This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets you thinking about SILENCE. How much silence are you leaving in your virtual calls?

In my work and writing I call this a “micro-pause” and the inclusion of even 30 – 90 seconds of intentional silence can make a big difference in the remote space when you are leading virtual calls.

It’s likely that most calls you lead are heavy on the side of content and flow, and less about pause and silence.

With a professional’s day full of back-to-back conversations, it’s really important that we do leave micro-pauses of 30 -90 seconds or more during calls to help people REFLECT, PROCESS and COMMIT TO NEXT STEPS.

Consider these opportunities for incorporating a micro-pause:

• Before opening up a question for discussion, have people write out their response for 30 seconds.
• Structure a call with a component which has a series of timed prompts, with silence in between. I often host calls where we have anywhere from 5 – 20 minutes of reflective prompts, particularly at the end of projects and/or months/quarters. These have easily become people’s favorites and have been noted to be invaluable as they are something people aren’t doing on their own.
• Mid-way through the call pausing for a minute to have people note for themselves what is the “one thing they can apply to their work”. After the minute pause (not during) have them share it with others
• 60 - 90 seconds towards the end of the call, for people to note their top 1-3 takeaways and schedule them in

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It can be useful to have whoever is facilitating the call to set a timer so they too can relax and drop into the reflection themselves.

What other ways might you create a pause?

Enjoy the reflection!
Jennifer

PS - Take a minute and be sure to join us over at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub as well on Facebook. You can join us here. 

As someone who has worked virtually for the better part of multiple decades I too can suffer from “The Death By Conference Call” or what’s now being referred to as “Zoom Fatigue”. I’ve been so committed to helping others create more engaging calls for themselves that I even wrote a whole book on it - Effective Virtual Conversations. Pick up a copy here.

Having hosted my own calls on Zoom since 2016, I’ve always had a majority of people say that they love virtual calls with me. So, what’s different? INTERACTIVITY. ENGAGEMENT. Not talking AT people, but sparking a dialogue.
Dialogue comes from the Latin words “dialogus”, meaning discourse or conversation.

What are you doing to spark a conversation in the remote space on your zoom (or Teams, or Blue Jeans) calls?

Consider these elements:

• Use breakouts where possible, and limit breakouts to 5 or less. The smaller, usually the better. People love to connect with peers, share their ideas and hear their own voices. Consider how you will have people report back with their ideas.
• Consider the multiple ways you are going to get people active during the calls. There are a variety of different ways from chat, to polls, to annotation. What’s going to help people interact and be in conversation, in multiple ways, on multiple channels?
• Ditch the texty slides - - or at least intersperse them with rich graphics. Our brains process visuals quicker than text, so consider alternative ways to communicate your message
• Consider the pre- and post- work (reading, videos etc) which can be done so that your time together is a conversation, not a presentation.
• Engage at least every 7-10 minutes. This “7-10 minute pace switch” which I write about is key to keeping calls moving and people engaged. You can change the pace by asking a question and having people respond, doing a poll or having people annotate on the screen.

What are the things we can do? What are the changes you want to make to your work?

Want to learn more? Consider joining me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program to boost your skills and confidence in leading virtual calls. Learn more and register here.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

FOCUS is a key skill set for all of us working remotely. It’s not only about our ATTENTION, and what we choose to pay attention, as well as what we train our brains to pay attention to. It’s also about what we prioritize.

What we choose to FOCUS on in the remote space not only has implications for ourselves, but also those we work with. Alignment issues have always been key --- Are we all pulling in the same direction? Is the sequence of our work feeding into each other, or creating gaps of time where nothing gets done?

When we explore the topic of FOCUS several things need to be kept in mind:

• The Reticular Activating System is the part of our brain which helps us discern which stimuli we should pay attention to. It really is the part of the brain which helps to sift though all of the data coming at us at one time.
• When part of a team, it’s important that we understand the bigger picture of things. We want to make sure that everyone on the team has information about:
  • WHY – What is the task or goal?
  • WHAT WILL SUCCESS LOOK LIKE – What does a successful end result look like? Without knowing this, we may all be aiming for different things. Instead of creating a 4-page report, I might be thinking we are working on a 40-page report. Be sure to clarify what success will look like.
  • WHAT ARE THE ROLES INVOLVED – With bigger tasks and projects, there is likely to be a number of activities and tasks which need to roll into each other. Does the team understand what those roles are? Does the team understand how they each fit together and what the sequence is? Be sure to clarify roles involved and who is doing what. Also consider if everyone is in the right role or if things should be switched up.

With your current projects and tasks for the next month, what’s important to clarify?

Note that CLARITY is one of the 7 Remote Enablers I write about in the Remote Working Whitepaper. Be sure to pick up a copy here.

Best,
​Jennifer

How often are you taking the pulse in your virtual calls? Whether it’s a webinar or a group coaching process, taking the pulse regularly is key for both you as a facilitator/host and the group. Regular engagement moves us from a “Death by Conference Call” to something more interactive.

In today’s post I wanted to share several ideas of how you can take the pulse during calls – it’s platform agnostic and different platforms will have different options available. In no particular order here are some options:

• Ask people to share in chat their biggest learning so far
• Ask people in chat to give a thumbs up if they have received one thing that they can put into practice from the call
• Have people rate their call experience so far on a 1-5 or 1-10 (yes, a little risky, and it’s going to help you in the long run!)
• Using annotation have people indicate the most important topic you’ve covered
• Using annotation, have people write out any questions they want covered in the last part
• Using a poll (built in or in a platform like Mentimeter) have people indicate the most important point covered so far
• Using emojis or reactions have people signal their learning

What do you want to incorporate into your work?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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.
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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 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.
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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

The digital space can get very crowded, with one zoom call looking like another. Today’s post gets you thinking about different ways you can stand out virtually. If you are a leader, coach or business owner, what can do you do make sure that your call stands out virtually?

#1 – Be clear – From the start, let people know what they can expect. How long is the call? What’s being covered? What is the process going to be?

#2 – Create expectations – From the start, let people know what they can expect. What is the process you are going to follow? A lack of clarity creates a lack of certainty.

#3 – Consider the visuals which will create a WOW – Our brains process visuals faster than text. What are the visual elements you want to use to help anchor your work? What is the environment you would like to create?

#4 – Create a pause – One of the common characteristics of a lot of virtual calls these days is that there is no space to breathe. Literally. There’s no pauses or chance to catch your breath. Part of creating memorability is doing something different or novel.

#5 – Create Connection – In my remote working whitepaper I shared the 7 Cs – Remote Enablers. Connection (along with clarity) is one of them. We want to make sure that we are creating CONNECTION on multiple levels, in multiple ways. What is the connection to the topic? What is the connection to a person’s world? What is the connection to others on the call? What are you doing to create connection?

#6 - What’s your call to action? What is the call to action you are making? What will people do after the call? Are you building in time for people to note their next steps? Articulate or share their next steps?

Try incorporating these steps into your next virtual conversation. I provide more tips about these in my book, Effective Virtual Conversations, or you can join me for an upcoming edition of the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program. The next one starts next week – Wednesday July 29th. Hope to have you join us – more info and registration here.

What’s your favorite tip? Share with us in the comments below.

A big thanks to those who joined me today at the Training Industry Roundtable Discussion! I hope that you enjoyed it.

Best,
​Jennifer

The skill set of “working across differences” has always been an important skill set for those of us working across distance. From time zone differences, to cultural differences, to technical differences, and language differences, there are so many things which make us all unique as part of a remote team. 

In order to work across differences, we will want to:

• Help people identify and articulate their own strengths and uniqueness
• Support the team to see where common ground resides
• Support the team to note where gaps exist
• Support the team in understanding people’s preferences
• Support the team in establishing shared agreements of how they want to work together. These behavioral norms shape our team culture – who we are and how we do things. It’s an important part of understanding what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable on the team.

With this knowledge in mind, and the tasks at hand, note what elements we each need to magnify and what we may also minimize.

As I wrote in June 2016:

There are a variety of differences which show up in teams every day -
from styles to technical skills.

Different approaches can be a source of strength if people are confident and knowledgeable in working across differences.

Some of these are signals that different styles may be at play:

• A look of confusion when one team member is speaking
• Conflict
• Multiple misunderstandings regarding what is being said or what needs to get done

Tips for working across differences:
* Spend time working on the relationship.  Know what you uniquely bring, your
strengths, talents and preferences.
* How does this mesh with the collective? How might it not?
* What do others value?
* What adaptations are needed to your approaches?

Best,
​Jennifer

Back in early March, before most countries went into lockdown, I released a Remote Working Whitepaper. It’s been downloaded hundreds of times. Make sure to download your copy.
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I thought it would be useful for today’s FlashbackFriday post to explore the different remote work enablers or what I call the 7Cs in my writing. Check out this past post here. 

In the Remote Working Whitepaper, I released earlier this year, I summarized seven of the areas I consistently see as things that help, or enable, exceptional performance in the remote space. As a former remote leader myself for many years, I knew that these things were always areas to check in around first, to see if perhaps, one or more needed attention, clarity or modification.

Whether your team is now working remote all the time, or for just this period of time, it can be useful to focus in on these 7 areas which I like to term Remote Enablers – The 7 Cs. Here’s an excerpt from the Whitepaper which you can pick up a copy HERE.
 
What’s different in the remote space?

Copyright 2020 – Jennifer Britton, Potentials Realized. All Rights Reserved

Remote teams operate across distance, time and culture. This usually requires enhanced skills in communication, boundaries, clarifying assumptions and being able to navigate the diverse preferences, cultures and ways of working of a global team. What is not clear or visible can become a challenge or pitfall for a remote team.

What ingredients enable exceptional remote work? I like to call these the 7 Cs which anchor exceptional remote work – Communication, Clarity, Connection, Culture, Consistency, Community, and Collaboration.

Communication is likely to take place along different channels, and at different times of day. The communication realm of the remote space may include phone, text, instant messaging, email, video streaming calls, and messaging across multiple apps like Slack and Trello.

The challenge with communication is that is often has no context - we don’t see “what’s beyond the screen”. Many times, we don’t have the visual cues that tend to make up the majority of regular communication messages.

On top of this, communication can vary across both geographic culture (some cultures are more direct than others), and industry culture.

Finally, we have our own individual preferences to communication. As a Gen Xer, I may prefer to have communication bundled and emailed to me, rather than up in the Cloud. Taking time to understand each team member’s focus and preferences is critical to remote work. Conflict may emerge for a variety of factors including different styles, lack of clarity, misunderstanding or interpreting instructions differently.

Connection with others helps remote work and includes connection to others inside and outside the team and understanding their work. Remote team members are likely to be part of matrix relationships, where they report to, and are part of, multiple teams. Matrix relationships offer another layer of complexity and opportunity in this work. Connection also means understanding how our work fits into the bigger picture, as well as fits into the bigger context of others work. Given the isolated nature of remote work, proactively focusing on connection is important. Take a look at the Remote Working Myths for more on this.

What can you do to create more connection across the team? Beyond the team?
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Clarity is one of the most important enablers. This involves clarity of focus, clarity of priorities, clarity of expectations, clarity of roles and clarity of responsibilities. In the remote space, we need to make things EXPLICIT, and be regularly exploring our ASSUMPTIONS.

What clarity is needed for team members to do their best work?

Team culture becomes even more pronounced or diluted in the remote space, so a focus on this can be really important, especially when people are part of multiple teams. Culture is “how we do things here”.

Culture encompasses both visible (behaviors, language, artifact) and invisible manifestations (norms, values, basic assumptions or beliefs).” – Rosinski, 2003, p 20.

In shaping a culture there are the things we can see and help to define us (our taglines or the way we start meetings) and there are things that we don’t see. Team culture can remain very diffuse and not clear in the remote space. Taking efforts to clarify and intentionally shape what team culture is, and how we do things, becomes paramount for remote team performance.

Consistency is also key when we are dispersed or operating in different locations. It’s consistency of messaging, practices, and the way we do things. For example, every Monday we meet at 7:30 am ET, regardless of how many people can attend live.

Community – Remote Workers are hungry for connection and community. What are you doing to build a sense of connection and identity across your team or organization?  Community can range from boosting communication across internal social platforms to interactive virtual lunch and learns.

Collaboration – Collaboration is an essential skill set when we work remote. As you’ll see in the remote work myth of “no person is an island”, we still need to place an emphasis on relationships. Who do you need to collaborate with in order to get things done? What can you do to collaborate better? Where are those collaboration windows and requirements?

Connection – Beyond community, how are we connected? What are the process pieces which help us do our best work? What type of communication exists? What helps bring people together on a regular basis both formally, and informally? Across a team and between teams?

End of Excerpt – Remote Working Whitepaper: When You Need to Get Up to Remote Working Speed Quickly. Copyright 2020, Jennifer Britton, Potentials Realized
 
Pick up a copy of the Remote Working Whitepaper for yourself here.

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer