A few months ago, I did a series of posts on “What’s Different When Working Remotely”. There was a series of several of them, which I thought would be interesting to revisit as remote working has been happening for many for many months and may be extended into the future for many more months. My invitation is for you to do a pulse check in your next meeting around these items:

1. Autonomy
2. Skills
3. Connections with others
4. Matrix relationships
5. Focus
6. Motivation
7. Inner drive
8. Relationship building
9. Visibility
10. Boundaries

 
Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #2242 - 

Yesterday’s Teams365 post explored four key differences when working remote – Autonomy, Skills, Connections with others and the Matrix.

In today’s post, I wanted to share four additional differences when working remote – focus, motivation, and inner drive, to relationship building and visibility.

In general, many things get magnified in the remote space – from clarity, or lack of clarity, around communication, processes, roles, goals; to what we actually see on the screen. This means that we may need to be more intentional in sharing information, checking assumptions and confirming that our messages were understood in the way they were communicated.

Motivation - When working remotely, a lot of us need to rely on our own inner motivation and self-direction to get things done. For those who like to work autonomously, it’s great! Being clear on what we need to excel as a team member, leader or business owner is key.

As I wrote yesterday, “No person is an island” and we do want to make sure we are clear on our strengths, and style preferences. It’s also key to note that when we over leverage our strengths, that they can become a blind spot. In the remote space this may mean that they get over magnified. So, if I have a love of learning I may keep learning, rather than getting work done. What are the strengths you are able to leverage? What’s important about your work? What drives you? What do you need to be aware of in case it gets over magnified?

For more on Motivation and Remote Work, check out some of the episodes of the Remote Pathways Podcast. 

You’ll also want to check out Week 6 of the 52 Weeks of Remote Work.

What is important for you about motivation in the remote space?

Context - One of the major challenges in the remote space is that we see each other usually only through the small window of the screen. As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, a great activity to undertake is “what’s outside your screen”? What can we do to share more about the context of our work? That might include:

• Sharing a little more about your desk
• Sharing what’s outside your window
• Talking about what is a priority in your work
• Sharing more about the way work is done, or preferences are in your location (especially if you are a virtual team)

What context pieces are important to share?

Visibility and proactivity - Visibility and proactivity is key in the remote space. Some remote workers feel that their careers get stuck because they aren’t visible like those in an office space. I would invite a perspective that visibility is less about where you are, but how you approach work. What are you doing to be visible, to bring people together, to connect with peers and other stakeholders, to be proactive in connecting on a regular basis with your boss and team?

Regular co-working sessions may provide an opportunity for learning more and connecting with your peers, as well as hearing what you are working on. These sessions may run for an hour, half day or more. 

What is important for you to explore around visibility? What do you need to be more proactive about?

Focus - For many remote workers, productivity can actually increase when moving to work in the remote space. A study by Stanford Business School, headed by Professor Nicholas Bloom found a 13% increase in productivity by those who WFH (Work From Home). You will find a copy of the original publication here at Prof. Bloom’s site.
 
For another interesting article on the same topic check out Scott Mautz’s Inc article.

Even though there are differences with remote work, it’s still important to focus in on the basics of high performance. Be sure to check out the posts I have written on the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. How are we being clear about the ROLES, GOALS, PRACTICES of our work, in addition to connecting in with our vision and mandate, and being clear bout what success will look like?

Tomorrow, we’ll explore another remote working ingredient for success – managing boundaries! (LINK to 2243)
Where are you as a team as it relates to clarity around these ten areas? BE sure to do a pulse check and focus in those areas that need attention.
 
July in Review
Thanks for Joining us this month! This month’s posts have continued to take us through the landscape of remote work , and have included these posts:

Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tips – Messy Middle, Remote Skill: Working Across Differences; Appreciations; Six Factors

My Tuesday Back to Basics Posts around Feedback, Listening and also the Energy of Virtual Calls

Wednesday’s focusing on Stand Out Remotely; Digitize and Virtualize; (LINNK) and Remote Team Builders (LINK)

Thursday’s Team Building Tips – with questions to spark you around getting grounded as well as what you need to say no to, and what needs to be collapsed.
​
Historically July has been a month of taking some time to pause and renew. What are you focusing on right now? What’s the support you need to keep doing your best work, and having your best conversations?

Best,
Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Team Building Tip gets you to think about the question: “Where do you want to get more grounded?”. 2020 has been characterized by uncertainty, massive changes and a lot of disruption. What can be really important in these moments is being grounded. Like a piece of bamboo or a flexible pole, while the outward edges may need to flex, our grounding can help keep us anchored.

Getting grounded may involve several different practices. It might entail:

• Focusing on our routines.
• Taking time each day to reflect on what’s working, and what’s not.
• Reflecting on what things to keep and what things to adjust or iterate. As a team this may involve: Regular conversations about priorities, collaboration and also what to say no to.
• Practices like meditation, or mindfulness techniques where you become more aware of regular activities.
• When working remotely or as a distributed team, focusing in on your practices.

What are the things you want to do to get more grounded? To stay grounded?

Please share with us your favorite resources in the comments below!

Best,
Jennifer

One of the many challenges faced at the moment is standing out remotely. With back-to-back virtual meetings becoming the norm, one call can blend into another. Note, if you haven’t read yesterday’s Back to The Basics call on the Energy of the Call, check it out.

At the same time, many professionals are concerned that they are not as visible in the virtual space as they are in a face to face environment. This translates to concern around their visibility for career progression, taking on special projects etc.

Several things you will want to consider:

#1 – What does “standing out remotely” mean for you ? What’s important about this? Do you want to stand out more so that your message is remembered – which may mean more about presentation techniques? OR is it standing out as a professional?  And perhaps someone who is known for great virtual calls which whiz by and are remembered. What’s your WHY around this?

#2 – Our personal brand can get translated through the screen through our slides, images, our background and also what we are wearing. What are the brand elements you want to keep in mind?

#3 – Be proactive. This might mean getting into the rhythm of connecting regularly with others. It might mean getting a mentor. It might mean focusing in on getting active in a professional association. What do you want to be known for?

Standing out remotely means many different things. I’ll be focusing more on the topic in August as it relates to leading more engaging and memorable virtual calls. Are you ready to Stand Out? Check out my 5 Day Challenge – Standing Out Virtually at (insert)

Have a great week and hope you will join us next week.

Best,
​Jennifer

This week’s Back to the Basics takes us to one of the 7 Cs (The Remote Enablers) – link to 7 Cs blog post – communication, and more specifically, the energy of the calls you are leading and attending.

How well are you listening in conversations these days? With Zoom fatigue becoming a term that gets thrown around a lot, I’m curious to ask, what do you notice when you are on streaming calls with your communication, and listening in particular?

In the remote space our visual cues are limited to the small 2x3 window we can see people in. Literally their shoulders up.

Having led calls on Zoom for the last five years, and since 2004 (and earlier) on other virtual platforms, it’s likely that we are listening in for a couple of things:
The tone. The pace. The pitch.

AND …the....

Energy of the call – The next call you are on, notice the energy of the call. This is not just with the speaker, but also with everyone else on the call. What do you see and hear?

Energy is transmitted not only through what’s being said but also the pace of conversation. As I like to share in the virtual train-the-trainers I lead, energy is shaped through the levels of engagement of the group. Are we encouraging people to connect with the content in different ways?

Verbally through the use of breakouts?

On the screen through the use of annotation?

Via polls?

By answering questions?

What are you noticing with the energy of the calls you are hosting?

Several of the foundational principles we want to practice when designing and leading calls are:

• Less is more – It’s hard to leave time to engage people if there is too much content you want to, or need to, cover. If you can’t add time, consider asking yourself these questions which I originally heard from Master Trainer Bob Pike years ago - “What’s a nice to have versus what’s a need to have with the conversation” A third question of “Where to do”, can further help to identify where content (extra or supplementary) can go.
• Vary approaches – We all create learning in different ways. From auditory to visual to kinesthetic approaches. While learning styles have been argued about in many research circles over the years, I’d ask you to consider what you have noticed with this topic in the virtual domain.

​What is important to explore around this topic of the energy of calls you are participating in, or leading? Check out your assumptions around how you are “reading the room” by asking each group member to share “one word which describes the energy they are leaving the call with”. It’s an interesting litmus test.
​
Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

This week’s focus is the Messy Middle. Just as the latency and recency effect indicate, we remember the start and end of things. The phase in the middle is often very unclear and forgotten. This has implications on a number of levels as virtual facilitators including:

• Needing to be very specific in the mid-point about reinforcement
• It may involve going out of your way to make the mid-point memorable. That could entail:
  • Making it novel or different – what’s going to signal something different
  • Making it interactive – could you incorporate breakouts, or a poll or some annotation?
  • Perhaps giving people a pause to note things down

What are the things you want to do to help people FOCUS and RETAIN the mid-point?

Best,
​Jennifer

It’s Sunday which means that we’re taking a look back at the week in review. Here are several elements to catch up on:

• Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt of “I want to acknowledge…”
• Friday’s Flashback Friday in the area of Digital Transformation
• Thursday’s Team Building Question of “What do we need to say NO to”?
• Wednesday’s post of Back to Basics – Virtual and Digital
• Tuesday’s post on Stand Out Virtually
• Monday’s post – Effective Virtual Conversations tip about Working Across Differences

Enjoy your Sunday reflections!
Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Journaling Prompt gets you to think about, and write about, “I want to acknowledge”. What are the things you want to acknowledge?

Who do you want to acknowledge?

Here are two definitions from Oxford Dictionary around acknowledge:

1. Accept or admit the existence or truth of.
2. (of a body of opinion) recognize the fact or importance or quality of.

What’s important to acknowledge in your weekly journaling?

Enjoy the reflections!
Jennifer

I have been doing a lot of speaking this year around virtual conversations and digital transformation.  Whether I have been speaking about creating MEMORABLE virtual conversations, or HOW to digitize parts of your business, your learning or teamwork, 2020 is apt to go down as the year where the pivot to digital transformation got accelerated. Here’s what I wrote only a short 7 months ago in December 2019 on Digital Transformation in Teams365 #2178.

Take a read and think about what is important for you to note:

As an author and consultant, I often work with organizations and teams around the topic of digital transformation. As someone who has usually worked as an early adopter with technology, sometimes out of geographic necessity, digital transformation is an extension of the work I’ve been doing for several decades now.

You can hear more about the various pathways that bring us into remote and digital work at the new podcast I am hosting with colleague Michelle Mullins. Together we are exploring the people, pathways and processes that make up the remote workspace.

Digital transformation has been one part of this equation. From large banks, to healthcare, to education, the way we are connecting, conversing and doing our work is essential.

Many rural areas now have access to medical advisors that would not have been possible years ago. I remember vividly being part of some epiphany moments and paradigm shifters in 1998 (yes, that’s 1998) with a community deep in the interior of South America. A funding grant from the Canadian International Development Agency helped to fund solar panels, a satellite connection and special laptops to link that community with educational materials. When I arrived at the community to meet with my team who had been based there doing related work in primary health and infrastructure rehab, I was struck (as was often the case) with the very limited resources available for students. One notebook each, a small pencil and bare bookshelves. This pilot project was a bit of a game changer for that community, opening up the doorways to education for those children.

While not every project like this is a success, they radically change the paradigm of how we work, what’s available and then what’s possible.

This is also what’s happening in the era of digital transformation.

While we may not be comfortable in letting go of “how we’ve always done things” it’s important that we also look at the questions of:

• What can we do now?
• What’s now possible?
• What new connections are there?

VUCA, digital transformation, and AI (all 3 separate things) are showing up in some workplaces at the same time. It can be overwhelming for some and spark creativity for others.

Providing a space for people to connect and share their insights in a way where they can be heard.

As a team, over time, be sure to build in time to explore additional questions around:

• What changes do we need?
• What can be evolved? Repurposed?
• What new things do we need to create?
• What do we need to stop doing?
• What conversations are important for you to have as a team? What space and time do you need to earmark so these conversations are taking place?​

Interested in having a conversation about this? Need a facilitator or speaker to come in and discuss? Please reach out to me by email at info@potentialsrealized.com and let’s set up a time to talk.

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer

This week’s Team Building Question is number 255 in the series. What do you want to say NO to?

Turning away work, or saying no to a project, may provide the space you need in order to focus on your priorities.

A challenge of the remote work space which many have is boundaries. Boundaries around our time, boundaries around availability.

Another challenge of the remote space is that it can be more challenging to identify what’s important. When our team members are scattered and we don’t get to meet them at the water cooler, how do we know what’s important NOW?
As a team, if you haven’t had a conversation recently around what your priorities are collectively and individually, I hope you will use this as a nudge.

As you look at all the things you have on the go, what do you want to say NO to?

Enjoy your conversation,
Jennifer

This week’s back to the basics post takes us to an area you might not have considered “foundational” a few months ago, but may now. 2020 has been the year of this in a tremendous tsunami of professionals, businesses and organizations moving to the virtual and digital space. It’s been amazing to see different people and organizations pivot, joining us in innovation.

As many readers may know I’ve spent the bulk of my career since the early 1990s leading virtual teams and businesses. When I opened the doors of Potentials Realized (metaphorically, of course, as I’ve never had a brick and mortar location), I’ve always been fascinated to think about how I could adjust and evolve in-person events to the virtual space.

My driving force was not just a fatigue with travel, having spent most of the 1990s and early 2000s either flying around the world, or having the privilege for many years of adventure travel as part of my everyday body of work, but it also was in response to some vision loss I encountered in 2003 from an eye infection which quickly got out of control.  While my vision was impacted, it’s been an ongoing driving force for my creativity and advocacy that virtual events can be just as interactive and impactful IF we incorporate great design. I’d invite you to take a look at the many, many posts here at the Teams365 blog which link into virtual conversations, or pick up a copy of two of my more recent books – The PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals OR Effective Virtual Conversations.

Today we have the opportunity to continue to virtualize and digitize a lot of our work. Here are some of my favorite types of virtual events:
 
Core Elements when we think about virtualization include some of the many ideas I shared in my post yesterday – Stand Out Virtually. From clarity, to visuals, to leaving a pause, these are core elements.

Another foundational element of standing out and creating value is making sure that you engage. Engagement means involvement. It doesn’t mean just talking at people. Be sure to leave space for people to interact with others, or even interact with their own thoughts. If it’s a big call, what can people do to take a pause and note things down for themselves? Or share with another person in a breakout?

Some of the favorite virtual events I like to run are virtual business planning retreats, annual groups like the Learning Lab and Design Studio I host throughout the year and also Get it Done afternoons where we get our work done!

In times of physical distancing many are yearning for connection and collaboration. What can you do to create more connection in your next digital offering? In your next virtual conversation?

Please share with us what’s important for you to note!

Best wishes,
​Jennifer