Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized

#Teams365 #2002 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #96

6/24/2019

One of the key principles of any good design is that this matches the needs of the people you are designing for. Keeping your ‘people” front and center in any virtual conversation is going to help you anchor the:

Purpose
Approach
Amount of engagement
Emphasis on interactivity (via breakouts, annotation and polls)
Amount of content

These elements can vary dramatically in a conversation.

What are the things you want to make sure you incorporate into your next conversation?

A reminder that you can check out the May 2019 Effective Virtual Conversations call on 6 Keys to Engagement for further illustration of some of the different ways we might make our call more interactive. You can view it HERE.

What do you know about your participants and what they want?

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #2001: Weekly Journaling Prompt #55

6/23/2019

From audio devices in our kitchens and cars, to streaming video replacing many TV programs, this week’s journaling prompt gets you to think about what your favorite book, show and /or song is right now. Why you ask?

When did you last stop and pause and think about what you are consuming? Books, podcasts, screen time?

It can be interesting for us to take a deeper look at what we are exploring in our reading and listening.

Enjoy the writing and if you haven’t had a chance to capture your summer goals yet, now might be a great time.

If you want some inspiration, check out the Quarterly Planning Prompt video I recorded a few months ago. You can apply the questions to any quarter. Grab a pen and view the Quarterly Planning Prompt video here. It runs for 30 minutes. If you want a shorter video – check out this 2.5 minute one I did last year.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #2000 Celebrating 2,000 Posts!!!

6/22/2019

Today we reach another milestone here at the Teams365 blog. It’s the 2000th post! What began as an experiment for me on January 1st to see what it would be like to write every day around leadership and teamwork issues, has now become an important part of my regular writing practice. Like so much in business, we don’t know where we are going to go until we do it.

There’s been a lot that’s occurred since I kicked off the Teams365 blog on January 1st 2014 including some of these achievements:

The evolution of the entire Teams365 series of learning programming for leaders, teams, and also virtual and remote workers. While these were a twinkle in my eye prior to the start of the blog, these are now well evolved sets of programs – some which are on-demand courses like the Teams365 Teamwork Foundations.
Multiple corporate engagements around group coaching training and coaching skills training for leaders, including one that was awarded the Prism Award for Excellence in Coaching (2016), and an Award of Excellence – Curriculum Design (2017).
The publication of three more books – Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018), and PlanDoTrack (2019).
Moving from less than 100 page views a week to last week’s 2,069 unique visitors, and 14,928 page views.

It’s been interesting establishing a practice of writing with a regular focus. Here are some of the series you will want to check out if you haven’t seen them already:

The Saturday Weekly Journaling Prompt series. For those that enjoy a reflective pause, you will want to check out the Saturday posts which started about a year ago, focused on a weekly prompt. Grab a pen and journal and get started! If you prefer to have it all under one cover, I’ve pulled together quarterly sets of the Weekly Journaling Prompts and have put them together in an ebook format you can print out and use. $7 at our Potentials Realized store. Check out volume #1 here.
Thursday’s Team Building Tips. Now it the mid-240 range, this Thursday series provides teams and team leaders with a question you can use the spark conversation and dialogue. Ideal for a team meeting, some of these have been made into a deck of 52 cards you can physically incorporate into your team meetings. What’s your favorite? Check out the series here, and share with us in the comments.
Mondays’ weekly Effective Virtual Conversations tip. For the past couple of years I have shared a weekly tip from my 2017 book Effective Virtual Conversations. That book focuses on ideas for making your virtual conversations (virtual meetings, virtual training, virtual mentoring more effective). Definitely a good place to check out as most of us have some sort of virtual touch point every week. Check

In the last 2000 posts there have been many other focus areas and series. While too many to name, some that you may be interested in are:

Leadership Myths
Teamwork in Uncertainty
Leadership a – z
The a-z of remote and virtual team activities

I look forward to continuing the journey with you! Continue to stay tuned.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1999 Celebrating Summer! Summer Stock Taking - Projects For The Summer Months

6/21/2019

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1998: Team Building Tip 241

6/20/2019

In recent years, more and more organizations have become more aware of the importance of growth mindset. Coined by Carol Dweck, growth mindset invites all of us into an ongoing learning insight. To learn more about Caro Dweck’s Work – visit her TED Talk - If you haven't heard Dweck talk about her work on mindset, here is a video.

Part of growth mindset, and at the heart of continuous learning is the notion that we may not yet have mastered things YET. As I assert in my writing, growth is about ongoing action, reflection, feedback and iteration. In fact, the tagline for my two recent planners, PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder, is Consistent Action + Daily Steps = Momentum.

It is through these daily steps and ongoing action that we see what works, and what doesn’t. It means that we are always learning and adjusting as we go.
As a team this week, I hope that you will engage in the discussion of “What haven’t WE mastered yet?”.

What are we still learning from, and learning about?

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1997: Summer Project Ideas

6/19/2019

For those that are in the northern hemisphere, we are just about to the longest days of the year. It’s also the time that we start to take down the pace a bit. With team members going on holidays in the next few months, it can be an opportune time to engage in some of those projects you haven’t had time for.

Instead of typing today’s post, I thought it would be fun to record a short video for you to watch. Listen in as I zoom into 8 key areas you will want to explore this summer, when (and if) the pace slows down. The video runs for 8 minutes. Please comment below and let us know what areas you aim to focus on:
INSERT Video

Best
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1996: Presentation Brush-up

6/18/2019

As you may recall, this month we’ve been exploring several mid-year topics – the Team Tune Up (link to that post), along with others encouraging you to do some mid-year stock taking.

One area which I think often gets pushed to the side is that around presentations. Whether we are being formally asked to lead a webinar, or present something “on the fly”, brushing up on our presentation skills can go a long way.

While there is a whole art and science behind presentations, I like to always bring it back to KEEP IT SIMPLE. I’m going to model that in today’s posts as well, sharing with you five key areas to keep in mind when you go to design or lead your next presentation:

Connect people early on with their WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? What’s important about this topic for people?
Use real-time examples. If you have time, is there an opportunity for people to share a real-time example of how they are focusing on this topic. The question might be: “Who can share an example you are currently working around, as it relates to this topic?”. This helps make it not only meaningful, but relevant and usually a lot more urgent than if you were talking about the topic in a more conceptual way.
Consider the start, middle and end. We tend to remember the start and end of things. Really think through how you want to start the presentation and how you want to wrap it up. What are
What are the top 3 bullet points? We operate in a fast-paced business context, where direct communication can be an advantage. What are the top 3 bullet points you want to share during the presentation, or have people retain?
Use graphics that capture attention. Media use in many presentations is an expectation and can bring to life many of the ideas you are covering. What are the graphics that are going to provide a focus and inspiration?

Finally, as a bonus tip, remember that most people prefer to bring their own voice into the presentation and talk about the issues that are relevant to them, rather than passively sitting back and being talked at. What can you do to bring their voices and experience into the room?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1995: Effective Virtual Conversations #99

6/17/2019

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip asks you to consider the question: “What opportunities are you not seizing?”.

Remote work and virtual conversations are becoming increasingly important in today’s workplace. Whether disruption is occurring because of impact on travel (consider things like the wild weather events of the last few months which has impacted not only air travel but location sites), or due to opportunities emerging, what opportunities are you not seizing?

Consider these ideas:

Experimenting with remote workdays. What happens with productivity when people move to one or more remote workdays? What do you
Declaring meeting free days or time windows. With meetings becoming an immense time sucker for so many professionals today, what would it be like to declare meeting free time. Time when people could focus on getting work completed, rather than meeting on work for the next day. Some organizations might consider with earmarking an entire day meeting free, while others might note that they meet in the afternoon only, keeping the morning free for high impact work. There may be times of the day which could naturally be better for collaborative work such as mid-afternoon, rather than times of day when deep thinking is required – which brain science is showing could be in quieter windows, and when the brain is more fresh.
There may be opportunities to use different platforms. Consider shifting to a streaming service (where you can see everyone) rather than doing a phone only. The visual cues of being seen may shift focus and attention, and also dissuade some team members from doing more than one thing at a time.
Incorporate more interaction. Rather than simply having a report back, consider how to involve insights from the team regularly using annotation (sharing ideas on a white board) or using chat as a way to focus on

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1994: Sunday Round-up

6/16/2019

This Sunday I wanted us to take a look back at the week and what the blog posts were. Let’s take a look back at each one of this week’s posts:

Monday June 10 – 1987: Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #98: In Focus: MOOCs
Tuesday June 11 – 1988: Mid-Year - Feedback and Performance Check
Wednesday June 12 – 1989: Mentoring
Thursday June 13 – 1990: Team Building Tip 240
Friday June 14 – 1991: A Look at Listening and Questioning
Saturday June 15 – 1992: Weekly Journaling Prompt 53

What’s important to take a look at more in-depth?

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1993: Weekly Journaling Prompt 54

6/15/2019

As we arc into another Weekly Journaling Prompt, this week’s question gets you to consider the question “My favorite experience this year has been…..”.

Taking time to stop and pause along the way can be invaluable.

What are the key highlights of your year so far?
What would you put in your top 10 list?
What have you crossed off your bucket list?
What still remains?
What are the things you have learned from?

Draw out a roadmap of the key journeys and highlights you have had from the year.

Enjoy the reflection!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.