I thought that it would be interesting to take a look back to the first week of November in 2014 during the first week of this blog. What was I writing about then? In fact, that week marked the start of one of the first A-Z series I’ve hosted here at the blog. That one took us through the A-Z of leadership. You might recall that I’ve hosted other A-Z series in 2015 (Virtual and Remote) as well as in Team Development Activities. Do check them out! 

Here’s what I wrote back in 2014 as I kicked off the A-Z series:

“Today marks the start of a new series focusing on the a through z of Team Leadership. This time last year I did a similar series of blog posts over at the BizToolKit blog. You can read what I read my last year's post on A is for Action and Accountability over at the BizToolkit blog leadership here.

In addition to Action and Accountability, some of the words I have included in the Teams365 version for A include:
Attitude - What's the attitude you are demonstrating. What's the attitude each team member is bringing?
Able/Ability - What are you able to do? What abilities does the team bring? Each team member? How do you leverage these?
Aspire - Where do you aspire to move to?
Assumptions - What assumptions are you holding?
Articulation - To articulate is to spell something out. What do you need to articulate to the team?
Accepting - How accepting is the team? What do you bend for? Consider a bottom line? Deal Breaker?
Astute - Astute leaders use their intuition and observe. What are you noticing?
Assessment - What assessments are working for the team? What do you each need to step back and make a self-assessment on?
Agility - Agility, which embodies flexibility, is critical for today's ever changing workplace. Agile is also a term which has been embraced within the IT, and related sectors, as a core component of,, and approaches around, leadership.

What are the questions for you to explore today?”
I won’t be going through each day again this month, but you are encouraged to take a look and in any spare minutes, think about the opportunities for you as a team leader, or aspiring team leader.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

We are continuing on a look back at different team development focus areas.  In today’s post we are exploring E through H. What are the different things we might explore with teams we are working with?
 
E is for exceptional, excellence, emotional intelligence. Read Teams365 #1070 - Team Development Activities – E is for Exceptional  here.

OR
 
Other posts on building emotional intelligence here.

F is for fair, frank, focused.
 
In team development, one of my favorite travelling tools is to pack a roll of tin foil or aluminum foil. This can be used for a number of team development activities including foil modelling by a team of their vision, next steps etc. Creating a model that they can take back to the office is a great reminder of commitments and their focus. Read my Teams365 post on foil modelling here.
 
Check out these posts on the Leadership A – Z on F here.

G is for goals, gratitude and also the GROW model of coaching. Take a look at this post around the Leadership A – Z of G here.
 
For leaders working on Authenticity you may want to check out this other “G” post where I share some resources around being genuine here.
 
And finally, H is for Habits.
In an era of ongoing change and uncertainty, habits play an even more critical role. Habits are things that we have typically done so consistently that they become second-nature and automated. This means that we often don’t need to think about doing them as much, freeing us up to look at and consider other things. When teams are virtual, habits also play a critical role in creating consistency across the team. It’s an important part of culture.
 
Check out Teams365 #323 for H is for Habits here.
 
I’ve written a lot about habits and you can find other posts here.

Enjoy your Tuesday,
Jennifer

This week's Teams365 Video brings to life a Pulse post I wrote last year over at Linked IN, entitled "Building Relationships in Your Virtual Team". I spend a lot of my time as a coach and trainer working with virtual teams, helping them get clearer on their goals as well as boosting the connection amongst them which is essential for deeper levels of trust and support.

​Take a look at this Linked In post through the eyes of video. What are some things you can do to boost your relationships? Stay tuned here at the Teams365 blog as this coming month's focus (March 2018) is all about team development - for both virtual and intact teams. Enjoy!

Best wishes,
​Jennifer
Jennifer

​Yesterday's post was on Virtual or Remote Team Development and a suggestion for an activity to fovus on results. Virtual and Remote TEam Development can take a number of forms  - from being part of team meetings, to being stand alone days. What are the types of topics you might want to address? Today's post includes 20 different topics which are common for virtual teams. As you take a look at this list you might want to:

1. ​Share it with the team. What would they prioritize as the topic five topic areas for discussion?
2. Consider in what format you would want to address these (as part of a team meeting, as a separate one)

Here are some of the more common remote and virtual team development topic areas:

• ​Who are we as a team? 
• Getting to know each other - team individuals
• What's our vision?
• Creating a team charter or team agreements
• Team Roles
• Goals - immediate work planning for the next month/quarter
• Identifying Strategic Goals
• Knowing our strengths (i.e. StrengthsFinder)
• Knowing our styles (DiSC ) - this can impact communication, decision making
• Difficult Conversations
• Conflict Management
• Providing Feedback to Each Other
• Other performance management issues
• Time Management and Prioritizing
• Matrix Management
• Work-life
• Intercultural skills and knowledge
• Project Management
• Emotional Intelligence
• Relationship Building

​Over the last 3 years it is likely that you will find a number of posts related to HOW to address some of these areas. 

​You may also notice that some of these topics are team-focused, while others are individually focused. Depending on how your team operates, and what stage of evolution it is at, you may find a preference for one or another.

What team events do you have scheduled during which you could focus on some of these topics? What do you see as current priorities? 
What other questions would be useful to consider as you look at these topics?

​I hope that today's post has sparked some interest?

Over the last few months one of our main series has been the Team Development Activities A - z series where I covered twenty six short activities you can bring into your own team development work. Whether you have 15 min at a team meeting or are looking for something to do virtually, these 26 activities are quick and can spark a good conversation. Last week I included links to the first 13 posts A - L. Today I'm including links to the last 13 - M through Z. Enjoy!



​Teams365 #1084: M is for Metaphor - check out this post here
Teams365 #1085 - N is for What's in Your Nature - Strengths and Styles - a favorite part of my work is in this area with teams and leaders. Check out this video post here.
​Teams65 #1086 - O is for Options and Opportunities. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1099: P is for Problem Solving, Priorities, Positivity and Productivity. Check out this post here
Teams365 #1101 - Q is for Questions. Check out the post here.
​Teams365 #1102 - R is for Results and Relationships. Check out the post here.
​Teams365 #1106 - Si for Strengths. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1107 T is for Trust. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1108 U is for Unique. Check out this post here.
​Teams365 #1113: V is for Vision. Check out an activity to work around vision here.
​Teams365 #1114: W is for Wheel. Check out an activity here.
​Teams365 #1119: X is for X-Cel. Check out this post here
​Teams365 #1120: Y is for Yesable. Check out his post here.
​Teams365 #1121: Z is for Zooming in. Check out this post here.

​I hope that you enjoyed this series and will be using some of these activities in your own upcoming team conversations. Please take a moment and let me know what series you'd like us to focus on next.

​Have a great start to your week,
​Jennifer

Supporting virtual teams to do some of their best work is a major focus of our work at Potentials Realized. Having been a virtual leader myself for many years I know how complex and challenging, as well as rewarding and autonomous the role of virtual team leader can be.

Last summer (Summer 2016) I did a series of different posts on virtual facilitation and in Spring 2016 we did the A – Z of Virtual Team Leadership. If you are a virtual team leader, or considering how to support your virtual team leader more, I hope that you will consider taking a look at these posts.

In a virtual team connection and building relationships is not always on the top of our list AND we do know that virtual teams need the same ingredients to do their best work – clear and shared vision, clear roles, accountability, clear performance measures, and commitment. Virtual Team members need to feel a sense of connection with their other team mates and a sense of connection. So what are some quick ways we can do this? Well, you can take a look at Teams365 Team Development Activities -26 different team development activities I shared during November 2016 through January 2017.
I wanted to zoom into three quick activities today which you might also find useful:
1 What’s on my desk – Understanding what our team member’s context and reality is can be very useful in building trust and connection. It also helps us to understand where we may have synergies and overlap, as well as competing pressures.
What’s on my desk sparks the conversation around what each person has on their desk. Visually it can be snapshot of each person’s desk shared as part of the team meeting (think about collecting these before the call and then putting them into a blank slide). Depending on your time available this might be a quick 30 second share from each team member or it might be a longer presentation around “what’s on your desk – projects, priorities, etc,

2. What’s outside my window is a similar activity which can be scaled according to your time available. The picture provides a snapshot bigger than the virtual screen permits and can facilitate some useful sharing about different office contexts, location priorities, customs, time of day when people are connecting. It provides another way for people to connect across the team.
 
3. What’s in my lunchbag – A final quick connector is having people share what they have in their lunch bag (which might also be breakfast or dinner for some team members!). Likewise, have people share what their meal of the day is.

These three short activities are one quick way to “widen the lens” on the context of each virtual team member. How might you incorporate this to your work?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer
 

Over the past few months a key focus here at the Teams365 has been our posts on different team development activities you can incorporate with your team. Whether you are an intact team, project team or virtual team, these 26 quick activities can support you on a range of topics from boosting connection, to clarifying goals, to leveraging your strengths. If you missed any of the blog posts here are the first 13 of the full 26. I'll create links to the next set in an upcoming blog post this week, or feel free to view the whole series here.

Teams365 #1063 A is for Assumptions. View it here.
Teams365 #1064.  B is for Boundaries - View It Here
Teams365 #1065 C is for Conversation. Read it here.
Teams365 #1067 D is for Delegation. Read it here.
Teams365 #1070 - E is for Exceptional. View it here
Teams365 #1071: - F is for Foil Modelling. Read it here.
Teams365 #1072 - G is for goals. Read it here
Teams365 #1074 H is for habits. View it here
Teams365 # 1077 I is for Innovation. Read it here.
Teams365 #1078: J is for Jeopardy - Read it here.
Teams365 #1079:  K is for Knots. Read it here
Teams365 #1080: L  is for lifecycle of teams and groups . Read and view it here.

Enjoy your Sunday and if you've used some of these activities with your team let us know about your experience.

If you'd like to catch up on some of the different videos we did in the series, please check out our Potentials Realized Teams365 YouTube Channel.

We have finally reached Y in our a-z series of different team development activities. As I was thinking about y a number of different words came to mind - yearning, yes, yippee, and yellow. As a former project manager the Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light framework was critical in project status meetings to flag things that were going well (green light), what needed some attention (yellow light) and what was urgent (red light).

​In my quest to offer something a little more creative than this I turned to the dictionary and found that there is such a word as "yesable", meaning "to agree to". Although I haven't heard the term in use before I like it, and came up with a quick idea which both virtual and in person teams might find useful, especially in brainstorming and/or prioritization.

​Introduce the term "yesable" and its definition. Frame this conversation according to the opportunity or challenge you want to explore. For example, if you are eager to create some alignment around next steps with a project, the focus might be "What next steps are 'yesable'?

​Grab a blank wall (real or virtual) and have people list out the next steps they are agreeing to. Putting these on post it notes (in person) will allow you to note similar next steps and prioritize them.

​If you are facilitating virtually you may want to have people annotate on the screen according to different categories or first do a brainstorm and then categorize and prioritize as a team.

​I'd love to hear how this goes for you and your team and what you find most yesable!

​Tomorrow is our final post in this series. Hope you'll join us for Z.

​With best wishes,
Jennifer

Today we are at the X, winding down our journey of the a-z of 26 different team development activities. Whether you are looking to bring something quick into a team meeting, or a longer team development process, these 26 different ideas are geared to get you moving into dialogue around your group and team programs.
At x we are thinking about What does it take for us to excel?
You can either design a worksheet around this, or depending on the size of team, have these terms labelled on different sheets of paper, hanging around the room.
What we know is that teams which excel share some common characteristics and have spent time creating alignment and shared agreements around many of these items:

• ·         Clarity on goals
• ·         Communication channels
• ·         Role clarity
• ·         Resourcing needed (overlap, gaps etc)
• ·         Skills required
• ·         Materials needed
• ·         Shared, clear and energizing vision
• ·         Values
• ·         Feedback loops
• ·         How we have each other’s backs

 
If you choose to post these around the room have team members move to the one which they think the team is doing in well right now. If multiple people are at that sign have them talk about examples of when the team demonstrates it, and how it supports the team in “excelling”. If there is sufficient time have the team members share their insights around this.
In a second round, have team members now move to the one area they feel the team could focus on to help them “excel” more. Again, provide some time for individuals or small groups to identify what specific activities or behaviors would help the team excel more in that area.
From this you may have some concrete focus areas which you can then prioritize for the year! This activity will likely take 20-30 minutes for sufficient dialogue and planning, especially if the team is larger than 7 people.
What will it take for your team to excel?