hybrid-remote-facilitation Remote Facilitation: Being More Inclusive What do you do when you facilitate online with high-quality visual whiteboards like Mural and Miro and then are asked to facilitate a group with some vision-challenged participants? You throw away the whiteboard. This was not the conclusion I was expecting when I was recently given this problem, but researching
Artificial Intelligence Remote Facilitation - Dancing with AI at Scale I just finished an engaging and energizing conversation with hundreds of employees online. This would have been unheard of in the past as most online discussions felt disconnected without a highly orchestrated plan and facilitation team. I had two assistants: one running the “tech” and another was an artificial intelligence
hybrid-remote-facilitation Remote Facilitation - The News Team Pattern in Large Hybrid Meetings A colleague (let’s call her Rose) recently reached out with this question: “I’m going nuts trying to figure out decent ways to make big-room planning work in a hybrid model where some people are actually in the big room, and others are working remote. I’ve been accustomed
hybrid-remote-facilitation Remotely Facilitating for Connection: A Manifesto The last two years of being remote gave us isolation, distraction, rushed meetings, repeat meetings (because we didn’t finish the work) and lost participants. And it doesn’t have to be like that. It can actually be better than in person. Working remotely for the last several years brought
Agile Capture That Concept In 3 to 4 Words I’ve spent time reflecting these last few months, but it’s not for a new business idea. I’m thinking about what I want to leave behind. What can I put out in the world that will help people work and live better? What can help them learn and
How Self Reflection on a Challenging Year Sets Better Goals When it’s a challenging year, you do not feel motivated to reflect on it. But because you have had a challenging time, reflection can ease that pain and provide some options for the future. Give Yourself the Gift of Self Reflection In the last few weeks of each year,
Playing the Long Game of Remote Mentoring In my last post, I shared how remote work requires shifting many ways of working and thinking about work. Remote workers often find new ways to improve their work through consistently learning new skills and tools for online collaboration. However, the most effective way of learning is finding that mentor-in-the-moment
remote-basics Why You Want a Remote Mentor for Better Remote Work Remote work requires shifting many ways of working and thinking about work. Many people have struggled with this during the pandemic and assume it will take years to get them adjusted to this new way of working. Or is there a faster way? One way to be effective is to
Navigating Change When in the ick, principles should stick I was asked to do a 5 minute Spark Tale for the first Qiqocon user conference on August 5, 2021. I decided to do something a little bit different and wrote a poem in Dr. Seuss style to fit the conference theme of “Stretch What’s Possible”. Below is the
hybrid-remote Who Takes Care of the Caretaker? Many organizations continue to move forward with plans to bring people back into the office. Sometimes, this “move forward” feels more like one step forward and three steps back. This stumble forward cannot be completely the fault of the organization. Not many of them planned to go remote. Also, the
hybrid-remote Return Gently to the Office - Not Everyone Can or Will Return In my last two posts, I shared that returning gently included taking small steps and returning with reflection. Someone shared with me that some large consultancies see similar opportunities to reflect and re-architect the work. I see a bigger impact coming in the post-covid rush to go back to the
hybrid-remote Return Gently to the Office - Rebuilding with Reflection I hope many of you are reflecting on “returning gently” to the office. We might want to rush back to “normal”. However, in my last post, I shared how an unexpected shoulder injury reinforced my need to take small steps to get back to some kind of normal. This epiphany
hybrid-remote Return Gently to the Office - Rebuild Routines Slowly Can you feel it? We are so close to going “back”. Or are we? Whenever I faced something major that disrupted my normal routines, I’ve found that it takes much longer to get back to “normal”. That Sudden Jolt A few years ago, I experienced a shoulder injury. Walking
Community A March Mashup of Remote Facilitation On 18 February 2021, a bunch of facilitators and coaches got together from around the world to share stories from some of their favourite remote sessions. It ended up being pretty inspiring and fun, so we’ve compiled a list with some of the activities shared, with links and ideas
Navigating Change Avoiding Dangerous Side Effects of Frameworks Recently, I completed an inaugural course on a new business marketing framework. Why? Marketing always made me feel uncomfortable because of the manipulative techniques I’ve experienced over the years. However, I’ve also worked with some fantastic marketers who focused more on educating. This new framework focused more on
hybrid-remote The key to better hybrid-remote work environments In my prior posts, you may get the impression I don’t see hybrid remote as a viable path. You would be partially correct. As I stated in a past blog post, many people now see hybrid remote as THE solution to moving back into offices after the pandemic. They
hybrid-remote Is hybrid-remote going backward or forward? As new vaccines emerge and political transitions move forward (deep breath), I still hear many talking about “going back” to the way things were. Instead, I suggest we might look at what opportunities 2021 will provide us. Are you hearing “going back” conversations? The “going back” conversations take many forms.
hybrid-remote Your Next Workplace - Any, all or inclusive remote? We are all ready to go back to the office. Or are we? As mentioned in my previous post on resilience, your next workplace may adjust work hours and workspaces to help “keep our distance”. Hygiene may influence office schedules and space layouts next. But what will teamwork look like?
hybrid-remote Buddy System, Copilots, and Async for Hybrid Remote Work You may have heard of the working agreement that “when one is remote, all should be remote”. This agreement applies to remote hybrid teams where some team members may be in the office and some team members are either working from home or other locations. Such working agreements encourage all
hybrid-remote Your Next Workplace - Office, Remote, or Resilience? 2020 presented many twists and turns for all of us, and there are more to come. In August 2017, I began to co-author a book on successful distributed agile teams with Johanna Rothman. Our first chapter was titled “Distributed Agile Teams Are Here to Stay.” We did not realize how
hybrid-remote Remote Amplifies Over this first half of 2020, most of the world now knows what long-time remote workers have known for years: Remote amplifies. Remote does amplify some obvious things like distance. But until the last few months, only a few realized that distance is a lever, not the outcome of being
Facilitation Exploring Who Controls Your Meetings by Process and Tools Used Online As people moved to completely online and distributed work in the early part of 2020, interesting patterns in training and collaboration tools emerged. While many trainers have focused on tools and process and the best way to keep teams connected online, it seems we slipped into a control trap for
Convert Exercises for Online Converting Exercises for Online Facilitation - the Dot Game In a previous post, I described a process for converting a location-based exercise into an online exercise and walked through an example. Those steps included: * Find the key physical steps in the location-based exercise * Consider three options to replace the physical steps with virtual steps * Choose plan A and plan
Convert Exercises for Online Converting Exercises for Online Facilitation - the Jumpstart Storytelling Exercise Many coaches and trainers new to the virtual workplace ask many “how to” questions around virtual facilitation and exercises. I’ve converted many location-based exercises to online using a wide range of tools. This is a LONG post, but I wanted to explain my typical approach and provide an example.
Change Navigating Change While Being Rapidly Remote As we currently face the challenges of the COVID-19 (corona) virus, I see many individuals and teams being forced to rapidly go remote. I’ve been resistant to post on the COVID-19 topic so as not to add to the noise. However, some of the hype around remote work during
