Connecting deeper ... remotely

In these hybrid times when people may be here, there and anywhere, there’s a danger we miss the good quality, deep connections. 

Not the login type of connection - nor the break the ice chit-chat connection. 

But rather, the deeper ability to engage with people, to bring warmth, humanity and empathy to an online call with a remote team. 

To say ‘it’s not the same as face to face’ or ‘it’s hard to read cues and body language’ is to try to use the same techniques. 

But you may have to do something different. Many things different. 

How can you better connect with your team no matter where they are? 

Many days of each week I’m working with a brand new team, a new group of people I’ve not met before. Swift and deep connection with them is a priority. 

We’ve got to be able to get close online, to trust and build engagement so we can achieve what needs to be achieved. 

And quickly. 

Consider how you’ll make connections with your team, group or meeting participants. 

Every time. 

Don’t leave it to chance. 
Or think it’s not important. 
Or that you’re already well enough connected. 

How deeply you can connect with people affects everything else that follows. 

Finding your way with the new

Copying someone else’s way of working might just work. 

And it might not. 

While there are methods, techniques and new habits to start, sometimes the best thing to do is simply try them out. 

No strings attached. 

Try it on. How does it feel? What do you like about it? How might it work for you? 

As businesses change to new and agile ways of working, there can be a little too much ‘don’t mess it up’ and not enough ‘let’s try it out’. 

I’ve been working with leaders and their teams as they try tools, techniques and methods like 
- visual management 
- timeboxing for tasks and meetings 
- backlogs of tasks to be done
- co-creating with customers 
- running experiments 
... and 30+ more ways of working. 

This is no switch to flip overnight. 

It’s an opportunity to learn, experiment and experience... over time. You might even bring some of the greatest detractors into the experience. 

‘This was so much better than I thought it would be’, said a participant at a Better Ways of Working virtual workshop recently. 

Safe. Experimental. Collaborative. Supportive. Experiential. 

There’s no other way to make these transitions to newer ways of working, but to help people find their way. 

How are you managing the ‘blend’

Our work can often blend a little too much into home life in these times of remote working and working from home. 

Some people call it ‘living where you work’ or ‘working where you live’ !

Here are 4 things to try to keep a harder line between them : 

1. Establish a work area
2. Change your clothes 
3. Create a fake commute
4. Use a different page for work/home apps

Read more in this article from psychotherapist Amy Morin in Business Insider.

Face to face ➡️ Online How did you change

As many face to face workshops and meetings shifted online over the past year, it’s curious to look back: What did you change? 

If you’d planned an agenda, how did things need to adapt? 
Did you change the duration? 
Or the time between breaks, or length or number of breaks? 

Did you change what was planned?
What about group activities and collaboration? 

Did you accelerate and make things faster? Or did you need more time, multiple meetings instead of one? 

Many meetings and workshops that went online, only changed mode: sadly, they remained as disengaing and unproductive as ever!

But now as more hybrid arrangements begin - some people are online, some people are mobile or onsite - we need to consider, adapt and change things again. 

How did you first adapt meetings and workshops that moved online? 

Hard work is too hard on us

Burnout, overwork and the drive to ‘do more’ can be a never ending and dangerous loop. 

There are clever and ingenious solutions - or hacks - available to us, if only we’d take them up. 

A hack is a smart short cut, a streamlined process or focused advice to make things easier. 

So, if you knew of a better and easier way, would you take it? 

Some people like to see others do it first ... to see if ‘it works’. 

That’s what the diffusion of innovation curve is all about. There are always some trailblazers and early adopters who take a risk and trust their ability to cope with the new. 

And then come the early and late majority ... once the idea has been ‘proven’. By that time though, the trailblazers are often on to something newer, and easier. 

There’s another hack someone has uncovered or discovered!

Rather than waiting until more people have tried it and your risk is lower, jump in a little earlier. 

Play on the easier side of the curve for awhile.

You can wait to see how something turns out for others ... or run your own experiment, play your own game and live your own experience. 

It could be easier at the other end of the curve.