Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2381 – Teamwork Skill in Focus: Collaboration

7/7/2020

This week’s teamwork skill in focus is one that has become critical, especially when teams my not be physically working together, or even having to social distance – collaboration.

Over the last seven years collaboration has been a core theme here at the teams 365 blog, you can view other posts on this topic here:

What makes remote collaboration different:

We don’t see each other’s contexts regularly. What I know of your work is something that is shared, or made reference to, given that I only see the elements on the screen.
In the remote space it’s likely that collaboration and the skill of influence is the only way I will get things done, unless there others that are joined with me.

What great collaboration requires:

Trust
A knowledge of each other – who we are as individuals and who we are collectively
Clarity around the purpose – why are we doing this. As Morten Hansen writes “Bad collaboration is worse than no collaboration at all.”
Regular touchpoints (which could involve conversations, chats or electronic updates) and feedback loops
Focused on learning – regular identification of what’s working and what’s no
Intentional relationships - collaborative partnerships benefit from international focus – focus on The WHY we are doing things, how we are doing things and what’s at stake If it doesn’t work well

What’s important to note as it relates to your collaboration?

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAM365 #2380 – Effective Virtual Conversations 157: Appreciations

7/6/2020

With the shift to virtual, it can be very easy to shift into all results and business focus. At the same time, it is important to spend time focusing on the relationship element of groups and teams. This week’s post gets you to think about “appreciations” in your team. This is an activity I do regularly in team development programs I facilitate for remote teams.

Length: 5- 20 minutes

Number: 3 to 20 or more

What you need – Breakout rooms

Instructions: Put group or team members into rooms of 2-3 people. Have them share with the other person the following:

I see one of your strengths as….
I appreciate when you…
I’d love to see more….

This activity can be a great opportunity to witness what people bring to their work, acknowledging people for their strengths. At the same time, it can be an opportunity to provide nudge in terms of areas to magnify or even minimize.
After doing the breakout rounds it can be useful to have people return to the main room and share the one thing that they are going to focus on.

When do you have an opportunity to focus on acknowledgements?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2373 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 152

6/29/2020

It’s the start of another week and this week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #152 is all about PAUSE. Where could you benefit from taking a bit more of a pause – figuratively and literally?

One of the challenges professionals have faced this year has been the lack of pause in their work. For many, shifting to the virtual and remote space involved a tsunami of flurry. For those of us who already worked in the remote space it also meant a flurry of people using the same technologies and often access points we do.

Many have complained about Zoom fatigue and how exhausting virtual calls can be. One reason may be that leaders of calls don’t always leave in a pause during their calls. Consider how you might incorporate one of these pauses in an upcoming call –

Giving people 2 minutes to capture and schedule their next steps after a call
Providing group members with the opportunity to pause and have a 5-10-minute conversation with others
Providing people with a quick opener or energizer at the start of the call, geared to get them thinking about what their own connection is to the issue. Note, this will likely lead to a better call quality overall!
Having a short co-working session with colleagues to boost focus and attention

What else might you be able to do to boost your time in having a pause?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2366 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 151: Team Feedback and the REVET Model

6/22/2020

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip, which you can usually find under the hashtag #letstalkvirtual, is all about Team Feedback. With many teams opting to stay Working From Home for the foreseeable future, team feedback is an important loop to help teams excel.

What are the processes you have in place to keep team feedback moving?

We know that feedback is best when it’s specific (detailed about what the person did well or not well, behaviorally – via things that we can see or tangible outputs). Feedback is best when it’s regular, and as close to the event as possible. The longer between feedback and activity, the less valuable it is.

Feedback can be useful when we receive it from those around us – our bosses, our peers and those we interface with on projects, or stakeholders. Who are you receiving feedback from?

For many years I have written about, and talked about, the REVET™ model of feedback. We want to make sure that feedback is:

R – What are the roles the person inhabits; what projects are they involved with? What are their goals?
- Considering these questions helps us to make sure that feedback is relevant for the person.
E – Reflect on performance expectations
- What have been the expectations set about performance? What are the key issues they are focusing on, and most likely value feedback around?
V - What do they value?
- Some people value feedback delivered frequently and off the cuff. Other team members may prefer to have feedback offered in a structured fashion, or by writing, with some time between receiving the feedback and then having the performance conversation.
E – Specific examples. Providing specific examples is absolutely essential for an effective performance conversation.
- Always make sure you have specific examples which you have personally witnessed. If not, you may not be the person to provide feedback in that manner. You could facilitate the discussion with the person and those who seem them every day 1-1.
T – Timing. What is the most appropriate time for the conversation? Is it a mid-morning? Evening? Lunchtime conversation?

(Copyright 2020 – Jennifer Britton, VRTWL)

If you have a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations, you’ll also want to check out what I write about Appreciations and Acknowledgements on pages 257 – 258. It’s important to take time to pause and share appreciations with each other. This serves to boost trust, and connection, across the team. I recently have included this activity in my latest mini-course for teams – the Remote Team Builders. You can find it here.

What are the things you are doing to create a team feedback loop?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations

TEAMS365 #2359 Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 150

6/15/2020

Welcome back to Teams365 #150 – TRACK IT!

As many have seen in recent months, digital retention is different than analog retention. What we remember about what’s on the screen, may be very different than what we remember from what we write down. Noticing patterns and seeing trends is also really important in today’s world of disruption and change. Our memory does not always remember things as they are.

With that in mind, today’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip (which is #150 in the series – where has time gone!?), is all about TRACK IT!

Questions to consider as you think about TRACKING:

What are the things you are tracking in your work?
What are the tools and systems you are using to track things? Are you using a tracker? A dashboard or other?
What are the elements which would be useful to track as an individual? On your team?

One of the tools I use consistently as a professional are the trackers I developed for my two workbook planners – PlanDoTrack (for virtual and remote professionals) and Coaching Business Builder (for coaches wanting to grow their businesses).

If you take a look at Section 5 check out these different trackers:

The 31 Day Challenge: Really useful if you are tracking 31 days of consistent action
The Monthly Content Journal: I usually use two of these each month. One to capture key activities from each day (looking back now in mid-June 2020 and having done this since January, I can see that in fact I have accomplished A LOT!). The second one I use to capture any new ideas I have during the day. This can include ideas around blog posts, program ideas, marketing and things to do with teams. What do you want to track?
Daily Tracker Around Categories: The final type of tracker you might want to consider is a daily tracker, like the multicolored one you see in the graphic. This is useful for tracking activities and tasks. Maybe you have a goal of writing every day, or marketing, or outreach. Each one of these could have be tracked on a daily basis.

What do you want to track?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2352 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 149: Make It Visible

6/8/2020

Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip gets you thinking about MAKING THINGS VISIBLE. While many professionals have spent the last three months in the virtual and remote workspace, it’s likely that you might have felt bombarded by video streaming. The lexicon and language of video conferencing has shifted dramatically – from things like “zoom-bombings” (people dropping into your zoom calls), to “zoom fatigue” (the feelings of exhaustion from yet another video conferencing).

One of the downsides to digital life and work is the fact that other things aren’t as visible. Unlike being able to flip open a notebook, or look at a posting on the wall, it’s much harder to be able to “see things”.

Virtual calls also benefit from a rich array of visible cues. From incorporating graphics to video, what is going to jazz up your next presentation?

Even using the DESIGN feature in PowerPoint may shift a content rich presentation to one that has icons embedded with it.

Always be sure to respect intellectual property and copyright. Consider investing in commercial stock photography at places like istockphoto or AdobeStock or turn to the generosity of sites like Unsplash or Pixabay. Always read the fine print in terms of how you can, and cannot, use materials.

What are the things you want to draw attention to? What can you do to convert these into photographs or icons?

Is there content that could be converted across to a video? Consider using AdodeSpark to turn your jpgs to a short video with music and/or voice over or turn to Lumen5 to convert text to a short video using their AI based program.

Enjoy your focus!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2345 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 148

6/1/2020

Happy June and welcome back to another Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week we are at tip 148. The focus is this week is “What’s going to make your next virtual call memorable?” With people moving from back-to-back zoom calls, signaling that your call is going to be different is just as important as making your call different.

In my May 2020 Effective Virtual Conversations newsletter I cover five different ways to signal that your call is going to be different….

Here’s what I wrote:

With many in the virtual space becoming "zoom fatigued" and burnt out from virtual calls, it's never been more important for you to distinguish yourself as a masterful virtual facilitator, one who is cultivating dialogue, connection and providing the best experience for all involved.

With cynicism becoming more common place as some step into meetings, this month's call covers four things you can do quickly to signal that this just isn't "any zoom call”:

#1 - Talk about what people can expect in terms of process and interaction.
At the heart of setting the stage for a "different call" is creating clear expectations. Let people know what they can expect and how your call is going to be different. If it's going to be interactive, co-design agreements. Let people know what they can expect and how they may be able to pass if they don't have anything to add.

#2 - Connect people right away with their WIIFM. Connecting people early on with "What's in it for me?" boosts engagement and connectivity. If we don't see a connection with a topic, it's more likely that we will be unfocused or disengaged. Easy ways to connect people are to ask - What's your connection with this topic? or Who here ____ (fill in the blank)?

#3 - Make the start of the call different. Switch up the start. Consider incorporating video? Story? Breakout?

#4 - Make it visually rich. Icons are a favorite go-to for me, as is converting shorter blog posts into video. I often use Lumen5 to quickly convert content over. What content do you have that can get repurposed quickly?

#5 - Think about the right tool, for the right platform. What's the right tool for the right platform?

Check out the entire May EVC newsletter here.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2344 – Week in Review

5/31/2020

Welcome back to another Sunday in Review! Here’s where we went this week:

What’s been your favorite read this week?

Have a great Sunday!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2339 - Ways to Keep Your Virtual Meeting on the Flow

5/26/2020

Keeping the conversation going with virtual meetings in the remote space can take some concerted effort and is critical in terms of getting right. For many teams, it’s going to be a while longer before they are back face-to-face.

Next time you are going to lead a virtual meeting or facilitate a virtual webinar, consider these tips:

Keep it varied. Keep the pace moving and adjust pace every 7- 10 minutes. This might involve polling people in a larger audience or focusing more on
Use the tools available. There are usually many tools we can activate in the virtual space to engage others. From annotation, to breakouts, polling, to chat, what do you want to ensure you do to bring in everyone’s voices?
Wrap it up before the top of the hour. Maybe even 5 – 10 minutes early. With back-to-back virtual meetings becoming the norm, what would it be like to adopt a 50- or 55-minute meeting length so people actually have time to move from one meeting to the next?
Leave 30-60 seconds for people to note what they are going to do and schedule it in. How many times have you left one meeting, clear on what you had committed to doing, and then by the end of the next hour had forgotten what it was?

Always run through your pre-meeting checklist before you get going…. check out my past post around 8 Meeting Questions you always want to ask. You can read it here at the PlanDoTrack Blog.

What’s going to help make your next meet be most efficient?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2338 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 146

5/25/2020

Over the last few months, we’ve had a tsunami of professionals joining us in the virtual and remote space. One thing that most have become aware of is that virtual conversations are not uniform across the virtual and remote space. In fact, in my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, I share 9 different types of virtual conversations which vary across both level of formality and peer versus individual learning approaches.

In EVC, I differentiate between these nine different types of virtual conversations across the ecosystem:

Mentoring
Coaching
Peer Learning
Team Development
Goal Setting
Video Based Learning
Education – Webinars, Webcasts, Formal Learning, MOOCs
Meetings
E-Learning

What are the different types of virtual conversations you are engaging in? Are they synchronous – real time – or asynchronous – when the conversations take place at different times?

Chapter 4 of Effective Virtual Conversations dives more deeply into the different types of virtual conversations which exist.

Regardless of the type of conversation we are having, many of the same skills and practices underpin all of these. Last week I delivered a national webinar series for the Institute for Performance Learning and covered the 8 skill sets that underpin virtual conversations including:

Creating the Context
Communication
Process
Tools
Group Development
Ourselves as Facilitators
Technical
Design

(Copyright – 2017, Jennifer Britton, page 71)

What are the skills which are important for you to develop further to enhance your conversations?

For more on these skills, check out the Daily Reading Series I hosted during April and May of this year covering off chapters 1-3 of the book. You can listen in here at the Effective Virtual Conversations Blog.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.