This week’s Team Building Question is “what’s getting in the way?”. Success in today’s business context is about ongoing evaluation of what’s working and what’s not. What worked this time last year may not be the thing that works right now.

As you consider the question “What’s getting in the way?” consider what this might be as it relates to process, teamwork, communication, meetings, projects etc.

Taking a hard look regularly at what works, and what doesn’t will help you as a team keep moving and adapting.

As an old mentor of mine once said “In times of disruption, there can be no sacred cows”. This was a mantra I led by for many years, being involved in post-disaster rehabilitation and regrowth along with many other key programming areas including educational reform and environmental initiatives.

What’s getting in the way of your success right now?
What are the roadblocks you are facing?


What can help you get over (or around those roadblocks)?

What resources do you need – people? Technology? Change of process? New information? Different skills or expertise?
​
What’s needed to make a change?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

I have been doing a lot of speaking this year around virtual conversations and digital transformation.  Whether I have been speaking about creating MEMORABLE virtual conversations, or HOW to digitize parts of your business, your learning or teamwork, 2020 is apt to go down as the year where the pivot to digital transformation got accelerated. Here’s what I wrote only a short 7 months ago in December 2019 on Digital Transformation in Teams365 #2178.

Take a read and think about what is important for you to note:

As an author and consultant, I often work with organizations and teams around the topic of digital transformation. As someone who has usually worked as an early adopter with technology, sometimes out of geographic necessity, digital transformation is an extension of the work I’ve been doing for several decades now.

You can hear more about the various pathways that bring us into remote and digital work at the new podcast I am hosting with colleague Michelle Mullins. Together we are exploring the people, pathways and processes that make up the remote workspace.

Digital transformation has been one part of this equation. From large banks, to healthcare, to education, the way we are connecting, conversing and doing our work is essential.

Many rural areas now have access to medical advisors that would not have been possible years ago. I remember vividly being part of some epiphany moments and paradigm shifters in 1998 (yes, that’s 1998) with a community deep in the interior of South America. A funding grant from the Canadian International Development Agency helped to fund solar panels, a satellite connection and special laptops to link that community with educational materials. When I arrived at the community to meet with my team who had been based there doing related work in primary health and infrastructure rehab, I was struck (as was often the case) with the very limited resources available for students. One notebook each, a small pencil and bare bookshelves. This pilot project was a bit of a game changer for that community, opening up the doorways to education for those children.

While not every project like this is a success, they radically change the paradigm of how we work, what’s available and then what’s possible.

This is also what’s happening in the era of digital transformation.

While we may not be comfortable in letting go of “how we’ve always done things” it’s important that we also look at the questions of:

• What can we do now?
• What’s now possible?
• What new connections are there?

VUCA, digital transformation, and AI (all 3 separate things) are showing up in some workplaces at the same time. It can be overwhelming for some and spark creativity for others.

Providing a space for people to connect and share their insights in a way where they can be heard.

As a team, over time, be sure to build in time to explore additional questions around:

• What changes do we need?
• What can be evolved? Repurposed?
• What new things do we need to create?
• What do we need to stop doing?
• What conversations are important for you to have as a team? What space and time do you need to earmark so these conversations are taking place?​

Interested in having a conversation about this? Need a facilitator or speaker to come in and discuss? Please reach out to me by email at info@potentialsrealized.com and let’s set up a time to talk.

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer

Welcome back to another Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip takes us back to a reminder of six elements I write about in part 3 of EVC which help remote teams thrive. I call these the Six Factors of High Performing Teams in my work. It’s a framework I have used for several years, especially when teams are looking to pinpoint some of the ‘levers’ they can use to make their teamwork better.

Together these six areas create a dynamic set of levers which can be focused on and adjusted. In my experience of working with teams, especially remote teams, it’s likely that some areas are doing well, and one or more need attention.

I’ve shared quite a bit about the Six Factors during  the seven years of the post several times, including this post back in 2014 – # 8 in this daily blog series.

As you read through these, consider what are the elements or levers your team could benefit from some attention around:

1. Shared purpose or mission - Your WHY? Why do you exist? How might this have changed? What are you doing to reconnect everyone into this on a regular basis?

2. Shared performance goals - What are the goals you are working on for Q2? How do they connect in with others?

3. Shared behavioral norms - What are the ways you do things? What makes your team unique in terms of how you do things? What’s acceptable and what’s not? Our norms define our culture and help to differentiate us.

4. Shared team practices - What are the things you are doing to keep things moving as a team? How have your meetings evolved? What are you doing to focus on both relationship development and results?

5. Shared commitment - What are you committed to, NO MATTER WHAT? How do you have each other’s backs?

6. Clear roles - What are the different roles required on the team to do your best work? Who is best suited to play what role?

How do you rate as a team on each of these six factors? You may want to rate them on a scale of 1-10 with one being low and 10 being high. Which areas do you need to work on or create together?

What are the levers which need attention? Where would you like to focus as a team, going forward?

Best,
Jennifer

Remote teamwork is here to stay for a little longer in many organizations. While team development may not be the first thing on everyone’s mind, it’s likely that teams will require some attention in the upcoming months. Research continues to indicate that teams of all kinds need both a focus on results as well as relationships.

Several months ago, in early March, before the pandemic hit North America, I released a Remote Working Whitepaper. In it, I explored 7 Different types of Remote Enablers, things that help us do better work in the remote space. While many have become experts in remote work in recent months, this has been the landscape I’ve led teams, programs and businesses in for almost 30 years.

A few weeks ago, I launched a new on-demand program entitled “Remote Team Builders” which covers a couple of activities in eight different areas which remote teams can benefit from. The areas I cover in the nine-part program are:

Module 1 – Remote Team Enablers
What helps remote teams thrive? I dig more deeply into what I call the 7 Cs or the Remote Team Enablers.

Module 2 – Openers for Remote Team Building – Two Activities
We remember the start and end of things. Having a strong start to a virtual meeting is key, signalling that this is not just going to be “Any call”…

Module 3 – Creating Connection in Remote Teams
What can you do to quickly connect remote teams? Check out these two activities and think about others you might have at your disposal.

Module 4 – Working with Goals – 2 Frameworks
Goals are key to alignment in the remote space. Listen and watch the short video I share about creating SMART-E Goals.

Module 5 – Strengths and Remote Teams – 3 Activities
What are the strengths your team members bring to the table? How are you harnessing these? What blind spots might they be creating?
Don’t know what yours are and want to learn more? Contact me to discs a Remote Team Day and/or some 1-1- coaching for yourself.  You can reach out by phone to 416-996-8326

Module 6 – Collaboration in the Remote Space – 2 Exercises
Collaboration is key in the remote workspace. What are some of the essential ingredients for collaboration? Check this out.

Module 7 – Styles – 2 Areas to Explore
What are the different preferences of those on the tam? What do you know about how others like to communicate, make decisions, and what they prioritize? Being clear on this is critical.

Module 8 – Closers in the Remote Space – 2 Exercises
What are the different was you want to create a solid ending to a call? What will support ACTION and RETENTION after the call? Check out these two closers in the remote space.

Module 9 – Now What? Putting This into Practice in Your Work!
What are the areas your teams might benefit from? If you’d like to explore these eight areas more in depth, check out the Remote Team Builders on-demand course. It’s normally $129 US and save $32 by using the code TEAMS365 until July 15th. 
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Enjoy the focus!

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 
​

Team culture is all about HOW WE DO things here. Remote Team culture and fostering a sense of connection and identity is critical in a space where we may be members of multiple matrix teams. Take a look at yesterday’s Teams365 post - #2366 on roles in the remote space.

Our team culture consists of many different components – consider how you are building these out:

• Our beliefs – What are the things we hold true? What do we believe in?
• Our sayings – Consider the impact of a mantra of “better done than perfect” versus “review until all the t’s are crossed, and i’s dotted”.
• What we value – How do our values show up in WHAT we do? What do our values look like in action? For example, is it speed or perfection?
• Sense of identity – Who we are. What are the adjectives which describe us as a team?
• Our practices and commitments – What will we ensure we always do, no matter what? Examples might include ALWAYS having a Friday afternoon status update no matter what OR ensuring that someone is available to serve customers (virtually or physically) within working hours (even if we have a meeting).

What areas of your culture could benefit from being intentional around?

Take a look at this past post #1526 here.

Check out the audio I did as part of one of the Team Leader Breakfast Café Series back in 2014 here. 

What do you want to be more intentional about communicating? A strong team culture is important as it fosters a sense of identity and also signals to our team members and others, HOW we do things and what we value.

Enjoy your conversations!
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 
​

It’s Tuesday which means that we are heading “Back to the Basics” with teamwork. One of the areas which gets really magnified in the virtual and remote space is that of roles. With matrix relationships being the norm for many teams who operate remotely, it’s not uncommon to have two, three or four different line managers. Someone who might be your “main” boss, someone who supports you on one project, and another who supports you technically.

At the same time, it’s likely that in addition to having different bosses, you also likely inhabit different roles. On some teams you might be a project lead, on others an activator and on others a person who gets things done.

With membership on so many teams, it can be important to clarify ROLES as well as be really intentional with building out the culture of your organization. Tomorrow we will look at the different components of building out a vibrant remote team culture where people feel connected with their team and help to shape the culture of it.

Spending time focusing on the roles which exist in a team is important. It’s important on several different levels:
 

• First, what are the roles needed in order to get things done?
• Second, who is ideally suited for each role. Consider who might be good at setting a vision, versus executing things and getting things done. Who is better at the granular detail versus the strategic view of things? Consider who is best placed for which role. Consider who gets put in a role by default – they do it just because they can, not because they want to. While this will work in the short-term, what happens in the long term?
• Third, how do the different roles connect and fit together? Where is there overlap? Where are their gaps?
• Fourth, what are the different roles and responsibilities? Who needs to do what, when? What happens if this doesn’t happen? Helping team members understand the bigger picture is essential for performance.
• Fifth, what are the feedback loops from one part of the team to another? Take a look at Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip on Team Feedback. What can you be doing to amplify your team feedback?

Roles are an often-overlooked part of team experience. What’s important to note?

Best,
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 
​

Each week I’m going to be sharing a new remote team basics post. Given that at a lot of teams will not be returning to a full in-person team experience, it can be important to return to the basics of remote teamwork. Today we explore teamwork skills.

In the paradigm shift of remote leadership, all team leaders need to develop capacity with leadership skills such as relationship building, communication, influence, decision making and prioritization. When our work needs to be managed by ourselves and we can’t physically get together, these core skills are really important.

As I wrote back in February in the Remote Working Whitepaper, in addition to these teamwork skills, we also want to make sure we foster the 7 Remote Enablers™, what I also term the 7 Cs to Remote Work™ - Communication, Clarity, Connection, Culture, Consistency, Community and Collaboration.

What are you doing to build these and foster these throughout your teamwork, processes and practices?

Today let’s explore one of the foundational teamwork skills: COMMUNICATION.
Communication in the remote space does illustrate two fundamental principles in remote work those being “things get magnified in the remote space” and “things can be more complex”.

In terms of things being more complex, communication in the remote space happens along many different channels – slack, IM, text, phone, Voxxer, dashboards, email, social channels. It can be dizzying, and exhausting, if boundaries aren’t incorporated. What are the expectations regarding how many channels communication can occur on? How quickly do you need to respond? When are you “on” and when are you off?

Each of us is also likely to have a preference in terms of what we like as our primary and secondary channels, also creating more complexity.

To what level of detail do people on the team require information? High Level? Granular? Big picture? Regardless of level, be sure to connect people into the WHY and what’s important.

To the point of things getting magnified, what do you notice about what does get communicated? What does not? And what becomes noise, when it’s being overly communicated?

Consistency is key around communication, so consider how you are being consistent with core messaging?

As you consider communication this week, what’s important to notice?
​
Enjoy the conversation,
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. ​

Focus has been a major theme for many professionals in recent weeks. This week’s Team Building tip gets you to consider the question “What’s possible if you had more focus?”.

As a team, have some discussion around where your focus is – this month, this week, each day of the week. Is everyone aligned? Is everyone on the same page?

If team members are members of multiple teams, it’s important to have this conversation regularly.

Questions to consider:

• What’s important for us to focus on right now – today? This week? This month?
• What are we not focusing on, and need to?
• What do we need to STOP focusing on?
• Where do we need to enhance our focus?
• What distractions are getting in the way of focus?
• What’s possible if we/I had more focus?

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
​
PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here. ​

Hey, have you stopped by lately at the Remote Pathways podcast?

Check out this week’s blog posts including:

• Saturday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt on Systems Check
• Friday’s May Kickoff – Monthly Reflection and Planning Prompts
• Thursday’s Team Building Question – What could jettison you forward?
• Wednesday’s focus on Remote Team, Group and Community Builders – check out these articles!
• Tuesday’s focus on Collaborating in the Remote Space
• Monday’s focus with the Effective Virtual Conversations Tip around Keeping People in the Loop

I hope that you have a great rest of the weekend.

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. ​