well as if it would be in the same office. She would schedule at the office while they from sending the email to somebody outside of my tenant. Thats the outside of Microsoft Cortana actually sending an email to the other person saying hey, Im scheduling a meeting on behalf of Michelle and he can meet that these times do they work for you? And if you say yes, the first date works for me to schedule a TV should know Id rather meet on the third Wednesday in November. Shell find a slot in the third Wednesday in November. 2 alone is saving me between us a 45 and 75 minutes a week into Microsoft, right? Its all going back into whats most important to me, which is my family. Im saying I can have such a big impact positive impact on our lives where technology is really empowering you to achieve more whatever asked what you want to achieve more than life and I use that service in brilliant and when I forget to use it sometimes every once in a while Ill forget to use I can I get an old-school motor whatever night and I and I kicked my sound like what the hell is going on here mention quite a few Innovations from together mode my insides headspace and you know, I know that we just had a big event ignite and there was some some recent announcements. So we mention a few of them, but Im sure that theres some other announcements that got you excited. What were those? I like doing new scenes in to get emotes. So for those and havent seen to get emoji of being placed into a school environment where youre only seeing the silhouette of person, right? So you still seem to phase of course, but youre not seeing the whole image and everything thats happening behind it. So now we normally if you would be on a video call with all these different small video images. Its super distracted. It takes a lot of effort for the brain to to do something with all those different images. So researchers already showing that the ghetto mode is actually decreasing beating fatigue because it is and how soon will be able to add new scenes to to get them all as well where you can basically meet in the cafe or any restaurant or outside and still be induced to get him when I think thats a cool one would like his breakout rooms. Obviously. Thats one of the features that has been asked about a lot thats in Africa. By the way, yeah, you can have your session and then break out and how many ever many different teams you want to you can create up to 50 breakout rooms. Now thats going to be released in in October what I like his custom layouts. So it allows save more Dynamic content viewing experience. You can enable presenter stupidly customized how come to the showing for participants during the during the meeting at that super interesting meeting recap is a big one as well. You can enable recording and transcription. Ill show you be able to do that separately as well. She can make the decision to only duty transcription not the year video recording that but what you get after the meeting issue get a summary with the recording the transcription the meeting though. Its and whatever decks were presented during the session. What I need to do and then were privileged to use to stuff a little bit earlier than and then Ill customers I turn on transcription every single meeting that I want and see if I want to go back and read what was said. Its super easy go to instead of having to go through the full the full meeting the next step here and and our partners already creating tools for this is that you can go into a room. You can just have your meeting and that and if and if I would say, okay, you know what Ill grab that to do and Ill do I fill out the Excel and have it done by next week at the end of the meeting. This is little wolfer the right at the end of the meeting youll see to do Michelle and then showed it to do to actually have something you would just announced that way you can record a small portion of your voice. So the teams recognizes who has has committed to a to it to do. Im currently using it for closed captioning and the transcription show in the transcription. You can also see all Mike said this and then Michelle set this something meeting Recaps is super interesting. Well being able to host webinars in teams you could do to meeting so you could do the life events suing you be able to do webinar registration and Reporting all two teams. Actually. The reason why people are seeing a Skype logo on the top right-hand corner of your image is because Skype right now is the only Microsoft product that support Cindy I witness conference mode. Is it going to finally support India or do you think thats a future potential future? And a bunch of other stuff around around. Just trying to think what I can and cant say now a bunch of other stuff around streaming high quality audio and video through teams. Its something thats going to be very important going forward in the next next two months. I think so youre out and Im sure youll see some more announcements on that. But India is definitely part of its just been announced for teams. Love it. Yeah. I I cant wait for that teacher. Another thing that I found super helpful and you know, its again, its one of those tedious things that that we would have to do more manually before but things like workflow approvals are now being built in a teams as well. Right? Yep, and not just through team so you can connect it through any third party that you might use for pools. So if you do use Adobe service, excuse me, the Adobe service to get signatures, you can connect approvals thats going to be in you happen to you if you can connect approve. 2D Adobe service and its really its its really clicking the whole thing together. Its super easy so I can say okay. I have to purchase a new monitor whatever and that has to be approved by my manager and a spot of the new work homework equipment to program whatever I can just say, okay and that I want we just got the email I can say. Okay. Lets say Mike. Youre my manager likes. Okay. Mike has to approve this I use the Adobe service at clicks and its done. Right, and thats how easy it is the whole app and teams platform development. I think its super interesting. Also, if you look at the Power Platform for those that are unaware Power Platform is about power bi to get visuals of data. Its power virtual agents. Will you can create chatbots even without having technical knowledge. You can create a full working with hand over to be Legends. By the way. The other one is power ultimate you can create flows so we can now say if I join if Mike if you would join my team now on teams you would automatically get a message saying hey Mike, welcome to the team who are the five most important resources to look into first. And hey team, this is Mikey just thought it involves such and such. Please make sure you will go out and say hi. If you would have your own office and we would be allowed to go back into the office. You can even say Call make sure did you say hi to Mike In Bloom X Y and Z in Building 123 write that stuff that you can. Want to matically doing in the last part of that is a power apps and you can create your own apps. But locodoco so you dont need any real coding experience and if you know a little bit about Excel and Excel formulas, you can create power amps and now show me the winning teams. You can just create your power action teams and they create the really strong powerful line of business applications, but just clicking all the stuff together coat Solutions. I mean is getting a lot of Focus right now and you know, whether thats you know, citizen developers are data scientists or just in general, you know of the more we can kind of move up the stack the better because its you know less to maintain more for Microsoft to maintain but thats for the actual customer to maintain which is definitely helps us make this digital ship. Acceleration process, you know, at least what Im seeing is it thats also a catalyst to move to these new kind of paradigms of not only AI to automate a lot of the stuff but also to these Loco no code Solutions as well as that. Is that what youre seeing as well? Yes. Definitely. I think everybody cannot be developer. You have a really cool referenced case on Heathrow Airport in London to have somebody that was not technically at all. You got the assignment to find out what was a what what kind of application for in Microsoft 365 Ford in Office 365 and he found powerapps and he created this real simple app, but you can show information about the airport and the thing about four or five different languages other than English Inn at Spanish. Expansion something else and in Chinese, I believe and and they started using it in the airport. The satisfaction of The Travelers was going up and now this guy leads the power outage Department in the day for 11 one hundreds of different power apps with Indian food in the airport. I think those scenarios are are great to hear. Like I said, you dont need that many developers anymore to create nice line replaces apps. Are yall take care of yesterday? And thats all thats a great example and a lot of what were talking about as well. Im going to provide some links in the show notes. So people can go check those out as weve been talking what I really love about this this conversation. Michelle is weve kind of just kept it in the technical World. Weve weve said luck there are both analog and digital Solutions here to help us through this difficult time and to pave our way forward. You know, I like to say were analog beans trying to live in a digital. I dont think thats ever going to go away until Elon Musk, you know wires us all up. But but that aside, you know, I think would be good for people understand as well. Yeah, just like with some of your life hacks is also a little bit of retrospection, you know, Michelle as you kind of look back over the past 6 or so months are there things that you wish that you would have done differently knowing what you know now I know and thats for the reason I think I figured it out loud because I definitely havent but its it has been such a such an interesting Journey come to know so much more about myself which I think is very valuable got to spend way more quality time with my family think thats an upside and I really seeing how technology can impact people Pine-Sol That definitely could have done things different and better but then at the end of the day, I want to change it because Ive learned so much about me and about my family and then in the workspace about my peers and Market in the customers and all the cool stuff that were seeing their I think thats still a lot of work to do for me as well as an individual right to become a better Michael Stampley to become a better husband better Microsoft employee, but Im quite happy with the journey that Im on as an individual in this in this crazy world that we now live in it. Yeah. Yeah. I think thats probably one of the best answers that Ive heard because it kind of goes back to kind of how I think about parenting right and you know, I want my kids to make mistakes. I want my kids to fail because if theyre not doing that theyre not learning and thats the same goes for us, you know, and I think you make a really good point when you say well I wouldnt change. I think its not because I hadnt done anything wrong with it was a journey for you. And so I think that was a really really good way of of Framing and thinking about that anything that takes a lot of time right? So it took me 1 to my thirties right to understand things about who I am and devalue the values that I have. I said as an individual, but then also how I think about other people in that space. Thats a how much does the opinion of somebody else matter to me. Ive come to learn that if if Im still listening to the chatter you and I were having their somebody somebody would think Ill just got to be show such an idiot. What is he talking about? He doesnt know what hes talking about. Thats perfectly fine by me and please send me that feedback if you think so right for me. Thats its its almost like a gift I make the decision whether or not I want to unpack that gift. Yes or no. Rent, if somebody thinks something of me thats thats division of me through their own lands and that is perfectly fine. Right as long as I always try my best and and and work hard for me and and be honest and be fair. I think thats whats most important to me. And then and then Ill just leave the greatest dad and husband that I could be a greatest individual that I can be in them learn from all the mistakes that I might make in my life. I think weve all made playing you write. The thing is how much do you learn from that and then implemented to your life beautifully sad and you know a lot lot lot of parables in there but nothing but a big things is you know, and as I think about this is just being comfortable in your own skin takes time. And you know a lot of trial-and-error, like you said it took you to your thirties, I you know, I dont know when I got comfortable or whatever but you know, I definitely noticed there were there was a point in time where I was like all feedback is great feedback. Of course, I want to hear the positive stuff, of course everyone does but the lets lets really start to switch that on what we get excited about and switch it to where can I improve you know, what didnt land in the right ways. And so what I have built into my routine whenever I talk to whether its customers or were partners of any of the initiatives, Im working on or or My leadership team. Ill ask them directly. I want dont dont you save the praise for another time. I want to hear about constructive criticism. I want to hear about areas where Could have done something better or Id kind of left you wanting more and I find that extremely valuable because one youre recognizing that youre a human being youve got flaws, you know, youre not an expert in everything. And so thats going to help with your perception and youre youre essentially ability to collaborate with with another party. But also this isnt valuable feedback. Its is all goodness. Like you said, its like, oh youre giving me free counseling free advice on what I did wrong. And now its at the balls in my court to go in and fix it and ran on about it, but its not about its not about me it is what it is and its not about my ego or really help me. What was the eye-opener for me is a book called The Four Agreements by. We go where we will use. Im sorry about a name The Four Agreements are be impeccable with your words. Dont take anything personal dont make assumptions and then always do your best expression be impeccable with your word. I think I always did it, but they dont take anything personal and dont make assumptions. Really thinking about that concept just changed my whole outlook on everything that had to do with life and and Im doing better with it in the in the work environment that Im doing any personal space to be honest with you, but its such a credit freeze you up, right? So now Im not not afraid anymore to try new things. You thinks everybody showed that gold mine said which we already talked about in in Microsoft trying new things. We might fail but thats perfectly fine. If people give you feedback I said, its only a gift and you can decide whether or not you want to unpack that gift to just throw it away is there is two books at really changed my outlook. So very similar to you one was Primal leadership and you know that the author Daniel goleman he was kind of love the father of emotional intelligence and really understanding in a material way that inside My brain may I may think that Im communicating a certain way or whatever how people are interpreting what Im saying? Is it like well this guy is a real a-hole and really Im just like hey, I just want a good product in Im really passionate about this and I want us all to be successful but the audience is like, oh, I dont want to work with this guy. Hes a know-it-all and this and that and so, you know, I think that was critical in shifting kind of how those the dead to the mental framework on how to think about relationships and people and myself and in the second book, which I really liked and I actually take my teams through this as well is the five dysfunctions of a team. And thats kind of a classic Business book that cannot very much through real stories or a one real story goes through essentially implement mean that whole emotional intelligence Paradigm. And what are the impacts what really makes a successful team? What doesnt make a successful team and at the beginning of the story? I think it is the CFL. He was the smartest most successful guy in the startup. But by the end of that story, he was no longer at the company because he pissed everybody off to work with them. So theres an interesting exercise that I recommend folks do once were out of this Global pandemic is take a personality test and let me take a step back bring your entire team together have them all in their own work spaces take a personality test and you know, whatever variety you want to take, you know. Everett is go for it. But I havent when do it have them not tell anybody what the result came out to be then, you know have everyone come together have them put a piece of paper on on their back and now as are walking around someone with a pen will go and either put you in a quadrant or pick a color for you or name the personality profile whatever it may be but what youll find nine times out of 10 and every single time Ive done this I found this to be the case is that whatever your internal backup or primary whatever methodology use whatever turn they use for that whatever you internalize your personality to be universally people outside of your brain. Dont think youre that personality profile. They think youre some other personality profile. Its a fascinating eye-opening kind of test. I like that you think that that thats what Im Duty hoping that technology will will establishes that we can focus more on EQ instead of IQ. Thats what Im hoping for my children as well. Its all my children are in the range of 4 and 13. But but if I look at that the time that spend on EU vs. The IQ part, I wish we would spend more time on the accused. So Im hoping that technology will actually be enabled for that part where where they also the school system will spend a lot more time. Thats a whole different talking to tell if I think more time on on helping children to QA dad emotional. Human Being Human to human connection piece, which I think will be even more important than the future than the den house March or what kind of school you finished or tell you what you know, we both have kids. Were both passionate about our families and youre raising happy and healthy families, you know sometime soon we should do a dedicated episode where we actually talked about that and some of the great things that actually that Ive read that you are coming out of the Netherlands and you know places like Japan where you know, they have kids walking through forests in know things along those lines in the United States are some things that are being done that Innovative in Emerging Markets. Theres a ton of really cool stuff that is being renovated Innovative in the education system, but we should definitely do that on another episode of week. Im Im sure that will be a lengthy conversation interesting but you know Michelle I want Thank you for your time. I know that youre a busy guy and I do appreciate you coming on and and talking with us. Now if folks want to get ahold of you, how can I get ahold of you? This is why its a LinkedIn got Prince of find me on the show. You have my name somewhere. Please connect with me on LinkedIn. If you ever want to reach out, please feel free to do. So again. I like to have to hand sew mentality shows that I can if I can help please send me a message. Feel free to connect. Im sharing a bunch of stuff on the Special Teams want to work stuff and then also the small life hacks. I think thats the thats the place to to find me a text so much for for having me on your show. I think its podcast is such a such a great way to get in touch with with new audiences. So thanks again for for having me and it may we should do a LinkedIn. For my account one of these days. Thank you so much. Thank you.