Welcome back to another Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week’s tip focuses into the skill of listening.

As both leaders and team members listening is a critical skill, particularly in the virtual space. It is important for all of us - leaders, entrepreneurs, individual contributors and team members.

Keys to listening in the virtual and remote space are to ensure that we are:

• Focusing – Focusing 100% of our attention on the person who is speaking – not using other devices or focusing on other things.
• Listening to the tone as well as the words. If you are streaming, what do you notice about the body language?
• Listening for the pause points – What does their speed and rate of pitch say? How quickly or slowly are they speaking.

Finally, do you fall into one of the biggest pitfalls of listening today? We want to make sure that we are listening for what is really being said, rather than listening to respond. One of the greatest challenges for most professionals today is that they are so focused on figuring out what they plan to say, that they really are not listening to what is being said. What are you listening for?

I recently came across a great article by Ben Gross on the importance of listening. Here's a link to his article on listening.

It is often said that employees leave managers, not companies. What can you do to boost your listening skills? What did you notice about your last conversation?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets you thinking about creating more interactivity in your next virtual program. This week’s EVC tip gets you thinking about using the tools of annotation.
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Most virtual platforms will have the option of enabling annotation, where people can write on the screen.

Annotation might involve getting people to:

1. Circle things they are in agreement around
2. Check things off on a list
3. Write things on a blank white screen/PowerPoint
4. Create a logo which represents what people are bringing to the call

Annotation is a great supplement to using chat, and it will also provide more hands-on interaction. When requested to write something on the screen or circle something we are less likely to multi-task or be doing something completely different.

This week consider how you could incorporate more annotation and interaction into your virtual conversations.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​In this week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #94, consider using a map to create more engagement in your virtual sessions. Maps create a visual anchor for group members.

Maps can take a variety of forms, from:

• Geographic maps (i.e. map of your region, country, the world)
• A roadmap of where you are going
• A process map – what the steps are

Incorporating a map into your next call, may help people:

• Get a sense of location and context
• Identify where they are in relation to each other
• Visualize what a process can look like
• Remember what a sequence is

It is likely that I will incorporate a number of maps in a virtual call including:

1. A geographic map (Where are you calling in from today?)
2. A process map – Identify the area which is the one you find most challenging
3. A roadmap of our call sequence (shown at the start and possibly the end)

​What type of maps could you incorporate in your next call?

Best,
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.

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.

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.
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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.
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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

Welcome back to another Effective Virtual Conversations! This week’s post gets you thinking about “recording”.

It’s likely that in today’s remote work environment that someone is going to be late and/or not attend the meeting. While you don’t want to get into the practice of having people miss meetings, making sure that they can be recorded is an important option, particularly as it can serve as a record of the meeting.

If you are going to record, be sure to check out any local legislation and/or policies around recording and privacy and what agreements need to be obtained in order to share the recording. Check out Rev.com and Temi.com, two transcription services that offer low cost options. You’ll want to try out a couple of options to see what is going to work best for you, AND this can save a lot of time which used to be spent on having someone take hours typing in their handwritten notes.

One real benefit to recording meetings is that you can use the transcript from the call to serve as official meeting minutes. It can also serve as a “going back to” place to confirm who is going to do what as a result of the call.

Another consideration is where will things be housed. Consider a common naming system (i.e. date, focus) and also consider how additional materials may be housed. This could include handouts and other items.

What’s important for you to note about recording with your virtual conversations?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets us thinking about what often is the norm, not the outlier- when technology happens. In a virtual setting a core practice is to “always have a back up”. Technology will break down.
Having a back-up is important on many levels. It may include:

• Having another line/service in case your preferred service breaks down
• Communicating to the group what to do in the event of tech failure (i.e. should they try to call in again, and then switch to another platform OR should they look to email to find instructions)
• Having a list of all contacts for the call – this could include email addresses and phone numbers along with your class list
• Having a back-up computer/laptop in case your system goes down (or decides to update)
• Having a back up copy of your presentation loaded to the cloud and/or USB key
• Having a back up copy of your material (print)

 
Remaining calm and moving into contingency mode is key when facing a tech issue. Before anything happens work through your own list of what you will do and write it down. Have these items in a location which you will naturally “go to” in the event of a break-down.

What else is important for you to note around having a back up?
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With best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip focuses on the question “On what platform will connection between calls work best?”. In coaching we have a saying that the “’impact of coaching happens in between the calls”. It is often the actions, insights and connections made in between your virtual sessions where people put ideas into practice, connect the dots, pass ideas forward, that learning and momentum happen.

The platform which connects group members in between the calls can be instrumental in enhancing this. There are many options which are possible including:

• Private Community Groups such as Mighty Networks
• Secret Facebook Groups (non-searchable)
• Chat groups on your own Learning Management System – we use Teachable as our e-learning portal
• Text

​What is going to keep the conversation going for the groups you are working with?

As you go to select your platform, consider these items:

• The purpose – is it to share successes, resources, links, files, other
• Accessibility and mobility
• Confidentiality

Best,
Jennifer

It’s March 15th which historically has been known as the Ides of March. My father always has said we can usually expect one more snowfall in Toronto on, or around this date. I’m always happy when it gets to be this time of year as I start seeing that spring is (usually) just around the corner.
 
For today’s FlashbackFriday I wanted to reach back to a former blog post (in fact one from the precursor blog to Teams365 – the BizToolkit blog), on a topic which I think has major significance today – Meetings!
 
Meetings can be the “bane” of most employees existence, and aren’t always held effectively. It’s not uncommon for leaders I work with, scheduled into 30 or more hours of meeting a week, leaving them little time for work they need to accomplish, strategic thinking and other discussions.
 
Here’s what I posted in March of 2014 as Teams365 #86: 

Five Ways to Keep Your Meetings on Track 
Copyright Jennifer Britton, All Rights Reserved, 2013 : Originally published on the BizToolkit blog, 2013

Meetings are a huge time-consumer in today's workforce. What is the state of your meetings? How efficient are they? Today's blog post includes five ways to keep your meetings on track, so you can avoid what Patrick Lencioni describes as "Death by Meeting" syndrome.

Some key tips to keep in mind are:
1. Assign a meeting facilitator. Facilitation comes from the Latin word "facilis" or to make easy. The facilitators role is to keep an eye on the process. As the facilitator, the focus is on:

• starting and ending the meeting on time, 
• keeping the flow moving, 
• summarizing and capturing key discussion points,
• identifying issues which may need to be shifted to other events (use of a parking lot)
• summarizing key action steps

It can be very useful to have a rotational facilitator role if meetings are held regularly with the same group. This supports capacity and skill development, and also recognizes that the facilitator's power is related to that role, not the role people usually inhabit. Who will be the "facilitator" for your next meeting? How will this be rotated?

2.  Have an agenda, and assign timelines to it. Does each meeting have an agenda, which has been circulated before the meeting to ensure that nothing else needs to be added? Putting time-frames on each item, and sticking to them, helps to manage time, as well as identify issues which may need to be carried into other venues. What does the agenda for your next meeting look like? How much time will it take? 

3. Ensure who you need is at the table. A common challenge in effective meetings is not having who you need at the table. This may be someone who has specific information, background on  a topic, or authority to sign off/give approval. Who needs to be at your meeting, based on the agenda?

4. Confirm Action Steps and Responsibilities - A common pitfall is that action steps, and who is responsible for moving things forward, is lost in the dialogue. Key action steps, and those who will take responsibility for making sure they are done, should be summarized at the end of each meeting. What are the major next steps? Who will be responsible for them?

5. Circle Back to Make sure Actions are being Actioned. What is the status of the action steps? How are they being moved forward immediately, and in the longer term. Who needs to know? Who is accountable? Action Plans are only as good as they are tracked and followed. What will support the implementation of decisions, and the reporting out of these actions? 

As you consider your upcoming meetings, in which context might you be able to incorporate some of these ideas?
 
As much as the meeting content may have changed in the last six years, I think a lot of these pointers remain the same. What’s the one tweak you could make to your meetings which would help them become more productive and efficient?
 
Enjoy your conversations,
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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​Today’s Effective Virtual Conversation tip is that “Parking Lots provide a virtual space to leave issues for discussion later”. In any given program or meeting, it is likely that there will be additional items which cannot be covered during the conversation. Capturing these in a parking lot is really beneficial to make sure they don’t get lost. What is critical in any conversation is that the parking lot issues go somewhere and are not lost.
 
What can you do to create a parking lot in your work? What can you do to capture them? What will you do or schedule to make sure they are not lost?
 
With best wishes,
Jennifer