 I always compare the virtual team with the atom. Where you have in the atom, you have a nucleus and then various particles flying around. And in a virtual team, similarly, our goal, our aim is to retain the gravity, I call it, you know, the gravity between the particles, which are the team members in this case, towards the nucleus. But the nucleus is not the manager or whatever happened to be project manager, HR manager. This is the team purpose and goal. And therefore, we do it in a creative team effort. Peter Ivanov is my guest on this episode of Inside Ideas, brought to you by 1.5 Media and Innovators Magazine. Peter is manager, entrepreneur, and virtual teams expert over with over 20 years of international experience. His book, Virtual Power Teams, is translated in six different languages and is Amazon top three in the category international management. Born in Bulgaria, he graduated mathematics and joined a multinational company as data analyst. He quickly became IT manager for Bulgaria and gradually worked his way up to IT services for Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Peter recognized the growing importance of the teams in multiple locations and developed an innovative method for leading virtual teams. In 2007, the team led by Peter won the best of the best award for outstanding project management in establishing global shared services. In 2012, his team won the Global IT Connect Award for excellent engagement in global cross-functional environment. In 2013, Peter founded Virtual Power Teams and started a new career as a keynote speaker and executive coach on new leadership. Peter is a passionate athlete and world senior champion. In discus, he actively supports young talents in the field of mathematics and sports. I believe he has many, many other skills in track and field and his dynamic keynote speeches and master classes that he gives, he holds them in English, German, Bulgarian and Russian. Peter uses the experience he has gained as manager and athlete and entrepreneur. And yes, the father of five little girls to show how to build up and lead your very own successful virtual power teams. As an expert in new leadership, Peter supports managers to retain the gravity of these teams despite geographical locations, distance, age, culture differences and deliver top business performance. What most of you might not know is Peter's a good friend of mine, a brother from another mother, and so to say, we've known each other for a while. I believe, and quote me if I'm wrong, Peter, 2014 at the TEDxHumburg or 2015 around that time when we very first met, was that right? That's right, Mark, that's right. Thanks for inviting me to your podcast. This is where we've met and I've seen a guy who it was like first side love. I see the depth in your eyes. And I remember I wanted to get involved in the TEDxHumburg. I just made myself like entrepreneur from 20 years corporate career. And I said, you know, how can I get on the stage? And then that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Yeah, and since then we've had some events together. You did an M-Love event. You've done some other events. You're getting ready to do a great event or some support for the Munich World Food Program, which is a super with some good friends over there, Bernard Kowatch and some others. And you're all over. And like I kind of showed in my opening is, you know, I've got two of your books. This is the original in German, Power Teams, Ole Grenzen, which is a virtual power teams. And here's the latest one that you just gave me, Power Teams Beyond Borders. You're quite the author and going through books and languages and it's translated in so many languages, getting great high ranks up there in Amazon. And I've seen and followed this process with you of how you get them translated, working with the publishers. That's a no small feat in and of itself. So I just really welcome you to the show and I'm so thankful that you're here because we're gonna have a lot to talk about. And first and foremost, this time that we've had, this last 12 months of craziness, not only the pandemic and Black Lives Matter, the inauguration, the Trump-pocalypse, the craziness going around the world with the Brexits and the Green New Deal and Belarus and many other crazy tumultuous things happening in our world, probably has been a pretty positive spin in some ways for you because you've been working with virtual power teams and virtually for a long time and you literally wrote the book, so to say. So that brings me to the hard question. And I want you to be brutally honest with me. Has all this past years of experience given you resilience, given you preparedness, say, I've been talking about this, working on this, using these tools for decades, now is my time to shine and it's actually worked out very well where you've seen some really positive things emerge. How have you weathered the pandemic and how has it been up until this point? Yes, now it's been 2020 was my busiest year ever, all over the place. I had gigs with big multinationals, had big scaling, digital companies, which also from the pandemic, they had a lot of attention and some of them scaled. I work with NGOs, so you name it. It's been for my, as you say, for me as a person, and my motto is uniting global talents to resolve the toughest challenges of humanity. So initially I was uniting talents to resolve business challenges, to make global teams in the corporate world work. But gradually I moved on to like middle-size or small-size companies that want to expand internationally. Then came the NGOs like, I don't know, Teach For All, now World Food Program, Youth Against AIDS, many international global organization where without a boss, without a salary or bonus, same principles of my method that I've been honing over the last 20 years as a manager and seven years entrepreneur, they kind of adjusted it for the size, for the industry, for being a nonprofit or for-profit. But really 2020 was the accelerator of everything where I had not just keynotes, which is my passion and we've met at an event and we had a joint event, we shared the stage, but I did a lot of also groundwork workshops to make the companies already adaptable for the new normal or the current on the now normal. So it's been really a very busy period. It's been sometimes exhausting, but it's been very rewarding, by far my most rewarding here. That's amazing. As I said on top, I written this book because I've been approached by Wiley first book. It was more to protect my kind of intellectual property. And it had a very good resonance, six languages, including Chinese and Spanish and German English and so on. The second Wiley approached me and said, we need a book on remote work. We need a book on now home office and how to work remotely and so on. So I said, okay, since the first book, I had a number of cases studies. So the number of experiences is different. And I put another story, which is not just business like the first one, but it's really power team beyond borders. It's about resolving the energy conflict, going for sustainable energy. This is the storyline which demonstrates the method. So it's been on all fronts, on the creative side and on the delivery side as well. Yeah, and it's been a nice mix because now that you've had a little bit of, or had a little bit more downtime as far as traveling to speak at events, you had more time to focus to get the book out, but actually you were still putting the virtual power teams and the virtual practices into place, but you were still traveling to that, which is a huge time consumption. And so now it actually almost lets you laser focus in and create this new, you know, not only what you've been speaking about, kind of the humans of new work and how do we do it and how do we do it effectively with the principles, it was a very unique time. The same for me, busier than ever, projects quadrupled. And so I totally align and know where you come from. I wanna back up a little bit even further to what I mentioned in your biography. So you are a passionate athlete. You get outside, you exercise, you do a lot of different things. You've done javelin and discus and kind of more of this track and field type of sports as well, but as well as other kind of exercise and sports and you're very avid on outdoors. But when we first met shortly thereafter, you says, hey, I'm going to, what was it, Australia or New Zealand? New Zealand. New Zealand to the world senior games. It's like a world senior Olympic games type of a deal. And you did very well and came back with some medals and some great accolades and very proud of you. But that's also a part of an ingrained process of how you live your life, how your daily structure is, that it's a work-life balance. It's making sure that you as an athlete are up to speed and on your game for the day. But at not two separate worlds, you've combined them nicely into one world that works for you very nicely. But I also see not only through the book and we're going to dive a little bit deeper into the book, that it's a world that's not a polar opposites because on top of that, you're the father of my wonderful girls and one of them who's really had some success in the last two to three years for the climate in area, which I hope to coax her on to the podcast as well. But those are balancing what most people, especially during this time would see as all different types of areas and globes, the life, the family, the work, and they're all different, but they don't really overlap. And you've found a way to truly get them all into one type of a lifestyle and culture and make them work. And I really say hats off kudos to you, but can you give us a little bit more insight on those things, those areas, athlete, father, family life and work, how you've been able to do that. And I don't want you to give away the farm of what's in your book and what you teach, but maybe give us some tips that during this time of the lockdown, people aren't happy with their human zoos. They've had more domestic violence, more issues with their kids and because now they have to become an educator of their kids. Can you kind of give us some tools, how you've done it, how we should do it, maybe some good examples? Yeah, that's a great, great question, Mark. And thanks for sharing. It was World Master Games in New Zealand. And it was like proper Olympic Games for seniors. There were 28,000 athletes. So the whole Oakland was flooded with senior athletes between starting from like 40 until 100 plus. So there were several 100 plus athletes which were 100 meters and so on sprinting. It's amazing to see what human body can do regardless of the age. So I was one of them and I managed to get a golden medal in discus or like world champion in discus and then the bronze in Javerin. So I was very happy. My daughter, Gary, she's the middle one was with me. So she was filming called My Performances. And I was given the medal by Sergei Bupka, the famous pole vault jumper. And he's currently, I think, whatever, vice president of the Olympic committee. So, and we had a chat even. He spent probably two minutes with me speaking in Russian about Bulgaria and the senior sports. So it was very rewarding for sure. Before that, to reach there, there was a lot of hard work. But maybe that explains a little bit why because being specialist on virtual power teams, even before Corona, I spent a lot of time online. So as a manager, my teams were always remote. So we had all the structure communication online. So I spent a lot of time sitting or standing but in front of a computer. So my way to balance off the virtual world was really something very tangible to grab the javelin and throw it as far as you can. And similarly with this because it's even heavier. So you have to, a bit more, this because it's heavier, but you get momentum. So the technique is really brilliant. Once you master it, it's not so much. Javelin is probably more hard on your body. This because it's more gentle. And it's beautiful feeling once you master. So really for me was to balance the virtual sitting lifestyle with something more dynamic and something that you can hold in your hand and grab it and throw it as far as you can. Maybe that was my kind of first laugh. When I was 15, I started javelin in my hometown, Gabrovo, Bulgaria. And since then was a long way. I competed until probably age 25. And then I kind of retired from athletics, but age 42, midlife crisis starts to kick in. So I returned to competing. And really within 10 years exactly, I reached the Bulgarian title. Then I was the Balkan champion for like appropriate 12 countries in the Southeast Europe. Then I was second in Europe. And I think was it in Nice? Yeah, in Nice there were European championship. And then was the crown is 17 in Oakland, New Zealand. But the point is on one hand, I'm ambitious and people can feel it and hear it. You know, I'd like to give my best. But on the other, it is a great journey. It is a great journey. And it is particularly throwing. It was physical and I still have injuries here and there, you know, lower back and shoulders. But it was even more mental journey because I did a lot of visualizations. It's highly technical. The throwing discipline sound like, you know, you shout and just, but in fact there is a lot of technique because you need to put sequentially within milliseconds to start with your legs. Then you have your core. Then your breast and then you finish with the arm. And if you do it at the same time, it's suboptimal. It will drop much, much shorter. You have to do it in a sequence and this sequence have the whip and it goes further. And in order to synchronize a lot of visualizing, a lot of analysis, video analysis and tuning here and there. So it was a mental journey, physical journey, mental journey. And again, it's a teamwork. I mean, I wouldn't be, you know, age 42 when I started and I'm just turned 50. You need a coach. You need a proper coach. And I was lucky enough to find a friend here, a Russian guy, slightly older. He was the Soviet Union world champion in Decathlon. So he know all these disciplines, you know, sprint and throwing and jumping. So we developed a good friendship and he was hardcore Russian trainer. So we have some recordings where he swear with me if I don't do the technique properly. But all this, I think all this contributed to this medal. And for sure, you mentioned family, maybe now I'll switch to the family, the support of the family because I work sometimes 10 hours and before Corona also traveling, time zones, enduring. You come back, you're exhausted. You need some physical exercise to open your eyes to refresh, to kind of wake up your body. So I go first stadium sort of and then I come to the kids. So all the support of my wife and the acceptance of the kids and the kids came with me probably, not half of the times, but 40% of the times they were with me, particularly the little ones, you know, they were holding the discus and with the kids discus, they were trying themselves. So I think with the family because there is no much time left. It's a sad to say it, but you know, I'm very busy person. So I managed to combine, you know, they came with me, they were engaged and made enthusiastic by the training process, you know, with the trainer, what we do, you know, you have to do weights, you have to do flexibility throwing is very demanding. And they kind of mirrored and, you know, they did the things and they tried, the middle ones tried javelin, the little ones, they still throw balls and different, you know, like rubber javelins and stuff for kids. So I think for them was physical exposure to the new world. And also this team spirit and the joy. And I was also coaching, sometimes I go, my coach is not there. So he has a group of kids and I would do the warmup with them and they would do the discus and I'll give them tips. So it has been a nice journey from all angles. And now if I go to the family only, I think now I'm even more stretched because home office, homeschooling is demanding. Particularly now you said five little kids, now they're not so little, three of them are teenagers, they're like 17, 15 and then 13. So they are as big as my wife already. But sometimes they need help in maths, for example, where I have a master degree or sometimes depends. My wife covers chemistry, I cover maths, so we split a bit the fields. And I think the key in the family is quality time because I cannot provide so much quantity of time. But when we do something, we play a lot in the evening, we play board games, particularly the little ones now just learn, bagamon and poker and all that stuff and we enjoy it. I bring them with me outside. I was born in the mountains in Bulgaria so I love nature and they come with me for a long walks in the forest. So I think the family side, I still fit a bit guilty that I'm focusing too much on my career, but at least I have an anchor of quality times, being sports, being nature, being games, being visiting different places, maybe not so many, but we've been around, we've been in Bulgaria many places, Spain, travel in Europe, Disneyland for sure and so on. So it's around those topics where I'm kind of a, mainly I'm a bit extroverted person and I take energy from nature and outside factors and this is what I share with my kids and they all can windsurf, they can ski so I'm proud that I brought those skills. We never hired a trainer, a ski trainer or a ski teacher or windsurf, kind of managed to do that with them so I kind of give them my passion for sports and for the rest, now it's becoming more leadership challenge as they grow up, they go in the teenage and I'm very proud of my oldest daughter. I'm not sure, I didn't spend so much time with her but she developed an incredible passion for climate change and sustainability and saving the planet and funny enough, I was the one to, I was asked just by chance, they needed a German kid speaking English and she's still having a Bulgarian pass but she speaks fluent both English and German who is passionate for climate change. One NGO airs for our oceans in California, they needed this kid for, there was this case when the six kids from different countries sued the governments for like violating the child rights and my daughter was the kid representing Germany. For sure there was interview processing and some selecting process based on their passion, based on their case studies, what they've done. For example, she has a group in her gymnasium that she kind of found it and she's leading and then that opened up a new, if you wish, career for her. She was doing it grassroots and now she had a great exposure. She was in the United Nations together with Greta Thunberg and the other kids. Then when she came back, she was immediately on the first German television, the second interview talk shows with Barbara Schoneberger and other celebrities. So for like three months, I was her secretary just dealing with her media appointments. Now the media attention is a bit lower but her passion is still sustaining and she's given us hard time at home for no plastic at all and she's vegan and now I'm the only one who eats fish every now and then the rest are vegan. So she's driving a big transformation in the family. I don't think this is my contribution. Maybe she is a bit role modeling me but she has her passion and my wife is a bit more kind of much more empathic person than me, I'm more goal oriented. And I think this combination between idealistic which comes from my wife and goal centered and she's also a very good public speaker. The first engagement was with 500 speakers in a theater here in Hamburg. So I think she kind of jumped on the speaker stage and career by flying, that was a flying star. Wow. Yeah, enough. No, that's not enough. We're gonna go deeper. So I'm gonna call you on the carpet even more. So I love the background and it makes more sense now and I understand it. There's one aspect that you left out but I know from your book, but I also know you know it. How do you merge the work with that family and your fitness life? So those are almost, for most people those are three separate areas but you're busy, you're away but you've also found a way to merge it and to make it work. And especially during this time you have, I mean, the proof is you've done it. Is there some more tricks or tips or things that you can mention in that respect and some aha moments that you've learned even more so now during the lockdown period? If you focus before Corona, before the lockdown I said I bring kids with me every time I can and even when I was the European Championship not Gary, another daughter came with me so I brought them whenever I can and they appreciate that. Now during Corona things changed. I stopped competing, there was no competition, they canceled, it should have been in Japan. The next version they do it every four years. So I did, this is concrete tips. I do a lot of micro kind of trainings during the day not a lot, but I will do like two to three every day. And in fact, it's like time division that would be the title of my secret. I wake up early by nature, I'm an early bird and then I would do the most creative part even I would wake up between four and five without a clock sometimes it would be like 5.30 but that would be the very latest. So I would have one hour to do creative work probably the most challenging thing sometimes it's related to planning, sometimes it's related to brainstorming but the biggest kind of the most fearful task which if I delay I probably wouldn't have fine time during the day I would do first. So I tackle it in the early hours and then I go for a walk here because walks in COVID works very well particularly in Germany and I have some rituals I do some power breathing from yoga I would do some visualization stuff as well so I have like 15 to 20 minutes not so much exercise it's a walk with some breathing techniques and some visualization and some goal setting for the day. And then I come back I would do breakfast not every day but I love doing breakfast cutting fruits and vegetables and so on. And then although myself now I'm doing 16 hour interval fasting for I don't know six months and it works very well but I'm experimenting now. And then the first half of the day I have some calls but in between I will intervene whenever I can I will do like half hour for example homeschooling help in maths or somebody needs technical help for the Zoom with the kids or we would have half an hour or one hour with my wife to go for a walk and then discuss some things. So these are like micro investments and I need this variety anyway if I just work eight hours with no interruption it wouldn't work. So and then during the day even if I have like four hours I have a coaching client or I have an online keynote which is usually like one and a half hours after that immediately after this one or two hours I would take a break and I would do like 20 minutes something. Now there are so many things on YouTube where you could do with YouTube and also Instagram you could do with your own body weight a few exercises and you have a huge variety for your core muscles for every muscle group you could do with your body weight. So I would have like one more powerful session and I would have one more yoga stretching because I still do throwing stretching is very important in order to have amplitude to throw far but also to prevent injury. So every day I would do sometimes 10, 15 minutes and I have my own routines. I don't do like, you know, or other things but I have yoga positions which I practice and I rotate. So I think those things, some power, some yoga and probably three times a week I go for more aerobic exercise. I would go either long walk, long like two, three hours or I would go like 45 minutes a run that gives me the balance. And I would keep it different times depending on my schedule but I'll try twice a day to do something which energizing me which brings, you know a lot in the oxygen and that keeps me going. So I didn't lose from probably I didn't go to the gym for I don't know, maybe six months and but I didn't lose much of my power because of this body weight stuff and the flexibility and the endurance is same level. And maybe one more thing, if I have a longer usually I go for this 25 minutes rule. Whenever I start on a task and I have a clear target what I want to achieve I'm using Alexa and say Alexa set an alarm in 25 minutes and when the 25 minutes are gone I just stand up and do something for five minutes something physical. Sometimes I would put music, then think I would experiment but I think breaking the routine works very well for me. It's not for everyone but I think you have to find out what is it for you? For some is more, you know, maybe relax for some is more maybe art enjoy your beautiful music or try to sing but you have to have all your own thing to increase your productivity. And now there was a survey what is the number one factor that people find more most attractive for working remotely even before COVID where it was more of a luxury. Now it's a must. And the number one by far was not by far but work whenever you like. So you could really design your working schedule as you wish. And that's what I'm taking advantage over the years. And the second was work wherever you like. So you could choose home, colocation, whatever during being on an exotic location and so on which also I try with the family. Sometimes when we go to Bulgaria where I'm from and my wife, we would stay longer there and if we stay like three, four weeks two weeks would be holiday, two weeks I would work maybe half time the other spend with them. So on this wherever you like you could also if you are solopreneur or I have a small team that's not a big organization you would enjoy those things. So I think that's probably that covers quite a bit what people have really been running into and I mean it's different all over the world it's really the fact that now we're getting this 24 seven view especially in lockdown areas of the places that we live and some of us have been fortunate enough to create a home environment no matter where you live whether it's an apartment or a house or a condo or whatever it is that is pretty nice 24 seven but overwhelming majority of humanity especially in developing countries are in a place under lockdown conditions where it's not that conducive to be there 24 seven one there's not high speed broadband internet there's not enough computers for all your kids to study there's no location for you to do your work that you normally do in an office or somewhere else where you're at and so now what we're seeing domestic violence on the rise a lot of issues with children and with not enough computers and kids missing school or not getting online we're finding that the utilities and the resources of your home that you're in aren't sufficient for living in 24 seven that also within those structures that people are working from their beds they're working from their couch so bad posture, bad working ergonomics as you can tell and you know me for years I always stand whenever we met it live in person we would always find a table where we could stand and have a meal so there's things because you and I have been working remotely and working wherever in the world and working the future of work for years we've figured out how to tackle the ergonomics we've figured out how to use the right tools for time management and what I hear out of what you said is that it needs to be a work family life balance and that's really dependent upon my management and how you split it up through discipline another big thing that we've seen in reports and studies just in the past 12 months about those who are working at home is they're actually working longer hours they're working more they're not taking breaks they're not taking vacations obviously they're working on the weekends there's a little more flexibility a lot more people working in their underwear their pajamas so to say only when they have to do a video from the top up and all sorts of plethora of things being experienced in this time but the key that I hear out from you is not only time management but there's a it's almost a form of chaotic discipline so you have a strict time schedule and discipline a routine but through that routine it's a very freeing because you get these micro breaks or a lot of breaks during the day that's still involved that family time that breaking it up over time for a lot of people a lot of people feel that that discipline is something scary that it's a very confining but discipline is something that's very freeing by getting up earlier by going to bed earlier by setting routines and some alarm clocks or some clocks to say okay you've worked for a couple of hours now now it's time for a 20 minute break a 15 minute break doesn't mean start smoking so that you can have a break it doesn't mean start eating more now that you have time to break go on the couch and eat some more chips but work on your breathing work on those other things work on things with your family that are these mini micro breaks or on your health or your fitness and how that gets split up to dive really into your before we dive into your book a little bit more there's a question that's I'll let you answer it there's a question that really ties to this and what we've talked about and it's one about being a global citizen and whether you feel like you're a global citizen so in your bio I mentioned all the languages your books been translated in all the languages you speak your family and the way you've been all over the world so I'd like you to answer or say what you just wanted to ask me or to say but then I wanna kind of get into a little bit more of this your global mindset which ties to virtual power teams ties to teams all over the world and into that thinking but go ahead yeah well just based you asked me for tips two more came up so one is take breaks take regular breaks that would make your productivity much much better you will see it and then as you say this chaotic discipline helps a lot so build the breaks then I recommend people because I'm using it with five little kids and a wife I have a do not disturb sign I have my own office but they still storm and jump and sometimes is sweet in the conference but not always so I have a sign which I don't abuse but I have a sign do not disturb if I have an important session that I want to be disturbed it's a simple thing and there was a third one which probably I will come up later so breaks do not disturb yeah let's keep it for later there was no related to that that's fine that happens to me all the time that you get up there in age and you read as much as I do tend to get some things right what was that thing I really want to want one other thing so what most people don't know we've known each other for a while but we did a kind of an adventure together one time we went to Montenegro to the green culture form and we spoke at the green culture form we attended it we hung out together it was really wonderful actually but it was on a nudist beach island type of a in Montenegro close to Port Gorica I think is how you say it you could probably say it better than I do and Port Gorica and we went there for the green culture form where we talked about also different types of environmental and food topics and other topics but also speaking and coaching and different things that we did there and it was really wonderful to see you there but we over the years been really working how do you work in remote locations not just the speaker, not just traveling how do you help others to get into these mindsets and think about these things because there's a huge cultural aspect in all of this an extremely huge cultural aspect that applies to the question that I ask you do you feel like you're a global citizen and how would you feel about a world without borders nations and divisions of humanity, one from another and how does that tie to virtual power teams Oh yes, beautiful question thank you ma'am certainly I feel like global citizens and citizens and my life so far without planning and managing it it's like epitomizing global citizenship because I was born in Bulgaria a small country in Southeast Europe being a very powerful country in the Middle Ages but you know, shrinked I was born in the communist time so completely different system until the age of 18 I had the chance to live in the communist society which have some advantages I had a very good quality education for free I didn't have a chance to travel the world until then because it was strictly very restricted and then age 18 probably was optimal for me the regime changed so I could travel the world I had a good education I finished the Sophie University then the five years I was until I finished my master of mathematics studies but then my life expanded I had a chance I started in Bulgaria working for a global company but I was traveling all over Europe at this time London where was the head office and so on and then by four years later I was kind of transferred to Hamburg for one year to run a European project we were establishing in the early days European data center so we were moving the big servers from Southampton, Budapest to Hamburg and then I went to Hungary where I was three years establishing technology shared services for Central Europe and during that time I traveled a lot in the Central European countries including Croatia, Montenegro where we've met and so on and then when I came back I become a global service planner so a lot of that was doing it, you know, remotely but I also there was a lot of traveling to Asia mostly Kuala Lumpur but other countries so in my work I had a chance to travel a lot to meet even more people from all countries on the on the map whatever 190 plus countries work with them sometimes lead them sometimes be peers with them so it was very rich experience and I kind of my communist past and a small Bulgarian past gave me some roots gave me some unique perspective but then I had a chance to see the world and now with the virtual power teams once I saw that the borders and the distance is not a barrier because I had when I was here I run a project for this data center where we had the European scope then the one that you mentioned best of the best 2006 2007 it was establishing a global shared services and I was responsible for the European rollout 30 countries it was expanding then as head of IT services I had 100 plus teams spread across Russia I mean Eastern Europe the whole Middle East and then the whole of Africa so the geography expanded and I saw geography is not a barrier time zones you could work around it if you have a people to people heart to heart connection cultures you could you know if you could leverage on this diversity it becomes much more fun and much more successful so it's so that you can unite people you could unite talents and I believe everyone is a star everyone is a talent it's really the role of the leader to discover it and not just of the leader to create an environment where they could shine and in the virtual power teams one of the big rocks is the strength matrix but we discovered each and everyone the natural strengths and talents of the people we put it in the matrix with avatar completely new feeling emerges because everyone with his rich history coming with unique talents and this really makes me on one hand citizen of the world on one on the other hand very passionate enabler to unite global talents on a particular cause on a particular purpose with a strong why and that's why now I still work with the global organizations in the business front but I'm even more passionate about the NGOs where people really trying to tackle the toughest challenges and I know you do a lot of work in this space in the food and the sustainability so yes my history maybe I'm lucky because I was born in such a way I had a chance to travel early enough I was exposed to these big projects and it developed as a passion and really if you can leverage the diversity we have a method to define the optimal culture of a virtual team based on the cultures involved on free scales so it is systematic as a mathematician but it's also a discovery process exploring and discovery process and they decide I don't impose anything so I love that I mean one thing that really gets me in your book in your books is really that you're there there's one really the understanding of the power of a virtual power team so and then you go into the power of diversity the diversity of that team what each member despite age, gender, culture can bring to that and then you also go deeply into these new emerging forms of leadership so are there some people there that haven't had a voice before that are actually you can inspire and find new ways new working environments from people that you might not have recognized before and how to really unleash the top performance and over all of these groups with all of the pillars and you have a very I don't wanna give it give it all away but this systematic thing and so in the book my favorite section I actually even have it bookmarked is it's all around building optimal team culture it's the 10th chapter and the reason why is multifaceted so obviously it's all a systemic approach it's multifaceted of a system and you know those principles and ways to do it effectively but there's a strong focus on diversity and culture and this virtual conglomerate of indigenous wisdoms wisdoms from around the world that maybe because of COVID but maybe just because their organization as global or international need to find a way to be bipartisan to work together to come together and make their organization no matter what kind of organization work and so one you get very specific to what type of organization how are they structured and how can you make them powerful and effective as much as possible but the reason I like the cultural part and I'll come right out and tell you is human evolution takes millions to billions of years for Homo sapiens of all but when we get technology virtual technologies emerging technologies mixed with cultural evolution through cultural evolution through diversity and through seeing perspectives in a different way we haven't seen before on a much global way and what I call and you've heard my talks before with this overview effect or this cosmic perspective then that is the only way that humanity can evolve much faster than the traditional ways we've evolved and part of it it's multifaceted as well because you know if we're democratic republic or we're Christian or Muslim or whatever those are all things that divide us to get ahead to reach the future faster but if we can evolve a culture from an organization the organizations that you help to have that diversity to have that culture it is a way for us to evolve much faster to reach that beautiful future that we really all want that where we all really want to go and so that's the chapter I like the most and I mean I don't wanna give away all your secrets because you have you do these workshops and work with teams for weeks to months to make sure they've reached their project their objectives that they work well together that they know how those tools work until you feel comfortable to turn it over to them and I guess they go off and finish their project and maybe report back later to you but I would love to hear some other vital things that you can maybe tease or tell us about that are also vital for us to know especially during this time of lockdown that maybe would pickle us of why we need to get even smarter or a little bit more wiser about some of the tools some of the things that we should be doing to evolve a little bit faster Yeah, thank you, thank you Mark and I'll come back to this cosmic view in the end of my now statements so you mentioned the culture culture is key I make a metaphor, you know the virtual team if you imagine it as a human being with a hat the body and the heart the might 10 big rocks which is the method comprised of the 10 big rocks they are linked to this body the first three are in the head and here I probably wouldn't go through all 10 now but the first three are the cognitive, the logical part and the very first is important personality and focus particularly if you have a new team member so you don't have a chance to meet and your team is dynamic you need to see the trust you need to see the interpersonal relationships and then with a structure communication make them try and I develop a format where very quickly with a live journey and particular moderation people go very deep within minutes like five to 10 minutes and there is even a flash intro with only four questions which people go deep and they engage I remember I worked with a Japanese client in Frankfurt and Japanese who are usually reserved we did the flash intro in peer groups in the groups of two it usually takes five minutes all together two minutes per person, just four questions after the workshop it was today's workshop in the night most of them stayed until three, four o'clock in the bar still pondering on the four questions there was so much discussion going on so personality and focus and their formats which really help to bridge and to connect heart to heart strength matrix as I mentioned don't keep the people just as the biggest problem of poor team they feel isolated they just feel a resource they don't feel connected, disconnected and so on we discovered their natural strengths and talent we made them official to everyone we work even with avatars so they kind of and everyone start feeling like a hero like a star, bringing these unique talents and then setting the goal bottom up is very key the more virtual your team the more locations, time zones and cultures the less you as a manager would know what is the best goal so the why to some extent it's a big factor you may come with a why and attract the right people but on the what you certainly have to do it in the workshop format as a team and then we have a method, systematic approach free step approach to develop the goal bottom up and then we build strategic road maps that goes to this goal and there is no delegation it's a key, simple but key step people voluntarily pick the sub goals on the road maps the milestones and take ownership and they commit and it's much more they take they pick it based on their strengths they argument it because this relates to my strengths and the more you work in your strength area the more joy you have the more you are in flow and so on so those things about setting the goal bottom up in a collaborative, co-creative process not delegating but people picking these are key elements so from the other 10 that was the hat hat is very fundamental because it establishes the big why and the big what I always compare the virtual team with the atom where you have in the atom you have a nucleus and then various particles flying around and in a virtual team similar with our goal our aim is to retain the gravity I call it you know the gravity between the particles which are the team members in this case towards the nucleus but the nucleus is not the manager or whatever happened to be project manager, HR manager this is the team purpose and goal and therefore we do it in a creative team effort if the nucleus is there then keys to establish a structured communication Google did the research Project Aristotle maybe some of the participants know it can research it so they wanted to see what their top performing teams have in common their best performing teams so they researched at some point they discovered that they have an equal share of talking that means since at some point even the extroverts managed to shut up and then the introverts to speak up and they end with like equal share of talking but that was not the only thing so I think this is something discovery which I emulate in my method many of the update meetings we do it in such a way that everyone is having an equal share by design to prevent some bosses dominating the discussion or in case a problem thing and pointing and so on but Google discovered there were some exceptions still some teams deliver great results and there is no equal share of talking they continued researching and the number one characteristic without any exception was psychological safety they called it by developer term which means their team members feel safe enough to make to take risks not being afraid that they will be laughed at or they will have a negative consequence for their career they take risk they show their vulnerability they show their weaknesses they feel safe enough they ask for help they give help so all this encompasses the psychological safety and now we in the structure communication where the next three big rocks forums and agenda what meetings do you need what's the agenda who take part with kind of embodied this principles where they establish a structure communication that everyone can contribute and shine not the manager dominates or some other extroverts we do knowledge management there which we linked it to the strengths we develop the topics and nominate knowledge champions which are the custodians of particular field we do regular feedback we decide consciously as a team how often we touch base as a team how often we get feedback one on one with the manager so that's the body part the dynamic and the last part the heart my favorite it's about the culture like your favorite book chapter the optimal team culture as you said there is a methodic free scales leadership decision making conflict team consciously picks the scale and they debate how can I enable this culture because sometimes if you have like Chinese very hierarchical maybe a big stretch if they have to operate in a more egalitarian culture because the team chosen it so there is a lot of group debate and self reflection how can I enable it how our leader can enable it and then we have the winning spirit another one which is usually I work with various force of recognition despite the distance including a peening prize for outstanding performance and it worked in various industries delivered people really went extra mile with this if you do it right if you don't go for traditional bonus or or money but team experience then we have a recognition the number one reason for people living companies actually living bosses not companies due to lack of recognition and I usually say if there is one secret to lead the family with six women this is praise praise praise what to praise praise the result if there is a result if they you know achieve something if there is no result but they help each other the behavior is you know supportive in the team spirit praise the behavior if there is neither result nor behavior look harder there is always something to praise but be authentic so in the recognition we kind of develop a virtual praise from many different aspects we gamify it and so on and then I mentioned recognition optimal team culture diversity and next and the winning spirit and 10 is like a bit futuristic like yourself it's next generation leaders how to involve you know the your millennials your digital natives but also that's why it's power team beyond borders how to reach out beyond your organizational boundary how to motivate inspire and have you know attracted to your gravity field different organizations communities of practice NGOs in the book there is a story which they do hackathons and various forms but with a strong why they managed to attract and I will just say from the cosmic perspective as you said which is really I fully share your view that if we manage the diversity right we could accelerate our evolution and reach the vision state much faster on this vision state there is a there is a research which shows that in the universe I'm not sure some people may debate it you know some of the terminology but I'll put it in a very plain terms in the universe only 10% is material 10% are planets and stars as we know the matter then 20% is like nothing black holes or the phenomenon that scientists still cannot explain and 70% is invisible energy like the gravity that holds the universe together and in the virtual team it's similar 10% are the team members and the infrastructure 20% are still undeveloped potentials and 70% the major part is the relationships the trust the gravity that holds your virtual team together so the art to read virtual teams is to focus on the 70% and I assure everyone on our listeners they will be amazed by the wonderful words to come that's beautiful and I mean you do this for a lot of people so another good friend of ours is Conrad Gula from Keeb you helped him and his teams it's a big huge international company that has people all over the world working on projects and like what you're doing as well or getting starting to do for the world food program who last year won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work and efforts humanitarian works around the world the thing is is what I understand and I want to clarify it you would take a team and leaders internally to get ready to prepare them how to work virtually how to work as a team how to build that team give them this training and this experience of one of your workshops your courses and then they with those tools and that empowerment then go off and work on their projects specifically for example the world food program does accelerators every year and does a lot of innovations it's the innovation hub and so they do a lot of things in that respect is there any time that you come in where you say we don't have time to to have you train us before we do this project we've got this project to do how can you help us rally everybody around this project and you're just like doing both at once as you're working on the project have you had experiences like that before usually it starts with the key notes when we could invite not just the leaders of the organization but the entire organization because there is no limit on the participants and the tools are scalable enough so that would be the inspiration they could see the method explained the ten big rocks they could see various case studies and I would vary depending on what organization it is I would bring the similar industries or similar challenges that they face and then we go into the workshops which usual format would be like eight, two days, 16 hours but broken down in a two hours kind of blocks because if you have a global team it is a luxury to find more than two hours usually you have this window between like 12 and two o'clock which is the optimal they call it golden window where cage the Australians, the Europeans and the east coast is comfortable west coast will be very early but still possible so we would break down this 16 hours in eight blocks of two hours and then I would be available we usually schedule a monthly because in this 16 hours we develop the strategic roadmaps for this organization which are very specific we develop a strength matrix which is an enabler we develop the structure communication the team charter which has the forums who takes part and so on and we develop the optimal team culture on the scales people choose it so these are the key outcomes where now they go on on their strategic roadmaps and start delivering and I would be available for a monthly usually again two hour coaching a group coaching where we debate and so on and if necessary I'm available for individual session working on particular program with particular leader so it is a journey with a strong start usually for the whole organization to know what we are embarking on then the workshop to set the foundation to tune the 10 big rocks for their industry, reality and challenges and then it's a process to ensure that those roadmaps get delivered that's beautiful what I've run into and I believe you mentioned this earlier and offline when we were speaking that we've been talking about these things the future of work and things for quite some time and some organizations and companies never put those things into practice never said hey we need to get our employees trained we need to prepare to have the right tools and thinking in place for the future for when something like the lockdown or the future of these new projects will emerge the minute the pandemic hit almost immediately I started receiving calls and people saying hey we heard you talk about sustainability and environmental social governance and reporting and planning and can you help us get back in business can you help us open our doors can you help us get up to speed reinvent our business models and you've told me that people have been calling you knocking down your door saying boy we didn't implement them we didn't take your training but now we desperately need it because we've got this international team they're all definitely not traveling to the office anymore and we need some help because we have some big projects or we're getting ready to go back to work and we need to have a different model we need to have some tools so what have you seen in that as people have been calling you and what do you tell them are you turning people away or you're ready to go and help everybody who calls you yeah now I'm currently I don't discriminate in any industries you know I worked in the last seven years with 100 plus clients from you name it probably most of them IT companies from the very big ones to like keep you mentioned a scaling now international company when we started there were I don't know maybe 20 people company now they have locations in USA and they're really scaling big time so industry is not specific I work with recently with many banks because they feel pressure of in tech and so on but also automotive also manufacturing you name it the NGOs so it's interesting to mention that I still have the luxury not to turn people away because my focus my approach is very focused we're talking about two days broken down and then once a month coaching I can still serve many clients it's not like a big engagement on a particular client but now during Corona they were for example two different problems or three I will mention briefly one which was most excited and it's reflected in the book a biotech company engagement which they develop among others vaccine against vaccine against COVID-19 and they from day one they put the challenge and that motivated me a lot they said we are in our in this space we go for competition which is you know word from cooperation or collaboration cooperation call and then competition so in the R&D space this biotech they cooperate with 12 other biotechs on the leading edge and they share open their books and they cooperate to develop the vaccine and then when they are ready they will compete on the market so that's pre agreed for me that was a new concept then I researched and I seen that you know Amazon and Apple did it with the Kindle and then in the automotive Toyota did it with some competition so it was not a very new concept but it kind of gave me a lot of fuel and with them we work with the global R&D boss and the HR department, the HR team and we went through the whole process so it was very motivating for them the challenge was beyond their organizational boundary how to make this global community of you know managers R&D specialist experts some research fellows university and so on to make it work I think that gives me also wind in my sails for tackling bigger problems now COVID is like just one case study so this was very good because they really reached out and say we want to enable a global community with a very noble goal and purpose so let's see what can we do together the other one was another very common case that was a manufacturing company and they simply struggled for their knowledge workers was kind of okay they managed to work remotely but they have a lot of hybrid teams you know the manufacturing team that have to produce in this case they produce cement and other kind of products for the for the building industry so how their managers can manage these hybrid teams which must be you know blue collar workers still kill them motivated and the office which is you know 10% in the office the other 90% work from home so that was another case study which is very relevant for all these industries where you cannot do it remotely everything remotely so and the third one was this scale up where really they have been remote but they're growing a lot and they started facing retention issues and then we focus a lot on the culture on your favorite subject and the chapter and also on the various ways of recognition in order to keep people motivated and it's really not everybody is equally suited for virtual work you have to as you said you know this chaotic discipline but discipline being a self starter self motivator is crucial if you need people you know to chat around you need to provide for those peoples now to bridge the gap other ways other communities other ways to feel part and you know sense of belonging and this is where we work particularly in terms of recognizing their progress gamifying it working on the optimal team culture which when they choose it comes with the elements so yeah that was the free of the challenges that we've been resolving during the corona times yeah that disciplines are a really hard one for some people to grasp but the other the flip side of that is those people who have been who had before the COVID been going from nine to five or into a job during eight hours a day for 40 hours a week the big majority of them were punching in a time clock they're punching out for breaks they're punching out for lunch they were being micromanaged their time was very controlled and that's a different form of discipline it's more a form of control by those who are employing you micromanaging your time making sure you're on time making sure you punch in and out and kind of you know looking over your shoulder to make sure you're on task there's this freedom that you mentioned earlier that people really want to work whenever they can and have flexible hours as long as they put in hours or that they serve the customer's needs during certain times is profoundly important but it's a different form of chaotic discipline that really can be a very freeing thing and much better than having to punch in and out all the time it's just a different way of looking at it I have four last questions before we go over our time that I have for you this first one is actually the hardest one that I will give you and I want your answer I don't want what you think the miracle or the Bulgarian government or anyone else thinks I want to know your answer and it's the burning question WTF and no it's not the swear word it's what's the future? Yeah, interesting question I believe we will as you mentioned we will work more remotely but now many companies and HR directors really struggle with the winning spirit it's been too long and hopefully we will have lockdowns less lockdowns and so on so they struggle with really maintaining the spirit even people that trust each other knows there is a fatigue and also from online meetings and so on so I think we will work more virtually but with more joy so that's where virtual power teams come to make enjoyable to make it purposeful to make it fulfilling with my motor uniting global talents to resolve the toughest challenges that will provide people really to choose the cause that they want to contribute to and a method so they really work with brilliant minds across the globe passionate for this topic so I think we will see more of that in the corporate world going beyond the organizational boundaries engaging with experts from other organizations in order to achieve your goal and on the nonprofit sector I think we'll see people really more communication more competition more co-creation more community of practice which currently is more around brainstorming I feel they will go to the next level to really resolve things not just help each other but formulate common goals and achieve those goals so I think there will be more of it but with more joy and more fulfillment that's great if there was one message that you could depart my listeners as a sustainable takeaway that has the power to change their life what would that be? Your message? I think I think I'll say two things I think you have to you have to believe in yourself you have to shine as much as you can don't limit yourself I will now link it a bit to Nelson Mandela who said allowing yourself to shine you allow others also there is no purpose in playing small so believe in yourself set a very brilliant moonshot vision for yourself that's the first part of the message and second one comes from one quote that I that I laugh and I live and it is it say if you dream alone and I would encourage you to dream alone a lot this is just a dream this is more to fuel your power but if we dream together this is the beginning of a new reality so share your dream there is a way to connect with like-minded people share your passion and then we could really create a new reality much more beautiful one what have you experienced or learned in your professional journey so far that you would have loved to know from the start? maybe it's a cliche but coming from communistic you know first 18 years of my life where you know the boss is the smartest I was coming from a perspective that you know too you have to know all the answers and like my first four or five years of my professional career I had a lot of issues with that and limiting the performance of my teams but all of a sudden I realized on the hard way that actually that's absolutely not true and you as a leader and even now more in virtual teams you don't see you are enabler so you need to let the other shine the answer is there in this you know brain swarm intelligence that you have as a team and even expanding it all answers are there so make people connect have a clear view you don't have to be the smartest or knowing it all you are just an enabler believe in it have a strong gravity you know be humble and then the great results are to come and a lot of fulfillment as well and the last one is really is there anything that we didn't talk about today that you would really like my listeners to know or think about as we've been blessed because you've really shared your insights and thoughts and let us in inside your ideas and your book and your world which I'm very thankful for but is there anything else that you would like to depart my listeners that you maybe didn't get to and then that's all I have for you yeah you guided me so well so thank you Mark I think I've mentioned everything and beyond nothing really it's the same thing you know share your dream have a strong dream share it and then not sky is the limit universe will support us and we could have a really beautiful beautiful future sustainable, enjoyable and fulfilling thank you so much Peter it's been a sure joy and I know we'll see and talk to each other very soon and I have a feeling you have a few more books up your sleeve so we'll be seeing great things from you and I hope to talk to you very soon take care thanks for having me Mark