Inefficient meetings have simply transposed themselves over to the virtual space in recent months. Before you step into what is often the busiest part of the year (post-Labor Day!), consider these 10 tips for better video meetings.

#1 – Consider your audio – How clear is it? Are you using a good microphone? Is there any background noise?

#2 – Consider your lighting – When lighting is behind you your face may be shaded. It’s important to get lighting right so that you can be seen. Visual cues are key in the virtual space. Being able to read someone’s face is essential for building (and maintaining) trust. The best lighting is often created when a window is just in front of you, with muted light (I use a sunshade in my office to keep the light a little more diffuse).

#3 – Consider what visual cues will be useful – What are the elements you want to include in your meeting? What could be provided in a visual way?

#4 – What is your call to action – i.e. what do you want people to do afterwards? Make it as clear and focused as possible.

#5 – Always include a dial in number in case people have challenges accessing the call via their computer or app.

#6 – Keep to time – Don’t wait or everyone to show up because you don’t know if they will. Likewise, make sure you wrap up on time as well!

In addition to these 6 tips, always be asking the 8 Essential Virtual Meeting Questions I share in my book, Effective Virtual Conversations. The questions are:

1. What’s the purpose?
2. What takeaways do we want?
3. Who needs to be on the call?
4. What preparation is needed for us to be most effective in the meeting?
5. What pace do we want in order to keep it engaging?
6. What will help keep the focus?
7. What’s absolutely essential? (versus what will be nice to cover or where can people go for more information around topics?)
8. What follow up might be required?

 
Let us know what your favorite meeting tips are by sharing them over at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub. You can find it here.

Best,
​Jennifer

A large part of my work for the five plus years has been in supporting organizations make the transition from in-person learning to online learning. This year has created a tidal wave for the need for engaging and interactive virtual meetings, learning and teamwork.

As I wrote in Effective Virtual Conversations

“Meetings can be an essential part of the communication needed for a high-performing team, and, unfortunately, they have gotten a bad rap due to poorly planned and poorly executed meetings. We know teams that excel usually have shared practices like meetings, which focus on building relationships and getting results.

With more than 35-50% of people’s time being spent in meetings each week, the question of “what could we do to make team meetings more effective?” is a strategic one.

As a team consider:

• What are the top three reasons we should be holding meetings?
• When is the best time to hold them?
• What’s working with our meetings currently? What’s not?
• What’s the one thing we could let go of doing in our meetings without having too much of an impact?
• What is the one thing we wish we did more of?
• What is the best way to communicate information in different topic areas?
• What are the things we want to start doing as a team instead of meetings?

END OF EXCERPT - © Jennifer Britton, Effective Virtual Conversations, 2017, pp. 312
 
Catch up on other EVC Author Readings I hosted during April, May and June. You can find them here at the Effective Virtual Conversations blog site. You’ll be able to listen into Chapters 1 to 4 of the book as I read it in a daily 5-7 minute reading. Enjoy!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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

Inclusivity in the virtual space is an essential area to explore in virtual meeting spaces. What are we doing to ensure that we are bringing all voices into the room?

From time zone differences, to language differences, different technical backgrounds, and geographic differences, working in the virtual space often expands the diversity of those in the room. It’s not uncommon for most virtual conversations to vary on these different areas, along with many more – gender, race, sexual orientation, social identity, as well as the different thinking and learning styles, and ways we interact with the world.

For example, some of us need more time for reflection that others. Some of us may be learning by doing (kinesthetic) while others learn by hearing (auditory) or seeing (visual).

As a leader, facilitator or virtual host, what are you doing to ensure that you are incorporating a variety of techniques to bring all different voices in the room?

Consider these tips:

• Mix it up to ensure that you are incorporating approaches for different learning styles. For those that like visuals and learn that way, what images (versus text) can you incorporate? Might you include a video?
• For those that have a kinesthetic preference, what can you do to make the call more interactive and physically active? Can you incorporate annotation? What can you do to ensure that there might be some movement (safely!)?
• For those that learn auditorily (by listening), what can you do to incorporate more opportunities for virtual breakouts, dialogue and small group sharing?

Another dynamic you will encounter is those who are possibly dialing in by phone, and those on the web that can see each other. Consider what you are doing to speak to group members from both locations. If people cannot see others (i.e. dialing in by phone), I will usually get them to go first, to connect them in more quickly.

Geographically, what’s important to consider? Are you moving West to East, East to West, South to North, and North to South?

If group members on the call speak different first languages, what can you do to incorporate more visuals, and/or written prompts so people who have stronger reading ability can follow that rather than spoken words?

What else is important to note?

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. ​

Earlier this year I shared a post on ten things you would want to make sure you took time to schedule. You can read Teams365 #2199 post here.

As we moved into the months of January and February a lot of our focus was on getting up to speed, and with the pandemic taking a lot of attention in recent months, some of these activities may not have been on the radar as much. I thought it would be useful to go back and take a look at these areas:

#1 – Team Meetings – Make them consistent and regular. It’s likely that you won’t be able to have everyone at the table (or the screen). Make sure that you create shared team agreements of what team members need to do if they are not present for meetings.

#2 – Meetings with Your Boss – Have you scheduled in time with your direct line manager? Keeping visible and being in regular communication is essential in today’s workplace. Corporate priorities can change quickly as can your boss’ priorities. How often are the two of you meeting? What format are you using? What’s important for them to know?

#3 – One-on-Ones with The Team – While group and team meetings are great, team members still need some 1-1 time. Be sure to schedule in some time with your team on a regular basis. Are you aiming for monthly 1-1 conversations? Quarterly deeper dives? Daily touchpoints? As a team talk about expectations and make agreements about who is responsible for scheduling and follow up.

#4 – Team Development Time – As I shared in yesterday’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip, team development time is critical and is often overlooked for virtual teams. Teams don’t just excel by osmosis! They need time to get to know each other, clarify how they are operating and focus in on what’s important.

#5 – Strategic Thinking Time — Are you leaving yourself enough time for reflection and thinking? Be sure to leave in enough time for strategic thinking. This can include creating, or revisiting your VISION, MISSION and MANDATE. Taking time to think strategically is important so that you have a clear big picture with a longer-term horizon. With things changing rapidly, the strategic horizon of 1, 3 or 5 years down the road can be invaluable in helping us keep moving, and not getting too set back by the small changes which can feel frenetic.

#6 — Time to Get Things Done — With meetings, communication and email taking a lot of time, what time are you leaving for yourself to get things done? For some professionals, it means coming into the office early to tackle key tasks for 30-60 minutes before others arrive. For others, it means booking a conference room and closing the door. Notice when you are most productive and when it’s important to get things done.

# 7 – Learning Time – What are your learning and development goals this year? Embracing ongoing learning has never been more important. What are the skills, processes and approaches which are going to help you do your best work? Note that learning can take many forms: including in-person programming, virtual learning as well as on-demand learning. Finally, peer learning (see #9) is another set of approaches.

#8 – Feedback Time – What feedback touchpoints are you building in throughout the year? Feedback in many organizations has moved to an ongoing cycle, and it can be important to make sure that it is happening regularly. Block off time in your schedule to get it done.

#9 – Peer Learning Time/Mentoring Time — What is the peer learning you want to undertake this year? Is it possible to do some job shadowing or pair with a peer partner throughout the year to compare notes, share resources and learn from each other?

In addition to peer learning, what about identifying a mentor in your organization or industry who can share their experience in order to help you understand “what’s below the waterline”?

#10 – Time Within Your Industry or Outside Your Regular Scope of Work — Finally, industry connections are key. Keeping current in your area of work may be as important, or more important, in the medium- and longer-term. What connection into professional associations are going to support you this year?
 
What do you want to make sure you make time to focus on?

Best,
​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. ​

How much time are you spending in meetings these days? One of the greater pain points right now is virtual meetings. It’s a topic I covered in the April 2020 Effective Virtual Conversations newsletter. I thought it might be useful to share the 6 things you can put into practice right now to make your virtual meetings more effective:
​
Article:  Better Meetings - 6 Things You Can Do Right Now
Unfortunately, bad meetings and bad meeting etiquette have followed most of us to the virtual space. Consider these five areas to make the most of your meeting.

Consider these areas:
 
#1 - What do people ABSOLUTELY have to do before they join the meeting? Be very clear with any pre-work, input or reading/viewing that needs to happen, including a TIME FRAME. 
 
#2 - Who REALLY needs to be there? Many of us get pulled into meetings like a VORTEX. Who absolutely needs to be at the meeting to have input, make decisions etc?
 
#3 - Is a meeting REALLY what's needed? We often defer to large meetings as the best way. Could this be covered in a different way - i.e. a short video you put out if it's information, or something people can schedule and read.
 
#4 - Is it the best time of day? Consider your team and what they are juggling at the moment. The more traditional times of day (i.e. breakfast, lunch) may not necessarily be the best times for people to be meeting at the moment. 
 
#5 - Be clear with next steps and accountabilities.  Another big pitfall is not clearly confirming what agreements and accountabilities are. Have you confirmed and summarized what next steps are? Are you building in time at the start of the next meeting to check in or ensure that you have a running dashboard or reporting structure? This may be a role you want to assign in the meeting - not a note taker but a person who is noting accountabilities, action steps and who is doing it.
 
#6 - Leave time for the group to be able to note what steps they need to take and what's next for them. We've all been there - we move from one meeting to the next so, unless we leave a pause to note down next steps, accountabilities, we may forget when we next surface for a break.
 
#7 - Consider making a habit of wrapping up the meeting at the 50 minute mark or 25 minute mark so people can make it on time for their next meeting, with a little time to spare to shift gears and have a bio break.
 
For more on this topic, check out a recent article on Keeping Your Virtual Meetings on TRACK.
 
If you want to read the whole April 2020 newsletter, check it out here.

Want to receive it? Sign up here.

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 remote work moves into month four for many teams, this is now the new way of doing things. Many companies, Twitter, Shopify, Facebook and others have indicated that remote work is going to be the forever way of doing things.
We’re also stepping into a new month, and at this point in time it can be useful to be strategic around boosting your team capability. As you step into this new month think about how many meetings you want to have and what type. While meeting fatigue is a real thing, it’s important to keep conversations going. What are the conversations you want to have?

Consider these five types of team meetings:

• Status Meetings: Regular status updates are key to keeping a team aligned. In former days, reports would be circulated through the team. Today, online dashboards like Asana and Monday.com provide an opportunity for team members to keep things visible, projects moving and be continuously updated by those who may be working in different locations.
• Planning Meetings: Planning is key for success in the remote space. What type of planning are you engaging with? Consider both immediate, medium and long term planning? Given our virtual nature, what’s going to keep this visible? What’s going to be help people focus?
• Team Development Meetings: Understanding team capability and who is who on each team is critical for success. Team development meetings might be focused on rolling out:
  • A remote team day focused on incorporating one of the many assessments we offer including StrengthsFinder 2.0, or Agile EQ. Remote Team Days also help teams clarify working processes and accountabilities, as well as helps team understand and assess along the core elements of remote teamwork. Contact us to discuss your needs for a remote team session. Our sessions are offered as 2 hour, half day and full day sessions – and yes, we can do a full day online! We specialize in Everything DiSC, Agile EQ, StrengthsFinder, Strengths-based leadership.
• Creation Meetings: Creation meetings focus in on creating something real time. Sprints and hacks live in this space. Whether you are building tools and processes over a condensed time like one week, or have a special project dedicated each month, creation meetings help to focus on innovation and design.
• Social Meetings: The quarantine became the part of many person’s lexicon in recent months, and while many teams used to head out for an after work social time, what could social look like for you? Might a trip to a virtual escape room promote some team development time? Note, my son recently hosted his 15th birthday online at a virtual escape room – they had a blast.

What are the types of meetings which you want to incorporate this month?

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. ​

As teams have settled into how to work best, it’s likely that while some tasks are getting completed, there may still be many areas which are not as effective. These may be tasks that aren’t getting completed as planned, things that are getting backlogged on a regular basis, or tasks where there is confusion as to who needs to do what.

One area which can be of benefit for teams to explore is the topic of process mapping. Process mapping is a visual way of mapping out what needs to get done, when, and by who.

If you were to meet in person, process mapping would have us map out the different tasks and activities, who needed to do them and when. An easy way to do this is by using post-its and having people identify what the activities are, then listing them out, and assigning task responsibilities and also timelines.

If you are doing this in the virtual space, you can also make sure that you share a whiteboard and have the team discuss and complete the different steps needed. I’ve taken a screenshot here of a task that was created around a report.

Note who needs to do what as well as the timelines required, plus the flow. This was made on zoom whiteboard using annotation.

While this may not be comprehensive it does help to identify resourcing, timelines, and where there may be gaps.
 
What do you notice?

How might this support you and your work and projects right now?
 
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. ​

For the first decade and a bit of my career, I led teams that were primarily matrix teams. My staff were supported by both myself, and a local level supervisor.

Matrix relationships have become increasingly familiar in many businesses and locations. Making matrix relationships work requires that we focus on clarifying relationships and roles, we are super clear about reporting, and we also take time to specify who is taking the lead on what, and what needs to be communicated to each partner, when.

Another part of having great matrix relationships is making sure that we have strong team culture. As I’ve defined in past posts, team culture is HOW WE do things. It’s our response rates, how and when we pick up the phone, how we have each others’ backs and how we make sure we are helping each other.

Another critical part of matrix success is holding regular review meetings (virtual or other) to check in around how things are going. These meetings may be quarterly (which I usually recommend) or even more or less frequently.

During these three-way meetings you might check in around questions such as:

1. What’s been working well? What achievements have there been? What goals are being completed?
2. What priorities are upcoming or the next quarter (or other)?
3. What roles, or processes, need to be clarified?
4. What changes do we need to make in order to be more effective?
5. What else is important to explore?

These meetings don’t need to take a lot of time and can be done virtually as well. Thirty to forty-five minutes may be all that is needed.

What do you want to include in your upcoming meeting?

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. ​

Another full week here at the Teams365 blog. Be sure to check out this week’s blog posts which have included:

• Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt around Your Mantra
• Friday’s Flashback to Teams365 797 – Minimizing Distractions in the Remote Space
• Thursday’s Team Building Tip about Focus
• Wednesday’s Remote Team Builder with a Focus
• Tuesday’s focus on Meeting Etiquette
• Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #143 about Assumptions

Over the last few months, I’ve started doing 15 minutes of weekly planning on Sunday and have found that it’s been critical in kicking the week off right. If you have 15 minutes today, what value could there be in doing a quick reflection of last week – achievements, learning and carry forward, as well as the focus on the week ahead – top goals, projects, things which need to be completed, key meetings to prepare for etc.?

What is the one thing you want to make sure you check off your list this week?
​
Have a great rest of the weekend!
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. ​