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 
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Earlier this year I shared a post on ten things you would want to make sure you took time to schedule. You can read Teams365 #2199 post here.

As we moved into the months of January and February a lot of our focus was on getting up to speed, and with the pandemic taking a lot of attention in recent months, some of these activities may not have been on the radar as much. I thought it would be useful to go back and take a look at these areas:

#1 – Team Meetings – Make them consistent and regular. It’s likely that you won’t be able to have everyone at the table (or the screen). Make sure that you create shared team agreements of what team members need to do if they are not present for meetings.

#2 – Meetings with Your Boss – Have you scheduled in time with your direct line manager? Keeping visible and being in regular communication is essential in today’s workplace. Corporate priorities can change quickly as can your boss’ priorities. How often are the two of you meeting? What format are you using? What’s important for them to know?

#3 – One-on-Ones with The Team – While group and team meetings are great, team members still need some 1-1 time. Be sure to schedule in some time with your team on a regular basis. Are you aiming for monthly 1-1 conversations? Quarterly deeper dives? Daily touchpoints? As a team talk about expectations and make agreements about who is responsible for scheduling and follow up.

#4 – Team Development Time – As I shared in yesterday’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip, team development time is critical and is often overlooked for virtual teams. Teams don’t just excel by osmosis! They need time to get to know each other, clarify how they are operating and focus in on what’s important.

#5 – Strategic Thinking Time — Are you leaving yourself enough time for reflection and thinking? Be sure to leave in enough time for strategic thinking. This can include creating, or revisiting your VISION, MISSION and MANDATE. Taking time to think strategically is important so that you have a clear big picture with a longer-term horizon. With things changing rapidly, the strategic horizon of 1, 3 or 5 years down the road can be invaluable in helping us keep moving, and not getting too set back by the small changes which can feel frenetic.

#6 — Time to Get Things Done — With meetings, communication and email taking a lot of time, what time are you leaving for yourself to get things done? For some professionals, it means coming into the office early to tackle key tasks for 30-60 minutes before others arrive. For others, it means booking a conference room and closing the door. Notice when you are most productive and when it’s important to get things done.

# 7 – Learning Time – What are your learning and development goals this year? Embracing ongoing learning has never been more important. What are the skills, processes and approaches which are going to help you do your best work? Note that learning can take many forms: including in-person programming, virtual learning as well as on-demand learning. Finally, peer learning (see #9) is another set of approaches.

#8 – Feedback Time – What feedback touchpoints are you building in throughout the year? Feedback in many organizations has moved to an ongoing cycle, and it can be important to make sure that it is happening regularly. Block off time in your schedule to get it done.

#9 – Peer Learning Time/Mentoring Time — What is the peer learning you want to undertake this year? Is it possible to do some job shadowing or pair with a peer partner throughout the year to compare notes, share resources and learn from each other?

In addition to peer learning, what about identifying a mentor in your organization or industry who can share their experience in order to help you understand “what’s below the waterline”?

#10 – Time Within Your Industry or Outside Your Regular Scope of Work — Finally, industry connections are key. Keeping current in your area of work may be as important, or more important, in the medium- and longer-term. What connection into professional associations are going to support you this year?
 
What do you want to make sure you make time to focus on?

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. ​

Over the last few months, we’ve had a tsunami of professionals joining us in the virtual and remote space. One thing that most have become aware of is that virtual conversations are not uniform across the virtual and remote space. In fact, in my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, I share 9 different types of virtual conversations which vary across both level of formality and peer versus individual learning approaches.
 
In EVC, I differentiate between these nine different types of virtual conversations across the ecosystem:

1. Mentoring
2. Coaching
3. Peer Learning
4. Team Development
5. Goal Setting
6. ​Video Based Learning
7. Education – Webinars, Webcasts, Formal Learning, MOOCs
8. Meetings
9. E-Learning

What are the different types of virtual conversations you are engaging in? Are they synchronous – real time – or asynchronous – when the conversations take place at different times?
 
Chapter 4 of Effective Virtual Conversations dives more deeply into the different types of virtual conversations which exist.
 
Regardless of the type of conversation we are having, many of the same skills and practices underpin all of these. Last week I delivered a national webinar series for the Institute for Performance Learning and covered the 8 skill sets that underpin virtual conversations including:

1. Creating the Context
2. Communication
3. Process
4. Tools
5. Group Development
6. Ourselves as Facilitators
7. Technical
8. Design

(Copyright – 2017, Jennifer Britton, page 71)
 
What are the skills which are important for you to develop further to enhance your conversations?
 
For more on these skills, check out the Daily Reading Series I hosted during April and May of this year covering off chapters 1-3 of the book. You can listen in here at the Effective Virtual Conversations Blog. 

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. ​

It’s Sunday and what are you going to do to relax, recharge and refocus? Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week and this year I’ve been taking time each Sunday to review my successes of the week before, carry over tasks and think about my strategy for the week ahead. I try to do this in about 15-20 minutes each week. If you have a copy of PlanDoTrack you may want to use the week in review to track this…

My hope is that you also will take time today to focus in on some of the blog posts from this last week. This week we explored:

• Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip around Matrix Meetings and Quarterly Events
• Tuesday’s focus on Remote Conversation Starters
• Wednesday’s Remote Team Development – Process Mapping
• Thursday’s session on the Team Building Question of "What needs clarification?"
• Friday’s focus on 3 types of Remote Team Builders: getting to know each other, tools to focus, and creating connection
• Saturday’s post getting you to think back to what your favorite book, music or saying is

 
Enjoy your Sunday, reflection and planning!
 
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. ​

As a speaker I am often asked to speak about remote work. In my presentations I like to share a little more about the pitfalls and opportunities around remote work. I also like to explore some of the myths which exist around remote work. One of the favorite ones I like to talk about is the myth that remote does not equal disconnected.

We might fall into the trap of thinking that those that work remote are more distant and even disconnected. In fact, remote working success requires that we are tied onto others and working in tandem.

Three skill sets are required for remote working success today – curiosity, connection and looking beyond the screen. Let’s look at each in turn:

Curiosity
Being curious and open to learning is a key part of remote working success. Part of adopting curiosity as a mindset is remaining open to not knowing the complete picture. When we “think we know” what the context and world of our remote working colleagues is, we may start making assumptions that are unfounded.

Part of developing more curiosity in our remote work involves LISTENING more, asking more questions and being open to learn. It also involves being open to being challenged on your own biases.

• What are the things you want to learn more about?
• What are the things you want to ask more questions about?
• What don’t you know?

Connection
Connection is part of the 5 Cs I often talk about in my presentations. Connection with those you work with takes place on multiple levels -

#1 - Making a strong connection with the people you work with. We know that relationships can play as important a role as driving for results. What are you doing to get to know the people you work with? Their preferences around work, communication, decision making etc.?

#2 - Connecting your work with others on the remote team. How does everyone’s work fit together? What elements impact and connect in with each other? There is a fallacy that we work isolation, when in fact for many remote projects the pieces do fit together. Spend some time mapping out the way your work connects.

#3 - What is the connection between your values and behaviors? Our behaviors are magnified in the remote space. What do people see when they are with you? Are your values being clearly communicated? What needs an adjustment?

Looking Beyond The Screen
In order to create remote working success and relationships, it’s important that we look beyond the screen. Our window to remote work is often the frame of the screen we see. What is outside of the screen? What’s important to note about the context in which people are operating? While it may seem disconnected from your work, in fact, it’s often an integral part.
In order to look beyond the screen, consider:

• Having a dialogue (two-way conversation) about how you see your work fitting together and synergizing
• How your work does, or does not align
• What your priorities are
• What are the events that are happening outside your window that are having an impact immediately and strategically?

 
Remote does not mean disconnected. What is the reframe you want to undertake?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

As we wind up with our last team essential of the month, I wanted to take us into an area which is critical for team success – the ability to speak up.

When a team feels connected and safe, they are more likely to speak up. The foundation of teamwork is that the fusion of many perspectives, insights and talents is better than one person thinking alone. With this philosophy in mind, it’s very likely that there will be divergent perspectives and insights that emerge from across the team. How do you create a context in which people feel that they can share what might be perceived as oppositional insights, without being shut down?

The ability to speak up was identified as a core component for helping teams excel by Amy Edmonson from Harvard. I regularly recommend her 2011 book on Teaming to Organizations, and she has recently followed up with a new book called The Fearless Organization. Take a look at this article.

From large to small invitations there can be many different ways we foster conversation across a team. This might include:

• Dedicating time to brainstorming solutions/perspectives and alternatives to your most pressing opportunities and /or challenges. In the truest sense of brainstorming, we are welcoming ALL different ideas without shutting them down.
• Ensuring that all voices are being heard. This can be done through participatory facilitation techniques. Rather than just going around a table to verbally share ideas, consider giving everyone a set of index cards or post it notes to share their top ideas. Gather these and post them or go through them one at a time.
• Talk about why it’s important to bring alternative perspectives to the table.
• Watch your language – how is language shaping an “invitation” to connect and collaborate. Is more ME/YOU language being used or WE?

What other barriers are being created around inviting everyone’s voice to the table?

For more on this topic check out Glenn Llopis’ article from Forbes.

You might also be interested in these articles as well:

• John Rampton’s article on 12 Ways to Encourage Your Team to Speak Up 
• From Teams of Distinction

All the best,
​Jennifer

This week we round out our focus on core Team Essentials before turning our attention next month to collaboration, conversations and relationship building.
One of the core elements which team members may struggle with is feeling connected to others on the team. This gets even more augmented when working in the remote space, given that we don’t see each other. As I have shared in recent blog posts this month (ink), connection is key for getting results.

What are the ways we can boost a team’s sense of connection? First, consider what are the visual element which are bringing people together. As I wrote in yesterday’s Effective Virtual Conversations post, making things more visual and visible through the use of structures, images and icons can help create a sense of connection and identity.

Another key part of building connection is to ensure that people know who is on the team, and what roles they play. Do people understand how their work connects and impacts others on the team. This type of connection needs to be linked back to ensuring that there is a clear vision. This vision will help to anchor of what the team is working towards and what’s important to the team. Is your team connected to the same vision? Is everyone working to the same end point? Is it time to revisit this?

A third area is helping people connect with each other. Beyond our work, do people know each other and know a little bit more about who each person is as a human being. As we get to understand WHO is WHO on the team, we can develop a more solid working relationship, one that is not just transactional.  Providing time for each team member to share a little more about who they are, their strengths, what’s important to them, or even what’s beyond the screen can help to widen the lens and understanding of who is who on the team.

What can you do this week or month to expand connection across the team – visually, with vision and also as you expand the screen?

Enjoy the conversations!
​Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip takes us into the domain of the matrix team. If you are working remote, it’s probable that you are part of a matrix team. In the matrix work environment where we may have two more or more leaders and sets of teams we are working with, it’s really important that we create strong team culture.

Our team culture (as I have written in other Teams365 posts), is WHO we are and HOW we do things. It consists of our norms (our Team Charter or agreements on how we do things. What’s acceptable and what’s not).

Our team culture is also shaped by our values. If we value quality, we will always make a point to review key pieces of communication before they go out the door. If we value experimentation, we may be very open as a team to things that don’t work as planned (note that I’m not even using the term failure).

Team culture also includes the visual and other elements which make us, us. This might be HOW we hold meetings, or the fact that we provide both positive and constructive feedback around new projects and initiatives. Visual elements might include a mascot or metaphors which help them team identify themselves. For example, a team may associate itself with a firecracker (being bold and making an impact) or a fire pit (bringing people together for collaboration and problem solving). What are the elements of your team culture which you want to make more pronounced or visible?

In a virtual or remote team, it can be key to focus in on being more explicit in taking time to articulate and share our team culture given that we may not be able to see it every day. It may be captured in our slides or stickers that are put on computers or notebooks. What structures do you want to use to make it visible?

For more on the topic of team culture check out these Teams365 blog posts.

Best, 
Jennifer

A large part of the conversations I have directly with team or with leaders is around trust. This seems to be one of the most significant issues in organizations today, helping or hindering what gets done.

As we wrap up to the 20 for 20 series, I want to put some further attention around some of the Team Essentials. These are things that we will want to return back to and explore further with those we work with – even if we work remote. In fact, trust can become an even more important issue for those working in the remote space. It’s our trust levels that often go hand in hand with our sense of connection. When working remote, that sense of connection can have significant impact on our motivation, engagement and even ability to show up and do great work, day in and day out. If we don’t trust, or even know, those in our team, it’s hard to collaborate. This will ultimately have an impact on outcomes and results.

What are the different ways we can build trust? I like to go back to the basics. Trust is seen through behaviors we undertake and choose to share. It includes the things that can seem mundane like:

• Showing up
• Being prepared
• Following through on what we say we will
• Providing feedback (about what’s working, and when its not!)
• Communicating
• Inquiring/asking questions

There are several excellent models around trust that teams may want to explore. Two that I have continued to point to include:

• Reina and Reina’s model around trust – Check out some of their writing here.
• Stephen Covey’s books around Smart Trust and the Speed of Trust 

​What are the books and resources you recommend around trust? Are there any podcasts or other resources you go-to on a regular basis?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

This week I came across a note I had made myself late last year and never got posted. Having worked to support team leaders for a number of years, I often get asked, “what are some of the key conversations they are having with their teams right now”? Here are five areas team leaders today may be in conversation around:

#1 - Focus - With so much occurring in the workplace today – flavors of the month, shiny red objects, interruptions, course changes, external events, etc…helping our team members focus on what is important RIGHT NOW, today, can be an important message to keep reinforcing. Helping team members with prioritization skills and being able to continue to focus on what’s important without adding to the interruptions and divergence is also key. If you are operating in a team context, the impact of one team member slipping may have a domino effect. What are the things that are going to help with focus?

#2 - Connection - What are the things you can do to help people feel connected? Connected to others in the team? Connected to the resources they need? The information they need? What is important about this topic right now for the team?

#3 - Disruption and Change - Disruption and change is becoming more commonplace across industries. Global events can have local impact. Disruption in a related industry can have a trickle effect. What are you doing to help people understand how they react to change, and also build capability in the areas of strategic thinking and/or contingency planning? Having worked for many decades in the areas of strategic planning, critical thinking and contingency planning, I often take it for granted that people are using these tools. What’s important to explore and have conversation with your team?

#4 - Building Trust - As Stephen Covey wrote - and I paraphrase – “Trust is the currency of business”. What are you doing to build trust, and erode trust? In today’s fast, and sometimes remote, business context, we may only see people in “small windows” of time.  Comments, and reactions, may get magnified. Certain activities or patterns of behaviors might be perceived as the norm. What are you doing to build trust, particularly in terms of creating an environment where people can be heard, and listened to? Where follow through is modeled? Where communication fits the needs of the team? What behaviors are visible?

#5 – What can people on the team do to be able to do their best work? Finally, we know from strengths-based research that when people are able to do their best work and use their strengths, there’s greater productivity, engagement and quality of life. Check out Gallup’s Strengths Center for the latest research on this.

Asking the team what they can do to do their best work, as often as possible can be a great conversation. It may also open up a debate point of “Why can’t I do this all the time?”. While we may not be able to use strengths EVERY DAY and EVERY HOUR on every PROJECT, what can we do to magnify or expand this?
Enjoy the conversations and let us know what you are exploring in your team. 

Best,
​Jennifer