​It’s Thursday which means that it’s time for another Team Building Tip. This week’s question gets you thinking about where you were as a team a year ago, and where you are now.
Think about what you were doing this time last year. 
What was the context?
What were you focusing on?
Now, consider where you are. What projects have you completed? How is your work different? What makes it feel different?

We don't always stop to pause and look at what we've done - what we have achieved and what we have learned. This is an important process for teams. If we don't stop and pause along the way we may not tap into the learning available. Running without pause is also not sustainable and can lead to burnout.

What pauses are you creating in your work right now for the team to stop and look at impact?  How can you do more of what is giving you impact?

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

This month’s focus is on building relationships. One type of team which often does not get attention is virtual teams. Today’s post goes into 5 ideas you might incorporate around boosting your virtual team. This could include some of the following activities:

1. Creating a set of peer partners who you are paired with for the course of a year. Peer partners may be invited to connect on a regular basis – i.e. quarterly to share information and resources and generally share best practices.
2. Hosting co-working sessions.
3. Providing the opportunity for part of a quarterly or regular team meeting to focus in on having each person share what they are working on and/or what their portfolio is all about.
4. Hosting a weekly or bi-weekly team huddle to update each other on what you are focusing on. Huddles are generally short and quick in nature (15-30 minutes). Done regularly they benefit from bringing the team together on a regular basis to share their focus, build connection and notice interplay.
5. Another option is to have people share a photo or resource with each other every month via the team’s communication channel – this could include a series of threads in Slack or part of your Leaning Management System or a Community Portal like Mighty Networks.

What are the activities and events which will benefit your team right now?

You might also be interested in checking out the January 2019 Effective Virtual Conversations call I hosted where I cover 5 Virtual Team Builders.

Wishing you the best,
​Jennifer

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip is very similar to last week’s statement of “Consider the right modality for the right conversation”, but slightly different.

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip gets you to “Consider the right platform, for the right modality”. In today’s virtual space, there can be multiple channels we hold conversations on. From conference call lines, to Skype, to zoom, to WebEx. Some channels allow us to stream and see each other, while others only allow us to share our screen.

Consider these questions as you go to select the appropriate channel for your next conversation:

1. How important is it that we see each other?
2. How important is it for me to be able to share a PowerPoint deck or some slides?
3. How important is it for us to be able to chat with each other? And also save the chat log?
4. How important is it for us to be able to use annotation, where group members can make notation on the screen?
5. How important is it for us to be able to record the conversation and share it at a later date with those who could not attend?
6. How important is it for us NOT to be able to see each other?
7. How important is it for us to have the ability to break out into smaller conversation pods or breakouts (just like we would in the in-person environment for small group discussion).
8. What are connectivity and bandwidth issues like for the participants

The bulk of the coaching conversations and learning events I have hosted over the last fifteen years has been virtual. Every day I get to work with clients all over the world, not just in my city. With that in mind, each platform has its own pros and cons. Do some research into the different options.

Some of the ones I continue to use regularly are:

• FreeConferenceCalling.com – for when clients want phone only service but one that also allows us to do breakouts
• Zoom – My every day go-to where I host 95% of the programs I offer. The pro account offers breakouts, polls, recording, annotation and pretty much everything I could ever need to create engaging virtual sessions!
• WebEx – usually the preferred platform of my corporate clients. Given that it often signals a more corporate conversation, people may not be as open to dialogue and interaction.

What are your favorite go-tos? I hope you’ll take a few minutes to share your experience in the comments below.

Best,
​Jennifer

​We are back to the Effective Virtual Conversations Tips today, returning back with a quote I say regularly as it relates to virtual work – “Keep it simple, not simplistic”.
When working with groups, or virtually, this is an important mantra to live by. The complexity we face is usually in the group members we work with, or the inevitable glitches that technology can create.

Keeping things simple helps us to:

• Focus on what’s important, and what the key message is (think 3 bullet points, rather than 30 pages!)
• Focus on process and flow
• Provide clear instructions
• Connect people early on to their WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) so that they are able to listen for, and connect with, things that are important for them

Keeping things simple does not mean that we oversimplify things. Rather, it means that we leave space for the message to get heard.
Think about what is going to keep it simple for our learners and what they will value.
​
Best wishes,
Jennifer

Virtual meetings can be a drag! As I write in Effective Virtual Conversations, they don’t have to involve “Death by Conference Call”.

Four to five times a year I offer the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program, geared to provide leaders, trainers, facilitators and other professionals with tools to jazz up their virtual conversations – meetings, webinars and other virtual conversations.

It’s really important in virtual sessions to make things as visual, and visible, as possible. That’s why slides and photographs can be a great thing. While design and photography was probably not on your list of development activities as a leader, think about how photos and visuals shape:

• The stories of the team
• The memories of what you have achieved
• The emotions created
• Team identity
• What photos, images and visuals are you using in your team communication? Is there an opportunity to do more, or incorporate more in these areas?

 
I wanted to share a quick framework you might consider using and adapting for your next team meeting.
One of the things which is important for leaders of all kinds, virtual leaders especially, is to check for understanding in terms of what people are “taking away” from a call. Team meetings are usually our only live touchpoint as virtual and remote teams. Leveraging these opportunities for feedback and learning are key.
As part of my work as a presenter, I often incorporate a slide that looks like this, at the end of the presentation:
 
The icons represent our focus and takeaways.
I always like to build in time to hear from each person around:

1. What are you next steps? (The feet icon)
2. What has your learning been? (The scissors)
   
3. What do you want to keep your eyes on (The magnifying glass)
4. What will you take forward (the briefcase)

 
It’s highly unlikely that we get to hear from everyone, however, I can share this on the screen and have everyone use “annotation” and include their name to indicate what their responses are. We can then take a screen grab and circulate it as key learning from the meeting.

Once people get into the practice of this, it only takes a few minutes, yet it serves as a very powerful reminder of what we covered, and also accountability tool that peers and leaders can follow up on.

How might you use something like this in your work and/or virtual conversations?
​
Enjoy,
Jennifer

Welcome back to Monday’s EVC Tip - #63 in the series.

This week’s tip is all about getting you to think about matrix management. In the virtual space it is likely that your team members are part of multiple teams and may be reporting to several different leaders.

Remote team members may have a local leader or supervisor they see on a regular basis, and also a more remote team leader who actually works more closely with them on the macro level.

For example, maybe a person is part of a continent wide marketing team. This team is continent wide in focus, and because they are based in a more remote location, they report into a local office regularly. They are expected to work with both the local and regional leaders. Each team has different ways of working and different cultures. The regional marketing team is more laid back and creative, while the local team is detail oriented and fast paced. It can be a  challenge for the employee to navigate both sets of working relationships, work cultures and leadership styles.

Key to this process is being intentional, and proactive, in discussing many of the issues that may emerge. If three-way meetings are possible – between the employee, the local leader and the regional subject leader, it can be useful to talk through how as a partnership you can be most effective in supporting the employee in getting the results needed for the organization.

Some key issues you will want to clarify early on in your communications within matrix relationships include:

• Clarifying roles, responsibilities and reporting structures
• Identifying overlaps and gaps
• Clarifying goals and priorities (especially if there are different priorities)
• Identifying resources available

You can read more about this on page 334 of Effective Virtual Conversations.

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

It’s Monday and time for another Effective Virtual Conversations Tip. This week’s tip takes us into the realm of Virtual Teams. The last section of Effective Virtual Conversations focuses on virtual team issues – developing your team, virtual team leadership and other related issues.
​
With the remote and virtual work space continuing to grow, getting clear on the way we want to foster virtual teams is critical
 
Central issues facing virtual teams include:

• Building relationships
• Building Trust
• Creating connection amongst the team
• Providing clarity
• Being intentional

 
Let’s look at each one of these in turn, starting with trust given that people are unlikely to engage if the group does not trust each other. Trust in the virtual and remote space usually exists within the frame of the program. As such, it’s important to think about what you are doing to build trust, and what’s taking away trust.

Going hand in hand with trust is building relationships. Relationships in the virtual space are peer related.

In that light, putting an emphasis on creating connection amongst the team on a regular basis, formally and informally is key. It’s important to remember that as great as technology has become, it’s still hard to replace the intimacy of a face to face experience. With that in mind, is there a way to create a touch point once or twice a year.

Providing clarity around instructions, work flow, requirements is also key. Make sure that assumptions are not being made about project. It can help to focus on end results and be over communicating (without micro-managing). Consider how you want to check in that everyone has the same understanding, and is working from the information that they need.

Being intentional means many different things. In the virtual space it can mean being focused about what you are doing. While there is always a lot of “winging it”, being intentional with the important things can be important.
These five issues are important for the entire team – not just the relationship between the leader and the team. What can you be doing to focus on these issues?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

​We’re continuing to move along with more things you’ll want to focus on this fall with your team, to support them in getting results and building relationships. We know that teams which excel have strong relationships – they know who is who and who does what, what people’s strengths and prefeerenes are, and great teams are also good at getting results.
 
Area #6 – Building Connections Across the Team
It’s likely that your team composition may have changed at some point during the year. Does everyone know each other?
If you are looking for some quick icebreakers you may want to consider these resources:

Wilderdom’s Group Portal – including their index of different activities and resources. While this is incredibly vast, you may find some that pique your curiosity and can be adapted for your team. Check them out here.

BusinessBalls listing of a variety of exercises under the “recommended resources” column. Find them here.

Since 2005 I have hosted the Group Coaching Ins and Outs blog. One series I have focused on are different exercises and resources coaches will want to add to their toolkit. Take a look at these dozen plus posts here.
 
Using Visual Cards to spark conversation – The 40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards e-book, highlights 40 different ways you can use any visual card deck to spark dialogue and learning across your team. Pick up a digital copy of this resource at our website here.
 
Area #7 – Revisiting Your Vision and Making it Tangible
One of the most important things teams can do to create alignment in the fluid working space, it to have a shared vision. When did you last revisit your vision, and what you are aiming towards? Team vision statements can have different time windows, as well as formats.
This fall, you may want to dedicate some time in your team meetings revisiting your vision and making it tangible. In the realm of coaching, we work with our clients to create STRUCTURES. A structure is usually a visual or tangible item which serves as a reminder.
In working with your vision this fall, what’s the one way you can make it tangible?
Here are some ideas teams I have worked with, have created structures for themselves:

1. A photograph of the team vision/story line they have created together. This has been circulated and in one instance, became the screensaver for the team.
2. Using tinfoil, creating a solar system with each planet representing different elements, and milestones, of the journey.
3. Ringtones to remind the team of key taglines/mottos shaping their vision and aspirations.

What can you do to revisit or create your team vision for the fall, 2019 or the next fiscal cycle?
I’ll be back with more team activities ideas next Tuesday so stay tuned.

Best,
​Jennifer

Last week I started a four-part series of blog posts on 10 Things to do with your team. If you didn’t catch Wednesday’s post on ideas one through three, catch up on them here. 

Today I wanted to cover 3 more things:
​
Area #4 – Mapping out key work flows – Many teams today, especially virtual teams, don’t have a good sense of how work fits together. This is an important area to explore at the macro-level with remote and virtual teams, given the “domino effect” that can happen across a team when one person does not complete work on time, or as planned.
As a team you will want to consider key activities projects you have until the end of the year. One at a time, map out the key tasks of the project or activity. What’s the sequencing? Who is responsible for what? What needs to happen before the next person can start, or complete, the work? 
As you map this out  - and it can literally be a mapping on a white board or white screen, or a set of post-it notes – identify
​
Area #5 – Role Clarity
Going hand in hand with work flows, and what people are doing, is clarifying with team members their roles. This is often one of the areas teams struggle with the most. It is common for roles to be undefined, duplicative, and gaps may exist.
In clarifying roles, you may want to consider these types of questions:

• Who does what on the team?
• Where is there overlap?
• Where is there a gap?
• What are the areas which are not being covered?
• Is everyone in the right role (i.e. are people’s strengths being leveraged? Consider who is good at getting things done vs. planning, starting things vs. wrapping them up)

Tomorrow I’ll be spotlighting two more ideas you might want to incorporate this fall with your team.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Flashback Friday post takes us right back to year one of the Teams365 blog. What makes a team successful? As you might have noted, I write and speak a lot about the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. There’s not a lot of time in today’s business context for team development, so it’s important that we are efficient and focused with it. This often means returning to the basics, and equipping everyone with the same information.
I thought it would be useful to go back to the basics of some of the elements of virtual team success. What are some of the areas which need to be in place, or can be revisited quickly to do a pulse check to see what needs shoring up?
One area that teams often struggle with is the area of Team Roles. Here’s what I wrote about Exploring Team Roles in Teams365 post #1527.

“An important part of the team building process is exploring and clarifying team roles. There are several great frameworks by researchers around the different roles team members play. For example, you may want to explore the writings and frameworks of Belbin. 
In my work as a team coach I like to build on the knowledge of the team itself, getting them to generate their own framework, and naming the different roles they play in their team. It’s common to hear terms like: Project coordinator, social convenor, initiator, implementer, fact checker, Devil’s Advocate. Each role serves a valuable purpose. 
What are the roles which exist in your team?
Why is this topic important? 
Exploring team roles is important for a variety of reasons. First, conflict often emerges when teams do not have clarity on their roles as a team. Next, role overlap may lead to duplication, and role division may lead to huge gaps that exist. Another layer which is extremely important as a team is to ensure that others understand what roles you inhabit, and what is enjoyable or not. It’s also important to remember that members of a group can get into “role fatigue” when they have to inhabit that role for a long time. The writing of Marita Fridjohn and Ann Rod explores this topic, along with other many useful team topics, . 
Here’s a discussion you can undertake as a team:

• What are the roles which exist within the team?
• Who inhabits the different roles?
• What is the greatest value that role serves for this team?
• How might that role get over-magnified or over-inhabited?
• What roles need to be clarified for the team?
• What roles are missing? What’s needed?
• Which roles are overlapping? What impact does this have?

Enjoy the conversation!
​Jennifer