Category: Virtual And Remote Team Activity

TEAMS365 #2239 – Weekly Roundup: Remote Work Success, Remote Conversation Starters, Calibration

2/16/2020

Welcome back to another Sunday weekly round up. This week we continued our focus on remote work and relationships. If you missed a post this week, do take a look at:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your 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.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

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TEAMS365 #2209 – 20 for 2020 Day 17: Focusing in on Strengths

1/17/2020

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Supporting team members around strengths can help boost productivity, engagement and zest! What can we specifically do to spark that conversation? In today’s Flashback Friday post, I reach back to a post from 2017, where I shared the facilitated instructions from one of the exercises found in the 40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards. This exercise can get you sparking a new conversation around strengths. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1387.

In today’s post, we’re exploring strengths for virtual teams. How do you make it happen?

Helping team members understand their strengths helps teams leverage their skills and harness their capabilities. Gallup has also found very compelling results when team members are able to bring their strengths to work every day.

In addition to the StrengthsFinder, teams may also want to investigate another strengths assessment that being VIA Strengths – Values in Action.

The following is a short warm-up activity to a more detailed discussion as a team around your strengths.

When I’ve seen you at your best….

Time: 15 minutes
Materials Needed: None

Instructions:
Virtual team members need acknowledgement as well, particularly as they may receive less feedback that teams who can see each other face-to-face.

Ask team members to think about one person on the team who they have liaised with, or worked closely with (virtually) in the last quarter. At one of your team meetings you will give people the opportunity to share with that colleague responses to the following questions:

I see one of your strengths as….
I appreciate …..
Going forward, as we work together, I’d like to ask you to ______
You bring ….. to our team.

This is an activity which will cultivate positive emotion and will bring team members closer together. Teams need positive reinforcement, as well as constructive feedback. For more on the concept of constructive feedback, check out the Foundations of Feedback series I did. It will be of interest to teams of all kinds who are hoping to build more of a feedback culture.

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing
Phone (416)996-8326

As we step into the start of the year, get your 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.

Winter 2019 programs start this week including the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (an annual focus on coaching business development), GroupCoachingEssentials (8.75 CCEs), the Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs) and the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program (8.5 CCEs) - geared to support you in creating more exceptional virtual conversations. Finally the Mentor Coaching Group for Winter 2020 will begin - aimed at coaches who are working towards their ACC, PCC or renewing.

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TEAMS365 #2146 – Flashback Friday: Plan A Virtual Co-Working Session

11/15/2019

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Very shortly I will be leading a new podcast entitled the Remote Pathways Podcast™ with my co-host Michelle Mullins. As many of you know from my writing here, I’m passionate about remote work in all it’s shapes and forms.

Earlier this year, in July, I completed a new writing project I have entitled “Remote Pathways” I’ve alluded to it in several posts already. It is somewhat modelled after a “choose your own adventure”, exploring the different remote and virtual professional pathways we can find ourselves working within.

From leaders who manage teams which work remote most of the month, to project teams which span the globe, from remotepreneurs leading virtual businesses, remote work is on the rise.

We’ll be following many of these trends and taking a deeper dive into the adventures of the Digital Dozen™, twelve different types of remote professionals. I hope that you’ll join us and will follow along at the new website – link to RemotePathways.com.

With so many professionals jumping into the remote workspace, I am hoping that the years of writing on remote work, and virtual teams here at the Teams365 blog will be of service.

With that in mind, I wanted to highlight an earlier blog post - Teams365 #1729: Plan a Virtual Co-working Session

As we move into fall, it can be very useful for teams to continue to put attention around getting things done WHILE connecting. A favorite activity I continue to facilitate is GET IT DONE afternoons, which really become Virtual Co-Working Sessions. They are a derivative of the virtual retreats I have been offering for teams, business owners and leaders since 2007.

Virtual co-working sessions may range from one-hour sprints, to four-hour blocks, to full day sessions.

Three considerations to making a virtual co-working session work include the following:

1. A platform where you can all meet, see each other and converse for periods of time.

Streaming is often best; however, others may appreciate the ability to take their work on the road and call in at time.

2. Focus – collectively and individually. Consider these questions:

What’s bringing you together today?
What’s the focus – is it to do something collectively or individually?
What outcomes do you want?
How do you want to break it down – meeting every hour for check-ins? Meeting more frequently?

3. Scheduled Checkpoints

A way to share and keep the momentum going throughout the day. I have found that virtual group and team sessions have been the seeds for some amazing new ideas and cross-pollination. Be sure to build in blocks where people are not only checking in around what they are doing, but also consider the value of building in some time for sharing of learning or insights.

Looking for inspiration on what you might do in a virtual co-working session? Consider these ideas – they are all real programs I have facilitated over the years:

One-hour virtual sprints for planning on the team or individual level
30-minute brainstorming/innovation sessions geared to create new product and or service ideas
Four-hour GET IT DONE sessions where groups of solopreneurs connect virtually to take focused action once a month on things on their list. Check-ins are once an hour.
Four to eight-hour Virtual Retreats, where each hour has a dedicated focus and theme to explore and/take action on. For example, an hour dedicated to creating a business plan, an hour to marketing approaches, an hour for project work).

Looking for a facilitator to host your next virtual co-working session? Contact me to learn more about this service I offer.

What could a co-working event look like for you?

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success focusing on the Remote Space
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources.
Launching today - the Remote Pathways™ Podcast

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TEAMS365 #2130 Remote Team Toolbox: Helping teams connect, get to know each other and focus

10/30/2019

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In yesterday’s post I covered a range of different team development tools which professionals in the remote space may want to build or further develop. This could include tools in the areas of supporting the team to connect with each other, get to know each other and focus in on the work and results you want.

Area A: Activities/Resources to help the team to get to know each other
What’s outside your window? – As I wrote in Effective Virtual Conversations, we often only see people in their screen but aren’t able to see what’s beyond the screen. Have people share what’s outside their window or call in from a different location so you can learn more about their context.

Earmark 3-5 minutes to a fun opener/icebreaker in your next team meeting so people can get to know each other better.

Area B: Tools to help with focus
Minimizing the impact of digital distraction is a key issue for teams today. See what I had to say about reducing digital distractions a short while ago here at the Teams365 blog.

Several different tools which help team members focus in the virtual space include the:

Urgent/Important Matrix
Strategic Issues Mapping (link to past Teams365 posts)
SWOT: The trusty strategic planning tool (link to past Teams365 post )

Area C: Helping teams connect
Helping teams connect with who is who and who is working on what is of critical importance to a remote team. IT’s an area we often don’t think about on the surface, sometimes given the diversity of roles and locations. IT can be very useful in the medium and long term to facilitate regular conversations with the team around who is doing what, and to also earmark time for the team to regularly connect and get to know each other. Discussion in this area might include:

Undertaking inventory of projects people are working on so that lessons learned can be shared.
Identifying key strengths and experience bases which exist in the team – there may even be a “go to” team resource person around different areas – i.e. technology questions, resource around different themes/focus areas you work on etc.
Short team openers and closers such as BINGO. (with team members asked to find someone who – insert different categories like – has visited 3 different continents, speaks multiple languages, is a twin etc.)

For more on this topic check out the 20 Focus Areas for Virtual and Remote Team Development ebook which is available at the Potentials Realized site and provides you with facilitated instructions of 20 different activities you can facilitate with your team. Pick up a copy here.

If you have a copy of the Effective Virtual Conversations book, check out chapter 7 on Tools and Resources.

Have a great Wednesday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development.
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in a digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.
For those looking for tips, tools and ideas about remote work and support for your remote teams, be sure to check out these tags and resources.

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#TEAMS365 #2097 – #FlashbackFriday – Remote Work – Team Builder

9/27/2019

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This week’s Flashback Friday takes us back to a post which kicked off a series on remote team or virtual team builders. With an increasing number of teams moving to the remote space, there is likely to be the need for more support and resourcing in these areas. I hope that you will consider turning to our services here at Potentials Realized, given our experience and grounding in these areas.

Let’s look at #TEAMS365 #1892 – Virtual Team Builders #1 – Creating Connection – Part 1 – Through Images

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing a variety of Virtual Team Builders to support you with quick activities that are going to support virtual and remote teams in focusing in on results and/or relationships.

Virtual teams benefit from time spent in getting to know each other – who is who, who does what, and what priorities they are working on. Virtual team building activities don’t need to take a lot of time.

Something most teams will want to build in across time are quick warm-up exercises to create connection.

The first exercise I wanted to share (which will be followed next week by 2 more), is by creating connection through Icons.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, creating trust and connection across a group is critical. If it’s a virtual and remote team you are working with, you might be working across geographic locations. You may have a team member calling in from Asia, one from Australia, one from Africa, one from New York, one from Europe.

Part of creating connection and team success is ensuring that people get comfortable and feel confident on the call, especially if they might be using a working language that is not their first language.

In my work over the last several decades, I’ve liked to incorporate photos and icons as “door openers” and metaphors for conversation.

Before I started Potentials Realized, one of my last roles was as a sub- regional manager. I had staff in 10 countries and, out of our team of about 30 at one point, there were 20+ different nationalities.

In creating connection across a virtual team, we want to give the team an opportunity to:

Get to know each other,
Understand who we are as a team,
Explore what's important to us,
And understand how we are similar and how we are different.

These questions and the exploration of these questions is a really critical component of the virtual team leader's role.

Back to the Icon exercise, using your access to stock photography find a photo that offers a selection of icons. Have each person select an icon that they connect with, which represents what they bring to the team.

As you go around the table, this is a fun way to share a little bit about yourself in a way that hopefully is not too threatening. Select a graphic that has enough icons which provide enough variety to invite people into the conversation.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #2058 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 107

8/19/2019

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This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets you to think about how you can “prime” people for success BEFORE a virtual call. Is there something you can have people watch, read or do, so that they are ready to have the conversation?

Several ideas for pre-work could include:

Having people take a self-assessment such as StrengthsFinder if you are working on a topic such as strengths. Have them complete the assessment prior to the conversation so you can start the conversation there.
Have them review a reading on strengths
Create a video around strengths

What are the things which will set people up for a good conversation?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #2048 – Flashback Friday: Articulating Your Virtual Team Culture

8/9/2019

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One of the themes this week has been about building team culture in your remote or virtual team. As part of this week’s FlashBack Friday, let’s look back to a post from this March.

Here’s what I wrote in March:

Yesterday’s Teams365 post #1905 focused on virtual team culture. Be sure to check it out if you haven't done so.

Today I wanted to explore three different ways you might support your team in identifying their own virtual team culture.

As a reminder, team culture usually points to three things - who we are, how do we do things and what is important to us.

Here’s a quick listing of different activities you might consider incorporating:

Who we are:
Virtual teams which excel know each other. They have strong relationships across the team, which allows them to call on others, and “have each others’ backs”. To strengthen your connection, consider these activities:

Have the team create a list of words/adjectives which describe who you are. Shape these into a word cloud which can be visible to the team.
Discuss the question “Who are we when we are at our best?”. Again, use the words to create a graphic about who you are.

At your next team meeting, have each person share one thing others may not know about them.

At your next team meeting, have each person share something that is unique to their location (this works especially well if you have a global team).

In your next meeting, share your screen which includes a variety of photos or icons. Have each person select the photo or icon which represents what they bring to the team.

How we do things:
Each team will have its own unique practices and ways of doing things. This will vary from team to team. Spending time discussing how you do things, and what the expectations are, creates clarity and builds trust, boosting both performance and results.

To explore this topic further consider:
Discussing “how we do things” (communicate, make decisions, work across differences, address conflict) can be a series of different discussions and activities. It might include a Rules of the Road which everyone has signed off on.

What makes you unique and distinct in terms of how you do things?

Another tool is to look at the IS/IS NOT table. This can include it is, it is not…

What is important to us:
Clarity around priorities and goals for the entire team helps with alignment, prioritization and decision making. Spending time on a regular basis discussing what is important to us may also involve:

A list visible to the entire team (ie. Think Intranet or other post on)

Top 5 Goals for the month
Top 5 Priorities for the week
Top 5 Priorities for the quarter
Enshrining your Team Agreements or Ways of Working into something that is visible. Some teams have enshrined this into a plaque, a screen saver or other.

For more on these topics, and a demonstration of what some of these can look like (photos), take a look at my January 2019 Virtual Team Builders call which I did as part of the Effective Virtual Conversations series. You can check it out here.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

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#TEAMS365 #1960 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 93: Virtual Facilitation Tip

5/13/2019

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As someone who has led a variety of virtual calls for the better part of the last 15 years, I often get questions around quick techniques we can use to “jazz things up” with hearing from different people on the call.

While some people will attend a virtual session thinking they can multi-task, if you really want to create a powerful learning context create agreements around engagement and how you are going to call on group members during your time together.

Last week I shared the tip of calling on people from A-Z. This week consider using an East to West (or West to East strategy). This provides a little more interest and mental power in keeping the call moving.

To support this process, during one of your call kick offs as an energizer you may want to get people to share their location (or where they are calling in from – city, state or country) by dotting themselves on a map.

These approaches are yet another quick way we can “Avoid the Death by Conference Call”, creating more engagement for our group members.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in an digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

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#TEAMS365 #1953 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 92

5/6/2019

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Welcome back to another Effective Virtual Conversations tip. As many of you may recall, my 2017 book of the same name explores multiple tips around virtual facilitation. Whether you are leading a conference call, webinar or virtual team meeting, having a variety of "GO TO" tips and tools in your back pocket can shift your virtual event from a "snoozer" to something more engaging.

One thing that you’ll want to have in your back pocket is a variety of A – Z tools. For ideas on this, check out the A-Z of virtual and remote digital download OR the new 20 Activities for Your Virtual and Remote Teams.

There are many other ways we can incorporate an A-Z in our virtual work including:

“Going around the room” in an A-Z order by first name or location or job responsibility. Calls are more interesting when we do get to hear different voices. Is there a way to call on everyone to include their ideas or thoughts at a part of the call?
Using an A-Z warm-up by going around the room and having everyone share alphabetically a success the team has had already this year. For example:
- A – New client named ABC company
- B – Boundaries of our geographic location expanded
- C – Compensation changes etc...
Incorporating an “Eye Spy” activity where everyone has to share an item from their office which starts with that letter.

The intent of an activity like this is to jazz things up a little bit, in a quick way, so that people are not as apt to multi-task.

What A-Z activities might you undertake in your work?

For more ideas, check out the past Monday Teams365 blog posts which usually include an Effective Virtual Conversations Tip.

Enjoy the start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2019) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Pick up a copy of Volume 1 of the Weekly Journaling Prompts in an digital format. Print it out and take it with you for some inspiration and writing on the go! Available at the Potentials Realized Store.

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#TEAMS365 #1945 – Check out the PlanDoTrack Weekly Planning Hacks

4/28/2019

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This weekend I wanted to share links to one of my sister blogs, the PlanDoTrack blog which is focused on personal productivity and time management issues, particularly for virtual and remote team members, entrepreneurs and leaders.

For several months now I have hosted a weekly Wednesday series on short productivity hacks - things that you might keep in mind to get more leverage with your time, focus and work. They are posted at the PlanDoTrack blog, and then I also do a quick Facebook Live around them as well.

Here’s what I’ve covered since the start of this series:

Pomodoro Technique
Color Coding
Master Minds
Accountability
Write it down
Weekly Journal Prompts
Month End Planning Sessions
Top 5
Themes - monthly, quarterly, annual
Relationships

Read more about these here.

Each Wednesday I post a short blog which often includes a quick activity you might consider undertaking t support your own planning and productivity. Just as the name implies, these are short things you can action right away.

Check out some of the past 3-5 minute Facebook Live posts which include more detail about that week’s hack. If you are on Facebook, do consider liking PlanDoTrack so you can be alerted to the weekly videos.

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. $129 US. Learn more and enroll here.

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Teams365 Blog

TEAMS365 #2239 – Weekly Roundup: Remote Work Success, Remote Conversation Starters, Calibration

TEAMS365 #2209 – 20 for 2020 Day 17: Focusing in on Strengths

TEAMS365 #2146 – Flashback Friday: Plan A Virtual Co-Working Session

TEAMS365 #2130 Remote Team Toolbox: Helping teams connect, get to know each other and focus

#TEAMS365 #2097 – #FlashbackFriday – Remote Work – Team Builder

#TEAMS365 #2058 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 107

#TEAMS365 #2048 – Flashback Friday: Articulating Your Virtual Team Culture

#TEAMS365 #1960 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 93: Virtual Facilitation Tip

#TEAMS365 #1953 – Effective Virtual Conversations Tip 92

#TEAMS365 #1945 – Check out the PlanDoTrack Weekly Planning Hacks

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PicK up a copy of PlanDoTrack - For Virtual and Remote Professionals

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Upcoming Programs

Archives

Categories

Become a PlanDoTrack Facilitator:
STarts February 24, 2020