Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

TEAMS365 #2446 –Team Building Tip 262: Results Focus

9/10/2020

This week’s Team Building Tip is appropriately entitled “Results Focus”. As we get back to work, what are the conversations you need to have around RESULTS?

Today, as a team, it may be useful to discuss:
What are the core results we are looking to achieve by the end of the:

Year?
End of this quarter?
End of this month?

It can also be useful to identify:

What is giving us results? It may be due to processes, people, resources, expertise.
What is getting in the way of results?
Which activities are giving us the highest impact? (Think about the Pareto Principle and what is giving more results)

What other questions are important to explore around results?

Remember that results are just one part of the equation to high performance.

As I write in my work:
High Performance = Results + Relationships

Enjoy the conversation!
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

TEAMS365 #2412 – Flashback Friday – Remote Pathways Podcast

8/7/2020

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

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

TEAMS365 #2384 – Flashback Friday: Teamwork Skills in Complexity – Curiosity

7/10/2020

Welcome back to another Friday where we are focusing on Teamwork Skills in Complexity. This week’s post is all about the skill of Curiosity. To explore it, let’s look back at Teams365 #1596.

Here’s what I wrote:

This month we are exploring what’s required to thrive in today’s ongoing world of complexity. Last week we explored listening, and today we are exploring the skill of curiosity and open-mindedness. Tomorrow, we will be turning our attention to the skill of experimentation.

Curiosity is a critical skill set for today’s ongoing change and complexity, given that many times “we do not know” or have all of the information needed to make decisions or see what is next. This could be because things are changing so fast or it could be because things are unclear on the road ahead. Being able to lead from a place of curiosity or “not knowing” can be liberating when the shift has been made.

One thing that can help us on our voyage of curiosity as a leader is questions. We can use questions to check assumptions, learn from others, and harness the wisdom that exists. Some questions that enable all team members to step into a place of curiosity are:

What’s possible?
What’s one thing we haven’t tried?
What else?
What else can you leverage?
What’s the worst thing that can happen?
What’s another option?
What could you do differently?

In order to cultivate curiosity within our team we can:

Encourage risk taking and mistakes
Support team members in pilots and experimentation
Enable learning across the silos which exist within the business
Expose the team to new areas regularly
Support a growth mindset

What can you do as a team to cultivate curiosity?

Enjoy the conversation!
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

TEAMS365 #2377 – Flashback Friday: Teamwork in Complexity – Experimentation

7/3/2020

This week we take a look back at a post which is probably even more relevant today than it was when I wrote it back in 2017 – Teamwork in Complexity.

What are you noticing about how teamwork is changing in your work in 2020?

What role does experimentation play in helping you be successful?

Take a look at this post:

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)?

Enjoy the 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

TEAMS365 #2374 – Back to the Basics: Teamwork Skill: Listening

6/30/2020

We’re heading Back to the Basics as today is Tuesday. This week’s teamwork skill in focus is listening. How are your listening skills on your team? Are you doing a good job of listening to each other?

Listening in both the in-person realm and the virtual space can feel like a bit of a lost art form sometimes. Here are a few things to consider as you think about listening:

What are you doing to signal that you are listening?
What are you listening for? Are you listening to really hear what the other person is saying or are you listening to figure out how to phrase your reply?
What are you noticing about the energy of the conversation? Are you listening for how fast they are talking? The words they are using? What’s really important to them?
What is not being said in the context of this conversation?
What are the elements which are not being talked about?
What do you notice about the tone and energy of the conversation?

As a team, it may be interesting to share what you each notice about listening. My guess is that everyone will be listening in different ways.

What’s important to note as a team around this?

And so, this wraps up our June posts. This month I brought in the new Tuesday series around going Back to the Basics. This joins the Thursday Team Building Questions and Friday’s Flashback Friday series. This month continued a focus on teamwork, a core focus of my business. I hope you got tips for both your remote and in-person teams, especially for those that are returning back to face-to-face work.

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

TEAMS365 #2372 – Weekly Review

6/28/2020

Welcome back to another Sunday week in review installment here at the Teams365 blog post. Today’s post gets you to stop and take a look back at this week’s blog posts which have included:

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

TEAMS365 #2370 – FlashbackFriday – Teamwork Skills In Complexity – Experimentation

6/26/2020

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

TEAMS365 #2367 –Back to the Basics with Teamwork: Roles

6/23/2020

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

TEAMS365 #2356 – FlashbackFriday: Teams365 #1597: Teamwork Skills in Complexity: Experimentation

6/12/2020

My former world of work involved leading mega-projects in terms of post disaster management support. From coordinating teams of professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds (GIS specialists, architects, civil engineers, health care professionals) to rebuild different components of society (from roads, to land records, educational systems to health care). My work during the 1990s and early 2000s was outside of the norm, I believe, from what many leaders experienced. Flashforward to 2020, where everyone – leaders and team members alike – can benefit from thinking about teamwork and leadership skills to support them in navigating and thriving in complex environments.

Today’s post takes us back to one of several posts from May 2018 where I explored different teamwork skills required for complexity in a series of Teams365 blog posts. From exploring experimentations, to curiosity, problem solving, focus (and think about yesterday’s blog post about the RAS), to listening and synergy.

As part of today’s Flashback Friday post, let’s take a look at one of the skills that I think is probably most important to cultivate and sometimes requires a significant shift in terms of focus and mindset. It’s the skill of experimentation.
How often do you experiment?

Are you encouraged to experiment? Are youencouraged to try things out, even if they don’t work?

Here’s what I wrote, and as you read, consider how experimentation might support your work efforts.

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)?

Enjoy your reflections!
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.

TEAMS365 #2296 Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 140: Acknowledgements Virtually

4/13/2020

For today’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #140, I wanted to dip into the 40 Ways to Work with Virtual Cards Ebook I published several years ago, which covers (as the title says) 40 different ways to incorporate visual cards into your training, meetings and team development sessions. I wrote the guide with Virtual Training tips as well, so if you have access to a digital deck, you will want to considering using them (as long as you have copyright access!).

Here’s what I shared in the 40 Ways Guide around Team Acknowledgements – exercise 20 of 40.

In today’s busy world we don’t always create the space to acknowledge the strengths and efforts of each other, especially when we are working within a group or a team. Acknowledgment of individuals is also like a glue for a team. It can bring a group or team together very quickly.

Time: 5-15 minutes
Who For: Individuals, group members or teams

Instructions: This is an excellent bonding, or closure activity, and depending on your group numbers, each person can select one or more person they want to acknowledge. You may set this up by having people select a name out of a hat, for the person will acknowledge, or in a team acknowledge someone else. Ideally everyone will have the chance to be acknowledged by someone else in the group.

Ask participants to select a card which represents the essence of what the person adds to the team/group, or a photo which represents what they want to acknowledge the other person for.

Perhaps you pick a ladder for a team leader who is always encouraging people to rise up, or a set of colored balloons for someone who is always making the time to celebrate others. This is an excellent team development activity for intact, project and even virtual teams. Acknowledgement involves recognizing another.

As Pam Solsberg Tapper writes, “it points to the inner thought or characteristics that the client demonstrated in order to accomplish an action.”

Share your ideas with others www.conversationsparker.com
| EffectiveGroupCoaching |
(416) 996-TEAM (8326)

SPARKER QUESTIONS

What is the characteristic you want to acknowledge the person for?
When you think of your person, where or when do you see them excel?
What is the photo you want to use to acknowledge someone else in the group or team?
What’s the core message of that photo?
Who does it represent?
What’s the connection you have with that person?
How does this person embody the core of the photo?

VIRTUAL TIPS
This can be done with or without the cards. You can run the exercise using words, or hand drawn images as instructed.

Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

If you liked this, pick up a copy of the 40 Ways Guide here (Cost $40 US – immediate download)

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.