It’s the start of another week and this week’s Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #152 is all about PAUSE. Where could you benefit from taking a bit more of a pause – figuratively and literally?

One of the challenges professionals have faced this year has been the lack of pause in their work. For many, shifting to the virtual and remote space involved a tsunami of flurry. For those of us who already worked in the remote space it also meant a flurry of people using the same technologies and often access points we do.

Many have complained about Zoom fatigue and how exhausting virtual calls can be. One reason may be that leaders of calls don’t always leave in a pause during their calls. Consider how you might incorporate one of these pauses in an upcoming call –

• Giving people 2 minutes to capture and schedule their next steps after a call
• Providing group members with the opportunity to pause and have a 5-10-minute conversation with others
• Providing people with a quick opener or energizer at the start of the call, geared to get them thinking about what their own connection is to the issue. Note, this will likely lead to a better call quality overall!
• Having a short co-working session with colleagues to boost focus and attention

What else might you be able to do to boost your time in having a pause?

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

Check out our Digital Resources to support you in your work and conversations 
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Happy June and welcome back to another Monday Effective Virtual Conversations tip. This week we are at tip 148. The focus is this week is “What’s going to make your next virtual call memorable?” With people moving from back-to-back zoom calls, signaling that your call is going to be different is just as important as making your call different.

In my May 2020 Effective Virtual Conversations newsletter I cover five different ways to signal that your call is going to be different….

Here’s what I wrote:
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With many in the virtual space becoming "zoom fatigued" and burnt out from virtual calls, it's never been more important for you to distinguish yourself as a masterful virtual facilitator, one who is cultivating dialogue, connection and providing the best experience for all involved.
 
With cynicism becoming more common place as some step into meetings, this month's call covers four things you can do quickly to signal that this just isn't "any zoom call”:
 
#1 - Talk about what people can expect in terms of process and interaction.
At the heart of setting the stage for a "different call" is creating clear expectations. Let people know what they can expect and how your call is going to be different. If it's going to be interactive, co-design agreements. Let people know what they can expect and how they may be able to pass if they don't have anything to add.
 
#2 - Connect people right away with their WIIFM. Connecting people early on with "What's in it for me?" boosts engagement and connectivity. If we don't see a connection with a topic, it's more likely that we will be unfocused or disengaged. Easy ways to connect people are to ask - What's your connection with this topic? or Who here ____ (fill in the blank)?
 
#3 - Make the start of the call different. Switch up the start. Consider incorporating video? Story? Breakout?
 
#4 - Make it visually rich. Icons are a favorite go-to for me, as is converting shorter blog posts into video. I often use Lumen5 to quickly convert content over. What content do you have that can get repurposed quickly?
 
#5 - Think about the right tool, for the right platform. What's the right tool for the right platform?
 
Check out the entire May EVC newsletter here.

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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PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here. ​

Keeping the conversation going with virtual meetings in the remote space can take some concerted effort and is critical in terms of getting right. For many teams, it’s going to be a while longer before they are back face-to-face.
 
Next time you are going to lead a virtual meeting or facilitate a virtual webinar, consider these tips:
 

• Keep it varied. Keep the pace moving and adjust pace every 7- 10 minutes. This might involve polling people in a larger audience or focusing more on
• Use the tools available. There are usually many tools we can activate in the virtual space to engage others. From annotation, to breakouts, polling, to chat, what do you want to ensure you do to bring in everyone’s voices?
• Wrap it up before the top of the hour. Maybe even 5 – 10 minutes early. With back-to-back virtual meetings becoming the norm, what would it be like to adopt a 50- or 55-minute meeting length so people actually have time to move from one meeting to the next?
• Leave 30-60 seconds for people to note what they are going to do and schedule it in. How many times have you left one meeting, clear on what you had committed to doing, and then by the end of the next hour had forgotten what it was?

Always run through your pre-meeting checklist before you get going…. check out my past post around 8 Meeting Questions you always want to ask. You can read it here at the PlanDoTrack Blog.

What’s going to help make your next meet be most efficient?
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With 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
​
PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here. ​

As a virtual business providing coaching and learning services to teams, organizations and individuals around the world, I’ve was an early adopter of Zoom almost five years ago. What I’ve learned from leading tens of thousands of hours of conversations on Zoom is that people want to have a conversation, not be talked at. This means that we need to learn how to use our virtual platforms more interactively.

Having worked in learning and leadership for many decades now, and having led teams globally, being ahead of the curve to figure out innovative ways we could “keep the conversation” rolling across teams, programs and countries has always had a very business focused end for me.

Today’s blog post goes behind the curtain to share three ways you might consider leveraging Zoom (or any other platforms you are using) to keep the conversation going. I write more about these in chapters 1, 2, 6 and 7 of Effective Virtual Conversations.

1. Consider using annotation. In annotation, there is a whole suite of tools for people to “pick up and use” – to mark on the screen, to share their insights via text, drawing and stamping. For larger groups this can be an important way to get the conversations flowing.

What might you do to leverage annotation?

2. Use breakouts. Just as the name suggestions – breakouts help us move from a larger group to sets of smaller groups. Anecdotally, the larger a group becomes the more apt people are to become a “social loafer” and let others do the work. As group size grows, it’s also more likely that people will feel less comfortable with connecting and sharing their insights. Just as you might ask people to turn to their neighbor and have a conversation, virtual breakouts allow you to do this as well.

Breakouts are powerful at any time, particularly when group members want to know more about each other.

What might you do to leverage the power of breakouts?

3. Incorporate polls. Polls are built into most virtual platforms or you can leverage lots of other polling software like Mentimeter or Kahoot. Also great for larger groups, polls help you take a temperature of the room, seeing what is important for the group that you are working with. Polls are much easier to track on a meta-level for super-large groups. You’ll find that in larger groups chat flows too fast to really follow at a granular detail.

Polls often, but not always, need to be created prior to the event although some will let you create in the moment. This is also where a producer or co-facilitator can be useful to have on board and work with.

What might you do to incorporate a poll into your upcoming session?

Curious about what these interactive tools look like in action? Check out the Virtual Lunch and Learn Calls I hosted in March to provide some immediate complimentary support to the wider community.

Curious about how to do this? Join me for an upcoming one-day Virtual Facilitation Essentials program. It’s a primer in the skills required to lead exceptional virtual calls. Learn more about this program and find out when our next program is here. 

Wishing you all the 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 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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As we kick off this week, we get to explore Effective Virtual Conversations Tip #115 – Virtual Icebreakers. Whether we are leading a webinar or a group coaching call, it can be important to do a number of things in launching a call –

1. Connect people quickly to the topic
2. Connect people quickly to each other
3. Help people see the common ground amongst themselves

A good icebreaker will do all three of these things.

#1 - First, we want to connect people quickly to the topic. This is usually referred to as the WIIFM or WHAT’s In IT For ME? This helps to create focus and avoids the multi-tasking mindset that can slip in.
Questions could involve:

• What’s your biggest opportunity around __ (insert topic)?
• What’s important about ___ (insert topic)?

#2 – Connecting people to each other
Connecting people quickly to each other helps establish trust and safety across the group. Depending on the context it will also be an important part of the process of learning and discussion after the event.
Questions might include:

• What is an example you have around ____ (insert topic)?
• What is one resource you would like to recommend to each other?

#3 – Common Ground
Helping people see the common ground or connections across their work is also important in a virtual setting. Even if we think we are varied, in fact, we may be more similar than we think.

Ways to find common ground:

• Asking the group – What do you notice about the areas of commonality which exist across the group?
• You could put up a photo on the screen and ask to have people share what they see.
• You could have people map themselves along a continuum - for example, on a scale of 1-10, where do you see yourself?
• You could also poll people for their input.

​For more resources on this please check out Chapter 7 of Effective Virtual Conversations OR pick up a copy of the 20 Focus Areas for Virtual and Remote Team Development – pick up a copy here.

Enjoy your exploration!
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. ​

​This week’s Effective Virtual Conversation Tip is something I say regularly to the coaches and facilitators I work with in train-the-trainer programs. Simply put it’s “Keep it simple. The complexity is with the group.”.

Keeping things simple in the virtual space might involve things such as:

• Making sure our questions are crisp and clear
• Only asking one question at a time
• Asking the group to discuss only one question at a time
• Making sure we allocate enough time
• Focusing only on one theme or focus area each call
• Simplifying instructions
• Leaving space and time for questions that might emerge
• Using a graphic instead of a lot of text
• Using a metaphor to describe something more complex
• Being sure to reinforce what we are saying with something written

 
What can “keeping things simple” look like in your virtual conversations?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Another milestone we are facing this month is the celebration of 100 Effective Virtual Conversations tips. Originally launched back in 2017, close to the time the book of the same name came out, I’ve taken a look at many different topics essential for engaging virtual conversations – from leveraging the different elements available in the various platforms such as breakouts and annotation, to best practices around virtual call engagement.

As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, virtual calls don’t have to involve a “death by conference call”. They can be even more hands-on than an in person conversation.

​Let’s take a look at 9 of the past Monday Effective Virtual Conversation tips:

1. Teams365 #1995 EVC Tip #99: What Opportunities Are You Not Seizing?
2. Teams365 #1988 EVC Tip #98: Virtual Conversations In Focus: MOOC
3. Teams365 #1981 EVC Tip #97: Skill In Focus: Listening
4. Teams365 #2002 EVC Tip #96: "Start with your people at the core. All else will flow from there." 
5. Teams365 #1974 EVC Tip #95: Virtual Facilitation Tip: Use Annotation 
6. Teams365 #1967 EVC Tip #94: Virtual Facilitation Tip: Use A Map
7. Teams365 #1960 EVC Tip #93: Virtual Facilitation Tip: Go East-West
8. Teams365 #1953 EVC Tip #92: Facilitation Tip: Go A-Z
9. Teams365 #1942 EVC Tip #91: Recording

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​One of the key principles of any good design is that this matches the needs of the people you are designing for. Keeping your ‘people” front and center in any virtual conversation is going to help you anchor the:

• Purpose
• Approach
• Amount of engagement
• Emphasis on interactivity (via breakouts, annotation and polls)
• Amount of content

 
These elements can vary dramatically in a conversation.

What are the things you want to make sure you incorporate into your next conversation?

A reminder that you can check out the May 2019 Effective Virtual Conversations call on 6 Keys to Engagement for further illustration of some of the different ways we might make our call more interactive. You can view it HERE.
 
What do you know about your participants and what they want?
 
Enjoy your conversations!
​Jennifer 

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