Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2326 – Remote Team Development – Process Mapping

5/13/2020

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.

TEAMS365 #2307 Flashback Friday

4/24/2020

As I recently shared in an article about remote teams, questions form an important backdrop for professionals today. Questions are the things that open up the conversation. They are the things that provoke new insights, or prompt connections.

This Friday I wanted to take us back to an earlier Team Building Tip from July 2019. Here’s what I wrote:

This week’s Team Building Tip gets you thinking about the questions “What questions do you need to ask?”. This is a valuable way to expand our thinking and get out of the rut of how we might be looking at things.

As you go about thinking of your most important questions, ask yourself the 5 W's + H.

Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?

To expand your thinking this week, consider asking yourself questions along the lines of…

Who is important?
What is the one thing that might work best for you?
What are the elements that could distract/detract?
When do you want to focus more?
Where do you need to look?
What do you need to embrace?
Where do you need to let go?

In addition to these questions, you may also want to consider the questions of:

What do we see as common ground?
What’s important to connect or what’s connected?
What’s missing?
What’s another way of exploring this?
What assumptions are we making?
What is the outcome we are looking for?
What else?

I hope that you enjoy your conversations and have a few minutes to focus in on what’s important for you as a team.

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 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.

TEAMS365 #2303 Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 141

4/20/2020

With teams everywhere focusing on remote work right now, many teams are looking for something different to do to gain clarity and help them focus on their results. This week’s tip is the IS/IS NOT framework, which helps us all get clarity around what we are focusing on and/or what we need to do. For example, let’s say as a team we are tasked with rolling out a new process for serving customers in the remote space.

We could use the IS/IS NOT framework to help frame out the following:

What it is…
Quick
Virtual
Flat (people can make decisions)
Flexible by using a decision tree
Iterative
Informed by feedback

What it is not…
Multi-layered decision making (we want people to be able to make their decisions themselves, hence the decision tree)
Slow
Not focused
ETC ETC...

Where do you need more clarity around your projects and end-results as a remote team? Where could you use this process?

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

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2292 – Team Building Tip 282: What needs more alignment?

4/9/2020

Alignment on teams helps ensure that the team is harnessing their best, and therefore maximizing their flow towards results. Teams hopefully are aligned around many different areas including:

Values
Vision
Processes
Communication

Let’s look at each one of these briefly in turn:

Values – Teams, especially remote teams need to be aligned around values, and also be clear on where their individual values may be different than their collective values. This is imperative on a remote team given that our values shape our behaviors. So, for example, if we as a team value customer service, I am going to prioritize a phone call before spending time on an internal report. If we value quality, we may have a process where someone else (even virtually) reviews our content before it goes out. As a team, what are the three or four values which are important to focus on? What are the values which need to anchor everyone’s behaviors?

Vision is another piece which is important to bring the team back to, particularly in times of disruption. What is the horizon you are moving towards? What are the things which are going to anchor your work? Vision helps us to prioritize.

Processes – Our processes also need to be aligned. These include things such as how we do things, what the process flow is, who passes to who, when does it need to be done.

Communication – Finally our communication needs to be aligned. What are the ways we commit to keeping conversations flowing? What is the minimum in terms of content and time?

What can you do to support alignment as a team?

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

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.