Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2282 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 138: Iterate

3/30/2020

This weeks Effective Virtual Conversations Tip is all about iteration. As we move into the virtual space, it’s likely that experimentation, and on-going action with adjustment, is the norm. Technology can “happen” and things that worked in the in-person world, may not work the same way in the virtual space.

What does iteration mean for you?

Here’s a definition from StoryBoardThat.com:

Iteration in a business is the concept of repeating a process, analyzing the outcomes each time, and modifying for ultimate efficiency in hopes to achieve a certain objective or outcome. Iterate.

As you consider your business goals for the second quarter, what are the things you can do to get things out more quickly, get feedback and iterate? This might be a new program you have been thinking about offering, a new product for your customers or clients, or a new system or process that could benefit from some feedback.

With many of the programs I run, there is an element of iteration. It often includes writing first here at the blog, then incorporating into a program I am running, and then looking at the metrics and feedback from both readers and group members. These two streams of feedback always help to strengthen programming.

Consider what iteration could look like in your work right now.

With 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 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.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

TEAMS365 #2281 - Weekly Review

3/29/2020

Welcome back to this week in review. We’ve covered a number of different topics this week around virtual teams and conversations including:

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 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.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

TEAMS365 #2277 – Projects to Keep Us Moving in the Remote Space

3/25/2020

Today’s blog post is all about projects to keep us moving in the remote space. What are the projects you want to work on in your space? What’s going to help you keep focused and motivated? What are those projects which you have always wanted to work on?

Beyond the immediate need, what else is important for you to be focusing on?

Depending on your work, you might consider:

Catching up with colleagues and taking time to reach out for a virtual conversation/1-1
Updating records and projects
Clearing out items which no longer serve a purpose
Revisiting your vision – what’s important right now? What is important to keep an eye on in the big picture?
Spending time focusing on what is important and connected to your vision
Reviewing the focus of work and impacts you have had
Catching up on paperwork/administrative tasks
Getting your finances in order
Taking time to ensure that you are focusing on family projects and routines
Carving out time to get through the pile of books/podcasts/blogs you have said you always wanted to focus on
Starting a memoir

What are the projects which are going to fill you up? What are the projects that are going to help you focus in on what’s important for you right now?

Enjoy your projects!
Jennifer

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

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.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

TEAMS365 #2251 – #FlashbackFriday – 4 Essential Ingredients for Collaboration

2/28/2020

It’s Friday which means that it’s time for a Flashback Friday. Here’s a look back at a post from February 2018 – 4 Essentials Ingredients for Collaboration.

With relationships and collaboration being an essential skill set for leaders and team members of all types, I thought it fitting to make our Valentine’s Day post this year all about collaboration. Whether you are collaborating across your own team, or with others, collaboration allows us to tap into resources we do not have available, harnessing the talents of our network. Collaboration may be discrete for a fixed project, or longer for ongoing initiatives.

In today’s post I wanted to cover four essential ingredients for collaboration:
1. Be clear on why you are collaborating
2. Consciously design your partnership: What do you bring to the table? What is important for you both?
3. Regularly check in and adjust
4. Consider what end result you are looking for

Let us look at each one of these in turn:

1. Be clear on why you are collaborating
Collaborating for collaboration's sake does not equal success! Why is this collaboration occurring? What is possible due to the fusion of your skills and abilities? What outcomes are you looking for?

Partnerships and collaboration are not always a straight road. It's important to be clear on:

why you are collaborating
what you hope to gain from the partnership
what you want to gain
and what your expectations are

Spend some time as a partnership exploring this and coming back to it throughout your work together.

2. Consciously design your partnership.
Take time to intentionally, or consciously, design your partnership. Building in time for focusing on the relationship can be as important as creating or doing the work together. In a recent newsletter article I shared several of the partnership planning questions I have written about over the years.

In my writing I talk about at least four stages where you will want to focus conversation - pre-program/partnership, at the start, during the work and at the end of major projects. Refer to chapters 12 of Effective Virtual Conversations or Chapter 11 of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching.

3. Regularly check in and adjust.
Regular check ins will look different for each project. Ask yourselves regular questions such as:
What’s working well?
What progress have we made with this project?
What are we learning and need to make sure we do? We stop doing?
What changes are important going forward?

4. Consider what end result you have in mind.
As Steven Covey wrote years ago "Start with the end in mind". Our end result shapes our action. As you engage in every conversation think about the end result you are aiming for. How does this influence your partnership? What roles you play? What attention you have?

These four factors - clarity, conscious design, check in, and end in mind - support partnering and collaboration to be a flexible, fluid process. What is important for you to consider in your own work?

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 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.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

TEAMS365 #2162: Welcome to December & Week in Review

12/1/2019

Happy December 1st. Just a few weeks to go before the end of the year and end of the decade. What do you want to focus on in 2020?

This month our focus will be on taking a look back at some of the highlights of the year. I’ll include a focus on Top 10s, Review and Themes of the Year, along with a wrap up of remote items.

Let’s take a look back at this week first:

Yesterday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt 78. Read it here.
Friday’s Flashback Friday, getting projects over the finish line. Read it here.
Thursday’s Team Building Tip with the Remote Work Prompt. Read it here.
Wednesday’s focus on Saying Thanks! Read it here.
Tuesday’s focus on Preparing for your 2020 Vision. Read it here.
Monday’s focus on more tips for designing an engaging virtual conversation. Read it here.

Enjoy your weekend and hopefully time with family and loved ones!

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 #2160 – Flashback Friday: Bringing Projects to A Close

11/29/2019

We’re just a few days away from the start of December and this is the time of year when EVERYTHING needs to get done. With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to take a look back at last year’s post about Bringing Projects to a close from Teams365 #1794. Here you go:

“At this time of year, the clock is ticking and it may now be GO TIME to get projects across the finish line. Where there was once time and leeway, now things need to get done and completed. What is it going to take to get the project completed before the end of the year?

To bring the project across the finish line consider:

What is it going to take to bring this project to a successful close?
What resources are needed? Do we need to pull new resources?
Are there any lessons learned from other projects that we can incorporate?
Are there any specialized, or talented, human resources we can bring in at this time to move the project quicker? Are there experts or seasoned team members who can complete tasks more quickly than others?
What elements can be completed consecutively? We often think that tasks are sequential (i.e. this has to be done before that), when in fact, we might be able to complete some tasks consecutively.
What does complete look like? Think about quality and scope. Are we still within the original scope of the project, or has there been scope creep?
Do we want to reconfirm project requirements, checking for any assumptions which may not be correct?
What can we do to minimize distractions and focus on what is really important? Are there some tasks which need to be devolved from those on the project team so they can focus 100 % on the task at hand?
What does project close out look like?
How can we capture the learning so we don’t repeat these cycles next time?
What’s going to help your projects move to completion phase quickly?”

Enjoy the conversation,
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 #2125 – Flashback Friday – Year End Events for Teams

10/25/2019

As we move into the end of October, attention turns quickly to year-end events for teams. To give you some ideas, I thought I would dedicate this week’s Flashback Friday to a post I have shared before.

Here’s what I wrote in:

#Teams365 #1389: #FlashBackFriday: 4 Best Practices for Year-End Team Retreats

Here’s what I wrote as I shared a previous LinkedIn Pulse post entitled "4 Best Practices for Year-End Team Retreats". The post was geared to anyone who is starting to think about what your year-end retreat can look like.

“It’s that time of year for parties, year-end team retreats and other events. Are you maximizing the amount of time and impact of these team events?

Having supported year-end programming for teams and organizations for many years I thought it would be useful to share four focus areas you may want to consider as you start preparing, planning and perhaps facilitating your year-end processes.

Number One — What’s the purpose? If you had to distill down the top two or three takeaways from the retreat process or that off site, what is it? The purpose of our year-end function can impact the structure and activities undertaken in the program.

Is the purpose of your year-end event:

to build connection?
to share important information?
do some goal planning?
to build understanding across the silos, that may exist within your organization?

I’d encourage you to think about the top two or three purposes of the upcoming program and link to consideration #2.

Number Two — What is the connection to the business? Think about what is the connection to the business. It’s still very common in today’s world for people to just go through the motions of a traditional annual year end party and /or event.

Are you really maximizing that investment of bringing people together?

Could you build into that luncheon a half-day session before or after, to do some work with your staff teams to support their development, to help them look at their skills and strengths and styles and also to share with them, you know, and help them connect to the link with your business.

What opportunities do you have already formalized for bringing people together at year-end? What changes or additions do you want to make?

Number Three — Do you want to do it all alone? Many organizations today have a committee and amongst that committee membership, there may be some members who would be very comfortable in facilitating your year-end team or organizational process.

So, think about who might be best equipped to do the work? Is it you, members of that committee or maybe you are interested in bringing in an external facilitator?

One of the things we do, is either we come in and facilitate or develop activities which you can facilitate yourself.

Think about how you might be able to leverage the resources you have and or bring in some special guest speakers or external resources to contribute to the environment that you want to create.

Number Four — How are you going to take this forward? One of the biggest challenges that we see in learning and development today is this continued lack of transferability to the work place.

This was what drew me to focus more on the area of Coaching which places an ongoing emphasis on accountability and transferability to the workplace.

One the things I like to encourage organizations that I partner with to always thinking about is – How will you sustain the conversation? How will you take this forward into your work?

Hopefully any year-end retreat process or year-end meeting will have an action step and a very formalized action planning stage. Remember to build in time in the new year to revisit your commitments and accountabilities.

Here’s a quick recap:
Number One - Think about the purpose. What are the top three or four reasons or things that you want people to take away?
Number Two - What’s the link of the year-end program to the business? Is it just to have fun or something else?
Number Three - As your approaching your year-end processes, is this something you want to do or do you want to bring in a facilitator? A third option perhaps is to have something designed for you, so you can facilitate it yourself.
And finally, Number Four. What are the takeaways? How will people sustain the conversation? When will you check in on your actions and commitments?”

Have a great weekend!
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 #2089 – TEAM BUILDING TIP 254

9/19/2019

This week’s Thursday Team Building Tip gets you to consider the question “What needs to be collapsed?”. Just like this photo there are sometimes things that need to be demolished or face implosion before they are ready.

An alternative view on this is what needs to be condensed or abbreviated?

Think about current projects and initiatives as you consider these two questions.

A reminder of this month's Effective Virtual Conversations call which focused on creating more impactful meetings. Time spent does not always equal impact. Check out this month's 20 minute call for more tips on meeting management.

Enjoy your conversation,
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 #2033 - Team Building Tip 246

7/25/2019

This week’s Team Building Tip gets you to consider the question “Where would it be useful to sprint?”. Many current business and team practices are experimenting with more rapid iterations and cycles, where things that used to be allocated weeks, are now being allocated hours.

What are the things that would benefit from a sprint in shorter cycles?

Over the last three years I have been experimenting with using sprints and hacks in a couple of program formats including program design and some business planning. While the initial sprint may not lead to the full-blown end product, it often leads to some new, quicker ideas being ready for testing and launch. With today’s business cycle being quicker and faster, getting programs out faster can be of benefit.

What are the areas you and your team might find it useful to sprint?

Best,
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 #2031 - Creativity in the Workplace: Six Questions to Reflect On

7/23/2019

As part of the summer series this month, today’s blog post shifts to a focus on creativity. As we unwind from the busy pace of the rest of the year, we may find that our creative juices start to flow. It’s often said that we need space and time to get our creative spirit awakened.

Creativity can take many forms and it can also be incorporated to our every day experience. Today’s post is an invitation for you to consider what creativity means for you, when it occurs and what it can look like more fully in your work.
There are some really good articles which give us a better understanding of creativity. Check out these articles:

7 Surprising Facts About Creativity According to Science from Fast Company

Jillian Groening’s article: 52 Science-Based Facts About the Creative Mind

Here are a number of questions for you to consider as you think about creativity in your work:

What does creativity mean for me?
I’d like to ____ in order to bring more creativity into my work.
My favorite creative outlet as a younger person was….
The time of day I find I am most creative is…./the places I am most creative are….
The ingredients I need in order to be creative is…
I’d like to ___ in order to be more creative.

A few weeks ago I published a 30 minute call as part of my 2018 Coaching Business Builder workbook series entitled “Summer Projects for Coaches”. Even if you are not a coach, you may find that this resource is of interest to you.

Check it out at my YouTube channel.

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.