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. ​

Poor meeting etiquette may have gotten magnified in the remote space in the last few months of Stay in Place and Quarantine. I recently attended a conference for remote workers and one large tech firm had surveyed several thousand employees, asking “What is the biggest challenge right now”?

The response – Meetings!

As I have shared for years – things get “amplified” or “magnified” in the remote space. This includes the good, the bad, and the disengaged.

Whether your meetings are back to face-to-face (with distance) or are virtual, what are the practices we want to focus on?

Here are six things you’ll want to keep in mind around meeting etiquette:

1. Start and end on time – It’s likely that people are moving from meeting to meeting over the course of the day – so start on time and be very clear with agreements around.
2. Have a clear agenda and success measures of what you want to leave the meeting with.
3. Be on time. Note that some “virtual meeting rooms” will lock after a certain amount of time.
4. Be present and be prepared. Take a few minutes the night before to review what meetings you have upcoming and ensure that you have done all the pre-work needed before you get on the line.
5. Pause regularly to note key agreements, main points and action steps. Leave time (60 seconds, 90 seconds) for people to write things down and schedule it in.
6. Wrap up the meeting on time, or even a few minutes early so people can get to their next meeting.

And as a bonus – Track accountabilities and make it memorable!!

Enjoy your next meeting!
​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. ​

Just like in the in-person realm, meetings can quickly become a huge time element. Just like most things in the virtual space – communication, teamwork – both the good and the bad get augmented.

In hosting virtual meetings, keeping them on track is critical for success. In order to do this, consider going back to the basics:

1. What’s the purpose of the meeting? Is it to inform? Create something together? Check in and share information? Be clear on what the purpose is. Use this to create an agenda.
2. What preparation is needed? Be explicit about what people need to do BEFORE the call. Is there something they need to read? Review? Prepare and send?
3. How long is the meeting for? Start and end on time. Thinking that everyone needs to be there before you start is likely a waste of precious time.
4. What’s on the agenda? See #1 – Be sure to stick with the agenda and learn from past experience in terms of how much time is needed.
5. What are next steps? Be explicit about what’s been agreed to and who is responsible. You may have one person tasked with noting these next steps as you go so they can summarize at the end of the meeting. Provide people 30-60 seconds (or more) during the call to write it down and schedule it in.
6. What follow up is required? Once again, be clear about next step – WHO, WHEN, HOW….
7. What learning can you apply to your next meeting? With business pressures today, no one has time for ineffective meetings. Note things that are working, note things that aren’t and stop doing them! As more people become familiar and confident with these tech tools, it will be easier to iterate and share best practices.

I explore more meeting tips in Chapter 9 of Effective Virtual Conversations. What are your next steps around meetings this week?

Be sure to download a bookmark for you and your team to share from Effective Virtual Conversations.com. 

Enjoy your conversations!
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
​

As a virtual business providing coaching and learning services to teams, organizations and individuals around the world, I’ve was an early adopter of Zoom almost five years ago. What I’ve learned from leading tens of thousands of hours of conversations on Zoom is that people want to have a conversation, not be talked at. This means that we need to learn how to use our virtual platforms more interactively.

Having worked in learning and leadership for many decades now, and having led teams globally, being ahead of the curve to figure out innovative ways we could “keep the conversation” rolling across teams, programs and countries has always had a very business focused end for me.

Today’s blog post goes behind the curtain to share three ways you might consider leveraging Zoom (or any other platforms you are using) to keep the conversation going. I write more about these in chapters 1, 2, 6 and 7 of Effective Virtual Conversations.

1. Consider using annotation. In annotation, there is a whole suite of tools for people to “pick up and use” – to mark on the screen, to share their insights via text, drawing and stamping. For larger groups this can be an important way to get the conversations flowing.

What might you do to leverage annotation?

2. Use breakouts. Just as the name suggestions – breakouts help us move from a larger group to sets of smaller groups. Anecdotally, the larger a group becomes the more apt people are to become a “social loafer” and let others do the work. As group size grows, it’s also more likely that people will feel less comfortable with connecting and sharing their insights. Just as you might ask people to turn to their neighbor and have a conversation, virtual breakouts allow you to do this as well.

Breakouts are powerful at any time, particularly when group members want to know more about each other.

What might you do to leverage the power of breakouts?

3. Incorporate polls. Polls are built into most virtual platforms or you can leverage lots of other polling software like Mentimeter or Kahoot. Also great for larger groups, polls help you take a temperature of the room, seeing what is important for the group that you are working with. Polls are much easier to track on a meta-level for super-large groups. You’ll find that in larger groups chat flows too fast to really follow at a granular detail.

Polls often, but not always, need to be created prior to the event although some will let you create in the moment. This is also where a producer or co-facilitator can be useful to have on board and work with.

What might you do to incorporate a poll into your upcoming session?

Curious about what these interactive tools look like in action? Check out the Virtual Lunch and Learn Calls I hosted in March to provide some immediate complimentary support to the wider community.

Curious about how to do this? Join me for an upcoming one-day Virtual Facilitation Essentials program. It’s a primer in the skills required to lead exceptional virtual calls. Learn more about this program and find out when our next program is here. 

Wishing you all the 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
​