Remote work, hybrid workplace, working from home, virtual meetings. Although not net new ideas, these themes became much more common within the last year. Even as more and more people plan to return to work in person, the concept of a distributed workforce will be the new “normal” for many, and companies and employees will need to learn to adjust accordingly. Distributed workforce best practices will need to be applied to be successful in this new landscape. There are new ways of working across the board – this includes a combination of remote employees, physical offices, and working with colleagues and team members in other locations and time zones (even if they are in another physical office). 

The Voltage Control team has always been remote (outside of our in-person workshops and events) so this shift to virtual work and the distributed workforce wasn’t new to us – we’ve documented best practices for remote teams, and even assembled a toolkit that allows our remote team to facilitate virtual meetings that are as, if not more, effective than traditional face-to-face interactions.

Many large corporations are making the decision to offer permanent remote work options for their employees, including Twitter, JP Morgan, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. A distributed workforce, when directed by effective systems and processes, can and will be successful with adjustments and best practices.

Employees have demonstrated the ability to work productively in a distributed and/or remote fashion, in large part due to available tools and technology. However, it will take more than simply downloading Zoom and a good Wifi connection (though they are both very important) for a successful distributed workforce. We outline 5 distributed workforce best practices below.

Distributed Work Best Practices

1) Implement recurring check-ins and meetings 

Communication is key. Ensure communication flows between all team members, regardless of physical location. This is increasingly important as workers become more spread across different time zones and locations. Consider daily standup updates on Slack, end of day status emails, all hands/town halls, check-ins with direct reports, and virtual meetings–with video when possible–to include everyone on the team. This isn’t to say you should have a million meetings just to have them by any means. There should always be a clear purpose to avoid wasting time (among other Meeting Mantras). Keeping an open line of communication through all levels and team members will help align and push forward projects and initiatives in a distributed workforce setting.

2) Utilize the best tools and tech

These tools played an obvious role when the majority of office workers were forced to be remote. They will continue to be critical to keeping everyone aligned and organized as the virtual, remote + in-person worlds merge into a distributed workforce. Some of our favorite tools for a distributed workforce include: 

• Asana – Project management tool to help teams organize, track and manage their work.
• Basecamp – Real-time communication tool to keep track of everything you’re working on in a shared space. 
• Doodle – Calendar scheduling system for time management and to easily coordinate one-on-one and team meetings. 
• Focus To-Do – Pomodoro time and task management app that helps you perform tasks efficiently. 
• Google Docs – Smart editing and styling tools support joint teamwork to flow smoothly and easily and keep ideas in one place. Teams can work on different pages or in different docs accordingly. 
• Google Slides – Interactive work templates with multiple pages to allow individual and collective work.
• Google Sheets – Collaborative spreadsheets to organize and update tasks and information. 
• Google Drive or other cloud storage – Drop all assets and work content into a shared space for easy access for all team members. Use different folders to organize information. 
• Harvest – Time tracking software with multiple integrations and extensions.
• Loom – Screen recorder that allows you to capture video screen messages instead of sending long emails. It’s also helpful for sending team members visual directions if you cannot screen share in real-time.
• Process Street – Make checklists for your team to help you remember and keep track of all of your to-do’s. 
• SessionLab – Dynamically design, organize and share workshops and training content.
• Slack – Team messaging platform that is a smart alternative to email. It allows the team to have a shared view of work progress and purpose
• Trello –  A place for assigning work and tracking work progress using a Kanban-style list-making application.
• World Time Buddy – World clock, time zone converter, and online meeting scheduler to coordinate and plan across different time zones.
• Zoom – Videoconferencing platform with breakout room capabilities.

3) Establish and define clear goals for everyone

The success of a distributed workforce depends on meaningful goal-setting. A distributed workforce provides flexibility, in the sense that employees aren’t held to the same confines of a traditional workplace. However, this also means goals and tasks need to be defined even more clearly since the full team won’t be together in person and important details can get lost in translation. Set reasonable goals then make sure that all team members are on the same page so you can accomplish them as a team. Many companies and employees use SMART goal setting:

• Specific: Make your goals specific and narrow for more effective planning.
• Measurable: Define what evidence will provide you’re making progress.
• Attainable: Make sure you can reasonably accomplish your goal within a certain timeframe.
• Relevant: Goals should align with values and long-term objectives.
• Time-based: Set a realistic, ambitious end date for task prioritization.

4) Track projects and productivity

With any team, but especially a distributed one, tracking projects, and productivity is important. You are unable to stop by a team member’s desk to check in like in-person offices so you need a way of making sure that everyone is on task. There are many ways of doing this even if you are not together in person, such as Asana or Trello for project management, and Harvest for time tracking. Team members are able to see what everyone else is doing, what stage a project is in, and coordinate with one another in real-time. Monitoring responsibility online leads to more productivity and collaboration. It also saves time being able to view the status of all projects across all team members, in one platform.

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5) Promote team bonding 

Host offsite/virtual social events so remote workers can get together in person or via video conference for team-building and socializing. The specific events will depend and differ based on location and circumstance. Virtual happy hours or game nights are a fun way to bond. Connection is often more elusive online, so setting aside time for your team to relax or have fun together when distributed is more important than ever. These sorts of social events can have a big impact on your distributed team’s morale.

Numerous experiments have shown how employees are much more productive and engaged when they’re given flexibility on where, when, and how they’ll get their work done. A distributed workforce can boost not only productivity but also retention. Turnover is 25% lower at companies that support remote work environments. The evidence is clear: Remote and distributed employees have great potential to be highly productive and extremely engaged, as long as you know how to engage them. Testing the distributed workforce best practices outlined above is a great place to start.

At Voltage Control we are exercising and sharing the best tools and techniques needed for teams to thrive in the hybrid and distributed workplace, through productive meetings (in-person and virtual), remote work team collaboration, considerations for return to work, facilitation skills, virtual events, meeting culture, Magical Meetings and design sprints.

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Is facilitation part of your daily work? Mastering facilitation has taken on additional meaning as virtual work has become commonplace. The adjustment from in-person to hybrid or virtual work has shaken up communication practices. With most corporate roles, virtual work is inevitable. While your team may have settled into a new style of work, effective practices for virtual facilitation likely lag behind.

For many teams, learning environments have drastically shifted. So has the job of experienced facilitators. While confidence in conducting in-person programs and practices is essential, virtual facilitation requires a different approach. Facilitating virtual interaction takes as much preparation as does in-person. 

Want to learn how to become a skilled facilitator in today’s world of in-person and virtual work? Find a facilitator certification that teaches approaches for both. Even the most skilled facilitation experts cannot keep an advantage without revisiting how to translate their long-term practices into virtual methods. Below, you’ll learn why a virtual facilitator trainer certification enhances the outcome of workplace facilitations. Consider signing up for our upcoming Facilitator Certification.

What are Virtual Practices?

Virtual work not only means a shift in communication practices. It means a shift in methods to teaching and engaging participants, and considering added technology to the mix. 

For many teams, virtual work was implemented quickly with little time for consideration of best practices. Virtual work requires as much preparation as in-person, if not more.

With new technology come new methods of communication. Within virtual facilitation, the facilitator juggles a range of responsibilities: engaging in real-time and within chat rooms, presenting information verbally and visually, monitoring interest from participants, ensuring the technology is working properly, sticking to strict timelines, etc. Practice and preparation are essential for virtual facilitation. 

Technological issues often take center stage when facilitators fail to prepare in advance. Keep a meeting or class on track by preparing in advance and estimating expected engagement. Explore our Liberating Structures templates to enhance participatory decision-making.

In the case of virtual meetings, shorter is almost always better. Participants get weary of hours-long meetings, especially when their attention is to be kept through a screen.

Address New (Virtual) Challenges

Virtual training challenges facilitators to reassess best practices. Participant engagement is essential to successful virtual facilitation, and can often be challenging for experienced in-person facilitators. While the overarching goal is the same, delivery can and often should be much different. 

Mastering virtual dynamics within a certification program enables participants to test old and new methods. 

Without the ability to read body language, situational awareness has a new meaning. Facilitators have to find new ways to build camaraderie with participants. Introductions and communication boundaries must be presented warmly and clearly to successfully facilitate. A virtual facilitator trainer certification experience gives facilitators the opportunity to view various experiences through the lens of a participant or student. The importance of consistent engagement is often easily recognized from that perspective as well, as are effective methods for instilling participant confidence. Again, practice and preparation are essential for virtual facilitation. At Voltage Control, we focus on identifying methods and approaches for success (context considered), implementing methods to yield ideal outcomes, and reflecting on areas for improvement as individual facilitators. Explore this list for an extensive dive into core competencies for facilitators that we practice.

Master Facilitation More Broadly

Change is constant. A good facilitator relies on their experience to guide their chosen methods and approaches. A great facilitator considers context and welcomes changing dynamics as opportunities for progress. Collaborative relationships, virtual work, and changing technology are some of the most significant changes as of late, and they’ve all provided opportunities to facilitate differently. Effective facilitation embraces modern leadership.

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As a facilitator, it is essential to avoid copying and pasting an in-person approach to a virtual structure.  A facilitator must have a thoughtful, different approach to virtual facilitation. Facilitators play a neutral role, enabling collaborative environments by listening and allowing the others to develop their own ideas and solutions. 

A broader library of  methods to teaching and engaging participants must be a priority. A perk of virtual work is the ability for teammates to sit with their thoughts and ideas. As a facilitator, it’s your job to create an environment that brings those ideas to the table through effective communication methods. (Download our Facilitator’s Guide to Questions to keep participants engaged.)

That said, in-person skills are and will continue to be essential. Our approach to virtual facilitator trainer certification is thoughtful. While virtual facilitation is a priority for many, our approach to facilitation teaches skills for virtual and in-person dynamics. It’s important for facilitators to gain confidence for facilitating within both. Within both, a facilitator must prioritize preparation, clear communication, active listening, guiding the group, diffusing confrontation, and more.

Invest in More Than Meetings

You may question whether a virtual facilitation trainer certification is a wise use of resources (time, budget, etc.). The certification is achieved  following a collaborative experience with facilitation experts. 

A virtual facilitation trainer certification advances both the team and personal work. A virtual facilitator training certification yields productive growth for facilitators as teammates and individuals. In the program, facilitators study and discuss the foundation of effective facilitation, choose electives applicable to their work, then put learning into practice with other aspiring facilitators. 

Expect the following from our certification program: 

Poke holes in a current approach to push growth. 

Develop identity that broadens value as a teammate. 

Get real time feedback from others with similar experience and differing lenses.

Exercises are designed to have facilitators get to know themselves better: personal strengths, opportunities for improvement, and their long-term goals for facilitation. Professional facilitator portfolios are also a focus, enabling a leader to receive feedback from peers and prepare accordingly for future work. Facilitators will leave with the confidence to execute successfully in a range of dynamics, and will be an invaluable team asset where facilitation is necessary for productivity.

Looking to Get Certified?

Our virtual facilitator trainer certifications consider the scope of today’s reality: both in-person and virtual work. To better understand our approach, attend our weekly Facilitation Lab.

We invite you to attend our upcoming Facilitator Certification program, including a foundational phase, elective courses for personalized training, and a capstone immersive for developing long-term facilitator growth plans. You’ll receive feedback throughout the process, and leave confident in your skillset as a virtual facilitator..
We hope you’re excited to realize your potential and develop your identity as a facilitator. Our website and blog offer additional background, or you can contact us and we’ll respond promptly.

Looking for a Virtual Meeting Facilitator? We Can Help. 

Voltage Control facilitates remote design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out at hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

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Facilitating Virtual Meetings is top-of-mind for more people than ever as we shift towards remote work. There are ever-increasing norms for virtual meetings; many companies, teams, and facilitators have been practicing the art of virtual meetings for a while now, and with that practice, we are developing norms for virtual meetings that we feel facilitators and attendees alike should be privy too.

Facilitating virtual meetings and the skills required to keep your team engaged and unleashed are more urgent than ever. Your run-of-the-mill, straightforward meetings like team standups or weekly check-ins might not require extra planning or heavy facilitation. On the other hand, if you are hosting a Design Sprint, Team Alignment, or innovation workshop over video conferencing, you’ll want to take more time preparing and put additional thought into your agenda and methods.

The new norms for virtual meetings are important to facilitating successful, and productive virtual interactions.

1. Build a Hyper-Realistic (Read: Shorter) Agenda

If there is one thing we’ve learned at Voltage Control through facilitating virtual meetings, it’s that you can’t simply transfer an in-person meeting agenda to a remote meeting. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. You’ll need to adjust your meeting agenda specifically to the virtual space.  

For example, if you were leading an in-person ideation workshop with team members in a single location, you might plan on spending the whole day together. Yet, expecting these same people to sit on an eight-hour video call for a remote meeting is unrealistic. It’s unrealistic under normal circumstances, so it’s bordering on crazy when many people are juggling kids, partners, and spouses also at home.

Therefore, when planning a remote meeting agenda, scale down expectations on how much time participants will invest. No more than 2 to 4 hours in one day is a good limit. 

Shorter virtual meetings mean that your session might have to stretch over multiple days, but this new virtual meeting norm will help prevent meeting fatigue and generate more productive meetings.

2. Create Homework and Group Work

One way to compensate for a shorter meeting is to move some of your exercises or activities to homework or group work. For example, if you want to review a report as a group, consider shifting a formal presentation out of your virtual meeting. Instead, have participants read the report as pre-work. You could even fold this into your icebreaker: have every participant come to the meeting prepared to share a top learning from their pre-work. 

Another way to facilitate virtual meetings is to assign group work. Instead of making people stay on one call with a large group for hours at a time, split into small groups to complete a certain task or exercise. 

These small groups can then work via Slack, email, or smaller video calls to complete their assignment. Another benefit of group work is that you can cover more ground; for example, you can brainstorm around three opportunity areas or topics instead of just one.

3. Break Things Down into Bite-Sized Bits

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Another factor to consider as a facilitator, is how to keep momentum and interest high during your virtual meeting. Long stretches of time listening to presentations will lead participants to check-out. In remote meetings, it’s especially critical to break your activities into small chunks. 

So, if your agenda is simply three activities taking place in hour-long blocks, we urge you to get more granular. Break each hour down into smaller moments that include time for presentation, conversation, and questions, for example. 

These compressed bits of time will keep your participants engaged and on their toes. Just as you want your virtual meeting to be capped at no more than four hours, think about your meeting activities in terms of  5-20 minute blocks of time to keep everyone interested while they’re on phone or video.

4. Set Clear Expectations & Ground Rules Ahead of Time

Another consideration for positive virtual meetings is to set expectations before the session starts. You could say that the foundation for a successful virtual session is created days, even weeks, ahead of time. 

Make sure that participants come into the session with a crystal-clear idea of what to expect. This means more than sending out a basic email with an agenda one hour before the meeting. Send a few messages to your participants in the lead-up to the session. 

Here are some things to include: 

• Introduce yourself: This is mandatory if you’re new to the group. Include a picture of yourself, a short bio, and maybe a fun fact to build virtual rapport and connection.
• Outline the session: Give people an overview of the day. You don’t need to go into the nitty-gritty schedule, but outline the major activities, break times, etc.
• Set expectations: Let people know how you want them to behave (i.e one speaker at a time) and outline any ground rules.
• Get people excited: Explain why this meeting is important and what participants will contribute and/or get out of it.
• Assign any homework: Give participants enough time to complete their pre-work and don’t forget to send at least one reminder!

Introduce the tools: Make sure everyone knows what tools (i.e. Zoom, MURAL, Miro) will be used on the call so they can download any programs ahead of time.

5. Limit the Number of Tools 

A new facilitation norm to consider, especially if you are new to remote meeting facilitation: keep it simple. Don’t overcomplicate your meeting. Protect your sanity and the patience of the participants by limiting the number of different tools you use during your call.

Yes, there are tons of cool ways to engage people virtually today, whether it’s a digital whiteboard or a polling/voting program. But you shouldn’t try them all at once. Each new program or tool comes with potential technical difficulties and learning curves. 

We’d recommend incorporating just one supplemental tool in your call in addition to the video conferencing software. Keep the complexity low and you’ll feel more in control of your meeting and have less frustration from participants. If you absolutely have to use multiple tools in your meeting, be sure to build-in extra time for transitions and technical issues.

6. Sprinkle in Elements of Fun or Surprise

So many people are on video calls all day right now, so expect that your participants will be fatigued. Think of ways to add the unexpected to your virtual meeting to make it more fun for participants. 

Go beyond just planning an opening icebreaker; inject thought-provoking or amusing elements throughout your session to keep participants involved and on-their-toes. 

Some potential ideas for “spicing up” your agenda:

• Start the meeting with a funny and or inspirational video that’s related to your topic. 
• Sprinkle your PowerPoint or Keynote presentation with funny GIFs or memes to support the headline or main idea.
• Create moments for participants to stretch or do a quick yoga or breathing exercise as a group. 
• Create a special playlist and play it as people “arrive” to the virtual meeting. Share the playlist afterward in a thank you/wrap up email.

Check it out: If you want to dive deeper into remote facilitation, MURAL (one of our favorite digital collaboration tools) has literally written a free ebook on the topic. 

Looking for a Virtual Meeting Facilitator? We Can Help. 

Voltage Control facilitates remote design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out at hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

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The future of work is hybrid. Whether we like it or not, hybrid and virtual work is here to stay as the workforce becomes more distributed. As a result of forced virtual work during the pandemic, many companies realized employees don’t need to be in a physical office to be successful or have successful meetings. In fact, multiple studies show remote work actually boosts productivity. Therefore, companies like Twitter, Slack, and LinkedIn made the decision to offer permanent virtual work options. As remote and hybrid work become the new norm, it will be increasingly important that virtual meetings are productive. To help make your virtual meetings more effective, we’ve curated 5 best practices you can apply today to improve virtual meetings within your team. 

Best practices to run an effective virtual meeting 

1. No Purpose, No Meeting

Meeting rule number one, whether it’s in a virtual or in-person setting, is to have a worthwhile reason to bring people together. During the pandemic, many teams got into the habit of jumping on a Zoom call whenever they wanted to discuss anything. This can be helpful in some cases, but not necessary for every little thing. Why do you want to have a meeting? What exactly do you need to accomplish? You must have a clear purpose if you want to have a productive meeting. Without one, the discussion will be vague and unfocused. You can’t work to meet a goal that you have not first identified.

• Ask yourself why you want to have the virtual meeting in the first place:Are there decisions that need to be made?
• Do new concepts or processes need to be developed? Is there an important deliverable you want to talk through?
• Are you seeking advice from your team?

Only when you have the concrete answer should you schedule a meeting. Matters that aren’t worth scheduling a collective discussion for can be addressed with an email or via Slack. You don’t want to waste anyone’s time, not to mention the money that is lost to unproductive meetings–$37 billion annually. Schedule with purpose!

“The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions.” –Patrick Lencioni, author and President of The Table Group

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2. Create and distribute an agenda 

Prepare an agenda beforehand to outline what needs to be discussed and decided. As a best practice, only include essential topics to avoid wasted time. This will block out any unnecessary discussion that isn’t central to the objective and keep the meeting focused. An important aspect of an agenda, especially for a virtual meeting, is a realistic timetable with roles and responsibilities. If topics and/or tasks have (or should have) specific people owning them, include that information in the agenda for clarity. What will be discussed when, for how long, and by whom? Map these details out and follow them as closely as possible. 

With that being said, timing and attention are much different in a virtual environment. Things take longer online because of the tools you must use and the need to get everyone on board. That means you must include time in the agenda to set people up in whatever tool you use (more on that later) as well as buffer time to troubleshoot any technical issues that may arise. Realistically, there will be lags and time-sucking overlaps that wouldn’t otherwise happen in an in-person meeting. That’s why it’s crucial to be concise with your schedule in content and timing. Be strategic. But also be flexible – working from home has additional distractions that don’t typically occur in the office, such as family members, pets, and all those Amazon deliveries. The virtual meeting space is a novelty for most. It will take trial and error to get your meeting prep recipe down just right, but following these virtual meeting best practices will help you get there!

“If we have a clear agenda in advance and we are fully present and fully contributing, the meetings do go much faster.” –Arianna Huffington, co-founder of Huffington Post website

Once you have created your agenda, send it to all attendees in advance (ideally 24 hours before the meeting, if possible). This will ensure that everyone is on the same page and ready to participate when they log in to the meeting. Another beneficial aspect to consider is the need for any pre-work. Remember, you want to be ready to hit the ground running and only focus on your objective during the meeting, not spend (and waste) time preparing attendees during the scheduled time. Doing the work in the meeting is another one of our Meeting Mantras. Is there anything that needs to be assigned to participants before the meeting in order for everyone to be fully prepared, in order to have the most effective and successful meeting possible? If so, send that along with the agenda so that everyone is ready and aligned from the start. This will save time and increases engagement and productivity. 

3. Pick your tool

At Voltage Control we use and recommend Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Butter as core tools for hosting virtual meetings. They all have slightly different features, but all three support video conferencing during virtual meetings. Pick whichever platform best meets your needs then make sure everyone knows how to use it. While most people know how to use them by now, consider sending out a how-to for any newbies and plan for an extra few minutes at the beginning of the meeting for everyone to join and get connected. Even the most advanced users can experience technical difficulties!

Pro-tip: use our custom-built Control Room app to engage and inspire groups of any size like a master facilitator.

Some additional best practice tools for virtual meetings include:

• Krisp: Mute background noise during the call.
• Google Slides: Free tool to create presentations or slides to share prior to and during the meeting.
• Google Docs: Take notes during the virtual meeting.
• SessionLab: Dynamically design, organize and share workshops and training content.
• Trello or Asana: Project management tools to help keep track of assigned work and priorities following the meeting.
• World Time Buddy: World clock, time zone converter, and online meeting scheduler to coordinate and plan across different time zones.
• Mural: Digital-first whiteboard with collaborative templates for visual collaboration including planning, brainstorming, and designing.
• Figma: Collaborative design platform to design, prototype, and gather feedback in real-time in one place.

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4. Keep everyone involved and engaged, and prioritize human connection

Making sure all participants are engaged is much more difficult when people are ON their devices. Encourage the use of video (pro tip: review the best practices of video conferencing etiquette here) and silenced phones to optimize participating during the virtual meeting and to get the most out of it. We also recommend you include periodic opportunities for everyone to work asynchronously and have key moments of high engagement where the entire group is involved at the same time. Doing so will keep people from disengaging.

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, remember the necessity of human connection. This best practice is especially important in the virtual era. Tending to your remote team’s health is essential for team connection and for employees to succeed. Intentionally create opportunity for connection outside of the meeting agenda itself, as virtual work lacks the ability for attendees to meet, mingle, and have watercooler conversations before and after the meeting like in-person meetings offer.

Team conversations outside of the meeting can be just as important as they are during the meeting. They build trust, connection, and rapport with team members. You can make up for this by scheduling an extra few minutes before and/or after the meeting to have free chat. Or schedule a team happy or coffee hour to mingle and connect–it doesn’t have to be a full 60 minutes! Another idea to spark some friendly competition and engagement is utilizing Kahoot! during your virtual meeting. Any time spent getting the team together to breathe, check-in, and network is invaluable to overall team performance and happiness when you’re back in work mode. 

5. Debrief, Debrief, Debrief

Allot time at the end of the virtual meeting to debrief with the group. Summarize the major decisions and takeaways, and outline tangible next steps. Ask and answer questions to align as needed. Assign owners (with clear deadlines) to each task or action item so there is no confusion or clarification needed on who is responsible for what following the meeting.

Finally, consider ending on a light note with small talk or a joke to boost everyone’s mood and energy before heading out to tackle responsibilities! Send a meeting follow-up with the notes and action items shortly after the meeting via email, Google Docs, or Slack so everyone is on the same page and has all information readily accessible.

The inability to meet in person doesn’t mean we can’t have purposeful and effective meetings! We just need to adapt to the virtual environment, help one another, and roll with the punches. Consider hiring a professional facilitator to help navigate this shift to virtual and set your business up to experience positive results. A facilitator’s job is to actively guide teams through the decision-making process to reach goals and desired outcomes. They are unbiased leaders removed from emotion about office politics, which allows them to objectively lead with a clear vision of the sought-after goal. Their purpose is to ensure that a team meets its objectives, has fruitful conversations, and that the group gets what they need and want from the gathering. We also developed various downloadable resources and guides on Magical Meetings, Remote Design Sprints, and Hybrid Work to help you and your team navigate this unique time. We’re all in this together! 

Want to learn more about our virtual services? 

Voltage Control offers virtual services including Virtual Facilitation, Virtual Transitions, and Virtual Meeting Design. We also offer online courses, training, and workshops on Magical Meetings, Design Sprints and Design Thinking, and Large Virtual Meetings. Please reach out at hello@voltagecontrol.com if you are interested in learning more and for a consultation. 

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In the world of innovation, retrospective meetings are an essential component of a project lifecycle. They’re the crucial debrief or “look back” at the work that took place during an agile project to evaluate effectiveness and gather feedback on how to improve and mitigate risk moving forward. We’ve been a part of many retrospectives with our internal team at Voltage Control as well as with clients after Design Sprints and innovation workshops, and after each iteration of an agile project. To get the most out of attendees at retrospective meetings, and to ultimately optimize the retrospective process, we utilize the power of the Liberating Structures format. 

In this article, we’ll review Liberating Structures and the retrospective concept, then go through some examples of how to apply the Liberating Structures format to a retrospective meeting. You can also find additional options, strategies, relationships, and solutions using the best Liberating Structures in meetings here.

The Impact of Liberating Structures on Retrospectives

Liberating Structures is a framework created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, intended to promote powerful ways to collaborate and engage everyone within a team and boost collaborative team interactions. Liberating Structures consists of 33 microstructures, which are a collection of exercises that allow you to unleash and involve everyone in a group. They provide simple rules that make participatory decision-making easier and are a solution to the dysfunctional format of most meetings, or what Lipmanowicz and McCandless refer to as “conventional microstructures.” Conventional meeting microstructures are either too inhibiting (i.e. status reports/updates, managed discussions, presentations), or too loose and disorganized (i.e. open discussion and brainstorming). They often limit participation and the control is isolated to one individual or a select few–often the extroverted participants in the group. As a result, these conventional microstructures can routinely stifle inclusion and/or engagement. The Liberating Structures framework is built to encourage participation by including all team members, including those in today’s increasingly virtual environment. 

“Liberating Structures introduce tiny shifts in the way we meet, plan, decide and relate to one another. They put the innovative power once reserved for experts only in the hands of everyone.” -Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless

Before diving into the examples of how to use Liberating Structures in a retrospective meeting, let’s quickly review what a retrospective is. At a high level, a retrospective is an opportunity to reflect on a project and learn and improve. It may be a single long meeting after a large project is finished, depending on the environment. In agile environments, a retrospective is most commonly shorter and held often (i.e. 90 minutes at the end of a Design Sprint). Questions are asked and discussed such as:

• What did we do well?
• What did we do wrong? 
• What can we do better in the future? How can we best move forward?
• Pro tip: Share the questions ahead of time with team members so they can review and provide answers before the retrospective, resulting in time better spent during the meeting.

Retrospectives are an essential tool to help teams thrive in innovation. However, they can also get complicated and complex, leaving little room to extract team members’ ideas and input. Liberating Structures are an efficient and effective way to facilitate these meetings and help get the most out of them.

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3 Ways to Use Liberating Structures in a Retrospective

Now, let’s dive into 3 Liberating Structures examples that can be utilized for a retrospective.

1. What, So What, Now What?

This is a Liberating Structures technique that helps groups reflect on a shared experience to build understanding while avoiding unproductive conflict during a retrospective. You collect information about “What Happened,” make sense of the information with “So What” and, finally, uncover what actions logically follow with “Now What.” It is a very helpful exercise to help the team identify the pain points of a project and how to solve them.

What, So What, Now What? Steps

1. Individuals write down observations that stood out (1 min.)
2. Discuss observations in a small group for (2–7 min.)
3. Share with the whole group (2–3 min.)
4. Capture the important WHATs on a whiteboard.
5. Individuals write down patterns, hypotheses, and conclusions. (1 min.)
6. In a small group, discuss patterns, hypotheses, and conclusions (2–7 min.)
7. Small groups share with the whole group. (2–5 min.)
8. Capture the important SO WHATs on a whiteboard.
9. Individuals write down next steps (1 min.)
10. In a small group discuss the next steps (2–7 min.)
11. Small groups share with the whole group. (2–10 min.)
12. Capture the important NOW WHATs on a whiteboard

2. 15% Solutions

This simple (but extremely powerful) Liberating Structure is great when a retrospective’s time is limited but you want to get a group or team focused on what they are going to do next. The activity helps individuals think about small tweaks they can make to move toward and improve upon the larger goal.  The 15% Solution is the first step or solution that an individual can do without approval or resources from others. It is something that anyone can start right now if they want to. “15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change.” –Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless

15% Solutions Steps

1. Introduce the 15% Solutions concept to the team.
2. Each person generates his or her own list of 15% Solutions. (5 min.)
3. Individuals share their ideas with a small group. (3 min./person)
4. Group members ask clarifying questions and offer advice. (5-7 min./person)

3. TRIZ

This Liberating Structure is all about creative destruction and encouraging anti-patterns to unlock value and question the status quo. It forces teams to look at what didn’t work, targeting the “What did we do wrong?” question, or the worst-case scenario that could happen when bringing an idea to fruition. Do not identify net-new behaviors. Instead, focus on the worst-case scenario associated with the way your team functions, your product, project, or service offering. 

Pro-tip: Use our Triz templates for MURAL and Miro with your team during the retrospective to capture ideas, ideate, and reflect on the findings. 

TRIZ Steps

1. Introduce the concept of TRIZ to the team.
2. Identify an unwanted result that the group will focus on. If needed, have the groups brainstorm and pick the most unwanted result. (5 min.)
3. Each group uses 1–2–4-All to make a list of all it can do to make sure that it achieves this most unwanted result. 1–2–4-All refers to working alone, then in pairs, then foursomes, and finally as a whole group. (10 min.)
4. Each group uses 1–2–4-All to make a list of all that it is currently doing that resembles items on their first list. (10 min.)
5. Each group uses 1–2–4-All to determine for each item on its second list what first steps will help it stop this unwanted activity/program/procedure. (10 min.)

Utilize Liberating Structures for Project Improvement

Next time you are planning a retrospective, consider incorporating Liberating Structures to get the most out of your team and capitalize on improving your project. These three Liberating Structure exercises can be pieced together or combined with other Liberating Structures to best fit your team and needs. To help you implement them in your next meeting, we created free interactive MURAL and Miro templates for you to use.

Additional Resources

For additional information and ways to use Liberating Structures, check out our Liberating Structures course where you will:

• Learn key Liberating Structures principles
• Practice 5 key design methods
• Chart a plan for further application of Liberating Structures.
• Connect with a Liberating Structures community

We’ll lead you through our favorite Liberating Structures for opening, exploring, and closing in your facilitation. We’ll teach you about these methods and why and how they work. You’ll learn tips and tricks for using Liberating Structures across your work to facilitate lasting change. You can also learn hands-on in real-time at one of our Liberating Structures workshops: a deep-dive of Liberating Structures, when, and how to use them to unleash creativity in your meetings through maximum participation.

The post How to Use Liberating Structures for a Retrospective appeared first on Voltage Control.

Welcome to Magical Meetings Stories, a series where I chat with professional facilitators, meeting practitioners, leaders, and CEOs across industries about their meeting culture. We dive deep into a specific magical meeting they’ve run, including their approach to facilitation design, and their tips and tricks for running meetings people thrive in. 

Today’s story is with Stephen Shedletzky, Lead Igniter & Head of Brand Experience at Simon Sinek, Inc.–a company that finds, guides and supports leaders who intend to put their purpose and people first, ahead of short-term profit. Feeling stifled on his corporate track, Stephen was struck by founder Simon Sinek’s vision of a more inspired, safe and fulfilled world. He joined Simon’s team in 2011 to co-host the Start With Why podcast and to answer fan email. He now leads Brand Experience and Simon’s team of speakers and facilitators, helping to ensure the team’s culture, products, partnerships and communications authentically reflect their values and beliefs. 

I spoke with Stephen about a meeting he participated in called Prepare for Existential Flexibility (or Ex Flex), why it was necessary, how it helped save Simon Sinek, Inc. during the pandemic, and the powerful ripple effects it’s cast since.

“The test of a strong organization is ‘do you come out of this pandemic better than when you entered?’ And we will. We are. We have a more diverse, robust business.” -Stephen Shedletzky

The Need for Reinvention

The Ex Flex meeting was originally prompted in mid-March 2020 as a result of the pandemic. The vast majority of company revenue came from live, in-person events (which disappeared in a matter of days), and Simon needed to pivot quickly. Preparing for Existential Flexibility means the capacity to initiate an extreme disruption to a business model or strategic course in order to more effectively advance your Just Cause. This is a concept from one of Simon Sinek’s books, The Infinite Game. Stephen remembers Simon saying “Okay guys, we run out of cash by June so if we want this company to continue to exist, and if you want your job to continue to exist, we have to reinvent. I wrote about this in my book, The Infinite Game, and I never thought we actually had to do it or do it this quick or this urgently, but we do.” The instructions for the meeting were for everyone to come back to the next all-hands meeting, 48 hours later, with 15 new ideas.

When I asked Stephen the main purpose of the meeting, his answer was short but powerful: “To reinvent our future.”  

Company survival was what initially prompted the meeting, but in the end, a lot of positive outcomes resulted that may not have been put into real motion otherwise. Stephen explains: “This was just a wonderful, designed way to tap into the genius of people who had been in our team for as long as 10 years to go, all right guys. And what’s cool is a lot of the stuff we’ve done through COVID have been things that we’ve been talking about for years, but we never had the impetus or the urgency to have to do it.”

Let’s take a closer look at Stephen and Simon’s process to learn what made this meeting magical.

The Meeting

Pre-Meeting Prep

The assigned prep work was given 48 hours in advance – more time could be given, but in Stephen and Simon’s case the timeline was due to urgency and when the next full team meeting was scheduled. The team, made up of about 20 people of both creative and operational/executional people, was instructed to each come back with 15 new ideas for the company. The 15 idea focus was designed to push the teams’ creative boundaries beyond a handful of initial ideas. “We’d all come up with the same five ideas and they were probably his same five ideas as well so it’s actually accomplished nothing. He wanted us to get to ideas 11, 12, and 13, where we’re sitting there pondering going and then we come up with a totally radical, totally different sort of divergent idea. That’s innovation.” Participants were then instructed to categorize the ideas as green, yellow, or red.

The categorization was based on time and resources, which helped the group prioritize the ideas

• Green meant the idea could be pulled off quickly and become a revenue-generating product or offering within a couple of weeks.
• Yellow meant the idea would need more time to execute on (i.e. four weeks instead of two).
• Red meant the idea would need months – it could still be a great idea, but due to situational urgency it may demand more time to execute.

“We need[ed] to find new revenue generating ways that we’ve never done before, that we need to do imminently to keep going and to serve our end-user and to fuel the inspired, safe and fulfilled movement.”

Exercise

The meeting was booked for two hours and held on Zoom. The invited attendees were made up of the core operational team of 20 people, with approximately 15 in attendance. Notes were captured by two scribes via Google Docs.

Ground Rules

The first thing Simon did was set the ground rules. “He reminded us of our vision. He grounded us in our ‘why’ and our Just Cause.” The meeting operated round-robin, popcorn style. Attendees shared their top innovative/most interesting ideas from their generated lists, while leadership stayed quiet.“Our leaders either spoke last or didn’t speak at all. And if they spoke, they asked questions or they added nuance to ideas. But our most senior leaders didn’t really bring their ideas, they just listened and which was really cool. It was, we want to hear from everyone. And Simon said ‘this isn’t a democracy. In the end, I want to hear from all of you, I want to get all your ideas but in the end, the senior leaders are going to choose which ones and now based on resources and context and the things that they know that we may not, or we may not appreciate.’ But they didn’t really contribute, which I thought was really good.”

Collaboration

Stephen says the emphasis of the meeting was on collaboration, not on competition or about credit or ego for the discussed ideas. Simon wanted to hear from everyone. The benefit to everyone sharing their ideas with the group was that new ideas surfaced through this process too. People built off of presented ideas for 90+ minutes until no one had anything else to add. “

Prioritization

During the sharing, ideas were prioritized based on color categorization. The creator of the idea determined the color category (unless they weren’t sure what it would take to execute, in which case it was then a team decision). Stephen says they then focused on the  green and yellow ideas to decide which ones to move forward with. Next, it came time to mobilize the actual teams to get started on idea execution: “So we blocked, tackled and went.”

Outputs and Results

The biggest new idea to come out of the meeting was live online classes, Stephen says. Within a month, the first live online class launched–an over two hour session with a hundred people. The live class offerings, which started with classes based on Simon’s books such as Start with Why, are now even more diversified with topics and teachers both inside and outside Simon’s organization and material. Stephen and his team have since reached out to friends, colleagues, and others in their network to see if anyone else would want to teach live classes on the newly launched platform. The feedback has been positive and the team is now working with other companies and teams that they didn’t know pre-COVID. 

Stephen emphasized how impressive it is that these new connections have come about, especially during the pandemic. He said they created a new ecosystem (or what I like to refer to as “the global coffeeshop”): “It’s hugely powerful because it’s kind of replacing what naturally happened in the Vienna coffee shops, or Einstein would meet with whoever because that randomness is happening less and less and certainly less and less with COVID.”

A free-to-the-public book club with Simon was another idea from the Ex Flex meeting that quickly went live. It streamed on YouTube and other platforms and ended up attracting thousands of people who tuned in live to watch Simon go through pieces of the Start with Why book. 

Tools

There were a few tools Steven used to create magic and connection in his meeting:

• Zoom – Fosters connection using conversation, chats, and breakout sessions.
• Google Docs – Used to capture notes from the meeting in real time, and categorize them.
• Monday.com – Project management tool, similar to Asana.

A Successful Pivot

I asked Stephen what made him most proud about this meeting and process. 

“I’m proud of that one, in a moment where there was every excuse to panic, freak out, we were very calm, we were in charge of creating our destiny and future. We were very transparent and open. We tapped into the genius of our team…We were transparent, we asked for input from the team. It was testament of the fact that we had psychological safety in a circle of safety because people were very open, no one held back…We literally invented our own future. And we did that, it wasn’t external, it was internal. Now we were responding to external circumstances, but we pivoted, we did it and I’m hugely proud of that. We all did it and the company is still going and going. The test of a strong organization is ‘Do you come out of this pandemic better than when you entered?’ And we will. We are. We have a more diverse, robust business. That’s rad.”

Looking Ahead

I asked Stephen what he wants to do next, now that it’s been more than a year since the meeting occurred. He says he’d like to have more of a retrospect on it: “Revisit some of the artifacts from that meeting or come full circle and be like, ‘What are the things we’ve done? What are the things we’ve not done?’ I mean, it was a year ago and we’ve not really meaningfully done that yet and that could be cool to do too. Not to lament on the future, but just to reflect on the growth and also circle back on, ‘are there things that were in the inception of the idea when we dreamed this up, that we’ve not yet done or could do better?’”

Through this meeting, Stephen, Simon, and their team were able to save their company and even create new offerings they’d discussed in the past but never had the urgency to have to do. Their magical meeting is proof that great opportunity can come through crisis.

The post Prepare for Existential Flexibility appeared first on Voltage Control.

Here at Voltage Control, we’re passionate about educating individuals and companies about why facilitation skills are important. As the workplace shifts toward more remote work and a hybrid workplace, virtual collaboration training becomes even more important as leaders and facilitators won’t always have the luxury of having every team member present in a physical room. Virtual teams are becoming more common and the best leaders will need to adjust the way they manage and train their teams – just because all teams aren’t in-person anymore doesn’t mean they can’t be equally, if not more so, effective. 

The Voltage Control team has always been remote (outside of our former in-person events and workshops), so we practice what we preach of our extensive knowledge on this topic. The new virtual landscape unlocks many opportunities for collaboration and partnership that weren’t possible before. Now, we can connect with people around the globe via interactive virtual workshops, attend conferences, or productively collaborate with the team, all from a remote or home office. This is without the cost of travel, renting event room space, and provides more possibility to bring people together who would otherwise be unable to attend – collaboration and meaningful work are now possible with internet access alone! Greater diversity in collaboration is another resulting benefit. We have the power to solve problems and create collectively at a higher level than ever before. The question now becomes, how do leaders and facilitators train virtual teams to collaborate more effectively in the remote workplace?

Here are 5 ways facilitators can promote more effective virtual collaboration training:

1. Facilitate Productive Virtual Meetings

One of the biggest differences of working virtually is that screen time replaces face-to-face interactions. Remote facilitation skills are more important than ever with virtual meetings and teams. Always schedule with purpose – no purpose, no meeting. Identify the main goal of the meeting and distribute an agenda beforehand. When planning a remote meeting agenda, scale down expectations on how much time participants will invest (try to limit to no more than 2-4 hours/day). 

Another way to promote virtual collaboration training is to create homework and group work. Have teams read material as pre-work so they come to the meeting prepared and less time is wasted during the meeting itself to get the group in sync. During the meeting, consider assigning group work and splitting into small breakout groups to complete tasks or exercises. Then, the groups can finish their work on Slack, email or smaller video calls, leading to more productivity and less wasted meeting time. (pro tip: Try Zoom’s “breakout room” feature to organize people in separate spaces).

2. Adjust Design Sprints for a Remote World

Team standups or weekly check-ins are relatively straightforward, making an easier transition to the virtual world. However, complex meetings such as remote Design Sprints will require more virtual collaboration training. 

Typically, a Design Sprint is a five-day process for tackling a business problem. Here are some ways that we’ve adapted our Design Sprint model for remote work:

• Move Slower: The pace of the Sprint needs to be slower in a virtual setting, due to distractions, limited ability to read the virtual room, and other inevitable delays.
• Tweak the Schedule: Five full days in person is not equal to five full days virtually. People can’t be expected to be glued to their screens for long periods of time. That’s why we shifted our remote Design Sprints to a series of mini-workshops as opposed to five full days. 
• Set the Stage: Virtual Design Sprints need more planning because there are outside factors to consider. What are the best tools to use? What adjustments need to be made for timing? What are some methods to optimize engagement and interaction? Set expectations before the workshop so team members come prepared with all the right tools and know their deadlines and deliverables from the get-go. As a facilitator, you demo the expectations and process for everyone else, field questions, and then let them go off and do their work. The goal of virtual collaboration training is to have everyone on the same, productive page.                                                               

3. Promote Human Connection

As a facilitator and/or team leader, training your virtual team to collaborate more effectively also means promoting connection with each other. Without the possibility of in-person “water cooler” conversations or after work team happy hours, don’t be afraid to get creative. Team bonding is still very much possible in a virtual environment. Here are some ideas for virtual ways to connect:

• Randomly match up different team members for virtual “coffee chats” – this gives people who might not otherwise interact a chance to meet and get to know one another.
• Hold a virtual happy hour on a Friday afternoon for the team after a successful week.
• Have beginning of the week standup meetings where the whole team joins via video and discusses their goals, updates, and questions with the group.
• Prioritize 1:1 meetings with those on your team.
• Sprinkle in elements of fun and surprise – for example, start meetings with a funny or inspirational video, add funny GIFs to presentations, or try implementing Kahoot! (an online quiz tool and game-based learning platform) to fuel some friendly competition.

4. Utilize the Right Tools/Technology

Tools and technology are even more important for virtual collaboration training when a team is remote. Some of our favorite tried-and-true tools for virtual collaboration are:

• Zoom – Videoconferencing platform with breakout room capabilities.
• Trello – A place for assigning work and tracking work progress using a Kanban-style list-making application. Assign individuals to cards to create clear to-do lists and organize priorities.
• MURAL & Miro Templates – Use our custom templates to help teams collaborate virtually. 
• Basecamp – Real-time communication tool to keep track of everything you’re working on in a shared space. 
• Focus To-Do – Pomodoro time and task management app that helps you perform tasks efficiently. 
• Process Street – Make checklists for your team to help you remember and keep track of all of your to-do’s. 
• SessionLab – Dynamically design, organize and share workshops and training content.
• Slack – Team messaging platform that is a smart alternative to email. It allows the team to have a shared view of work progress and purpose
• Loom – Screen recorder that allows you to capture video screen messages instead of sending long emails. It’s also helpful for sending team members visual directions if you cannot screen share in real-time.
• Doodle – Calendar scheduling system for time management and to easily coordinate one-on-one and team meetings. 
• World Time Buddy – World clock, time zone converter, and online meeting scheduler to coordinate and plan across different time zones.
• Google Docs – Smart editing and styling tools support joint teamwork to flow smoothly and easily and keep ideas in one place. Teams can work on different pages or in different docs accordingly. 
• Google Drive or other cloud storage – Drop all assets and work content into a shared space for easy access for all team members. Use different folders to organize information. 

5. Reference our Virtual Guide

Finally, reference our in-depth Virtual Work Guide. Virtual collaboration training and facilitating with a distributed team is both an art and a science. We created this guide for you to build a foundation for promoting quality work in the virtual workplace, and it expands on the above topics in more detail.

The future of work looks different, but bright. Successful virtual collaboration training will take some additional work and planning, but will eventually lead to more effective teams in this increasingly virtual work environment. We look forward to helping teams transition to the new business landscape!

The post 5 Facilitation Methods for Effective Virtual Collaboration Training appeared first on Voltage Control.

“If you’ve got a breath and you’re a warm body, then I know that fun is going to be the magic, my most potent weapon…to be able to invite you to participate.” -Mark Collard

Mark Collard is the Founder of Playmeo, a company that provides a group-game wonderland with over 440+ games & activities towards team building and experiential education. He inspires facilitators, educators, and managers to empower groups to connect more effectively and build stronger teams. With training workshops and invaluable resources in their online database, Mark offers the essentials and more to exercise trust for organizations. Mark’s mission to lead with fun through games can ultimately lead to magic and results. 

In this episode of Control the Room, Mark and I discuss the creation of the temporary community to foster trust, the deliberate/strategic approach of connection before content, and the ongoing virtual facilitation challenge towards engagement. Listen in to hear how Mark is masterfully leading with humanity in his group game bag of tricks to not only build connections in groups, but amplify results in your organization. 

Show Highlights

[01:00] Mark’s Career Breakthrough in Games
[05:04] Creating the Temporary Community
[10:51] The Intentional, Unofficial Start Trick 
[13:27] Connect Before Content
[17:56] The Facilitation Virtual Challenge
[28:50] Are They Ready to Play?
[35:46] FUNN & Mark’s Final Thoughts

Links | Resources

Mark’s LinkedIn
Playmeo
Playmeo.com/free

About the Guest

Mark Collard is the founding director of Playmeo, a company that utilizes experiential learning and creates unforgettable training workshops to help teams connect. With a career spanning 30+ years, he has offered more than 2,000 presentations and numerous video tutorials that help thousands of teams connect to cultivate team-building. Author of three best-selling activity books, No Props No Problem, Serious Fun, and Count Me In, Mark has a true passion for sharing his mission with the world. Mark provides many professional and educational development programs to leaders, managers, and facilitators alike. His body of work has set the standard in leading fun, interactive group games to harvest trust & productivity in organizations. Mark’s mission is to lead with fun through games and ultimately weave the magic of play into effective results.

About Voltage Control

Voltage Control is a change agency that helps enterprises sustain innovation and teams work better together with custom-designed meetings and workshops, both in-person and virtual. Our master facilitators offer trusted guidance and custom coaching to companies who want to transform ineffective meetings, reignite stalled projects, and cut through assumptions. Based in Austin, Voltage Control designs and leads public and private workshops that range from small meetings to large conference-style gatherings.

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Full Transcript

Douglas:

Welcome to the Control the Room podcast, a series devoted to the exploration of meeting culture and uncovering cures for the common meeting. Some meetings have tight control and others are loose. To control the room means achieving outcomes while striking a balance between imposing and removing structure, asserting and distributing power, leaning in and leaning out, all in the service of having a truly magical meeting.

Douglas:

Today, I’m with Mark Collard, founder of Playmeo and an experiential trainer who helps people connect through the use of fun group games and activities. He’s the top-selling author of five books, including the latest, No Props No Problem, and the founder of the largest online database of group games and activities in the world. Welcome to the show, Mark.

Mark Collard:

Douglas, thank you. It’s great to be here.

Douglas:

It’s great to have you. So I want to hear a little bit about how you got your start. How does somebody get into this idea of fun group games and activities as a profession?

Mark Collard:

It’s a great question, and it’s one that I’ve had to ponder myself. In fact, I spent a bit of time writing about that very question, and I think if you dig dive deep enough, you go back all the way to kindergarten and it was like the kid who sat next to you. But I think in a more practical sense, it was the decision of my parents to send me to Scouts. It was my inclination to be part of a youth group, as part of my church. All of those spaces were places where I was engaged in group games and activities.

Mark Collard:

I don’t know many people who don’t actually enjoy them. And so I did, and not that I knew that then, but I made a career of using interactive group games and activities probably based on the fact that there was one particular youth leadership camp I went on that extended over four days that like night and day, chalk and cheese, just transformed me. Again, didn’t know this at the time, but I look back and understand the facilitation of those group games is what caused that transformation. For me, it harks back to that, but now with over 30 years experience in the field and having run many summer camps around the world, all of those are programmed activities. All of those give me my body of work today.

Douglas:

Let’s go back to that moment. I’m really curious. I want to hear more about this. What do you think were some of the key elements that kind of unlocked that experience for you?

Mark Collard:

Yeah. Again, I didn’t see it at the time, Douglas. I was just swept up in it as a participant, but with a lens that I have now looking at it, I understand it was the ability to form, first of all, a temporary community, those connections I had with about 40 other people I’d never met in my life, some of whom are my longest friends in my life. That I have friends from that program I still see on a regular basis today. So I think the ability for those leaders of that experience to build community, which was all about building connections. I suppose, for me, it was about then realizing who I was. ***As they had created such a safe place for me to be, I was able to then find others who could value me, acknowledge me and accept me. Perhaps, in my life, that had never happened before.***

Douglas:

Yeah. It’s really fascinating. You say temporary communities because it seems like the community wasn’t so temporary. It actually had long lasting applications and the thing that strikes me is that it was an emergent community. It kind of just like sprung forth because of the situation that was put there. It’s just dawning on me in this moment listening to you that like, “Wow, that’s a really interesting concept that we create these conditions and these little mini-impromptu communities emerge.”

Mark Collard:

That’s right, and they are temporary from an intentional perspective. I’m sure the leaders only intentionally wanted to create community for the four days they were running it. However, they also fully understand that the skills, the life skills… We didn’t use these terms back then, but the social, emotional, learning skills we were able to experience back then were going to last a lifetime. And they are no doubt in my mind the foundation of a lot of my experiences of who I am and how I occur to other people today. It was chalk and cheese. I remember going back to my university to mix with my friends who knew me the week before this camp and I came back and overwhelmingly said, “What happened to you? You look different.” I was dressing differently. “And you sound differently.” It was like, “Oh, something must have really happened.” Yeah, right. It wasn’t just in those four days. There is this sense that it’s going to continue as well.

Douglas:

Yeah. Maybe I’ll come back to that temporary notion again because something you said sparked something new from me, which is maybe it’s the intention of the facilitators, this kind of pure intention that they’re creating, this temporary environment without any bigger intentions, but what can grow from that is a bit unknown and will allow that to flourish. But we don’t impress these expectations on folks to make them feel like they’re responsible to do something or what not.

Mark Collard:

Oh, absolutely. I speak a lot about asking the question before you stand before any group, “What is possible? What is possible here?” I know the framework that I bring to my work and my training and education. It scaffolds the greatest level of possibility so it’s possible that the leaders in that particular youth leadership camp had the same expectations, is that we’re going to view this temporarily, but we’re going to ask the question, “What is possible here?” And so they just jammed and created this amazing framework that helped people feel safe so that they could step outside their comfort zones and discover who they were and what was possible for them. Of course, lofty levels were attained.

Douglas:

You mentioned people stepping outside of their comfort zones and so often when we’re working with clients and we go anywhere near playful kinds of things like improv or games, they always say, “Well, I’m not sure that the executives are going to do this or my analytical folks, I don’t think… They’re just going to roll their eyes or whatever.” I think there’s so much magic in that discomfort that they aren’t picking up on. They’re anticipating it, but they’re afraid to walk into it.

Mark Collard:

I’m nodding my head as you speak. I don’t think there’s been a program I’ve worked on where there hasn’t been some element of that in the beginning. While it’s not a term I typically embrace, but it’s about breaking that ice, the ice of that exterior. Sometimes it’s a soft exterior. Sometimes it’s quite hard that you do need to break through to get to who people really are. If you’ve got a breath and you’re a warm body, then I know that fun is going to be the magic, my most potent weapon, to be able to be invite you to participate.

Mark Collard:

I can’t think of a program, no matter who the group are, whether they’re a group of top executives from Fortune 500 companies or a group of school kids or kids at risk, whatever, if you can appreciate that they are human, if you can appreciate that they’re all going to enjoy play, but some of them get to it longer than others, like it just takes some time for some groups, more than others, that they can respond, if given the opportunity, given the correct environment. I often think of my own primary responsibility as a facilitator is about creating the most appropriate environment so that my group can make whatever choices is required for them to discover whatever is possible.

Douglas:

Yeah, that environment and space matters so much. It’s something that I think some people somewhat lose sight of in the virtual space because they… In the physical space, they think, “Oh, we need to get a venue. How are the tables arranged?” In the virtual space, it almost seems like they’re just like, “Oh, this is how Zoom works. I guess this is what we got.” And it’s like, “Ooh, that’s a real missed opportunity.”

Mark Collard:

Oh, absolutely. We also forget that we’re still working with humans. They may be pixelated versions on our screen and we get caught by this camera that we get sucked into, but I would argue that the ability to connect, the need to connect, is as important, I would even argue more important, when you can’t be in the same physical space as each other. And so it’s not just a matter of wheeling in your whiteboard or flip chart and presenting like you normally do because as a facilitator, for a start, you cannot gage the room in the same way when all you’ve got is a gallery view of pixelated images of heads. You can’t see the body behaviors as easily so facilitation is very different.

Douglas:

I’ve often lately started to use an assistant or a scribe or someone else in the room. Some people will use producers or technical facilitators, but having someone else there that’s helping check the signals, really helpful because you’re right, it’s really hard to pick up on all the nuance.

Mark Collard:

It’s very different. Again, in the same way when people actually turn up, my intentionality to invite them to connect early is equally as important as when people log into their Zoom room. I spend, for example, the first five or 10 minutes in what I refer to as the unofficial start, which is really just, it’s not an activity, it’s just a principle of engaging people productively in something that they have a choice in. It could be coloring mindfully online, using the annotate tool, or solving a few puzzles or responding to a question that I’ve posed.

Mark Collard:

Today, there was four of us on a call from around the world and I played a game where I threw a dice and the dice number reflected a question on the screen. If that person who was next chose to, they would answer that question. It was completely random. They didn’t know how the dice would roll. That was my unofficial start. The key there, Douglas, is the intentionality. I was intentionally inviting connections while at the same time waiting for people to arrive. The hour just flew as a result because people felt more connected to people who they’ve never met before, never been in the same room before but felt some form of connection to each other.

Douglas:

It’s funny. I just finished up some training with a large enterprise and we were doing some coaching after and they were asking me… They’re making a point that, “We really love the connection pieces. Whenever we came back from break, we did something to like create connection and that was really impressive. I want to use that more but how can I do that in a 30-minute meeting?” I asked, “How often do your 30-minute meetings start on time?” Then she was like, “Well, not very often.” Then I said, “Well, why do you not start on time?” She said, “Well, I’m waiting for people to arrive.” I was like, “Would you be willing to start a warmup on time?” She was just like, “Oh, okay. I get it.” Yeah, it’s exactly the thing you were saying, right? We’re not going to be afraid to start a warmup the minute the clock ticks and then we can get it going.

Mark Collard:

Absolutely. With the time I spent honing that skill, particularly in university, I was a lecturer there for seven years, I lectured in two subjects. Over the course of 14 semesters, every class started with an unofficial start. Typically, as kids who have just left high school, moved into college or university, they would just dribble in because that’s what happened with every other class. Why would you turn up on time when you know the instructor’s going to wait five or 10 minutes.

Mark Collard:

I would start on time but indeed early, and within about four or five weeks of the 14-week semester, I never had another late student. I never had to say to them, “Hey, dude, you need to be here on time.” Because here’s what happened: I didn’t use this terminology back in the 90s, but FOMO, the fear of missing out, there was something that happened that transpired that you know when you entered the space that, “Oh, what’s going on?” That you could feel something and that also happens online. As people arrive online, they get that there’s an energy about what’s happening and you do that enough, you don’t turn up late. There’s obviously reasons why some people need to be late but often it’s just laziness.

Douglas:

Yeah. I would say that’s a much safer thing to do than just to start content early. Because if you start content early, you will get a lot of backlash and people feeling like you’re attacking them.

Mark Collard:

Yep. And it’s a missed opportunity, Douglas, because you have an opportunity to connect. Now, it’s great if that connection can also relate directly to your content as well. That’s like a double whammy. But it shouldn’t be necessary, but it’s great if it can. And so you’ve got that ability to… Or the opportunity to connect is missed. It’s a golden opportunity. Otherwise, it’s thrown away.

Douglas:

I want to point out that it comes back to one of your maxims, which is connect before content.

Mark Collard:

While I use it a lot, it’s something I’ve learned from somebody else. Chad Littlefield from a group called We. I don’t know where he got it from, but for me, that just resonated. It did. It just made a lot of sense, but it put a title, a mantra, to something that I’d already been doing, to connect before content. I often say to people that are not being rude, I actually don’t care what your content is, but whatever it is, do something. Spend some time and energy and with, unashamedly, always takes a little bit of time and a little bit of energy, do something to help your group connect.

Mark Collard:

I speak a lot with educators and school administrators and their first push back to that is, “Oh, if you had any idea just how crammed our curriculum is. How do we find the extra time for this?” Without exception, those that embrace this concept discover that over time, the group actually, because of their connections, get through a lot more content a lot more quickly. And so they end up actually getting through as much of the content as they planned, indeed even more, because some of the group issues, the group management issues, just don’t bare their heads as often or as large when you haven’t spent the time spending time to invite those groups to connect with one another.

Douglas:

This also gets into brain chemistry and learning science type stuff as well because the connection is going to create environments for better learning and so you probably don’t have to repeat yourself as much as a lecturer when you’re lecturing and that connection to the people is going to make them more connected to the content.

Mark Collard:

Yep. I’ve never met a camp leader, a teacher, corporate trainer, anyone who’s responsible for the welfare of a group who said, “Oh, Mark, could you teach me how to pull back the engagement for my group? They’re just way too engaged.” It’s always, “Mark, if I could just engage my group, it would be half the problem.” And so those connections is part of the answer. It’s not the only answer obviously, but to invite people to connect to help them feel more comfortable invites them to participate, to put their hand up where they ordinarily wouldn’t because the question might be a bit challenging for the group to hear. Or to give something a go that at first glance they might feel they could look a bit foolish if they don’t get it right. That’s the environments that we’re talking about that invite… that happens as a result of intentionally building those connections early on.

Douglas:

I want to come back to a point you made earlier and just spend a little time on it to make sure the listeners really understand what you were getting at. It was your point around tying the connection to the content. If you even poked a little fun at the term icebreaker because I think a lot of times it’s used maybe as a corpus of work that people just throw around without having connection to the content. One of the things I usually like to tell people is if we do something and we can’t ask the group why we just did that and have it be a really interesting conversation, maybe we should be asking ourselves why did we just do it. And so when we’re picking these activities and games, it’s really great when we can be really intentional about it and thinking about what they get out of it and how that transitions into the work we’re going to follow with.

Mark Collard:

Yes. I’m a big proponent of and a big advocate for taking fun more seriously. But when that fun, it’s packaged because we want to invite people to participate, it’s like a magnet, when that fun also engages them in something related to the content, it’s an extra prize. It’s a bonus. It’s something we should aim for. It may not always be possible, but in my experience, and perhaps it’s come from experience, Douglas, most activities I can find a way to win a message to segue from that thing that appeared to be trivial, just fun, frivolous, wasteful to, “Oh, now I can see why we did that.”

Mark Collard:

I love that when that happens. I love it when a kid says to me, “Oh, you lied to us today.” It’s like, “What do you mean?” “Well, you said we’re going to have fun.” I said, “Yeah. Did you have fun?” “Yeah, we had fun, but I also learned something.” It’s like, “Yes, that’s awesome.” I disguised the learning inside this package called fun because it’s the attractive part.

Douglas:

I love that. And so we’ve been talking a lot about connection and I want to bring it into the context of the space we find ourselves these days, which is remote. There’s a lot to unpack here so I’m excited to talk about a few of these things with you. But first, let’s just talk a little bit about the challenge of creating connection in a virtual space.

Mark Collard:

It is a challenge, Douglas. There’s no doubt. When March/April happened in 2020 and a tsunami of inquiries came into my inbox saying, “Help.” We all worked under the presumption that we had to turn up. That was the presumptive setting. Everyone would just turn up and that was no longer possible. What do we do? They came to me as the expert and I just put my hands up and said, “I’m an explorer. I am not the expert because I have not done this either.” And so it was challenging. I think in the beginning, the challenge, Douglas, was wrangling the technology because we weren’t used to that. We weren’t used to setting the camera and the mic and the settings and the backgrounds and whatever we had to do to create slides if we normally did something else. But that just took a little bit of time, to sort of wrangle the technology.

Mark Collard:

I think the greatest challenge was bringing our humanity to that pixelated version of ourselves on the screen and that of course of everyone else on our screen. That for me is what separated the good to the excellent. You might’ve been a great teacher or even a good teacher or a corporate trainer, but what made you excellent online was that you were able to manage the humanity of this moment, even though we’re not in the same space.

Mark Collard:

I was able to respect, and when in doubt, accept that everyone was human. And yet that the intentionality was still present. I got so caught up in the technology in the beginning, I forgot to bring myself and my humanity and to invite everyone else’s humanity to our space. So inviting choice, so it wasn’t just like picking an image on my screen. I say, “Okay, Charlie, what do you think about that?” Well, Charlie was now on the spot. You probably shouldn’t do that in any group, in any case, in most cases. But there was other ways in which I could respect choice and respect the humanness of that moment. For me, I’ve continued to refine those skills of bringing my humanity to the screen.

Douglas:

Absolutely. Let’s get a little bit tactical when we think about… What are some of the moves or plays that can help make connections? I feel like breakout rooms are a powerful way to get a little connection happening. I certainly agree calling on people can be abrupt and challenging. Something I’ve taken a fancy to, I miss the days of being able to just go around the circle. Get everyone in a circle and go around the circle.

Douglas:

People have certainly done the… After you go call like maybe pick the next person and just go around like that. I’ve even shared my gallery view. I know Zoom now lets you set a fixed view, but people get lost and you can pin on their version of Zoom. I can be problematic, but I’ll share my screen so that people can see what order they’re in so they know what order to go in so you can do the go around the circle thing. But I was just curious if you had any moves or plays that you use to help boost the connection a bit.

Mark Collard:

I’ve used a similar technique too. I think what you just described, Douglas. I call it curiosity ping pong. Again, something I’ve picked up from elsewhere, where I will start by asking a question. For example, I did this just a few days ago. “What is the strangest thing you believed as a kid?” And I invite people to write it into the chat room. Don’t hit enter. Just put it into the chat room and then give them a minute to do that. Then on go, everyone hits the enter key. Then it’s like my inbox, first thing in the morning, just fills with responses. Give them a moment to reflect on all of that. Then I’ll either ask for a volunteer or I will start and say, “Hey, I’m really curious about your response about this, Shaquana. Can you tell me more about that?”

Mark Collard:

If Shaquana wants to, she’ll come off mute, share what the story was about her response to the question and then it’s her turn. But the back and forth ping pong, it’s her turn to pick somebody else. And so it’s a bit like I think what you shared. There’s that. You could also play a game where maybe we identify based on the number of letters in our name or the alphabetical order of our names or it could be some other random number.

Mark Collard:

I might say, “Okay, in the chat room, just put any two digits together from zero to 99. Just randomly put a number down.” They don’t know what’s coming of course. So they put down their number. “Okay, whoever is closest to zero, I invite you to go first. And whoever’s after that, you’re second. And it’ll finish with whoever’s closest to 99.” What they love is that it was fun, just making up a number. And then “Oh, okay.” It engages them because they need to see, check to see where they’re at. You could also change their names if you happen to be using Zoom, of course. You could change their name to just putting the two numbers in so then everyone can see all the numbers on their screen at the same time. There’s a couple of quick ones.

Douglas:

Nice. Nice. Yeah, that reminds me of a fun warmup that you can do. Comes from improv games of counting together. You try to get to 10 without stepping on anybody and you got to keep starting over. Eventually, if you got a clever group, some will present a strategy that we might use to get through this. Then I think people jumping in and offering support and strategies is where that is a form of connection too because they’re starting to problem solve without you even telling them to problem solve.

Mark Collard:

Yep, and that’s a great activity. I know it as count off. I’ve been using for years in person, but it’s even better online because-

Douglas:

It’s harder.

Mark Collard:

Well, it’s harder in some respects, but it’s better because when it was live, in-person, sometimes I couldn’t quite tell if two numbers came out at the same time or not.

Douglas:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Collard:

But online [crosstalk 00:24:13]

Douglas:

The latency. The latency in the internet makes people mess up more, and it’s funny because someone thinks they’re… And you hear it like two seconds later or something. It’s pretty good.

Mark Collard:

Typically less so with the chat room, but it’s very obvious to everyone that we just had three fives in a row. Great. We’re back to zero again and it’s engaging. It’s one of those things that you might just use as a 30-second energizer to mindfully just move away from your content before you refresh and move on to something new.

Douglas:

Yeah, just having a reset. It’s a great reason to do these things. It’s a little brain break. Yeah.

Mark Collard:

Yep. Yeah, or brain boost. I had someone tell me the other day. He’s like, “Really? That sounds so damaging. Why are you breaking brains?” It’s like, “Oh, that’s not what I meant.” Then I have to say brain boost now.

Douglas:

No, no. That’s so good. Brain boost, I love it. Well, I also want to talk a little bit about current events there in Australia. Here we are, practically May, and you’ve been pretty open since October. Something I found really interesting when I asked you about hybrid is that you really hadn’t been seeing much of it. It’s either in-person or remote.

Mark Collard:

That’s right.

Douglas:

Which has been a hypothesis of mine that people are going to do one or the other and if anyone’s remote, it has to be all remote even if a good chunk of those people might be in the same building.

Mark Collard:

I think it clearly depends on regions, and in some cases, I come from Melbourne, Australia. Australia’s done an outstanding job at controlling the spread of the virus. I think we’ve been almost six months practically without any community transmission. So that’s been good. So kids have been back in school since October, no issue whatsoever. But when we were at remote learning, it was one or the other. You were either remote learning or everyone was in the classroom. In Australia, didn’t see hybrid, where you’ve got a bit of both. I do know it is in some places around the world and that is a tough gig. It’s hard enough to teach just to remote or just to the folks who were stand before you in the classroom or the training room. But to do both at the same time takes a masterful set of skills.

Douglas:

It’s multitasking. And as we know, people can’t multitask. And so if you’re looking at the Zoom, you’re not looking at the room. And if you’re looking at the room, the people in the Zoom are getting a deficient experience. If you’re looking in the Zoom, the people in the room are getting a deficient experience. And always if people in the room are going to be tempted to have conversations, the people that are connected to Zoom aren’t going to hear those conversations. Definitely not if there’s one omnidirectional mic in the room, right?

Mark Collard:

Yeah, we’ve all been part of meetings where… I was part of school council earlier this week. One of our, it was actually the vice chair, was Zoomed in. Everyone else’s in the same room. It was hard. It was so difficult to keep involving them. They often don’t get heard because they’re being put on mute or whatever. It’s just very difficult and I think it takes a great master to be able to manage that well so everyone feels acknowledged and valued.

Douglas:

Yeah. And I think that it’s those principles we have to keep coming back to if we’re going to explore those scenarios. I think that’s the interesting part. We’re going to be entering in a time of experimentation where we’re going to be exploring how we show up for those types of things and what the best moves and tactics are. But I think to your point, we have to come back to those principles and those underpinning values.

Mark Collard:

Yeah. And it could be just as simple as acknowledging that it is clearly a different setting when you’ve got that hybrid-ness. But making sure that that person continues to be heard and valued because it’s easier to see everyone in the room, but it’s harder for them to do that or to hear them. And so constantly checking in with them. It’s like, “Hey…” Which is true for any person. If you got the folks who don’t speak up as much as others, it’s true for the facilitator of that group to make sure that those folks have a chance to check in as well or to break into smaller groups. Well, make sure you don’t forget the person who’s on Zoom. Have that screen turned around to the two or three people who are now in a breakout room, even though two or three of them are in the same space. The intentionality to remember about that stuff.

Douglas:

I want to ask you another question here, which is for someone who’s already had to go back to in-person and you’re doing some remote stuff, you’re doing some in-person stuff, how did this moment of being 100% remote influence how you show up in-person now?

Mark Collard:

That’s a great question, Douglas. The first thoughts that come to mind is this technique that I use to ask or somehow inquire check, in with my group. Are they ready to engage? Are they ready to play? Are they ready to learn? It depends on the context. I don’t know that I really did that very, very well back in the days when everything was presumptively you turn up. But I acknowledge the humanness of folks that they… Particularly, because my community is worldwide that some are getting up in the early morning. Some are up late at night. Some are at the end or in the middle of their working days. Checking in with them and creating something on the screen that said, “Hey, just annotate this scale.” And I did a variety of them. Let’s say we use the emojis so you got depressed at one end and sad and the other end, highly vigorous and enthusiastic and everything in between.

Mark Collard:

Annotate this scale as to where you’re at right now. It gave me a very quick sense of where my group was at. I wasn’t solving any problems. But sometimes just the simple acknowledgement of the fact that people are tired or they’re not feeling well or they’re here under duress can be enough to bridge the engagement necessary to move them forward in the next hour.

Mark Collard:

Now, of course, I’m doing that as people turn up. Here’s an example. I worked with a group of kids just the other day, whereas they enter the gym, they have to stand on this paper mat and there were three emoji faces. One was sad, one was neutral, the other one was happy. As they came in, there was a little sign that says please step on to basically engage with that emoji that you’re feeling right now. Without ever having to say anything to the group as they were coming in, dribbling in, I could tell from the foot marks where my group was at and I was checking in with them and there’s a whole variety of other ways of doing it. But that was just one that I recently used that was so simple. People thought it was fun and it’s something now that has really influenced what I do in-person.

Douglas:

It’s interesting. It reminds me of what we refer to as assessment points, because the game became an assessment point for you. You were able to glean info about how they were showing up and that can be used not only at the beginning, but throughout an event wherever we want to gage how people are doing. We can throw those things in.

Mark Collard:

Yep. And any number of unofficial stats. As we hark back to what we talked about earlier, Douglas also provides me with evidence about where my group is at. So if I’ve provided a selection of activities as people are gathering and most people are choosing to do something other than what I’ve given, that gives me an indication of where the group is at, how connected they are, how well do they look after each other, are they up to play, are they willing to engage, are they looking for excuses for something else to do? Even that provides me with maybe an unofficial way of checking in with the group as well.

Douglas:

Yeah, I want to come back to something you’ve mentioned a couple of times and you just brought it up again. This notion, “Are they willing to play? Are they ready to play?” What would you recommend to a facilitator if you detect or suspect that they’re not quite ready?

Mark Collard:

I think most groups are not ready. Because the thing about play, if we look at its pure definition, is it’s the absence of pretense. It’s who you are. Most of us run around for lots of good reasons with some at least a thin veil of a mask. So Most groups have something that needs to be pulled down before they’re ready to jump in and just simply play to be engaged in something for no apparent reason other than the sheer joy that comes from participating. No win-lose. They’re not particularly conscious of what’s going on around them. They are the essence of play or flow if you want to get really scientific.

Mark Collard:

I think all groups come with that. Some of them just have a lot more ice to chip through than others. If you truly wanted to help that group connect and therefore amplify the results of whatever you’re trying to get done, then do something, a little bit of time and energy to chip away at that, can be very useful and you need to meet them where they’re at.

Mark Collard:

I can think of many corporate groups that stand there with their arms crossed or their chest and like, “Eh, this is just childish. Blah, blah, blah.” Then it becomes a personal mission for me, Douglas, to find something so contagiously fun, it becomes difficult for them to stand away from. Then once they’re in it, I know I’ve got them because they realize this is a safe place. Having a big bag of tricks up my sleeve is definitely one of my advantages. But I appreciate that for many people they don’t have much, which is partly why I created this huge database to better say, “Hey, this is what’s working for me. Give it a go type stuff.” Having that large repertoire is useful so that you’re picking the right activity at the right time to chip away at whatever that resistance might be.

Douglas:

In our facilitation lab just last week, one of the facilitators said it’s one thing to invite someone to the dance, but it’s a completely other thing to invite them to dance. As you were talking about this executive with his arms crossed not willing to engage, I just had this mental image of you and your bag of tricks and at first his toe starts tapping with the music and then his leg starts moving and next thing you know, he’s dancing.

Mark Collard:

Yeah. And it’s so easy for us as facilitators to point the blame at that person. “Ah, I’ve seen you before. You never do anything and blah, blah, blah.” I like to flip it and go, “No, no, it’s my responsibility to create an environment in which you make appropriate choices consistent with the goals of the program.” If I can understand that it’s my responsibility and look, every one of us can can say, “Yep, there’s some people out there. They’re not even their mother’s love.” I get that. But really most people, most humans are willing to meet at least halfway if you can give them a good reason to engage. And so I like to flip that responsibility. It’s like, “What is it that I’m doing that’s creating this for them right now?” And you can’t control the stories in their head, but you can control the environment as much as possible that might help them make a different decision.

Douglas:

Let’s just be honest. There are going to be plenty of situations where it might be our fault as facilitators that maybe we didn’t do a great job of setting it up so they’re not connecting to the why or the purpose or they’re unclear on it. Or they feel like they’re going to have to make a sacrifice and we haven’t laid that out properly.

Mark Collard:

Yep. I think it’s a really great question for every one of my groups to ask is why are we doing this. What I hope, what I plan, what I intend is that that question is answered in the fun that is wanting to draw them in. My mentor, Karl Rohnke, who sadly passed away last year, he was the person that I learned all of this stuff, and he coined a term called functional understanding not necessary, FUNN. He talked about that. That was one of his core values was FUNN. Because it’s not necessary to understand what’s going on to have a great time. And so that contagiously fun stuff is what loosens those arms on people’s chests to lean in and give something a go because they sense that there’s nothing to embarrass or threaten them, it looks safe and it looks like just a bit of fun. That’s a challenge to find that, but there are lots of options that you can work with.

Douglas:

Wow. What a great concept. I think that’ll be a great spot to end on as well so I want to shift it over to you, Mark to see if you have a final thought for our listeners.

Mark Collard:

Well, I mentioned Douglas in our conversation having a bag of tricks. That’s something I learned from Karl. He had a massive, thousands of activities, it just seemed to me, he could pull out of his back pocket and use it at the right time with a particular group. And so over the last 30 years, I’ve created this massive online database because while I have many books, that was one way of sharing the word for beyond those people who could turn up at a training. But doing it online just leveraged the digital world. And so playmeo.com, I’m sure you’ll provide links here, is a great place to go. There’s tons of free resources there, lots of free group games, many of which you can use virtually as much as in-person. They’re all about providing opportunities for your group to interact and build those connections so that it helps amplify your results. So if you go to playmeo.com/free, typical spelling, you can find tons of things that you can download. Everything from a free app to free activities online, eBooks and so forth.

Douglas:

Well, Mark, I just want to reiterate how much of a pleasure it’s been chatting with you today. I encourage everyone to go check out playmeo.com for lots of free tools. It’s on my list that I published of awesome resources for methods and tools so I definitely endorse that. Go check it out. Mark, it’s been a pleasure. Enjoyed the conversation.

Mark Collard:

Thank you, Douglas. It’s been my pleasure as well. Hope everyone of your listeners has enjoyed this too.

Douglas:

Thanks for joining me for another episode of Control of the Room. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive updates when new episodes are released. If you want more, head over to our blog, where I post weekly articles and resources about working better together. Voltagecontrol.com.

The post Episode 43: The Essence of Play, A Masterful Art appeared first on Voltage Control.

A return to work is around the corner, but what will that look like? For many businesses, that will not mean “business as usual”. The adjustment to remote work has many people considering a hybrid workplace. However, hybrid work has become a blanket term used to meekly describe the dynamic that the future of work suggests. Hybridity in the workplace is much more than the location and time we work; it’s not that simple. The merging of in-person and virtual work will mean the emergence of completely new a paradigm for all workers. Just like we had to shift to different processes and systems for remote work in the virtual landscape, we must consider the full picture of what hybrid roles and hybrid workers will look like in order to be successful in a new kind of work environment.

First of all, returning to work in person is a question of who is comfortable doing so. While some people are eager to be back in a collaborative office space, others aren’t so ready for various reasons–be it health concerns, a preference for remote work, or a resistance to getting back into an in-person work routine. Make no mistake, getting back together face-to-face is going to be a transition. It won’t immediately revert back to how it used to be because too much has happened since then. We’ll have to readjust our schedules–like organizing care for kids and adding a commuting routine back in–and get reacquainted with social norms and behaviors that come with an in-person work environment. From seemingly little things like questioning, “Do I shake my co-workers’ hands?” to larger concerns about whether employees will start back full or part-time, returning to work will mean ironing out kinks and getting readjusted. You’ll also need to consider the configuration for your hybrid environment–will there be multiple offices? What does hybrid mean to your organization–does it mean Mondays and Fridays in the office and every other day remote? This transition will take time. 

As employees begin to reestablish patterns and norms, they will be faced with new and potentially unexpected thoughts and feelings. They may find this process difficult and unsettling. Make sure to listen to their needs and give them time to adapt. While many may be excited to rush back, we’ll need to support those that need more time. We also don’t want to rush into hasty decisions that don’t sere our long-term needs and unnecessarily alienate team members.

It is our responsibility as leaders to establish clear expectations and “new norms” while also holding space for team members’ needs so that everyone can transition as painlessly as possible. 

I was recently chatting with some of the facilitators in our community and they declared that there is no such thing as a hybrid workshop. Their point was that if you are seeking full and equal participation from everyone we need to ensure that the interface for everyone’s ideas has consistent and equal bandwidth. In order to do that, all of your in-person attendees need to join the virtual session individually, making them all virtual participants as well. 

There is currently no software specifically made for hybrid work; software that exists assumes for remote work. We will need tools and processes that not only seamlessly support the merging of productive in-person and virtual work, but that also make connection a priority. Perhaps the greatest challenge for remote teams is genuine connection. It’s the essential missing element of in-person connection that cannot be replaced by technology–no matter how innovative. There is no substitute for human interaction. That’s why many businesses are prioritizing physical togetherness for their employees even if they have the choice to remain fully remote. The value for connection–however you create and maintain it–is paramount to do meaningful work together. 

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The word of hybrid also ushers in new concerns around co-location and who is actually in the room. Many workers have relocated during the pandemic and may no longer be near an office. What are the lines of collaboration that have been severed locally? Co-location will impact our design choices and skew our perspective. For example: When designing hybrid meetings, workshops, and other gatherings, there will be a natural pull to group co-located individuals during breakout sessions. While this may work out sometimes, we certainly shouldn’t take it for granted.

Do you see room for hybrid work within your organization? If so, how are you preparing for the shift in the workplace? If you decide to support a hybrid workplace, how will meetings work with some team members in a physical room and others dialing in virtually? What will you need to do to encourage equal connection amongst dispersed and in-person team members? How will hybrid work change talent acquisition? Will in-person team members have advantages or disadvantages that virtual workers won’t and visa versa? What technology needs to exist to fully support an effective hybrid work environment? The intricacies of a hybrid workplace are vast, but it’s a puzzle that can create a full, functional picture. 

If you are considering a hybrid work environment, keep this in mind: at the center of productive work is the people who make it happen. Keenly focusing on your team members and what they need to thrive is essential, especially in a hybrid environment. There is definitely no one-size-fits-all approach to getting the best performance from individuals and creating the best experience for them to succeed in. Learn your team members’ strengths and create opportunities for them to utilize them. One person may work best in person, while others may soar when they’re able to buckle down and hone in on their duties alone in their chosen workspace. It may seem like a game of Tetris at first, but leaning into the specific needs and preferences of your team, paralleled with how everyone can work best together, will create the most effective and inspiring work environment for all. 

It’s important to remember that we are entering a new age of experimentation. While it may seem familiar, this is new territory, so everyone will have a different perspective and approach. We must find what works best for our teams while also merging with the methods and preferences of other companies and people we work with. For example, I’ve recently been asked to facilitate a session where I’m remote and everyone else is in person. Each experience we have in the hybrid workspace will be a prototype to help us build new and innovative ways of collaborating. 

This transition will be interesting and we’ll all have to decide for ourselves and for the betterment of our teams which approaches, systems, and processes create the most advantageous results. Stay curious and stay safe.

The post Exploring Hybrid Work Connection appeared first on Voltage Control.

“I think that people have been trying to facilitate these virtual meetings and they’re pretty dry in a lot of ways, but they get the point across and that’s good, but they’re finding maybe a lack of productivity that happens when people just feel like this mundane day-to-day.” -Rachael Green

Rachael Green is the CEO and Founder at Rach Green Cocktails, where she uses high level hospitality, spirits and cocktail knowledge to entertain thousands of people from around the world.

In this episode of Control the Room, Rachael and I discuss hospitality, hybrid events, and mixology. Listen in to hear how prioritizing fun and connection can usher in balance and harmony within your teams.

Show Highlights

[00:51] Rachael’s Beginnings
[13:49] Significance of Hospitality & Fulfillment vs. Security
[23:50] Formulas for Hybrid Experiences
[31:09] Actionable Steps to Creating Better Virtual Experiences
[34:51] Rachael’s Final Thoughts

Links | Resources

Rachael’s LinkedIn
Cocktails & Connections

About the Guest

Rachael Green is the founder of Rach Green Cocktails, and a master mixologist with a knack for fun. Rachael’s entrepreneurial spirit combined with her hospitable nature results in a buoyant perspective that lifts teams, individuals, and organizations out of the drudgery of the mundane. By engaging the five natural senses, she’s discovered that people can bring their full selves when given the expectation and opportunity to do so.

About Voltage Control

Voltage Control is a change agency that helps enterprises sustain innovation and teams work better together with custom-designed meetings and workshops, both in-person and virtual. Our master facilitators offer trusted guidance and custom coaching to companies who want to transform ineffective meetings, reignite stalled projects, and cut through assumptions. Based in Austin, Voltage Control designs and leads public and private workshops that range from small meetings to large conference-style gatherings.

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Full Transcript

Douglas Ferguson:

Welcome to the Control The Room Podcast, a series devoted to the exploration of meeting culture and uncovering cures for the common meeting. Some meetings have tight control and others are loose. To control the room means achieving outcomes while striking a balance between imposing and removing structure, asserting and distributing power, leaning in and leaning out, all in the service of having a truly magical meeting. Today, I’m with Rachael Green, CEO and founder of Rach Green Cocktails, where she uses high-level hospitality, spirits, and cocktail knowledge to entertain thousands of people from around the world. Welcome to the show, Rachael.

Rachael Green:

Hey, Douglas, how’s it going? Thanks for having me.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, it’s great to have you. I guess for starters, let’s just hear a little bit about how Rachael Green became Rach Green Cocktails?

Rachael Green:

Yeah. Well, man, you could say that it starts all the way back when I was a kid and I was just mixing my fruit juices, which is actually true, but it’s interesting because I was born into a family where my father has always been an entrepreneur. And so, I’ve always really idealized this as something that I wanted to do, but it really started for me, 10 years ago when I got into the hospitality industry where my “why” came from. I worked in retail for a second, and then I got into food and beverage where I was working as a cocktail waitress. And I started to see things in the food and beverage industry that I thought was just related to this one restaurant that I was working for, when in fact I realized over the years that this was a systemic kind of issue of how people were approaching hiring and treating their employees and treating their guests was so short-sighted.

So, I really wanted to learn more about hospitality. So I got my bachelor’s degree in hospitality management and administration to really understand the truth behind what hospitality really means and how to facilitate it in a way that is in fact true hospitality. And I’ve been on this journey for 10 years, finding people that I feel like are doing it really well, seeking to understand the pieces that make it run really well, and the pieces that don’t. And for 10 years, I worked with other people, for other people, all sorts of different positions all across the food and beverage from sales, bartending, restaurant management, catering, events, all sorts of different things. But something really stuck with me when I was going through college.

My last semester, I was in international wine and culture and I applied to become the head teaching assistant because I did really well. I always was really fascinated by alcohol and fermentation and the science behind it. I almost wanted to go into chemistry, but I was such a social creature that I couldn’t see myself being in a lab coat. So, I really love the scientific aspect behind growing grapes and understanding the knowledge in wine and the geography of everything. And that’s when I got my first taste of educating. And so, I kind of dabbled in that little pieces throughout the next five or six years when I got into liquor sales and I got into educating people on spirits. And then I also got an opportunity with a little shop named Collins & Coupe, they’re out of San Diego where I was based out of and they would have these cocktail classes. They would get a little permit for it and they would have cocktail classes with like 20 people.

And I was starting to facilitate once a month these in-person cocktail classes for consumers and I fell in love with it. I was like, “So, this is like the educational aspect that I really loved mixed with also the passion for what I was doing in alchemy.” So, I was able to figure out a way to do this in other ways. So, I started figuring out other ways to do these in-person cocktail classes. Now, I left California in October of 2019 and I went to North Carolina here where my family is just to kind of get grounded in a space to launch off from. And I started doing these in-person cocktail classes and they were such a blast and I was starting to get a lot of traction with them and then everything in March of 2020 went virtual. So, I didn’t look at it from the very beginning as something that was a business opportunity, right?

I went and decided to go live on Facebook to just teach people how to do cocktails because I’ve been doing it in person. And I was like, “I’m just going to come on.” And it was a total hit. People in my network really loved it. And as I started to do them more consistently on Facebook, I started to see how people wanted to become connected with something in either connected through comments with other people, connected to the story of the cocktails, connected to the fact that they themselves are able to make these amazing creations based on the ingredients that they have at home. So, once this kind of clicked for me and I started to get a lot of traction just through Facebook Live, I was like, “I wonder if I can start doing these for like personal parties” and got into the B2C sector of this a little bit.

And I started doing these and they were starting to get a little bit of traction, but not too much. And then in August of last year in 2020, I decided to venture into corporate and started to check out what corporate was looking and what team building as I started to see people really sought connection, people really sought those things that they just couldn’t have physically right now. So, when I started to see that when doing these things virtually, when done really well, you can suspend people and disbelief that they’re in fact in a virtual space with other people, but they’re in the same room with each other. So that’s something that I wanted to bring into the team building and the meeting environment. So I started to do things in the business world and it was amazing to see how these connections really started to form. But yeah, so that’s kind of where it really all stems from. And as I’ve been turning this more and more into something that not only I love, but people love too, I started to see how the connections, this is the hospitality that I was searching for.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. I want to talk a little bit about that pivot from B2C to B2B and specifically what were you noticing about the business world that was so receptive or what was that need that you were really kind of tapping into that they responded so much?

Rachael Green:

Yeah, absolutely. So there, I started to do a little bit of research of what the main issues were with people working remote, right? And not just for the pandemic, but in general. We’ve been moving into a direction of being working remote and people desiring to work remote, whether for travel or for flexibility. And so I was looking into the key things that people really struggled with as being employed in a remote environment. And one was the ability to turn off at the end of the day, right? Another one was feeling connected or part of a team or part of a community and there’s a few others as well, but those two really stuck out to me. And so when I started to look into that business side of things, I started to realize, “Wow, people really miss being in touch with people.” Maybe not necessarily touching them, but being in a space where they can be fully present, right?

So, when we have the access to be fully present with the people that we’re in a room with, then magic really happens. And I think that people have been trying to facilitate these virtual meetings and they’re pretty dry in a lot of ways, but they get the point across and that’s good, but they’re finding maybe a lack of productivity that happens when people just feel like this mundane day-to-day. And when they go into the office and they leave, that’s an eight-hour Workday, but when they’re working from home, it can be 11, 12-hour workdays and they don’t even realize that they’ve got up and it was dark outside and they started working and then it’s dark outside when it stops. And so I think that those things are really important to identify with.

And when you bring people in for experiences for your team, you get to give them an opportunity to just be present, to leave work aside for just a moment, maybe even incorporate their partners or their husbands or wives and do something truly together. And so, when I started to realize that there is actually proof in people being more productive once they can let loose a little bit, and it’s not like, “Oh, I’ve been working straight for 14 days,” but it really breaks the monotony. And I think that that’s the real need that I sought to fill in providing just some entertainment and some ability to be present, activating all five senses, right? You’re touching ingredients, you’re smelling ingredients, you’re tasting things, you’re building, and then you’re enjoying something that you created. So, there are other sorts of entertainment, but what I love most about what I do is that it actually activates so many of the senses, which makes it easier to be present and in the moment.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. It’s resonating with a lot of things and specifically this notion of being disconnected and this need for connection and community. And it reminds me of a BBC report that came out it’s about a year ago now or more, and the headline was Most Ineffective Meetings Are Actually a Form of Therapy. So, folks are striving or have hunger for this connection and community so much that they fill their calendars with kind of ineffective meetings. And it’s a very inefficient approach, whereas you’re bringing an intentional approach. I usually coach people on we need that, so let’s plan on it. Let’s actually honor it and be intentional so that when we come together, we make good use of that time. So I love what you’re doing from the perspective of it’s allowing people to be intentional about that time they spend focusing on connection and community.

Rachael Green:

Yeah. It’s almost like you’re creating those boundaries for them, right? So when you put their personal needs and personal lives in addition to the priorities of our business, when you prioritize them themselves, because they’re working so hard for their families and to get ahead and to really serve and to show up really well, when you’re rewarding them, you get to put that boundary in there and it’s like, “Hey, remember, you are a person too and we want to value you by giving you something to really enjoy yourself for a second.” And yeah, when you have those ineffective meetings just to fill time, yeah, I understand where that can come in too. So, by putting something intentional in there, you’re able to break that monotony. So, it’s what I’ve found to create that product to be. It’s funny how that works, right?

It’s funny how you’re like, “How can something that’s completely unrelated to business in fact help your business?” But as an entrepreneur, I’ve come to realize that days off aren’t just for me, they’re for my business. If I’m not taking days off, or if I’m not setting aside time to access those really creative sides of my brain or those connection points or those things that really bring my spirit up, then my business will suffer if I don’t do those things. So, I think that definitely works in the corporate world. And it’s such a pleasure for me to see businesses that are doing it.

I’ve become friends with, her name is Kristen, and she’s amazing. She’s the head of engagement at headquarters at LinkedIn in New York. And her main job is to set up these amazing field days and challenges and bring your parents to work day on Zoom and all of these amazing things that they initiate so that they feel seen, they feel respected and heard just as… Even though they’re part of this corporate machine, they are seen and the company desires for them to feel that sense of belonging. And I think that’s what drives loyalty in this space. So, I think that that’s really important too.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s critical. It’s funny that so many companies have embraced design thinking and plenty haven’t, but a lot have, it’s common and so focused on customer experience. And I think they’re missing the ball on the employee experience piece. And it’s so great to hear of companies that you just mentioned, LinkedIn, and you’ve got lots of clients that are spending time thinking about these issues. And it’s just so critical to create environments where we can build friendships, we can build connection as we’re going to do much better work if we can build that trust and that sense of safety.

Rachael Green:

Yeah. I think that’s what it comes down to, hospitality comes from the core, right? You can’t deliver a good customer service if your employees don’t feel like they’re served too.

Douglas Ferguson:

Mm-hmm.

Rachael Green:

And I feel like that’s where the health of an organization really comes in and I’ve read a lot of books in hospitality and they say that labor should be your number one priority, your number one cost. Making sure that they are well-educated, that there’s team-building experiences, that they feel like they’re learning and growing. And especially a lot of these younger generations too, like for them fulfillment is prioritized over security. And I think that’s something that a lot of businesses should really remember as these younger generations start to join the workforce and especially the corporate play.

Douglas Ferguson:

So, let’s unpack that a little bit. What does that mean, fulfillment prioritized over security?

Rachael Green:

I think the desire for constant learning, growing, expanding their minds and understanding… And there’s more left-brain, right-brain people as well, but I think that there is such a drive for connection and community because technology too is such a strong piece of this that the loyalty and connections it’s different. It looks different now. So, I think what I’ve come to see and why team building and team engagement and employee engagement has become such a strong piece in the corporate structure is because people are desiring to learn more, to grow more and to become more of an expert, to have that sense of ownership in the roles that they have. So, by providing educational opportunities and opportunities to connect and become really a part of a community in a workplace, that’s becoming a really strong desire. I feel like more than just tenure.

Douglas Ferguson:

So, I’m going to bring us back to some of the stuff that you were saying a little bit earlier. And I was really intrigued by the comment around the truth behind hospitality and what does it mean to facilitate it well? You talked about facilitating hospitality and so as a community of facilitators, the truth of hospitality and facilitating it well really kind of jumped out to me.

Rachael Green:

Yeah. Love it. Love it, love it. Okay. So, let’s start from a basic, right? Let’s say you go into the Ritz-Carlton, right? And you put your name into your reservation, maybe the intention of your stay, right? Hospitality comes from anticipating needs at the bottom line. Anticipating needs and making people feel seen, or helping people to feel seen. So, in the customer experience, anticipating their needs by even having surveys to understand what their interest in working with you might be, and anticipating their potential questions that they’ll have through the customer journey and all the way down until after the experience is over, what are you doing to help them feel seen and heard? So, dialing that back to your employees and the people that work with you, how can you anticipate their needs by even giving out surveys or giving out… Applying what you’re applying to your customer journey to help that brand loyalty happen can be applied to your internal team as well.

Do you know all of the names of the people that work in your office? What are their birthdays? What are their partners’ names? What are their interests? If you prioritize making that connection happen, then that sense of comradery and that sense of productivity will build this little microcosm. So when you have this, especially if it’s productive, right? So, something that you’re facilitating and cultivating in a productive way, not just something that’s haphazard that can breed some sort of toxicity, but you’re encouraging that sense of camaraderie and community, then that sense of warmth and connection, not only to the people in their office, but the company and the brand itself, then that will trickle out as a vibe to people that they’re working with, either as partners or as customers out into the world.

So, it really comes down to the health of the organization. How can you create more health within your organization by providing an opportunity for them to connect back, for them to feel seen? And that is something that will be an example for the way that they connect with customers and they connect with potential partners and vendors, right? And when you have that good health emanating out, then those relationships with those people on the outskirts will also be benefited.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. I was thinking the same thing as you were starting to tell some of those stories and explain this, as you start to create a dynamic where those behaviors are reinforced within the organization, and then to your point, that emanates outward. And I was also thinking about this notion that the root of hospitality is to be hospitable and what a lovely thought if we create hospitable environments within the workplace and we’re supporting each other and treating… It just comes down to the ways that people like to be treated and honored and respected.

Rachael Green:

Yeah, it truly is. And it’s interesting because hospitality is such a wide net, right? You have food and beverage, you have hotels, you have movie theaters, you have events, and it’s interesting. It’s like, where do these all connect? And it comes down to people, the end consumer coming into a space to have an experience, whether it’s at an event, whether it’s at a movie theater, whether it’s at a hotel, at a restaurant. They’re going in, could they be doing these things on their own? Yes. But they’re going somewhere and they’re building a sense of loyalty based off of what they’ve received as an experience. So, it’s really important to make sure that that experience is super tied in to a brand. I don’t know, I got a little wrapped up in something.

Douglas Ferguson:

No, no, no. What that reminds me of is the late Tony Hsieh and how one of the reasons that he opened Zappos in Las Vegas was because of the strong customer service and hospitality industry in Vegas. And he was able to hire folks that really took customer care obsessively. And I think it directly impacted their ability to grow that company in the way they grew it.

Rachael Green:

Yeah. Absolutely. And here’s the thing too. It’s like when you have a lot of opportunities for the people in your organization to learn, right? To learn about shoes, to learn about how to deliver good customer service, to learn about what things mean, it builds a sense of culture, but also when you’re providing these things for your team and not just giving them, “Here’s a computer,” and go then there’s a lot less confusion too. So, you’re able to deliver better service. When you’re providing infrastructure, whether it’s in educating them or in providing an experience for them to become part of this community, you’re giving them the tools to give better service, to be that brand that people really are loyal to. So yeah, I love it.

Douglas Ferguson:

It reminds me of experiences I’ve had at really nice hotels where I walk in and they treat me like they’ve known me for years. They’re like, “Good to see you, Mr. Ferguson, thanks for joining us.” Versus an average hotel where you walk in and it’s like, “Do you have your confirmation number?” It’s like it’s so transactional in like, “Give me your thing.” It’s like it’s all just in how you approach it. It’s not likely to cost them any extra money because it’s not like they had to charge extra to behave in that way.

Rachael Green:

Right. But it comes down to what kind of support are they getting, right?

Douglas Ferguson:

Mm-hmm.

Rachael Green:

Is it just a paycheck?

Douglas Ferguson:

And encouragement.

Rachael Green:

Right. Encouragement too, but just awesome. And you brought too a really great point, right? So there is something different that they’re doing to ensure that customer experience and there’s people that follow up on that to ensure that that is followed through. Right?

Douglas Ferguson:

Absolutely.

Rachael Green:

So, in my experience in the way that I’ve grown, I have surveys when people are interested in my service, I have service surveys throughout the customer journey of like, “Okay, what do you expect? Okay, was this what you expected? Where can we improve?” And when you have these types of things in addition to that personal contact, then you have the opportunity to add in little pieces that they’re like, “Wow, they’re listening.” Like, “Great to see you, Mr. Ferguson.” Right? That’s what I’m talking about when you go into these particular experiences and you feel seen. And that hospitality, how it dials back into, how can we incorporate hospitality into our meetings? How can we incorporate hospitality into our home lives? Dial it all the way back. How can you provide that experience for your employees to emanate that type of respect and service to their selves and their families? That’s like next level, right?

Douglas Ferguson:

So I’m going to switch gears on us just kind of quickly, because I feel like there’s so much in the media right now about hybrid events. And I feel like folks like you and I who do events and create experiences for people, I think we both know that, well, we’re not doing hybrid yet. It’s on the horizon and it’s soon. And a lot of what people are talking about is like projections and whatnot. And so, I’m curious to hear what’s rattling around your head? I know you talked about this notion of cross-platform and how these different formulizations… Well, formulas will arrive as we move into this new space. So, I think the listeners are curious about this stuff and especially from a practitioner’s point of view. So I would love to hear your thoughts there.

Rachael Green:

Yeah. It’s super fun because when I first was thinking about the word hybrid and as it was first produced, I started to think about, “Well, what determines a platform?” Right? A platform is a place where people can go to to get the content that they need or the service that they need. And that is in fact delivered, right? So people will… An unpopular opinion that in-person in itself is a platform. So, when I was thinking about multi-platform events and the main difference that I have received in starting these unpopular conversations is that hybrid is a mix of in-person and virtual, versus hybrid being a mix of different online platforms. That’s a multi-platform event. But it got me thinking, I was like, “Okay, well, how is in-person if you’re looking at it from a strategic perspective and a systems perspective, they are in fact different.”

So, when you’re doing multi-platform events, you have strategies for each individual platform. And so, when we’re getting into hybrid, we’re starting to think, “Okay, well, we have a strategy for our in-person and what is our strategy for virtual? How are we going to engage them in the same way that we can engage our in-person?” Well, the reality is that you can’t, right? But it’s not that you can’t, it’s what can I do to have them feel as engaged as the in-person audience? And not only that, how can we create that bridge so that the virtual audience and the in-person audience can actually connect with each other? So you have things that I feel like are really important, and I’m going to use Clubhouse, for example.

Now, as people start to get back into in-person and are utilizing these virtual events, you can use things like networking platforms such as Clubhouse to connect both audiences, right? So even though people are doing things in person in their daily life, they’re signing onto Clubhouse to do the laundry, to do whatever, but they’re also utilizing Clubhouse as a pre-event and a post-event networking or value-add conversation. So, there are ways that I think are really important to consider and I was on a call with someone this morning about this. We think of these as different audiences, as different platforms, but how can we going forward connect the two? I went to a hybrid event last year, I was virtual and it was a chore to get people that were in-person to go downstairs, because it was at a brewery upstairs, downstairs to where the TV was with the virtual people, coming down in sections to engage with these people.

The people that are in-person, how can we encourage or really inspire them to want to connect with the people that are still virtual and obviously the people that are virtual are missing out on the opportunity of being in-person. So how can we not let them feel left behind because of things they weren’t able to get together to get to the in-person event and why should they be left behind? But it’s kind of interesting. So there are ways that I’ve seen it done really well, like gamification. So you can use gamification, whether everyone together is on a Facebook group, whether it’s in person or live and you can connect and have different calls to action and get on the leaderboards and different things of that nature.

But how can we… And this is more a question to think about as you go forward, because this is just a question that I’m posing. I don’t have the answers to, is what ways can you be drawing the people that are in person to be interacting with the people that are virtual as well? Because the beauty of virtual is that they’re tuning in from wherever, right? Global, right? Time zones don’t matter as much as long as you have it in your Google calendar. So, you have the ability to access people globally and that’s the beauty of virtual. And it is going to be interesting going back into in-person to see how these priorities and not getting caught up into like what’s so proximate. So, I think that that’s a really great question to consider when you’re thinking about going into hybrid, and you’re thinking about providing a virtual side of your in-person experience, how can you prioritize those people so that they feel connected as well?

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah. I love the fact that you use the word inspire because I think so often people have the mindset of like, “How do I get these people to do this thing?” And gamification or other ways to kind of create delight and intrigue seems like the right approach and really leaning in and designing those experiences rather than saying, “Okay, we’re going to put a screen here.” I think people get so caught up in the tactics and the logistics of like, “What are the current tools allow us to do?” Rather than stepping back and thinking about, “Well, what do we want to create in the world?”

Rachael Green:

Exactly. And I think that virtual is here to stay just because over the past year, people have started to realize, “Wow, I just made a best friend in Hong Kong.”

Douglas Ferguson:

Mm-hmm.

Rachael Green:

But it opened our minds to see that we can connect with people based off of alignment versus being based off of just proximity. And for me as being someone who’s a professional now in the virtual space, it is something I will never take it for granted again, as being able to connect with people all over the country, all over the world that have similar ideals that I do and can join my my flock, my flock of birds, we’re moving in the same direction, right?

Douglas Ferguson:

Awesome.

Rachael Green:

I think it’s really fun. So yes. How can you inspire people to take action to not only connect with each other, but connect to the main mission? I think it’s really important.

Douglas Ferguson:

So I’m going to shift to closing here and before you leave the listeners with a final thought, I want to see if you could share a little bit of insight, some kind of tangible, actionable stuff that folks might do where they might draw some inspiration from some of the work you’re doing. What’s some simple stuff that teams can start to do to make their experiences more hospitable or more engaging and more tangible? Because I love this virtual mixologist stuff you’re doing. Is there anything that people can try at home before they get an opportunity to work with you?

Rachael Green:

Yeah. Well, it starts with a lemon. No, just kidding. Well, I couldn’t give you guys a little recipe, but I’ll give you this, is that no matter what it is that you’re doing, if you’re interacting with your team, if you’re interacting with the people at home, if you’re interacting with an audience, right? How can you put the medicine in the candy and the candy and the medicine. It’s a funny thought, right? When you think about that, you’re like, “Mary Poppins.” Right? But when you’re putting the medicine in the candy and the candy and the medicine, how can you, in every situation that you’re in add value and also add relatability, also add connection and sprinkle in a little fun, right? So when you’re adding the medicine to the candy for me, what I do in a virtual mixology experience, when I’m speaking with a client and for me customization and that extra personal touch is super important. I want to make sure that I’m not just coming in, teaching how to make an old fashion and sayonara, right?

For me, it’s how can I add more value to these experiential engagements, not just… Like it makes sense, it adds value in some way. It adds a takeaway. What takeaways can you add to your entertainment, your engagement, your team building? What kind of values can you be adding? So, to these fun experiences. Because it makes that connection that much greater. They’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s what you said in that meeting last week. Wow, this is how I can apply it.” Right? So on the flip side, how can you add candy to the medicine?

So, when you’re having these daily meetings at 8:30 in the morning with your team, when you are having these four-hour educational seminars, how can you add fun creativity, gamification, and a little bit of an experience to tie in to break up that potential intense amount of value? But how can you incorporate those candy elements into the value so that it’s actually relatable so that when they are using these things, they’re actually like, “Oh yeah, I remember like you have to add a little sour and a little sweet to create balance and harmony.”

Well, how can I create balance and harmony into this situation right now? So, it’s kind of fun to think about things that way, but there’s reasons why Tony Robbins is immensely successful at what he does as a speaker, as an inspirational leader, because he brings in stories and stories are relatable. He brings in fun. He brings in workbooks that tie in to different things. He brings in exercises, things that drive home those points, but get people to take action as well. So, these candy pieces, they make something relatable, they make people want to take action and they make it fun so that it breaks it up. We’re dealing with all these distractions, especially in the virtual environment that you can’t see, right? If someone’s, camera’s not on, you don’t know what’s going on. And if their camera is on, you don’t know what’s behind the camera and what’s going on.

Netflix, Clubhouse, friends, family, everything that’s coming in to distract these people. You can’t control that the same way that you would in an in-person experience. So, make sure that you are the best distraction of their day, that you are providing the most value and value not necessarily being things that they write in a notebook, but value being provided in the way of, wow, they leave that event and they feel something. How do they feel after your meetings? How do they feel after your experiences that you’re providing for them? What do you want that to be like? And that’s it.

Douglas Ferguson:

Excellent. Well, with that, I want to just give you an opportunity to leave our listeners with a final thought and we’ll go from there.

Rachael Green:

I think my final thought would be just be intentional. Try to put your team, your clients, your vendors, their relationship with you as a priority, right? And trying to find ways to remember their birthdays, to remember their partner’s names, that little piece of hospitality that is really easy to uncover just by looking at their LinkedIn, just by looking at a profile, write those things down. And then when if they’re in your CRM or however you organize these things, you can pull from those things, “Hey, how was your birthday last week? Did you do anything fun this weekend? How’s your wife doing?” Those things really matter to people. So, whether it’s your team or your clients or your vendors, try to remember pieces like that. Those things go a very long way.

Douglas Ferguson:

Awesome. Well, I just want to say thank you for joining me today. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you and best of luck on the adventures in the hybrid.

Rachael Green:

Thanks.

Douglas Ferguson:

Excellent. Well, how can they find you?

Rachael Green:

Yeah. So a great way to connect with me is finding me out in social media land, that’s where I live most of the time. But you can find me on Clubhouse, which is @rachaelgreen, that’s R-A-C-H-A-E-L Green like the color. You can also find me on Instagram, which is @rachgreencocktails. And those are my primary ones. I also do a lot of stuff on Facebook. If you want to join a community of people that are networking in so many different ways, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs, but there’s also people that are in the B2B world as well. My Facebook group is called Cocktails & Connections. That’s Cocktails, and then an ampersand Connections. And I do live networking at 7:30 Eastern Standard Time every Tuesday and we do all sorts of different things.

This upcoming week, we’re doing pitch strategy. So, that works really well for people who are in sales and marketing to understand the backend of your customer journey, so that when you’re presenting your value and you’re delivering what you believe is a good ROI for them, you understand certain layers of what they’re looking for. The week after that, we’re actually doing pitch practice, which is really fun.

Douglas Ferguson:

Awesome. And I can say that your Clubhouse rooms are great. So, I recommend folks go check them out if you’re in Clubhouse or are getting access to it, jump over in there, it’s very good.

Rachael Green:

Yeah. Oh, my club. Yeah. So I have a club in Clubhouse too. That’s the Virtual Events & Experiences Collective, shortened to VEEC, V-E-E-C just because I chose the longest name possible for a Clubhouse, but we host a daily room in there, week daily room at three o’clock Eastern Standard Time for about an hour, all different topics on virtual events. We talk about hybrid, how to utilize Clubhouse as an event platform. We talk about virtual, all sorts of different platforms you can use for your virtual events, speaker engagements, music events, all sorts of different things. So, we look forward to seeing you there and you can feel free to find me or follow the club. And I’ll definitely see you guys in the hallways.

Douglas Ferguson:

Sounds great. It was great having you thanks so much for joining me.

Rachael Green:

Yay, cheers. Thanks so much.

Douglas Ferguson:

Thanks for joining me for another episode of Control The Room. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive updates when new episodes are released. If you want more, head over to our blog, where I post weekly articles and resources about working better together, voltagecontrol.com.

The post Episode 39: The Mixology of Hybrid Connections appeared first on Voltage Control.