My Sunday quote from Frank Tyge is all about innovation. He writes" Discoveries are often made not by following instructions, by going off the main road, by training the  untried. How are you going to get "off the main road" this coming week and chart some new ground?

Enjoy your Sunday! I'll be back tomorrow with another quote as it is a long weekend - the first of the summer - for us here in Canada.  Hope you are enjoying some down time.
​
​Jennifer​

Our Saturday quote comes from Walter Lippman - "When all think alike, then no one is thinking".

​Diversity of thought is important in a team. Group think can lead us to poorer decisions and blindspots in a team context.

​What do you notice about the diversity of thought that exists within your team? How does it help to support you in getting the results you want?

​If everyone is thinking the same way, what changes do you want to make?

​Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Today's #FlashbackFriday post is aligned with our monthly theme of virtual facilitation faux-pas. What are the things you want to do to avoid the "Death by Conference Call" experience? Here's what I wrote back in s2:

"Back in 2014 I did a post on Meeting Management Faux Pas. you can read it here. Today I thought I would focus on five virtual meeting faux - pas:. Keeping these five points in mind can move your meeting from one characterized by "Death by conference call" to one that is engaging.

Five faux pas to watch for include:​
1. Not having an agenda and sticking to it - as I wrote in yesterday's post, it is important to have a plan which you share with others (so they can input into it before the meeting), and one that you refer to throughout the call so people know where you are and where you are going.

2. ​​Not starting and ending meetings on time. This is critical in the realm of virtual meetings, particularly as it is common that people will be at different parts of their day.

3. Not calling on people you haven't heard from - Virtual Meetings, particularly  when you can't see each other - are a ripe opportunity to multi-task and sign out. Let people know what's expected so when you do call on people ​ it's part of the norm and not being seen as "being picked on". Engagement approaches will be another topic addressed in the next week or two here at the blog

4. Not rotating meeting times - when you do lead a global team it can be important to rotate meeting times so it's not always the team members in Asia or somewhere else who are calling in at odd hours. Be aware of time of day considerations when scheduling virtual meetings. Where feasible rotate this.

5. Not being clear on what's been agreed and who is accountable - Make sure you remind people throughout a virtual meeting about agreements,, key points and also where you are going to next. It's easy to say a lot of "yeses" and then forget or not be clear on what was agreed upon.​

What other virtual meeting faux pas do you see?​

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

This week's team building tip #136 is our getting to know our team question #6 - where does our work intersect. Each week I include a different question for team leaders and/or team members to bring into their question to boost relationships and hopefully results.

This week spend some time sharing where your work intersects. What do you notice about the synergy and gaps?

have a great Thursday,
Jennifer

Earlier this week one of my posts focused on 11 questions you might incorporate into your upcoming meetings. Questions help us focus our calls, keep them on track, expand awareness and also open up the space for what's possible. Today's post includes another 10 you might choose to select from, depending on the type of meeting you are facilitating. These can also be used in any in-person meeting as well.

Questions to expand thinking:
What's possible?
What's another way to think about this?
What's the flip side?
What would a completely different approach to this challenge/question/opportunity look like?
What else?

Questions to focus:
What is the most important outcome?
What will give us the best result (consider different perspectives)?
What is the priority?
What is the one thing which is most important?
If we could only focus on one thing today/this week/this month to get our results, it would be ________

Stay tuned next week for some more questions you might want to incorporate, and be sure to check out Monday's post which included 11 others.

So many conference calls are plagued with a one way monologue, with facilitators and leaders feeling as if they need to speak at, rather than engage with, their group members. Today’s post gives you three quick approaches you may want to try in your next virtual call to jazz things  up a bit. In order to not be too disruptive, make sure you let people know that they can expect something different!

#1 – Engagement Opportunity – Breakouts. While breakouts are often seen as a risky move in the virtual realm, they are one way to get everyone involved. Not everyone is comfortable contributing in larger groups, unless called upon. Breakouts provide the advantage of creating a major pace change in getting everyone’s voice in smaller groups. Breakouts tend to work best with smaller numbers – twos, threes or fours. Breakouts over five people often create that “large group feel” again. Provide breakout groups with a question and instructions on what to do, and how much time they have to discuss. Make sure you get people to think about how they will report back.

#2  Engagement Opportunity – Doing something real-time. As I have written in the past, one of my favorite activities is real-time, hands-on action during virtual calls. While it may not be the forum for team meetings, doing something real-time like a dedicated 30 minute joint team focus on moving the one thing you need to get off our list, can be a real-boost. We all have items that never get attention, and the benefit of a virtual hack or longer virtual retreat is that you have the real-time group/team support, and a dedicated time to just focus on one thing. Virtual hacks which I run are usually 30-45 minutes, and virtual retreats are anywhere from 4-8 hours.
 
#3 Engagement – Rotate roles. Who says the team leader always needs to lead the meeting. Many teams are blessed with great talent and this third idea gets you to think about flattening the role structure for your meetings. Who else can lead the meeting? Time keep? Report. What benefits do you notice when you rotate the roles?
 
What other ideas do you have for mixing things up virtually?

Having a variety of questions in our back pocket is key for business success. As I explored last week, questions create a solid base for any virtual conversation. Today’s post includes 10 plus questions you might consider asking at different stages of the virtual conversation.

Questions to open up the conversation:
What’s most important for us to focus on today?
What end results do we want for this meeting?
What are you bringing to the call?
What’s the most important thing for you to get out of the call?
How engaged do you plan to be? (Note you may not ask for a reposnse on this but only pose it to get people thinking about their focus)

Wrap up
What are you committed to doing after this call?
What are you going to take action on?
What’s the one most important thing to recall from our conversation today?
What new ideas around process are you going to take?
What resources are needed to put your action steps into action.
What are you committed to doing in the next 24 hours, no matter what?

What are some of your favorite questions for virtual meetings? What helps to keep the focus and open up the space for conversation.

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

For today's post I am reaching back to Teams365 #376 and a 22 minute audio I recorded on 10 Questions Team Leaders should be asking. One of the themes we have been exploring this week has been communication and questions in the virtual realm. Whether you are leading face-to-face, or virtually, powerful questions provide an important frame to the conversation..

​Take some time to think about the type of questions you are asking your team members.

​Click on over to listen to Teams365 #376 here.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Today's Saturday quote comes from Leo Babauta and reads:
​"Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you're doing".

​How does this reframe your focus this week?

​Have a wonderful weekend,
​Jennifer

With this week's focus on communication in the virtual realm, I thought I would reach back to an earlier blog post from this January on Listening in Focus. Whether we are leading a face-to-face or virtual team, listening is a core skill to build in leaders and team members alike.

​Here's what I wrote in #Teams365 #1103: Teamwork Skills in Focus: Listening:\

Over the next few Saturdays we are going to take a look at different teamwork skills in focus. Exceptional teams don't usually emerge as exceptional. They develop over time skills in different areas.

​The first area we are going to look at is Listening. In a team context listening is of utmost importance - it's listening on mutliple levels. Listening to what the other team member is saying, and also listening for how it connects with your work. Listening is also hearing the emotional and requests behind the words. When teams are in conflict, there is usually a request behind each complaint that exists.

​In listening we want to listen o n multiple levels:

​1. To the words that are being shared. This in fact only comprises about 8% of the message.
​2. To the tone, pace and pitch of the statement - what do you notice about the energy and impact of how the words are being spoken? This comprises more than 30% of the message.
​3. To the body language. What do you notice about the person's gestures? How they are standing? What does their body language say about how open or closed they are? Body language comprises about 55% of the message when we are in face to face settings.

​One of the challenges with team communication today is that so much is done by instant messaging or text in which we have no tone or body language to help make sense of what the words really mean. The impact of this means that words and the way they are interpreted are heavily influenced by the levels of trust and connection that exist within the team. You may be interested in checking out these two posts for boosting trust and connection in your virtual teams:

​Teams365 #258: Create Connection within Your Virtual Team. Read it here.

​Teams365 #610: Four Ways to Build trust in your team.

​There are some past posts I've written on listening, which is also a paramount skill in coaching. Take a look at these past posts related to listening:

​Teams365 #914: The Foundations of TeamWork - Listening - Read it here

​Teams365 #192: Listening And Coaching as A Leader. Read it here


​Have a great weekend,
​Jennifer