One of my favorite creative projects this past 18 months has been the creation and launch of the Remote Pathways podcast. It’s been warmly embraced by listeners globally. The Remote Pathways Podcast explores the PEOPLE, PLACES and PROCESSES to REMOTE WORK.

I thought it would be interesting to share with you our top 10 episodes for 2020. Here’s what we, and our listeners, LOVED listening to:

• Trust Safety And Connection (Still the #1 listen!) (Episode 13) 
• Conflict the Remote Space – Episode 10 
• Enneagram with Teresa McCloy (Episode 14) 
• Strengths in the Remote Space (Episode 8) 
• Every Professional is a Leader in the Remote Space (Episode 17) 
• Remote Workplace Mindset and Wellness Vision with Special Guest Jennifer Grote (Episode 24) 
• Team Effectiveness (Episode 15) 
• Workplace Productivity, Projects and Leadership with Cindy Hooker 
• Pivot with Kristin Winkle-Beck (Episode 26) 
• Mentoring with Susan Coombs (Episode 10)  
• Co-Working in the Remote Space 

Enjoy!
Jennifer

A few weeks ago, at the Remote Pathways podcast we released Episode 24 - Mindsets for Remote Work, with our special guest, Jennifer Grote.

Be sure to check out the podcast on your favorite player or here.

Why is mindset important? In today’s complex, and ever-changing context mindset is critical. It’s important to be intentional with what we want to create in our work.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

What a week it’s been! We’ve covered the terrain of Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt of which elements are important, to Friday’s post on 10 things to fit in before the end of the year.

Other posts this week have included:

• Monday’s focus on Stand Out Virtually’s Principle – Be Consistent
• Tuesday’s focus on Building Connection in Your Remote Team
• Wednesday’s focus on Celebrating the First Year of the Remote Pathways podcast
• Thursday’s focus on the Team Building Question of What Do We Want to Fit into the Last Mile of the Year?

Enjoy the reflection and catching up!
​Jennifer

Next week signals of our first year of the Remote Pathways podcast. When my co-host Michelle Mullins and I started this journey a year ago of exploring the people, pathways and processes to remote work, we would have had no idea how the year would be placing such an emphasis on remote wok.

We’ve released 24 great episodes exploring the terrain of the remote workspace. From entrepreneurial pursuits to project managers, sales professionals, to virtual facilitators, the landscape of remote work is vast. We have also focused on helping people explore some of the key areas that help people thrive, for example, our episodes with:

• Theresa McCleod and the Enneagram – Episode 14 
• Conflict Management and our guest Gayle Oudeh – Episode 13 
• Kristin Winkle-Beck and her discussion with us around Pivoting to Virtual
• Or Jennifer’ Grote’s presentations on Strengths (episode 10) or Wellness in the Remote Space (episode 24)
  

Check out some of my other favorite episodes:

• Remote Working Myths – Episode 19 
• Every Remote Professional is a Leader and Needs Leadership Skills – Episode 17 

 
We are looking forward to having you join us for season 2!
Enjoy your conversations,

Welcome back to a week in review! This week we have explored several topics including:

• Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #171
• Tuesday’s Stand out Virtually – Corporate Edition – Follow Up
• Wednesday’s focus on recent episodes from the Remote Pathways podcast including Episode 21 which focused on Virtual Co-Working and Episode 22 with our special guest Kristin Winkle-Beck who talked about shifting large in-person events to virtual
• Thursday’s question with a focus on pitfalls you may be facing
• Friday’s Flashback Friday focus on Tips for Matrix Management, taking us back to Teams365 #594
• Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt focusing on the question “What’s the flipside”?

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Enjoy your review!

Jennifer

It’s almost been a year since we launched the Remote Pathways podcast and little did we know how 2020 would the YEAR of REMOTE!

Our most recent episode brings on special guest Kristin Winkle-Beck to talk about her experience of pivoting a high profile in person event to the virtual space. With in person events being shelved for the mid-term, what type of virtual events are you exploring?

Catch up on our conversation with Kristin a few weeks ago as part of our October 1st Community Call 

You may also want to catch up on Episode 21 – Virtual Co-Working, where we explore several different types of virtual co-working experiences. You will find the podcast here and then the related Community Call here (30 minutes).

What are your most important tips about remote work and virtual events?

Enjoy the conversation!
​Jennifer

2020 – the year of the bubble. Physical isolation has led to many to feeling more isolated than ever. Just last week we released episode 21 of the Remote Pathways podcast, where we touch on the topic of Virtual Co-Working. You can check it out on your favorite podcast player OR here.

One thing I really love as a podcaster is hosting our twice a month breakfast calls. It’s open to all and I hope you will drop in for one before the end of the year!

In the most recent Remote Pathways community call on September 17th, Michelle and I talked about the many different forms virtual co-working can take.

Here’s a quick overview of the different types we talked about. What’s interesting is that between us both of us support programming virtually all these different types of co-working. Which ones might work best for you?

• Zoom Call - Working real time for short blocks of time on Zoom
• Virtual Retreat - While Michelle focuses on virtual retreats for personal development in her Anchor Your Heart Retreats, I focus more on virtual business planning sessions.
• Lunch and Learn - Professional development opportunities abound for many professionals and breakfasts, lunches and dinners are very common. As I share in the call, it’s not uncommon for me to speak to a group of 20 or even 200 virtually over lunch. Contact me if you are looking for a speaker for your lunch and learn.
• Social Time - Quarantinis became a popular 5 pm activity in the early days of the pandemic. Today that’s morphed into many different formats. What are you doing to create more social time with colleagues and friends and family, virtually?
• Design (Studio Time) - For many of the clients I work with, design or studio time is important. Getting together with others can create more focused work and impact. What are you wanting to design and how might some virtual studio time support you? Again, contact me for upcoming virtual studio days AND sprints.
• Conversations - What are the conversations you want to have this month? Who have you not reached out to recently?
• Get it Done! - Getting things done are critical for success. One of the favorite activities with the annual lab programs I run is the Get It Done Days. What could 4 hours of focused work get off your list?
• Games/challenges - Challenges are one of my new favorite activities. I kicked off the Stand Out Virtually Challenge in August and more than a hundred joined me. I’ll be hosting my next challenge in October so stay tuned and join us at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub to keep posted.
• Team Time – Finally, what is the time you have earmarked for your team for team development?

What are the types of co-working experiences you want to engage with?
 
Be sure to check out the September 17th Breakfast Community Call for more on Virtual Co-Working – You can view the 30 minute call here.

Best,
​Jennifer

Welcome back to another Friday post. This week I’m highlighting not Teams365 blog posts, but recent podcast episodes you’ll find at the Remote Pathways podcast. Little did my co-host and I know last fall when we started this project, how widespread remote work would become. It’s a pleasure hosting this podcast. I hope you will subscribe!
 
I hope that you will check out some of our most recent episodes:

• Remote Pathways podcast Episode #17 – Every remote worker needs leadership skills – As many organizations are finding, teamwork and leadership look different in the remote space. EVERYONE needs to have skills in the remote space. Check out Episode 17 here.
• Remote Pathways Podcast Episode 16 – Entrepreneurship in the remote space with Kim Avery. Join us for a great conversation about entrepreneurship in episode 16. Listen in here.
• Remote Pathways Podcast Episode 15 – Team Effectiveness in the Remote Space. What do teams need to excel in the remote space? Listen in to episode 15 here.
• Remote Pathways podcast Episode 14 – The Enneagram with Teresa McCloy – listen in here.
• Our most popular episode to date has been Trust and Connection in the Remote Space – a topic I cover in Chapter 2 of Effective Virtual Conversations. Check out the Trust and Connection episode here.

Have an idea for an episode or a guest you’d like to see join us? Let me know – drop me an email.
 
With best wishes,
Jennifer 

Many of you know that I cohost the Remote Pathways podcast. It was inspired by a writing project I started last year about the Digital Dozen™, twelve different types of remote workers. This writing has been shaped by my own adventures in the remote space over the last three decades.
​
One of the most important areas I ‘ve seen for teams that thrive in complex and uncertain times is adopting an experimental mindset. This is a topic I wrote about a few years ago in Teams365 #1597 which I thought would be good to return to in today’s Flashback Friday. In fact, at the Remote Pathways Community, we’ve had Experimentation as our Quarterly Theme for 2020. What have you done this quarter to incorporate more experimentation?

Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1597:

This month we are exploring the skills required in teamwork, including listening and curiosity. Today I wanted to take a dive into a third skill area, that being the area of experimentation.

Experimentation is key for business leaders and teams today. Many times, the context is changing so quickly that we don’t have time to complete an entire roll-out before having to make a final decision. That can lead to a mindset of experimentation, where it is encouraged to try things out, see what works and what doesn’t.

In supporting experimentation in our team we want to:

• Encourage and reward trial and error
• Create safety around not getting “things right”
• Provide team members with time and resources to experiment, beyond their everyday team responsibilities
• Facilitate an evaluation of projects or “experiments” that are completed or are even at the midpoint

 
Questions we may ask at project reviews include:

• What’s working?
• What’s not?
• What are the things that need to be abandoned or tweaked?
• What additional resources do we need?
• What unknown obstacles have become visible?
• What is the big learning we are taking?
• What is the one thing/ or the many things we are going to do differently going forward?
• Who else can we learn from (including our own past projects?

What are you going to do to create more of a focus around experimentation?

Have a great weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders 
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time™ in the Remote Space
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations 
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Yesterday’s Teams365 post explored four key differences when working remote – Autonomy, Skills, Connections with others and the Matrix.

In today’s post, I wanted to share four additional differences when working remote – focus, motivation, and inner drive, to relationship building and visibility.

In general, many things get magnified in the remote space – from clarity, or lack of clarity, around communication, processes, roles, goals; to what we actually see on the screen. This means that we may need to be more intentional in sharing information, checking assumptions and confirming that our messages were understood in the way they were communicated.

Motivation - When working remotely, a lot of us need to rely on our own inner motivation and self-direction to get things done. For those who like to work autonomously, it’s great! Being clear on what we need to excel as a team member, leader or business owner is key.

As I wrote yesterday, “No person is an island” and we do want to make sure we are clear on our strengths, and style preferences. It’s also key to note that when we over leverage our strengths, that they can become a blind spot. In the remote space this may mean that they get over magnified. So, if I have a love of learning I may keep learning, rather than getting work done. What are the strengths you are able to leverage? What’s important about your work? What drives you? What do you need to be aware of in case it gets over magnified?

For more on Motivation and Remote Work, check out some of the episodes of the Remote Pathways Podcast. 

You’ll also want to check out Week 6 of the 52 Weeks of Remote Work.

What is important for you about motivation in the remote space?

Context - One of the major challenges in the remote space is that we see each other usually only through the small window of the screen. As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, a great activity to undertake is “what’s outside your screen”? What can we do to share more about the context of our work? That might include:

• Sharing a little more about your desk
• Sharing what’s outside your window
• Talking about what is a priority in your work
• Sharing more about the way work is done, or preferences are in your location (especially if you are a virtual team)

What context pieces are important to share?

Visibility and proactivity - Visibility and proactivity is key in the remote space. Some remote workers feel that their careers get stuck because they aren’t visible like those in an office space. I would invite a perspective that visibility is less about where you are, but how you approach work. What are you doing to be visible, to bring people together, to connect with peers and other stakeholders, to be proactive in connecting on a regular basis with your boss and team?

Regular co-working sessions may provide an opportunity for learning more and connecting with your peers, as well as hearing what you are working on. These sessions may run for an hour, half day or more. 

What is important for you to explore around visibility? What do you need to be more proactive about?

Focus - For many remote workers, productivity can actually increase when moving to work in the remote space. A study by Stanford Business School, headed by Professor Nicholas Bloom found a 13% increase in productivity by those who WFH (Work From Home). You will find a copy of the original publication here at Prof. Bloom’s site.
 
For another interesting article on the same topic check out Scott Mautz’s Inc article.

Even though there are differences with remote work, it’s still important to focus in on the basics of high performance. Be sure to check out the posts I have written on the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. How are we being clear about the ROLES, GOALS, PRACTICES of our work, in addition to connecting in with our vision and mandate, and being clear bout what success will look like?

Tomorrow, we’ll explore another remote working ingredient for success – managing boundaries!

See you then,
Jennifer