Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

#teams365 #3064 Remote Pathways Podcast – Graphic Facilitation

5/26/2022

We recently sat down with one of my mentors, Patti Dobrowolski, to talk about vision, remote work and graphic facilitation.

Here's the link to the podcast:
https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast

The direct link to the episode:
https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep61-special-guest-patti-dobrowolski-graphic-facilitation

Visualizing information and ideas is such an important approach in today’s workspace – what do you notice about how this is showing up in your work, and also how it could eneift you.
Enjoy the conversation!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

TEAMS365 #2531 – Flashback Friday – Teams365 #741 – 4 Core Skills in Virtual Facilitation

12/4/2020

Given that this year has focused so heavily on the virtual world, this week we are going to start to take a look at the essentials of virtual facilitation. As more and more professionals start to operate in the virtual domain it is important to develop not only skills but also confidence in building connection with remote staff, facilitating meetings, and transitioning most activities.

Four core skills in virtual facilitation include:

Reading the environment - Even though you may not be physically present in a room, great virtual leaders and facilitators, are able to read the environment. There is a much to be said through the way people are speaking - their pace and how fast they are speaking; the pitch or level at which they speak.
Part of reading the environment is also noticing the overall energy of the call. I think we can all recollect times when meeting energy was very low (what I often call the "Death By Conference Call") Or when meeting energy was very high.
Next time you are in a virtual meeting, think about how you would describe the energy of the call.

Listening - In virtual environments listening is critical. We want to be listening for the speech patterns, but also what is being said and not being said. Notice the flow of conversation, who is dominating and who is holding back.

Managing the process - In virtual facilitation a strong hand on process can go far. Given that we often don't have the same cues as in the face to face environment, it's important for the leader or facilitator to take a strong hand with process - time allocated, agenda items, making sure you are starting and ending on time, clarifying decisions and where you are going to next.

Engagement - Virtual meetings can feel never ending. It's important to engage people throughout the call. Design with the group what engagement can look like (for example, an expectation that you will hear from everyone) etc. In a future post I'll explore different engagement techniques for virtual meetings.
How are you doing with each of these areas? If you are looking for practical techniques and approach to boost your virtual facilitation, check out the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program where I personally train you to boost your skills as a virtual facilitation.

Consider joining me for the next one-day session next week or in 2021.

Pressed for time? View the Teams365 blog post at my YouTube Channel here.

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

TEAMS 365 #2149 – Effective Virtual Conversations #120: Creating More Memorable Virtual Calls

11/18/2019

This week’s blog post focuses in on the important topic of retention, or memorability of calls.

It’s likely that the call you are hosting today is one of many virtual sessions people are dropping into. What are you going to do to make it memorable?

As I shared in Teams365 15 Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #37 – As Suzuki Writes: “We make things memorable when things are novel, surprizing, emotional and attention grabbing”. What are the things you can be doing to create this?

A couple of things that we can do to make it memorable include:
Jazzing it up – including a video you have created or something a creator has shared on YouTube. (Always be sure to confirm usage rights, and when in doubt, reach out!).

Provide an opportunity for people to talk about their experiences in smaller groups. Check out if breakouts are an option in your platform. If so, could you build in a 5-10 minute section where people share how the topic connects to them and what they can do.

Prime people for the fact that the call is going to be different than usual. Let people know what you can expect. Start your call off differently – perhaps with something more personally involved than others. Note that as people are coming onto a call it may take them a few minutes to get grounded. We may be unfocused based on what we are experiencing.

IN addition to talking about the topic, are there some graphics which can be incorporated into the session? What additional follow up can people engage with? Note that you may want to consider both pre and post work.

As I shared earlier this year in my March 2019 Effective Virtual Conversations calls, Ebbinghaus did initial research on what we retain and what we remember. He created what is now known as the forgetting curve. In essence, as time progresses, as days progressed, we remember even less.

And so how can we boost that? There are several things that he found really made a difference. The meaningfulness of the information, the way it's represented, as well as some physiological factors, stress, sleep, et cetera.
Using some of the techniques I’ve outlined in the first part of the blog post may also help to boost retention. What do you want to incorporate to support enhanced retention?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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

As we step into the end of the year, get your 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.

#TEAMS365 #2079 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 110: In Focus: Questions

9/9/2019

This week’s Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets you to consider the virtual facilitation skill area of questions. A foundational area, the use of a powerful question can shift a virtual meeting from a one-way black hole of silence, to an engaged conversation.

A couple of things to keep in mind when integrating questions into your next virtual meeting:

Keep your questions short. When questions are too long, we don’t understand them. Aim for 5-7 words in a question.
Ask one question at a time. If you ask more than one question, the listener will first need to figure out what question they have to answer first. In a group context, this will likely lead to people getting off on different tangents, as people will hear different questions first.
Be clear on when you want to ask open-ended questions, which solicit an invite to expand, or when you want simply a yes/no answer.
Use different ways to get people’s response. Depending on the technology you are using, you may be able to share comments verbally, as well as by chat, and sometimes by annotation.
Avoid starting questions with WHY unless trust levels are very high! “Why” questions tend to put people on the defensive. “What” questions tend to be the most open-ended. “How” questions will invite people into thinking about process.For more on the art of questioning in the virtual space, along with a series of questions you might use, check out the Skills in Focus Chapter in my book, Effective Virtual Conversations.

What are some of your favorites? Share with us using the comments below.

And to leave you off with one of my favorite closing questions – What are you going to do to put this in practice in the next 24 hours?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources.

#TEAMS365 #2023 Effective Virtual Conversation Tip 102

7/15/2019

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversation Tip is something I say regularly to the coaches and facilitators I work with in train-the-trainer programs. Simply put it’s “Keep it simple. The complexity is with the group.”.

Keeping things simple in the virtual space might involve things such as:

Making sure our questions are crisp and clear
Only asking one question at a time
Asking the group to discuss only one question at a time
Making sure we allocate enough time
Focusing only on one theme or focus area each call
Simplifying instructions
Leaving space and time for questions that might emerge
Using a graphic instead of a lot of text
Using a metaphor to describe something more complex
Being sure to reinforce what we are saying with something written

What can “keeping things simple” look like in your virtual conversations?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #2000 Celebrating 2,000 Posts!!!

6/22/2019

Today we reach another milestone here at the Teams365 blog. It’s the 2000th post! What began as an experiment for me on January 1st to see what it would be like to write every day around leadership and teamwork issues, has now become an important part of my regular writing practice. Like so much in business, we don’t know where we are going to go until we do it.

There’s been a lot that’s occurred since I kicked off the Teams365 blog on January 1st 2014 including some of these achievements:

The evolution of the entire Teams365 series of learning programming for leaders, teams, and also virtual and remote workers. While these were a twinkle in my eye prior to the start of the blog, these are now well evolved sets of programs – some which are on-demand courses like the Teams365 Teamwork Foundations.
Multiple corporate engagements around group coaching training and coaching skills training for leaders, including one that was awarded the Prism Award for Excellence in Coaching (2016), and an Award of Excellence – Curriculum Design (2017).
The publication of three more books – Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018), and PlanDoTrack (2019).
Moving from less than 100 page views a week to last week’s 2,069 unique visitors, and 14,928 page views.

It’s been interesting establishing a practice of writing with a regular focus. Here are some of the series you will want to check out if you haven’t seen them already:

The Saturday Weekly Journaling Prompt series. For those that enjoy a reflective pause, you will want to check out the Saturday posts which started about a year ago, focused on a weekly prompt. Grab a pen and journal and get started! If you prefer to have it all under one cover, I’ve pulled together quarterly sets of the Weekly Journaling Prompts and have put them together in an ebook format you can print out and use. $7 at our Potentials Realized store. Check out volume #1 here.
Thursday’s Team Building Tips. Now it the mid-240 range, this Thursday series provides teams and team leaders with a question you can use the spark conversation and dialogue. Ideal for a team meeting, some of these have been made into a deck of 52 cards you can physically incorporate into your team meetings. What’s your favorite? Check out the series here, and share with us in the comments.
Mondays’ weekly Effective Virtual Conversations tip. For the past couple of years I have shared a weekly tip from my 2017 book Effective Virtual Conversations. That book focuses on ideas for making your virtual conversations (virtual meetings, virtual training, virtual mentoring more effective). Definitely a good place to check out as most of us have some sort of virtual touch point every week. Check

In the last 2000 posts there have been many other focus areas and series. While too many to name, some that you may be interested in are:

Leadership Myths
Teamwork in Uncertainty
Leadership a – z
The a-z of remote and virtual team activities

I look forward to continuing the journey with you! Continue to stay tuned.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1996: Presentation Brush-up

6/18/2019

As you may recall, this month we’ve been exploring several mid-year topics – the Team Tune Up (link to that post), along with others encouraging you to do some mid-year stock taking.

One area which I think often gets pushed to the side is that around presentations. Whether we are being formally asked to lead a webinar, or present something “on the fly”, brushing up on our presentation skills can go a long way.

While there is a whole art and science behind presentations, I like to always bring it back to KEEP IT SIMPLE. I’m going to model that in today’s posts as well, sharing with you five key areas to keep in mind when you go to design or lead your next presentation:

Connect people early on with their WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? What’s important about this topic for people?
Use real-time examples. If you have time, is there an opportunity for people to share a real-time example of how they are focusing on this topic. The question might be: “Who can share an example you are currently working around, as it relates to this topic?”. This helps make it not only meaningful, but relevant and usually a lot more urgent than if you were talking about the topic in a more conceptual way.
Consider the start, middle and end. We tend to remember the start and end of things. Really think through how you want to start the presentation and how you want to wrap it up. What are
What are the top 3 bullet points? We operate in a fast-paced business context, where direct communication can be an advantage. What are the top 3 bullet points you want to share during the presentation, or have people retain?
Use graphics that capture attention. Media use in many presentations is an expectation and can bring to life many of the ideas you are covering. What are the graphics that are going to provide a focus and inspiration?

Finally, as a bonus tip, remember that most people prefer to bring their own voice into the presentation and talk about the issues that are relevant to them, rather than passively sitting back and being talked at. What can you do to bring their voices and experience into the room?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1985 - #FLASHBACKFRIDAY: Preparing For the Feedback Conversation

6/7/2019

This week’s flashback Friday takes us to preparing for the feedback conversation. When feedback is unplanned or unscheduled things can go awry. Even taking a few minutes on a regular basis to review your team members performance, can be a useful habit to get into. Providing feedback on a regular basis is a best practice of leadership today.

Check out Teams365 1252 Preparing for the Feedback Conversation. This is useful for both the person giving and the person receiving the feedback.

Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1252:
Today's post takes us to the realm of feedback, an area I often find myself working with teams around. The performance conversation should not be a one-off conversation. In fact, it should be an on-going dialogue (two-way) between staff and their leader.

Taking time to prepare for the feedback conversation is an essential step in the process, and it is often one that is overlooked. It's important to take some time to think about the performance conversation, rather than just winging it.

Some things to do when you are starting to prepare for any feedback conversation is:

Make sure that you have solid items to talk about. What are the facts? What is hearsay? What have you seen yourself? If you realize that you don't have a lot to share, this is a flag to make some changes so that next time you do.

What are the key goals which are important to discuss? Another challenge in the feedback conversation is that the team leader may be focusing on different things than the employee. What are the key goals which are important to discuss? Are these aligned?

How have you set the employee up for success in scheduling this meeting? Performance conversations should be a two-way process. What have you done to set the employee up for success? Have you asked them to consider any questions prior to meeting? Have you invited them to do a self-assessment? When was the last time the two of you sat down to explore performance issues? Nothing raised in an annual review should be a surprize.

Dedicate time and space for the performance conversation and preparation. Even though many of us feel we need to run from task to task, feedback and performance conversations should not be left as a low item priority. Make sure you are dedicating time and space for not only holding the performance conversation, but also preparing for it.

What other tips do you have for preparing for the performance conversation?

Enjoy the conversations!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1981 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 97: Listening in the Virtual SPace

6/3/2019

Welcome back to another Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip focuses into the skill of listening.

As both leaders and team members listening is a critical skill, particularly in the virtual space. It is important for all of us - leaders, entrepreneurs, individual contributors and team members.

Keys to listening in the virtual and remote space are to ensure that we are:

Focusing – Focusing 100% of our attention on the person who is speaking – not using other devices or focusing on other things.
Listening to the tone as well as the words. If you are streaming, what do you notice about the body language?
Listening for the pause points – What does their speed and rate of pitch say? How quickly or slowly are they speaking.

Finally, do you fall into one of the biggest pitfalls of listening today? We want to make sure that we are listening for what is really being said, rather than listening to respond. One of the greatest challenges for most professionals today is that they are so focused on figuring out what they plan to say, that they really are not listening to what is being said. What are you listening for?

I recently came across a great article by Ben Gross on the importance of listening. Here's a link to his article on listening.

It is often said that employees leave managers, not companies. What can you do to boost your listening skills? What did you notice about your last conversation?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

#TEAMS365 #1974 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 95: Integrate Annotation

5/27/2019

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets you thinking about creating more interactivity in your next virtual program. This week’s EVC tip gets you thinking about using the tools of annotation.

Most virtual platforms will have the option of enabling annotation, where people can write on the screen.

Annotation might involve getting people to:

Circle things they are in agreement around
Check things off on a list
Write things on a blank white screen/PowerPoint
Create a logo which represents what people are bringing to the call

Annotation is a great supplement to using chat, and it will also provide more hands-on interaction. When requested to write something on the screen or circle something we are less likely to multi-task or be doing something completely different.

This week consider how you could incorporate more annotation and interaction into your virtual conversations.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.