This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip brings us to #74 in the series. Take a look back at other EVC tips here.

Teams which excel have strong relationships and are clear on what is important to them as a team. They are clear on their results.

An important part of building both relationships and strengthening results is that they have shared team practices or experiences which bring them together.

These will vary from team to team but could include:

• A Monday morning huddle
• An annual team picnic
• The year end holiday party or service activity
• The quarterly team booster shots.

What are the things you do consistently together as a team? What helps to boost your relationships and results?
Are there any additional activities you want to fit in?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip focuses at Shared Behavioral Norms. Research continues to show that teams with shared behavioral norms have greater clarity around agreements, helping with alignment, behavior and results.
If you are working in a virtual or remote team context you will want to explore the following questions as a team:

• What is acceptable in terms of our behavior and how we operate?
• What is important?
• What does it look like for us in practice?

For example, if a team indicates that one of the important things is respect, it’s important for the team to define what that looks like. Does that mean a certain way of communicating? Does it mean that team members respond to clients in a certain way? If you were to bring a camera into the workplace, what are the behaviors associated with that activity?
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Activity:
As a team spend time making a list of the behavioral practices you want to employ. Consider how you will “enshrine” them to make them visible as a reminder. Different practices teams have used on this include plaques, statutes, photos etc.

Best, 
​Jennifer

What team practices are supporting relationships?
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From the realm of high performance we know that teams which excel have strong relationships. Part of this is making sure we have strong team practices – that could include Monday morning meetings, a mini-team event each month, a Thursday night social or a quarterly team development activity.

Consider your team right now and think about what is needed on the part of the team. What will help the team connect, have fun and get to know each other? Having fun as a team is important as it can help people relax and bring themselves more naturally into their work. If they are not able to bring their natural self to the workplace, disconnect may happen between how they work at home and how they work at work.

Here are seven different ways teams may be connecting with each other:

1. Daily huddles or quick status meetings (10-15 minutes) to keep projects on task.
2. Monday morning meetings – a meeting at the start of the week can support focus and alignment for the team, assisting with priorities and information sharing. Monday meetings may also flag issues that need to be addressed but haven’t been noted before.
3. Monthly project assessments – some teams may do a short monthly team meeting, highlighting key projects which need attention and/or doing a review. Some of the more common project questions are included under the next category of team debrief.
4. Team debriefs post major project (or mid-term). These may get the team to identify lessons learned, what’s working, what’s not and suggestions for the future.
5. A weekly or monthly social event around town. PingPong and darts are favorite options. Escape rooms and/or axe throwing are for teams who are more edgy (note: these options may not be applicable or appropriate for every team and their culture!).
6. Quarterly Booster Shots – Dedicating half a day or a full day to team development and/or learning. It could be undertaking an assessment together such as the Everything DiSC, or StrengthsFinder.
7. Key to making these valuable team practices, teams will want to consider the purpose and efficiency of each approach. Just because you do it, doesn’t mean it’s going well.
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What is the team finding valuable? What needs a change?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Team Building Tip #205 in the series, gets you to think and be in discussion about the question “What team practices are supporting results?”.
Whether it’s a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday after work social event, or a mid-week lunch and learn, what are the activities (and meetings) which are helping the team get the results they need?

Regular communication in ways that work for the team, along with clarity around goals and objectives, helps team members align and understand how their work connects with each other. Team practices are especially important for virtual teams, particularly our “out of sight, out of mind” mindset. Virtual teams may want to be even more intentional in their focus on building in regular times to meet, socialize, connect and share information.

Think about what you are doing as a team.What’s working? What’s not?
What events are you holding to focus on results and goals? On relationships? On having fun?
 
Let us know what you are doing by using the comment link below.

Best wishes!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

Welcome to October. As we start moving towards the end of the year, we are shifting our attention here at the Teams365 blog to Teamwork, an essential ingredient for success.
The first Monday Effective Virtual Conversations Tip of the month brings us to #64. View the past Effective Virtual Conversation tips here.
For the next three weeks I will be taking us into core essentials of Virtual Team Success. Today we are going to explore #1 of 3 – that of Knowing Your People.
Relationships play a key role in virtual teams, and it’s important to note that “out of sight should not mean out of mind”. Being proactive in building relationships with each team member, and between all team members is important for building overall team capacity.
As I wrote in Effective Virtual Conversations (page 343), when growing your team, consider:

1. What are the unique needs of each team member?
2. What do they need from you? What do you need from them? What do they need from each other?
3. What activities (in-person or virtual) will facilitate getting to know each other, connection and understanding the business of the team?

 
 
What are the activities you have planned this year for team development? A 2016 study from Culture Wizard found that only 22% of virtual teams had benefited from any team development.
 
For some ideas of what you might do with your team, take a look at the September Series on 10 Things to Do with Your Team.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

We are at a milestone of 200 Team Building Questions. Today’s question gets you to think about the question “What’s going to help you to be successful?”.

For the last 200 weeks I have brought you a different question each Thursday. My intention was to get you as a team into different dialogue.

As a former team leader myself, I know how challenging it can be to constantly be coming up with new questions to ask the team. That’s why I created the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck. Launched a few years ago, this 3.5 x 5.5 inch deck consists of 52 different questions (the first 52 in the series). Team leaders can pick a different card each week to share in their team meeting.

I’ve heard of teams using this as a wrap up question for the team to consider across the week, and other team leaders have indicated that they use it at the start of the week.
Pick up a copy of the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck – Tips 1 – 52 here.

​​The second Volume – tips 149 – 200 (the more visual cards) is going to be available in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

​Best,
​Jennifer

I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at some of lst  year's year-end posts. As we go to wrap up the end of the year, it's a great time to take a look back at a range of posts for teams and their leaders. Here's Teams365 #1092 - 10 things to do with your team in the new year - enjoy1
t Potentials Realized, one of our main focus areas is working with teams We work wtih teams of all kinds - project teams, intact teams, virtual teams as well as groups that are being called a team but are really a group.

Teams usually don't naturally excel - like most living things they benefit from some care and attention. Teams also benefit from structured time focused on helping them get to know each other, their roles, styles and strenghts.

This year we've had a variety of posts focusing on team development as well as virtual facilitation.

Here are links to 10 of my favorite posts on things you can do with your team - from questions to actual activities:

Strengths: Check out this recent post on working with strengths

E is for Exceptional: Check out this short video post I did as part of the Team Development Activity a - z series.

Strategic Issues Mapping - Going way back to year 1 of our daily blog posts, check out #Teams365 #85 on bringing strategic issues mapping into your work.

Working with Priorities - Take a look at #Teams365 #981 to explore different ways to work with your team around priorities.

Check out this 2015 Sunday audio post on three problem solving tools you could bring into your upcoming team work teams365-488-sunday-audio-3-problem-solving-tools.html

​Teams365 #1056: More Year End Team Building Activities, and a link to an earlier post on Team Building Prompts. One of our most popular 2016 posts. Read it here.

Teams365 #705: Creative Problem Solving - What' you'll need are some index cards, sharpie markers and a problem which needs solving. Click here to read.

Teams365 #554: Team Building - Project Close Out - Click here to read five key areas you will want to explore in undertake an end of project close out.

Teams365 #1064: Team Development Activity A - Z - B is for boundaries. Click here to review a quick activity to support the team in idenfiying what they want to, and need to focus on, and boundaries they want to create in their work. Click here to read more.

​What have been your favorite activities featured here? What other sources do you go to for ideas around team development?

​Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer

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This week's Teams365 video brings to life Teams365 #703 which explores 10 Year End Team Activities you might want to consider undertaking with your team. With about six weeks left of the  year, it's a great time to change things up at your weekly team meetings, to help team members connect, as well as reflect on what's worked this past year, what hasn't, and what your vision is for 2018.

For those interested, my one day 2018 virtual planning retreats are going to be held on Thursday December 7th and Monday December 18th. These six hour retreats take you through a series of individual activities and live calls in supporting you to develop your own vision for next year in your work/business, program planning or life. Click here to read more and reserve your spot.