This past week I hosted a 5-day challenge called “Stand Out Virtually – Corporate Edition”. We explored what’s needed to create interactive, and memorable, corporate engagements, whether you are working in organizations that are for-profit, not-for-profit, public sector, start-ups or associations. Those who attended were coaches and other learning professionals, leaders, and entrepreneurs, who lead programming for organizations and have had to pivot or expand their virtual offerings.

Three key themes we talked about this week around creating memorable and impactful virtual calls are what I term in my book – Effective Virtual Conversations – “Death By Conference Call” or today’s term of “zoom fatigue” were:

#1 - Invite people to interact and get active – Conversations are not meant to be a passive endeavor. They need to be active. Talking at people one way is not having a conversation. Be sure to use the “engagement levers” available to you – from chat, to annotation, polling or breakouts. Different size virtual rooms, and different platforms will provide different options available.
Task: Review one of your current presentations this week. What is one way you can create more active focus on the part of participants? Note incorporating this every 7-10 minutes is often a good rule of thumb.
 
#2 - Improve your questions – Leadership in the remote and virtual space is via influence. This is another reason why conversational skills become so important virtually. Consider what questions will elicit the response and action you are looking for.

Questions are usually asked one at a time, only 4 to 6 words in length, and the most open-ended questions usually (but not always) start with WHAT. Why questions may put people on the defensive if trust levels are not high. How questions will move people into a process orientation.

Asking two questions at a time is often referred to as stacking and may lead to people not knowing which question they should refer to.

Task: Spend some time thinking about and reviewing the questions you want to ask in an upcoming presentation. Are they clear? What do they invite people to do – connect the dots, look to the bigger picture, etc?
 
#3 - Consider the visuals – One of the main channels we have in communication is visual. What are the visual elements you are using in your presentation or conversation? Is there an opportunity to create a metaphor to make a more complex topic simpler? Or a graphic or illustration which could synthesize new ideas.

Task: Consider your visual elements this week – photos, colors, metaphors and images.  What is important to note about your visuals?

Just a reminder, that this week we are starting the Stand Out Virtually Fall 2020 Incubator.

If today’s blog post is a topic of interest to you and you want to learn more about creating WOW conversations for the corporate arena, I’ll be hosting a seven week virtual learning series this fall on Mondays from 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET called the Fall 2020 Stand Out Virtually Incubator. Each week we’ll host a live learning call, you’ll participate in viewing some micro-learning and you’ll also be paired with a peer accountability partner to support you in building out and positioning your work. Whether you are external or internal to an organization, this program will build your tools, clarity and confidence around standing out virtually. Click here to learn more and register. 

The program runs from Monday October 19th to Friday December 4th.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

It is not uncommon to hear at the end of my training sessions – “WOW, the time really flew!” “That was amazing.”

These comments are a contrast to the negative press we hear about zoom fatigue and yet another “talking head” experience. Just last week a group member indicated that my virtual session with their organization was the first one that they had not fallen asleep in since March.

So, what can we do to keep virtual calls as they are intended – a deeper way to connect people to the content and each other?

Watch your pace change! Keeping things moving. A pace change every 7-10 minutes provides enough time for content and information, and then shift it up. A shift might involve:

• Asking a question and having people respond
• Doing a poll to take the pulse of the group
• Moving people to breakout rooms for discussion
• Using annotation to have people engage on the screen
• Incorporating an energizer
• Getting people to turn to chat and share their ideas

​Provide time for people to do things real-time. Is there a process you can take people through, working on step by step? Is there something people can draw out and work on?

Being clear with the end result. What is important? What are the questions that will help you get there?

Plan it. We can’t “wing things” in the virtual space like we could in-person. Take time to plan and prepare for the conversation.

Want more tips? Listen into the 60-day series of Effective Virtual Conversations Daily Author Readings I hosted this spring over at the Effective Virtual Conversations website. 

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

Engagement is key for virtual conversations. Unfortunately, a lot of poor presentation skills have translated over to the remote space. Even if you are not a great presenter, you can create a memorable call, by mixing it up. What does that mean? It means:

• Varying the pace every 7-10 minutes with a pace change or adjustment
• Using a variety of approaches – presentation, dialogue in a bigger group, discussion in smaller groups
• Using a variety of media – video, text, photos
• Remembering that we don’t learn when we are “talked at” by a presenter. We learn when we can put things into practice, and also discuss the topic with others

 
Many of the platforms which are available (Teams, Zoom etc) have a variety of tools available which aren’t always used. Consider what you can do to activate:

• BREAKOUTS
• ANNOTATION
• POLLS

 
We’ll be exploring this and a variety of other topics at my upcoming one-day Stand Out Virtually Masterclass on September 17th. Learn more about the day and reserve your spot to join us! 
 
Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

Welcome back to another Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s EVC tip is a reminder of the roots of facilitation. The word is actually derived from the Latin word - Facilis which means to make easy.

The role of the facilitator, particularly the virtual facilitator is to make things easy. That means making a focus on PROCESS easy. What’s the purpose? What can people expect? What are you doing?

Making connection EASY. As I shared earlier this month in the STAND OUT Virtually Challenge – that means connecting with the CONTEXT, with OTHERS, with YOU. What are you doing to make this easy?

Making outcomes EASY. Part of the mastery of a facilitator is having a variety of tools available to get to the outcomes required. This is where it’s important to have a wide toolkit. I’ve enjoyed helping many professionals build out their virtual toolkits this year in the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program.

Finally, it’s also about making ENGAGEMENT EASY. What are you doing to keep things moving? It’s important to be able to focus in on engagement - which is linked to connection as well as process.

What does FACILIS mean for you in your work?
​
Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

Happy Monday! Did you know that this week I am hosting a 5-day challenge online - geared to provide you with 5 days of focus on helping you Stand Out Virtually! I hope you will consider joining us – each call will be available for a 24-hour period if you can’t make the live call time which is 9 am ET/Toronto/New York time. We’re meeting from today until Friday August 21st.

Today’s tip connects in with some of the themes I’m addressing this week which are engagement, interactivity and visuals.

Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip gets you to think about how you might use word clouds as a way to capture and present information.

Two resources I have used in the past to present data to teams and organizations I work with are – WordClouds.com and WordArt.com.

For a cool interactive polling feature, check out MentiMeter.com. You can create real time word clouds using polling.

What other resources do you like to use?

Be sure to check out these resources and also share with us additional ones you use!
With best wishes,
Jennifer

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

​
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

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

We’re going back in time for this week’s Effective Virtual Conversation Tip. We’re winding back the clock and looking at EVC Tip #45. In Effective Virtual Conversations tip I was exploring 10 different pitfalls we can face with virtual conversations including #8 which focused on low ENERGY!

I’m sure this may have been something you have experienced recently.

Here’s what I wrote about approaching low energy back a few years ago:

Pitfall #8 of the ten pitfalls I share is one of “low energy”. This is a common one that can be experienced in virtual conversations of all kinds. Whether it is because we are on a platform that does not allow us to stream and see each other, or whether it’s because of the time of day we are calling in, or the topic we are exploring, there are a variety of reasons we can experience “low energy” in the virtual space.

The downside of low energy is that it leads to disengagement, disconnection, lack of focus, and an ineffective use of time.
 
Here’s what I wrote about pitfall #8 – low energy – in my book, Effective Virtual Conversations:

Pitfall #8 – Low Energy
Virtual programs can be challenging for new facilitators in terms of the energy and feedback you receive.

Solution: If you are using a phone-based system only, other than enabling people to raise their hands in response or signal their agreement on their keypad, it may feel like you are talking into a black hole. Your energy is imperative in keeping the flow going. Remember that it is critical to engage your group members every 5-7 minutes. Without involvement and engagement, it is challenging for anyone to continue to focus, let alone participate.
 
Flash forward to today and 2020 – here are three things that I’ve been doing to ensure we don’t have low energy for long:
 
#1 Send people to breakouts. Smaller paired or triad discussion is a great way to get energy flowing again. When we get to talk about the topics and issues which are important to us, they are an immediate activator.
 
#2 Invitation to participate in a stretch or mindfulness exercise to generate some new energy.
 
#3 Inclusion in a warm up exercise or energizer like – "What’s outside your window?", or an A-Z scavenger hunt in your immediate surroundings (gather up an item from each of the alphabet).
 
 
What else might boost some energy for your next call?

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. ​

As a former remote team leader of a very diverse team spread across almost 10 countries, I spent a lot of time for many years in one-on-one conversation with my team members. I still get a lot of requests from both new and seasoned team leaders about how they can amplify their one-on-one time with remote team members.

Our role as leaders in the remote space shifts significantly to one of an ENABLER, COACH and LIAISON. With our team spread out across areas we cannot see, empowerment is key. Time spent on a regular basis with the team collectively, as a well as individually is paramount. When operating in the remote space it’s not so much about taking the time to catch up on work, but rather to be proactive in keeping the conversation going and building capacity of the team to do their best work.

With one-on-ones (simply an individual conversation) with each team member in the virtual space, you may want to get into the practice of scheduling these, in addition to regular team meetings and possibly peer meetings, on a regular basis. That might mean weekly or even bi-weekly.  The more frequently you do them, the shorter they may be, and they may shift from an updating meeting to a strategizing meeting.

As I wrote back in 2017 in another Teams365 post:
​
Incorporating some of the questions I share in that post, here’s a list that you might consider exploring together:

1. Tell me a little about how it’s going and what you are focusing on right now?
2. How are things going with your work and tech set up?What are your key priorities right now?
3. What support could you benefit from? From me? From Others?
4. Are there any resources (people, information, budget) you need in order to do your best work?
5. What’s motivating you right now?
6. What strengths are you leaning into?
7. What feedback are you getting/do you need?
8. As you reflect on your own performance, how are things going?
9. What's going to help you get the results you need/ we want? OR What’s helping you excel?
10. What is the one change which will help you with this task?
11. What feedback loop can we put into place to support all of our work?
12. Any feedback for me?

Set up a time to meet for your next meeting and make sure it doesn’t suffer from meeting creep!

One-on-ones should also be considered in tandem with other supports such as overall team development and connection events. Are you getting together (virtually) for some informal social time? Perhaps you do a virtual potluck. Are you getting together virtually to learn something or discuss a new skill area? Everyone in the remote space can benefit from leadership and other skills such as listening, decision making, prioritizing, not only the team leader.

Enjoy the conversation!
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. ​