In today’s tip I wanted to reach back to one of the many PlanDoTRack Remote (and Hybrid) Productivity Tips. Today I wanted to zoom into my Weekly Planning Hack #61 – Working Ahead.

This is a practice I still undertake, including how I write my blog posts in regular batches (today’s is part of a writing burst for two of this month’s posts).
Here’s what I shared over at the PlanDoTrack Blog in Weekly Planning Hack- #61 
​
In the remote workspace working ahead (a little bit) can be an important practice, especially if disruption is more the norm than the blip in your work style.
 
While some things will change if we undertake them too early, there are several things that you might benefit from working ahead around. Consider these items:
Reporting
Administrative tasks
Presentations
Small tasks which add up
 
Over the course of a day, we can pull off tangent many, many times. That may be the reason that several schools of thought in time management assert to get the most important, and often the most difficult thing done first.
 
I see this happen in my work on a regular basis, especially when I work around proposals, and presentations. I need a certain amount of creative and deep thinking when doing these two things, and if I can, I’ll find very early times of the day to at least get started, and sometimes finish, these tasks. Usually, I am thankful given that inevitably urgent pressing matters pop up, requiring, my time, focus and brain power.
 
If you were to invest in starting 30 minutes a day earlier, or getting a head start on thinking on a train ride, what would you want to work ahead around?

Best,
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 at https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_britton_virtual_remote_and_hybrid_checklist_aug_2021

​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.

Systems are a key part of keeping things moving consistently and intentionally in the virtual, remote and hybrid world.

One of our recent podcast episodes at the Remote Pathways podcast was 10 Systems for Remote and Hybrid Work. You can take a listen to it here https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast/ep43-10-systems-for-hybrid-remote-virtual-teams

What is important to note about systems as it relates to your work and conversations right now?

Be sure to check out these other posts on Systems from my 2019 Workbook/Planner for Remote and Virtual Professionals, PlanDoTrack over at the PlanDoTrack Blog -https://www.plandotrack.com/blog/category/systems

Enjoy!   
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 at https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_britton_virtual_remote_and_hybrid_checklist_aug_2021

​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.

An earlier precursor for Reconnecting Workspaces was PlanDoTrack, a workbook planner for remote and virtual professionals. As part of that book, I blogged for more than a year on Remote Productivity tips. I thought it would be useful to update these for the hybrid space, given that in hybrid work, most things are more complex.

One area that’s important regardless of what context we are working in is tracking metrics. Here’s what I wrote in PlanDoTrack Weekly Planning Tip 71 – Metrics that Matter

https://www.plandotrack.com/blog/weekly-planning-hack-71-metrics-that-matter
“Metrics that Matter” gets us thinking about the things you want to track. What’s important to you? What’s important to your work or business? How often are you pausing to see where things are at? What are the metrics that matter?

As I shared in an earlier community call metrics matter for several reasons including – they help to:

• Anchor

While we may be a Jack or Jill of all trades, it can be important to bring “Experts” on board as well. Metrics are important in the hybrid world as they are something we can all do and share, whether we see each other or not.

• Provide Data

Metrics provide data, offering a variety of engagement types – products and services, which can allow you to expand your reach and geographic impact. Data is critical for hybrid workspaces so everyone can measure where they are at.

• Scaling

Metrics help with measurement and scaling. They indicate where you are and how far you have gotten.

• Know Where We are Going

Metrics provide a marker, and help us know where we are on the pathway of the journey towards our goals.

• Resource Allocation

Metrics also provide a way to allocate resources to what is needed.
 
What’s important to note about metrics in your work and world right now?

What are you doing to track your numbers? Is everyone tracking the same thing, in the same way?

How are you revisiting them - This week? This month? This quarter?

If you haven’t taken a look at your metrics from the last quarter, take a look back at them now. What do you notice?

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

​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.

Connection is a key component of both remote and hybrid work. The Chapter Icon for Chapter 3 in my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, is a knot.

Whether we are together part time or only once a quarter or a year, connections across the team and organization give us strength.

With hybrid work and some people being offsite and some onsite, it’s important to be INTENTIONAL with touchpoints, communication and development of team culture.

Check out the Reconnecting Tip around Intentionality in chapter 2 of Reconnecting Workspaces.

How strong are the connections in your team? What is important to note?
 
Enjoy your reflection!
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

​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.

In February of 2020 I released the Remote Working Whitepaper. In it I shared 7 Remote Work Enablers, each an essential ingredient for remote work success.

As many organizations move to the even more complex hybrid work environment, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit these as a reminder. As you consider where you are with you work, what do you notice?

​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?

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.
 
As you consider your work right now, and your work going forward, what is important to note?

Enjoy your reflection!
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

In Effective Virtual Conversations I explore 10 elements which make remote and hybrid work unique. Together they spell the mnemonic The CV Came with FETA. Let’s look at the first six of these:

Collaboration: Collaboration is at the heart of working remote. Our stakeholders, both internal and external, become essential partners so that we can do the work. In collaboration we often say, “the sum is more, where 1 + 1 = 3.” This doesn’t happen naturally. In fact, remote and virtual collaboration
need to be undertaken proactively. Take a look at Chapter 10 for more on collaboration.

Visual: Making It Visual and visual cues. As discussed in Chapter 1’s brain tip, what is the metaphor or image you want to use to make ideas visual?

Culture: It is often said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Team culture and identity is critical in the remote space. It keeps us connected to others, and signals our belonging. It’s “how we do things here” and what is “acceptable and not acceptable” as a team.

Autonomy: Autonomy is central to virtual and remote work, given that team members are usually working in isolation and become the “expert” in their own right. This turns traditional leadership models on their head, where "leader is expert."

Matrix relationships: Remote workers become adept at navigating matrix relationships, where we maybe part of multiple teams at any given time. While I am part of the Toronto team, I may also be part of a special projects team, and a technical team. Learning to navigate the different ways of working,the team cultures, and who is who, is a critical part of any remote team worker’s onboarding.

Engagement preferences: Styles, strengths, and preferences for working are part of today’s more individualized workspace. Knowing our team members, their preferences, and motivations leads to engagement.

Enjoy your reflection!
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

It’s Monday which means that it’s time to take a look at what’s happening in the remote space, specifically at the Remote Pathways podcast. Last week we held our monthly planning session which focused on summer planning for the year. What are your plans?

In our next Remote Pathways podcast episode, Episode 37, we explore the topic of hybrid work. Given that many organizations will be moving to this way of working in the near future, with some organizations on-site and others offsite.
Here’s what we are going to be exploring:

Jennifer and Michelle consider what hybrid work is and the various ways it's popping up in workplaces around the world. This is THE conversation companies are having and it's important that we are thinking through the complexities of it all.

In this episode we explore:

• What is hybrid and is it new?
• The unique stretch points for teams
• Physical workplace vs. virtual workspace
• How do we ensure people feel connected and included?
• What's happening to meetings and watercooler conversations
• Everyone's voice and perspective is important
• Leadership will require different styles
• Now is the time to experiment

I want to invite you to head on over and check out our 37th episode of the Remote Pathways podcast – https://www.remotepathways.com/podcast.html.

Enjoy!
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