Today's blog post focuses on four key design principles for virtual facilitation. These  four design principles are:

1. Process - a strong focus on process the main elements of our design will give you a flexibility of adapting in the moment as needed. When in the virtual environment it is important to let people know what they can expect and where they are going.
Process pieces you will want to make explicit include:
Overall elements/sections of the training or call/webinar
When to expect break
What to expect around engagement (see tip 2)
How visual anchor points will be created through slides and/or participant materials

What process pieces are important to consider or refine in your upcoming program?

2. Engagement  - Providing multiple opportunities for members to connect with what they are learning is a key principle in adult learning. Virtual engagement opportunities should be ongoing and often more frequent and varied than in the in person environment. Consider creating pace changes and different ways for participants to engage with the material through different strategies such as;
Polls
Chats
Use of whiteboard
Breakouts
Annotation
Handouts, worksheets and/or participant guides sent prior to the call which can be used

What engagement opportunities do you want to include in your upcoming work? What prep will you need to undertake to make this work? What transitions do you need to build in to make these successful with your platform?


3. Variety - Webinars and virtual learning don't just have to be  one way passive flow of information. From an interactive intro of having people mark and locate their location on  a map, to breaking people up into virtual breakouts which can mimic the best of classroom based dialogue, variety really is "the spice of life".

Consider using  the techniques listed above under engagement to boost variety and how each part of the module can be presented and/or reinforced in different ways.

How much variety do you want to include?

4. Pacing - Pacing is a key factor for success in any virtual environment. Consider how you can mix activities - from lecture, to breakouts, to using the whiteboard, to chats and individual reflection.
Each group will have it's own pace so asking the group to identify how things are going using an emoticon  as a pulse check throughout the session, particularly longer ones, can be important.

What pace will work best for your current group? How do you keep energy flowing?

If you are interested in this topic and wanting to refine your skills as a virtual facilitator, I hope that you will consider joining me this September and October for the Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive program which will be held on Tuesdays from 5-8 pm Eastern/New York for five consecutive weeks starting September 15th. In addition to exploring more best practices of virtual facilitation you will also have ample opportunities to practice and receive feedback on your own virtual facilitation skills. Classes are hosted on different platforms each week to give you an experience in the different platforms. CLick here to learn more and register.

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support

Seven Keys for Powerful Virtual Facilitation - Jennifer Britton

From Webinars, to virtual meetings  which bring together teams scattered across a country or the globe, virtual facilitation skills are increasingly becoming an important skill set for leaders and team members alike. Chances are you have recently participated as part of a virtual meeting that was less than optimal.

This article explores seven keys for powerful virtual meetings. These seven quick items used together can be very effective in amping up your next virtual event success.

1. Engagement is key - Helping group members connect regularly with the WIIFM (What's in it for me) and engaging them in the dialogue is almost more important than it is in the in-person realm.  Competition with emails and your desktop is often the reality. Keep pace moving, encourage reflection and dialogue and take the pulse regularly to see where people are at.

2. Connection is the foundation - While you might not be able to see each other feeling connected with others is an important foundation for virtual meeting success, particularly if these meetings will continue for some time.

3. Trust is Critical- Just as in the in-person environment, trust is critical. Given that we don't have the regular touchpoints where we can be "seen" building trust in the virtual environment can be even more pointed. Consider how you are building your reputation and ask what others think of you.

4. Good Design - Good design is especially important in the virtual domain. Consider what the overall blocks of the meeting or event are and how they fit together or are sequenced. More focus on process rater than less can be of benefit in the virtual domain. What are the design elements which will support the most effective virtual event? Consider  breakouts, polls, use of a whiteboards, keeping it simple if technology is going to be a hindrance.

5 - Leverage technology  - Use the technology you have available and which is accessible to all. I often go to the "lowest common denominator" so we are not creating any new divisions based on technology available. If you can use more interactive supports such as breakuts to engage everyone, use them. Consider what support will help you - for example, have a co-facilitator who can set up breakouts while you are facilitating. Don't try to do it all alone!

6 - Visuals are an important boost - Having a virtual anchor point, even on a phone call is important in the virtual realm. visuals can create a focus, and grounding point. If you are only meeting by phone consider sending out a one-pager prior to the call  for meeting participants to download, print and use. Make sure they are  provided this well enough n advance of the call.

7 - Be nimble as a facilitator - Being flexible as a facilitator in the virtual realm is essential. Expect technology to happen because it will. Have a number of "back ups" available which you can draw upon. Think through the various scenarios which may happen and how you will deal with them.

What other tips would you suggest to others who are starting out with virtual facilitator? Please feel free to comment below.

Best wishes
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Boost your skills as a virtual facilitator. Join us this September and October for the 15 hour Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive training. More info and registration here. The program will be delivered on Tuesdays from 5-8 pm ET/New York on various virtual platforms over a five week period.

Today's post is about how to deal with difficult personality types which may show up in your team, meetings and/or facilitated sessions. This is a key issue facing many leaders, facilitators and professionals of all stripes.

First, I think it is improtant to recognize that "difficult" is a very subjective term.  We may be someone else's difficult participant so be senstive to it.

Today's 15 minute aduio goes into some description of the different strategies we can use in supporting these personality types, and also ensuring that it does not have as much of a negative impact on others. These are some intiial strategies to consider and is not comprehensive.

Enjoy!

What are your next steps in supporting difficult participants?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team

Whether you are leading a virtual meeting, or face to face learning session, having a series of questions to draw on to check in around  learning and engagement is key.

Today's blog post includes six questions leaders can be asking in any facilitated session. These are:

1. What do you need or want from this session?

2. How engaged do you plan to be?

3.  What will help you keep focused?

4. On a scale of 1-10,  what is your level of clarity/focus/commitment (Scaling questions are wonderful in getting a pulse check of the meeting/event)

5. What has been your most important insight/learning so far?

6. What is your next step? or What are you going to do (in the next 24 hours, right after this meeting, in the next week etc)?

As I write in my book, From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) "Questions form the backbone of any coaching conversation". Having a wide variety of questions to draw upon help us to create an environment of dialogue, and mutual accountability. Check out some of our past weekly columns from the 6 Leadership Questions series here.

Enjoy!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Today we are revisiting one of the Teams365 Cartoons, this one which focuses on several of the core skills for team leaders. These skills have been a primary focus at the blog.

Take a look at the skills mentioned - influence, collaboration, relationship building, emotional intelligence, building trust and respect.

Identify which ones are your strengths.  Ask  yourself:

Which ones could benefit from some attention?
What actions could you take to increase those that need attention?
If you chose one area to place attention around to "move the needle", what would it be?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team

Appreciative Inquiry is a planning and change management approach which is strengths based and encourages individuals and teams to dream, and design. You can read more about the roots of Appreciative Inquiry here.
   
Many coaching approaches today are grounded in an appreciative approach, drawing on strengths. One of my favorite series of exercises in the virtual and in-person domains is to get people thinking and talking about their experience of working with, or being with, someone who has been at their best. So for example, if it is a leadership session, to have people think about and share their experience in working with their best leader. If it is a coaching skills training process, to have people think about the best coaches they have worked with.

Bringing it to the team level, this week ask the team to share their stories of when they have been at their best. Notice the impact around connection within the team as well as the focus and other emotion it creates.

This exercise also reminds us to "catch people at their best". When was the last time you provided positive reinforcement to the team? Check out these past posts I have written on positive reinforcement.

Enjoy!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Are you a leader, coach or trainer wanting to amp up your skills in virtual facilitation? Our next Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive course will start on September 15th (Tuesdays 5-8 pm ET). 15 hours of learning, practice and feedback on your virtual facilitation skills. Click here to learn more.

In my first book, Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009) I make the case that for group coaching to be successful (especially virtually) one of the best practices is investing time into pre-calls, and also pre-work when appropriate. I go into greater depth around pre-work, and session assignments in my second book, From One To Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) as well.

Today's post gets you thinking about this opportunity which is not always leveraged in virtual learning. How can pre-work, and between session assigments, keep the conversation, and connection going. The following is a list of eight things you can do with pre-work and in between session touchpoints:

1. As pre-work have group members share a brief bio and what's brought them to the program. This can be posted on  a central home page.

2. Create a closed or secret Facebook group, connecting individuals between sessions. This can be very popular for some groups. Take into consideration, access to FB and other social media sites.

3. Create learning partners and provide weekly questions for partners to come together and discuss

4. Create learning partners and create structured assignments for them to complete together - this can be linked into work application and debrief.

5. Create pre-and post-self-assessments so individual group members can track their skill development and new insights.

6. Create a reading and resource list along with group members throughout the course of the program. Again a central repository can be useful to host this at. This could be a wiki, a FB page, or part of your LMS

7.  As pre-work, have the group members consider an example, or several examples of where things worked well, and not so well as it relates to the focus of the program.

8. In a rotational basis have each group member take the lead on posing a daily or weekly question for their fellow group members to consider. This provides an interesting approach to peer collaboration and learning.

This is by no means an exhaustive list AND I hope that it sparks some new ideas for you. What other suggestions do you have?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Are you a leader, coach or trainer wanting to amp up your skills in virtual facilitation? Our next Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive course will start on September 15th (Tuesdays 5-8 pm ET). 15 hours of learning, practice and feedback on your virtual facilitation skills. Click here to learn more.

Teams365 #560: Virtual Facilitation - Creating Powerful Starts and Ends
Copyright 2015 - Jennifer Britton, All Rights Reserved

In today's world of Death by PowerPoint, Meeting and Webinar, creating engaging virtual meetings and learning can be a challenge. This week I turn my attention to the realm of virtual facilitation, an area I have been involved with for more than a decade.

It's important in any learning process tore member that we remember the start and end of things. Known for decades as the latency and recency effects, our brains retain the start and end much more easily than the middle of any process. So, what are the implications for virtual facilitation? It's key to create powerful starts and ends to virtual learning. Some of the considerations we will want to keep in mind are the following:

Creating Powerful Starts:
Creating connection and "safety" as well as providing an overview of what to expect from the call is key. Consider how you will open the session, and welcome people as they arrive.
Be clear about the expectations and guidelines for the call. Remind people how to use things like mute, annotation, chat etc. Don't assume!
Getting people to pin their location to a map is a great way of visually orienting people, or if you are together for longer, can you get people to send out a quick intro/bio before hand. Make this easy and consider creating a standard format for people to use.
Reinforce the importance of a clear connection that mobile phones often do not allow for!

Creating Powerful Ends.
The end is just as important as the start. Providing a reflection point for people to consider what they have learned is key. As a facilitator you may be very tired at this point of the process, so consider how you can create your own standard ways of bringing calls to a close. Some possibilities are asking -
What new learning or ideas are you leaving the call with?
What's the one action you are going to take in the next 24-76 hours to put this learning into action? (note that the retention window after learning is very short so getting people to apply their learning as quick after the process, the better.

What other ideas do you have about creating powerful starts and ends to virtual learning? Please feel free to comment below.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Are you a leader, coach or trainer wanting to amp up your skills in virtual facilitation? Our next Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive course will start on September 15th (Tuesdays 5-8 pm ET). 15 hours of learning, practice and feedback on your virtual facilitation skills. Click here to learn more.

Last week I spent two days running the pilot of a full day virtual training program evolving from a classroom based training. Keeping engagement was critical for success with these two sessions.

For many virtual facilitators, it can seem daunting to think about how to create engagement to keep a virtual session flowing. What we know with the best learning programs - in person and in the virtual domain is that they are engaging and have a great pace.

Here are four ideas for creating engagement:

1. Help people connect with their "WIIFM" - What's in it for me? - as early as possible. While this is critical for in person training, it holds true in the virtual domain, especially where people may be calling in from very distinct locations.  Continue reinforcing throughout the program reflection points for reconnecting with what has been of interest and importance throughout the session. Providing members of the group to speak this (and not be on mute all day!) may surprise people with how similar learning is, even if you think locations are different.

2. Leverage breakout capability - Just as in an in-person training location many love the interactions and engagement of a smaller group, the same holds true with the virtual domain. Explore the breakout capability with the platform you are using and consider how you can be using this regularly.

3. Reminder regarding other pace changes. We often say in the in=person environment that changing pace every 7-10 minutes is critical. This is even more important in the virtual domain. Consider how you can change the pace with other engagement strategies such as polls, chat responses, while board etc.

4. Consider your own "presence" - In professional coaching we  have a competency called "presence" which is the energy, being and approaches the coach or facilitator brings. Listen into the energy you bring to a virtual session. It can be a very different energy than in the in person environment, and may require more of a host role - welcoming people, connecting people, and building rapport very quickly. Listen back to past session recordings (if available) to notice your presence.

What other tips would you have for others regarding engagement in the virtual domain? Have a great start to your week!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team
Are you a leader, coach or trainer wanting to amp up your skills in virtual facilitation? Our next Virtual Facilitation Skills Intensive course will start on September 15th (Tuesdays 5-8 pm ET). 15 hours of learning, practice and feedback on your virtual facilitation skills. Click here to learn more.

This week's Sunday Teams365 Audio focuses on Project Management and Change. This week's focus here at the blog has been around project management, and I thought it would be fitting to continue the theme.

In this week's six minute audio I remind us of Roger's (1962) theory around change and how we adapt to change. Whether it is considering the impact of projects with change, or what stakeholders and those involved go through, it is important to keep in mind some of the possible patterns around change and engagement you might see in members.

Please listen into this week's Sunday Audio (6 min):

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss coaching or performance support you or your team