Welcome to 2026!

After four years and 50+ episodes of Work 20XX, it's time to evolve the conversation. The return-to-office debates? We've covered them exhaustively. The real action now is in AI adoption, continuous learning, and building the skills that matter for distributed work.

In this episode, Jeff shares his vision for Work 20XX in 2026, including why he's shifting focus away from return-to-office topics, the AI training with Kyle Moschetto that transformed his workflow, and his commitment to increase episode frequency this year.

Key Topics:

• The evolution of workplace conversations since 2021

• Why return-to-office debates are no longer the priority

• AI adoption and practical training insights coming in 2026

• Evergreen topics that never age: distributed teams, communication, leadership, team effectiveness

• The importance of curiosity and continuous learning

• What's next for Work 20XX

The workplace has changed dramatically since the show started. Our conversations need to change too. This episode sets the stage for a year focused on practical AI adoption, team effectiveness, and the skills that create meaningful work in a distributed world.

What's Next: More episodes, more frequently. AI adoption stories and practical insights. Deeper dives on distributed leadership and team effectiveness. Shorter, more focused conversations.

What We're Moving Beyond: Return-to-office mandates and hybrid work debates have been thoroughly covered. Time to focus on what actually helps people do better work.

Let Jeff know what you want to hear in 2026. What topics are you curious about? What challenges are you facing? What skills are you trying to build?

EPISODE DETAILS: Episode Type: Show Update / Vision Statement Host: Jeff Frick Recording Location: Palo Alto, California Date: January 2026

Topics: Future of Work, AI Adoption, Distributed Teams, Remote Work, Leadership, Team Effectiveness, Continuous Learning, Workplace Technology, Professional Development

Liam Martin shared his full circle moment with me at Running Remote, almost 5 years to the day he was forced to cancel Running Remote's last visit to Austin, April 2020. With prior stops in Lisbon and Montreal, Running Remote's return to Austin was a community fest.

Remote first organizations focus more on in-house retreats than anyone outside of the actual travel industry. Industry leaders needed their own retreat. And Running Remote was born in 2018.

After the reflection, the conversation turned to the future, and the intersection of remote management practices, AI adoption, and the impact of hiring the 'best for the job' AI proficient talent, regardless of location.

Please join me in welcoming Liam Martin to the Work 20XX Podcast.

Editor's Note: Recorded 2025-April-30 at the Running Remote conference in Austin, Texas.
Special thanks to Liam, Egor, Ana, and Team Running Remote.

Liam Martin: Community Retreat, Remote, AI | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick Ep55 from Running Remote 2025 Austin

#RemoteWork #RunningRemote #AI #Leadership #CommunityBuilding #FutureOfWork #RemoteTeams #GlobalTalent #WorkplaceInnovation #ScalingBusiness #HybridWork #SaaS #DigitalNomads #Entrepreneurship #RiskTaking #EventManagement #BusinessGrowth #Digital #Distributed #Remote #Hybrid #Office #FoW #Workplace #TechnologyAdoption #RemoteFirst #EmployeeEngagement #WorkplaceCulture #Interview #Podcast #Work20XX

YouTube - Click Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOKJ7j_yqNM&list=PLZURvMqWbYjmmJlwGj0L0jWbWdCej1Jlt&ab_channel=TurntheLenswithJeffFrick

Transcript and Show Notes - Click Here

https://www.work20xx.com/episode/liam-martin-community-retreat-remote-ai-work-20xx-ep55

Mike Melen took a college side hustle, and built it into a growing global digital marketing agency. After starting full remote, Mike opened an office in Bergen County, New Jersey. Covid closed the office, and SmartSites is back to being fully remote to stay.

Remote hiring opened up the available talent pool beyond his Bergen County, New Jersey. Suddenly, Mike could hire people with the special skills needed, regardless of where they plugged in their laptop.

Mike learned early on that the best people want opportunities to grow, so he set an annual goal of 30% growth. He hired younger, less experienced people and invested in them to grow and advance along with the companies. Fourteen years later, SmartSites has grown to 400 people.

Please join me in welcoming Mike Melen to the Work 20XX podcast.

Editor's Note: Recorded 2025-April-30 at the Running Remote conference in Austin, Texas. Special thanks to Liam, Egor, Ana, and Team Running Remote.

Michael Melen: Talent Pool, Growth Opportunity | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick Ep54 from Running Remote 2025 Austin

#Remote #Digital #Distributed #Async #Work #FoW #Workplace #Talent #Career #BergenCounty #DigitalMarketing #DistributedTeams #Global #HiringStrategy #Leadership #Scaling #RemoteTeams #SmartSites #StartupJourney #TalentPool #TeamGrowth #WorkFromAnywhere #SmartSites #RunningRemote #Interview #Podcast #Work20XX

YouTube - Click Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MosbOY0uFUI&list=PLZURvMqWbYjmmJlwGj0L0jWbWdCej1Jlt

Transcript and Show Notes - Click Here

https://www.work20xx.com/episode/michael-melen-talent-pool-growth-opportunity-work-20xx-ep54

Melinda Stallings brings the power of positivity to the workplace and stage. Founder of The Positive Consultant and curator of DisruptHR Austin, Melinda promotes the "infinite power of positivity," consulting with individual organizations and extending her reach as the force behind DisruptHR Austin, where she builds programs such as the 2025 theme, Envision, Empower, Elevate, helping people thrive in the workplace.

I also learned about PechaKucha, a Japanese storytelling format built around the idea of "talk less, show more." At DisruptHR, this translates into speakers having just 5 minutes, with 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. No stress there.

With her focus on pausing, reflecting, reframing, and resetting, Melinda reminded me that there is usually a gift in the negative. You might not see it right away, but look no further than the Odyssean journey at the center of our best stories. There has to be some pain along the way.

Please join me in welcoming Melinda Stallings to the Work 20XX Podcast.

Editor's Note: Recorded 2025-April-30 at the Running Remote conference in Austin, Texas.
Special thanks to Liam, Egor, Ana, and Team Running Remote.

Melinda Stallings: Positivity, PechaKucha, Gifts, Reset | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick Ep53 from Running Remote

#Positivity #Gifts #Reset #EmployeeExperience #FutureOfWork #Culture #HR #HumanCenteredLeadership #KindnessMatters #AustinTX #DisruptHR #Leadership #Digital #Distributed #Remote #Hybrid #FoW #MelindaStallings #PechaKucha #Podcast #RemoteWork #RunningRemote #Storytelling #TeamCulture #ThePositiveConsultant #Interview #Podcast #Work20XX

YouTube - Click Here

Transcript and Show Notes - Click Here

Robert Phelps helps keep remote teams secure, often before they even know they're at risk. As President of Creative IT, Robert and team provide IT services for companies that are too small to build an in-house department, or those that need a little assist.

Robert and I spoke at Running Remote 2025 Austin, before his keynote, 'The Hidden Bottleneck: Why Remote Teams Struggle to Scale (and How to Fix It Today),' on the cybersecurity challenges of remote and distributed teams, and the responsibility for user and companies, even if most of their apps and IT are hosted at a large public cloud provider like AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure.

With the world trying to convince us to click, it comes back to people, educating, training, and as Robert stresses, testing to make sure they understand, and don't take tempting bait.

Compliance and Security, never go out of style. But the challenges and degree of difficulty only increase over time.

Please join me in welcoming Robert Phelps to the Work 20XX Podcast

Editors Note: Recorded 2025-April-30 at the Running Remote conference in Austin, Texas.
Special thanks to Liam, Egor, Ana, and Team Running Remote.

Robert Phelps: Cybersecurity, People, Responsibility, Test | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick Ep52 from Running Remote

#Bottlenecks #CARA #Cloud #CMMC #Compliance #Culture #CyberSecurity #Distributed #Enablement #Experience #FoW #IT #Monitoring #Onboarding #People #Platforms #Remote #Responsibility #Risk #Scale #SOC2 #Teams #Test #Threats #Training #Trust #Workplace #RunningRemote #MenloCreekMedia #Interview #Podcast #Work20XX

YouTube - Click Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDE6yTpz1No&list=PLZURvMqWbYjmmJlwGj0L0jWbWdCej1Jlt

Transcript and Show Notes - Click Here

https://www.work20xx.com/episode/robert-phelps-cybersecurity-people-responsibility-test-work-20xx-ep52

Karrie Sullivan has been on the edge of digital transformation since the earliest days of digital media, with a stint at Cars.com during the late '90 internet boom. She knows about getting people to change behavior, to adopt the new, to do things differently.

As she said, people won't change behavior just because you ask them. People will change behavior to fit in. Especially if you hand them proven peer produced playbooks.

Today, Karrie leads Culminate Strategy Group, where she and her team specialize in accelerating new technology adoption by identifying and working with key change agents. That influential 15% sits between the early adopters (the "bleeding edge" 5–7%) and the risk-averse majority (the "we've always done it this way" 80%). The Resilient middle 15% hold the key to broader adoption of the new, in this case, more people in the organization putting the power of AI to work for them in their daily tasks.

Please join me in welcoming Karrie Sullivan to the Work 20XX podcast.

In this wide ranging conversation, we cover the interaction of workplace, AI, transformation, psychology, behavioral science, change, adaptability, and a whole lot more. Karrie brings clarity to the chaos of transformation.

The through line: how to increase AI adoption, and more broadly, how to assimilate change faster, so your people can do more, with less, faster, by putting the right tools to work.

Karrie Sullivan: Results, Resilient, Reluctant, Readiness | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick Ep51

YouTube - Click Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt66YYGRCMs&list=PLZURvMqWbYjmmJlwGj0L0jWbWdCej1Jlt

Transcript and Show Notes - Click Here

https://www.work20xx.com/episode/karrie-sullivan-results-resilient-reluctant-readiness-work-20xx-podcast-with-jeff-frick-ep51

Henrik Järleskog, has been on my radar for some time. He's an active member of the 'future of work' community on LinkedIn, frequently contributing articles, keynotes, posts, panel discussions, podcasts appearances and more. I knew I'd have him on eventually….

And then he dropped the post … 'Not one hand went up'

And went on to describe his team of AI agents, working for him.
His dirty dozen, cabinet, team of rivals, assistants, advisors, and worker bees, helping Henrik 3x to 4x himself as he described. From Ambinet.ai to Veed.io , the list is long and detailed.

So the time is now.

Please join me in welcoming Henrik Jarleskog to Work 20XX

We delve deep into the concept of 'Full Stack Hospitality' and it's relevance in the future of work, workplaces, offices, and places where people gather. Sodexo is the 420,000+ employee behemoth you may not be familiar with, serving over 80 million consumers daily in over 45 countries, so Henrik has data, especially after being tasked to focus on the post pandemic workplace.

And then there is his AI adoption story.

While many struggle to find GenAI applications in daily life, Henrik has jumped in with both feet, taking courses, joining communities, and actively upping his game, not only in the name of future of work, but helping to define how organizations move forward with everyone brings a team of 30 assistants to work. How much faster can we go? How much more can we accomplish when 80% solutions are delivered in hours, not days?

I think you're going to enjoy this episode.

Henrik Jarleskog: AI Squad, BarCeptionist, Full Stack Hospitality | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick Ep50

YouTube - Click Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8VQ5kdN1FE&list=PLZURvMqWbYjmmJlwGj0L0jWbWdCej1Jlt

Transcript and Show Notes - Click Here

https://www.work20xx.com/episode/henrik-jarleskog-ai-squad-barceptionist-full-stack-hospitality-work-20xx-ep50

© Copyright 2025 Menlo Creek Media, LLC, All Rights Reserved

Brian Robertson' leadership philosophies are based on empowering the system, not the people. With clear limits, an 'act don't ask' permissive mindset, the culture seeks to foster more entrepreneurial leadership, when people can exercise authority and autonomy, rather then sitting around, waiting to be told what to do.

As the founder of Holacracy and a veteran entrepreneur, Brian brings a new model for leadership and decision-making, rooted in clarity, authority, and giving people the ability to act.

Recorded at Running Remote in Austin, Brian shares how companies can unlock speed and autonomy by creating transparent systems where roles are dynamic, authority is clearly defined, and people are trusted to lead without waiting for permission. He explains why most "empowerment" efforts fall flat, how limits actually expand freedom, and what it looks like when even the newest hire can shape the CEO's responsibilities.

From roundabouts to role maps, this conversation is packed with practical takeaways for leaders looking to future-proof their teams and ditch outdated command-and-control models. Empower the system.

Please join me in welcoming Brian Robertson to the Work 20XX podcast.

Editor's Note: Recorded 2025-April-30 at the Running Remote conference in Austin, Texas.
Special thanks to Liam, Egor, Ana, and Team Running Remote.

Brian Robertson: Authority, Clarity, Limits, System | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick Ep49 from Running Remote

YouTube - Click Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv7awiTqQQY&list=PLZURvMqWbYjmmJlwGj0L0jWbWdCej1Jlt

Transcript and Show Note - Click Here

https://www.work20xx.com/episode/brian-robertson-authority-clarity-limits-system-work-20xx-ep49

© Copyright 2025 Menlo Creek Media, LLC, All Rights Reserved