As many teams around the world wrap up a third week of remote work, I thought it would be useful to go back to past 2019 blog post I had done on Keeping Your Remote Team All on The Same Page – 3 Things to Consider Teams365 #2136 

One of the greatest challenges in team work today is leading a remote or virtual team. Helping people feel connected when they may be working at opposite times of the day, and parts of the world, for the same project can seem daunting.

In my work as a team coach, consultant, and author, I love the work that I get to do with remote teams. It may be because I led remote teams most of my thirty-year career, or it may be that the notion of diversity energizes me. If you have met me more than fifteen years ago, you would have found me connecting with my team which was spread across ten countries, with more than fifteen nationalities represented.

What can we do to help our remote teams stay on the same page? Here are three things to think about:
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#1 – Strengthen your team identity and culture. Our team identity and culture clarify WHO we are, and HOW we do things. The stronger our team culture is, the clearer we are about what is unique to us as a team, as well as what is acceptable and unacceptable. In a remote team, or virtual team, being focused on these areas can be important. They create clarity. They help us know what’s expected when we are part of one team. When you are part of a matrix structure (very common in the remote space) it’s critical that we are clear on how doing things on one project may vary from doing things on another project with another team.

Having a strong team culture can also repel or attract. It can help people feel “bigger than themselves” and feel a sense of connection or belonging. At the same time, it may signal to non-team members that this team is different.
What is your team identity?

#2 – Consistency. Consistency is important in today’s VUCA world. As I am going to share in a post tomorrow around VUCA and teams, being consistent with process and practices can also create stability in what can often be perceived as a turbulent business context.

If you have said that you are going to meet bi-weekly, make sure meetings happen. If you are expecting reports weekly, be sure to follow up.

What does consistency mean for your team? What can it look like?

#3 – Create regular connection points. What are the touch points team members have, both formally (through team meetings) and informally (through mentoring, peer partners and other ideas)? Consider as a team what “regular” means, and what the right frequency is. Again, connection points create a sense of belonging and team. If we say we are a team, but don’t ever connect, how do we know what people are doing?

Connection points can be digital (like Slack), virtual (like Zoom team meetings) and in-person (quarterly or annual get togethers for the team).

​What is the best frequency for your team?

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
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Welcome back to this week in review. We’ve covered a number of different topics this week around virtual teams and conversations including:

• Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations post on Communication
• Tuesday’s post on Teams in the Remote Space
• Wednesday’s post on Projects to Keep us Moving in the Virtual Space
• Thursday’s post on What Does Each Team Member Need?
• Friday’s Flashback Friday post on Creating Connection and Building Community Virtually
• Saturday’s Weekly Journaling post on 6 Words to Describe My Life

Have a great rest of the weekend!
​Jennifer

This Friday I am reaching back to a 2018 post – Teams365 #1743 which includes different ways to be building out connection as a virtual team. For some teams today, the stakes are high in terms of keeping things going.

Here are some ideas to keep your team moving:

#TEAMS365 #1743 Creating Connection and Building Community - Virtually

In today’s business context, the ability to build strong relationships with our team, and our other stakeholders is critical.

A starting point to create connection and build community is to find common connection points. Whether finding common ground by discussing the shared results you have OR starting with finding a personal connection, building community is critical for information sharing, knowledge expansion and innovation. Most professionals don’t operate in silos, yet, when they are working remote or virtually, it’s common to feel “alone”, or operating in a vacuum. The ability to connect with others and build strong virtual relationships and networks is a core skill area for virtual professionals.

How do we go about creating connection and building community virtually?

Six areas to consider:

1. Find points of common connection – what is the common ground and purpose you have in your relationship?

2. What is critical for success for your work together? Discuss what is important from each perspective in terms of success. Note what is similar and different.

3. Understand how people prefer to communicate – Big picture? Details? Frequent updates or summary journals? Direct? Indirect?

4. On a macro-level, who is important for you to build relationships with? How do you do this? Is it by joining LinkedIn Groups? Connecting on other social networks? As you look to these larger communities, what are the core themes/areas people are exploring? What are the trends? What are the virtual meeting places?

5. Be clear on what you are after and what you are asking to connect around. Like any networking and community building it can be important to be clear and focused on WHY you are doing it. What is your end goal? Intention?
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6. Create parameters around HOW you are going to do it is also important – Before it becomes an all-consuming activity, are you going to spend 10-15 minutes a day connecting on social media? Are you going to dedicate one-hour a month to reaching out and participating in a virtual community event? What’s going to avoid scope creep around time spent?

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 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.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

In this month’s Effective Virtual Conversations newsletter, I shared an excerpt from an e-book I created a year or two ago on virtual and remote teams. I wanted to share this excerpt with you here as well, knowing that many professionals today have needed to shift their conversations to the remote space.

In the remote world of work, many things get magnified as our touchpoints before less frequent. We are framed by the screen.

What do you notice about your team and their focus?

When making the transition over to the remote space, it’s important to go back to the basics around team work and our team culture – Who are we? How do we do things? What’s important to us?

Providing the team with time to connect and share what they are working on is also an important part of the team process.

Don’t forget to go back to the foundations of effective teamwork, commonly known as the Six Factors. Here’s how I’ve described them before in Teams365 1920:

“One of the frameworks I continue to share with teams is what I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.

As you step into the new month, as a team you’ll take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1- 10 in each of these six areas:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
What is your purpose? Your mission? Why do you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create?

2. Shared behavioral norms
How do you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't?

3. Shared commitment
What are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list?

4. Shared performance goals
What are key goals for the team this year? What are key individual goals? How do your goals align? Overlap? What does success look like for each member? For the entire team? Does everyone have an understanding of the key goals of others on the team and how they feed into them?

5. Shared team practices
Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event. What practices support your relationships?

6. Clear Roles
How do our roles overlap, align and connect? What changes, if any, are needed this year around your roles giving your priorities?”
A quick activity to undertake together is to have some discussion around how you are doing in each of these areas this week, especially if you are now operating in the remote space."

Check out the many posts I’ve written on remote teamwork including Teams365 #2130 – Remote Team Toolbox.

Best, 
​Jennifer

Clear, and effective, communication is at the heart of any great virtual work. Whether we are communicating with our colleagues, our boss or stakeholders/customers, we want to be sure that we are clearly communicating what’s important.

In the remote and virtual space, communication takes many forms – from instant messages, to texts, to email. In these instances, we lose a lot of the tone that helps us pick up on cues about communication. Phone is also another important channel not to forget, as it does provide for the layer of TONE to be heard.

The best channel to incorporate for your work may be streaming – whether you come together on a Zoom call or a Skype call. This can provide the rich, visual cues that help us get a total picture of the person we are speaking with.

Effective virtual communication also involves another layer of effectiveness and that includes checking in that our message has been received as it was intended. What are you noticing about how your messages are being understood? Today’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip is about COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE to reflect that important messages will need to be reinforced in different ways. If there is something important which needs to be shared, how do we ensure that we speak it, reinforce it with a written message, and maybe reach out for a one-on-one conversation?

Another channel available to us is also using images to anchor in the ideas we want to communicate. What are the icons and images which will support the conversation? What can you do to support the reinforcement of the messages you want to share?

As you think about your conversations this week, what’s important to reinforce?

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

One of the remote working myths is that “We are always on”. When we are part of a global team you might think that you need to be on all the time in order to reply. While this can be a short-term strategy, over time it will lead to burnout and other productivity lowering events.

Today’s question gets you as a team thinking about, and in dialogue around the question for the remote working space “When is off, really off?”.

As I have asked in other Teams365 posts, are there core hours of work when people are expected to be on?

What happens when people need to turn off?

What is expected in terms of response time?

If someone is off, how do they signal this?

What communication channels do you have to ensure that people know when people are off, and when they are on?

What do team members understand about workflow and prioritization so they can plan more effectively or workflow and time?

Issues which seem small in the face-to-face context can get magnified easily in the remote space. What’s important to note?

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 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.
Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!
​

This week we covered a variety of posts related to working remote. If you missed, them, be sure to check out:

• Yesterday’s Weekly Journaling Prompt around Support
• Friday’s Five Ingredients for Successful Collaboration
• Thursday’s Remote Work Enabler around Boundaries
• Wednesday’s post around What’s different with work in the remote space? – Part 2
• Tuesday’s post around What’s different with work in the remote space? – Part 1
• Monday’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip around Prioritizing in the Matrix Environment (when you are part of a couple of teams)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
​Jennifer

Yesterday’s Teams365 post explored four key differences when working remote – Autonomy, Skills, Connections with others and the Matrix.

In today’s post, I wanted to share four additional differences when working remote – focus, motivation, and inner drive, to relationship building and visibility.

In general, many things get magnified in the remote space – from clarity, or lack of clarity, around communication, processes, roles, goals; to what we actually see on the screen. This means that we may need to be more intentional in sharing information, checking assumptions and confirming that our messages were understood in the way they were communicated.

Motivation - When working remotely, a lot of us need to rely on our own inner motivation and self-direction to get things done. For those who like to work autonomously, it’s great! Being clear on what we need to excel as a team member, leader or business owner is key.

As I wrote yesterday, “No person is an island” and we do want to make sure we are clear on our strengths, and style preferences. It’s also key to note that when we over leverage our strengths, that they can become a blind spot. In the remote space this may mean that they get over magnified. So, if I have a love of learning I may keep learning, rather than getting work done. What are the strengths you are able to leverage? What’s important about your work? What drives you? What do you need to be aware of in case it gets over magnified?

For more on Motivation and Remote Work, check out some of the episodes of the Remote Pathways Podcast. 

You’ll also want to check out Week 6 of the 52 Weeks of Remote Work.

What is important for you about motivation in the remote space?

Context - One of the major challenges in the remote space is that we see each other usually only through the small window of the screen. As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, a great activity to undertake is “what’s outside your screen”? What can we do to share more about the context of our work? That might include:

• Sharing a little more about your desk
• Sharing what’s outside your window
• Talking about what is a priority in your work
• Sharing more about the way work is done, or preferences are in your location (especially if you are a virtual team)

What context pieces are important to share?

Visibility and proactivity - Visibility and proactivity is key in the remote space. Some remote workers feel that their careers get stuck because they aren’t visible like those in an office space. I would invite a perspective that visibility is less about where you are, but how you approach work. What are you doing to be visible, to bring people together, to connect with peers and other stakeholders, to be proactive in connecting on a regular basis with your boss and team?

Regular co-working sessions may provide an opportunity for learning more and connecting with your peers, as well as hearing what you are working on. These sessions may run for an hour, half day or more. 

What is important for you to explore around visibility? What do you need to be more proactive about?

Focus - For many remote workers, productivity can actually increase when moving to work in the remote space. A study by Stanford Business School, headed by Professor Nicholas Bloom found a 13% increase in productivity by those who WFH (Work From Home). You will find a copy of the original publication here at Prof. Bloom’s site.
 
For another interesting article on the same topic check out Scott Mautz’s Inc article.

Even though there are differences with remote work, it’s still important to focus in on the basics of high performance. Be sure to check out the posts I have written on the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. How are we being clear about the ROLES, GOALS, PRACTICES of our work, in addition to connecting in with our vision and mandate, and being clear bout what success will look like?

Tomorrow, we’ll explore another remote working ingredient for success – managing boundaries!

See you then,
Jennifer

​For the last few months, I’ve been enjoying the creative process of bringing my focus on remote work out into the wider world via the Remote Pathways Podcast. If you haven’t stopped by for a listen, please do! You can listen in here.

​In the Remote Pathways Podcast we explore the people, places and practices of remote work today. The podcast spans the ecosystem of remote work, which I bring to life via the Digital Dozen™, twelve different types of remote workers. From those who are attached to, and lead, larger corporate teams in the business sector, to solopreneurs, those who Work From Anywhere, mobile Sales Professionals, as well as project managers who lead global teams. Remote work has never been so diverse.

Regardless of the differences to the type of work we do, most of us experience similar challenges. I say this with confidence, as over the last three decades I have worn many of the different hats in inhabiting a variety of roles in working the remote, mobile and virtual space.

Today’s blog post explores eight differences when working in the remote space. Consider how these impact you:

Autonomy - The paradigm of leadership when managing a remote team needs to change from an older model of control and micro-management, to one which empowers and coaches. With team members potentially multiple time zones away, and sometimes a lengthy plane ride, as leaders we need to shift our role to one of liaison, trouble-shooter and empowerer. Our team members are the ones “on the ground” with the expertise we will never have in our parachute meetings with them. What are you doing to shift the way you lead and empower your team?

Skills - Related to the shift in formal leadership, remote teams benefit when an emphasis is placed on building and equipping all team members with skills in leadership, teamwork etc. everyone on a remote team will benefit from skills in communication, decision making,  prioritization, not just the formal leader. What are you doing to equip all your team members with skills?

Connections with others - I recently hosted a community call I entitled “No person is an island”. In Effective Virtual Conversations, I started writing about the importance of remote workers being intentional in exploring what their connections are with others. In a team-based context, the work I am doing, or not, may have a significant impact on a team member half a world away.
With this in mind, it’s important that team members do get a regular opportunity to spend time with each other – formally in meetings and possibly informally in virtual co-working sessions. Building in processes in meetings and systems to help team members see the connection between their work, boosts productivity and engagement.

What are you doing to create formal and informal virtual work events to connect and collaborate?

The Matrix -  In a remote work situation it’s likely that team members may be part of multiple teams. This has implications around being very clear around roles, goals and priorities, as well as making sure that team culture is strong. If I am a member of the Toronto team, and also a special projects team, am I clear about the differences in team culture, and priorities? Spending time as a remote team clarifying how you want to work together is an essential part of high performance. I share more about this in part 3 of Effective Virtual Conversations.

There are many other differences which exist from motivation, and inner drive, to relationship building and visibility. I’ll be sure to address some of these other important distinctions in tomorrow’s post.

Looking for support to shift you in working remote? Let's set up a time to connect and discuss  your coaching, or team development needs around remote working.  Email or phone.

Best,
​Jennifer

​As an increasing number of people are moving to remote working conditions, what are the things you can do to set yourself up for remote working success?

​Let’s take a look back at Teams365 #2066. Here’s what I wrote in that post from earlier last year:

A tipping point around remote work seems to be starting to occur - with more and more organizations realizing that a key part of the talent equation is more flexible working arrangements. With large and small companies embracing remote work arrangements, we are seeing very compelling research and data around how remote work can support employee engagement and productivity. Read about what Craig Thornton of Telus shared recently about how remote work benefits both employer and employee.

This was a focus of my 2017 writing in my book Effective Virtual Conversations and continues to be a significant part of the work I am focusing on with teams and organizations today.

As someone who has supported remote workers and teams for several decades now, it’s great to see the tide turn again back to putting the flexibility in workers’ hands.

Today’s post and tomorrow’s post will explore what organizations and teams will want to do in setting themselves up for remote work success this fall.

Today’s post looks at it from the macro, organizational level. Tomorrow’s post will look at it from the employee’s perspective.
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Four things organizations will want to ensure they do, are:

1. Specify expectations around work output and quality. What gets measured in any work space should be the work output. Unfortunately, what often gets equated with success is how much time goes into making something happen. In the remote space, the success unit is OUTPUT.

Therefore, consider questions such as: What will success look like with work output for each employee? What are the expectations in terms of work, use of materials, security etc.?

2. Provide connection with the office and other team members. Collaboration is just as important – and sometimes even more so – in the remote space. Be sure to spend time focusing in on orienting people across the organization and provide virtual events so people can get together. Invest in remote team development. How are you connecting people formally and informally?

Beyond meetings, are there virtual events people can join – lunch and learns; co-working opportunities etc.?

3. Adopt the mantra that “out of sight does not mean out of mind”. One of the pitfalls to the transition to a remote work environment is that people can feel that they are not connected. Out of sight does not mean out of mind. Look at how you communicate and value connection and teamwork. Think about how communication and meetings can become more intentional and focused. Think about how you are bringing people together and connecting them with the communication which is needed.

4. Provide the tools and resources to make this happen. The transition to working remote arrangements takes time. It also requires a mind shift in many instances. What tools and resources are needed? What changes in the way you work is required?

For more tips on working remote be sure to check out my 2017 book Effective Virtual Conversations. Part 1 focuses on the ecosystem of the virtual space where conversations take place (from education to coaching to teams), Part 2 explores HOW you can work more effectively (meetings, program design etc.), and Part 3 focuses on virtual leadership, and virtual teams in the remote space.

What can you be doing to set yourself up for remote working success?

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer