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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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!

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We hosted our annual facilitator summit last week alongside our sponsor MURAL, but this time, it was virtual. Instead of gathering in Austin’s Capital Factory, 172 eager learners, expert facilitators, and meeting practitioners gathered online for a 3-day interactive workshop. Our mission each year at Control the Room is to share a global perspective of facilitators from different methodologies, backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, and ages. We gather to network, learn from one another, and build our facilitation toolkits. 

This year’s summit theme was CONNECTION. Human connection is an integral component of the work we do as facilitators.

When we connect things become possible. When we are disconnected there is dysfunction. When ideas connect they become solutions. When movements connect they become revolutions. 

Control the Room is a safe space to build and celebrate a community of practice for facilitators, which is paramount to learn, grow, and advance as practitioners and engaging in a dialogue that advances the practice of facilitation. We must learn the tools and modalities needed to foster connection and be successful facilitators in the new virtual landscape. 

“We must establish a personal connection with each other. Connection before content. Without relatedness, no work can occur.” —Peter Block

This year’s summit consisted of 18 expert facilitator guest speakers who presented lightning talks and in-depth workshops, where they shared their methods and activities for effective virtual facilitation. 

Read on for summaries of this year’s Control the Room Summit presentations. Each speaker delivered a 20-minute lightning session in the morning of their following 90-minute facilitated session that afternoon. 

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Voltage Control founder Douglas Ferguson started the summit with an introduction to the importance of connection in the virtual landscape and the critical role facilitators play in it. 

He encouraged the group to not only soak in all of the great information provided by the guest speakers but to network with guest attendees and experts alike to gain as much perspective as possible. 

The first round of lightning talks and workshops consisted of Van Lai-DuMone, Mohamed Ali, Leslie Forman, Michael Wilkinson, Emily Bowen, and Erik Skogsberg.

Van Lai-DuMone

Incorporate Creativity Into Your Virtual Facilitations

Van Lai-DuMone, the founder of Worksmart Advantage, discussed incorporating creativity into virtual facilitations. Creativity allows facilitators to make people feel heard, that their ideas matter, to express themselves, and to feel connected. Van’s workshop was focused on how incorporating creative tools can not only serve to harness the attention of the group but also serve as a practical tool for: Team Building and Development, Collaboration, Idea Generation, Problem Solving and Trust Building. 

“Creativity allows you to make people feel heard.”

Mohamed Ali

You’re That Audience

Mohamed Ali, Service Designer and Facilitator at Independant, discussed how self-interest can create engagement and participation for your audience. Mohamed taught workshop attendees how to prepare an audience for a workshop, long before they show up. The questions attendees answered together were, “how might we effectively onboard participants without overwhelming them with the exercises and time needed to conduct the workshop? How might a beginners’ mindset assist an audience to contribute what they really wish to?” 

“Self-interest for an audience is beneficial; engage your audience as much as possible.” 

Leslie Forman

Secrets, Constraints, and Emojis

Leslie Forman, Senior User Experience Researcher at Linkedin, spoke about secrets, constraints, and emojis. By implementing the 3 Cs (concrete, colorful, and constrained) we can produce the best results from our team. Leslie discussed practical techniques that facilitators can use to guide participants into deeper discussions, especially about ambiguous or sensitive topics. 

Michael Wilkinson

Consensus Building: Techniques for Getting to Yes

Michael Wilkinson, CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies presented techniques to getting to “Yes” in a disagreement; understanding the issue is key to coming to a solution. According to Michael, three reasons people disagree are due to information, different experiences/values, and outside factors. Exploring the type of disagreement – information, different experiences/values, outside factors – and asking questions are instruments to solving the disagreement. In his workshop, Michael equipped attendees with a clear understanding of the three reasons people disagree, three methods for establishing a consensus-focused process, and five techniques for getting to “yes” when disagreements occur.

Emily Bowen

Peace, Love & Understanding

Emily Bowen, Holistic Leadership Consultant and Educator at The Peace Nerd, discussed how to facilitate using peace, love, and understanding. By remaining present and in the moment, facilitators can engage best with their users. Emily showed workshop attendees how to create lightness and ease when facilitators want to connect people to each other and build trust when working remotely.

“Take a moment to breathe and be in this space.” 

Erik Skogsberg

Learn to Transform

The last lightning speaker of the day was Voltage Control’s own Erik Skogsberg speaking on how the best learning experiences are learner-focused. Erik informed the group that the best facilitators, whether they know it or not, are Learning Experience Designers (LXDs). LXDs bring the best of user experience design and the learning sciences to bear on creating transformation: whether in a meeting, presentation, workshop, or course. Participants were guided through some hands-on practice in these methods for use in a meeting, workshop, or training of their own and then were introduced to how to design for better learning experiences and lasting change in their future facilitation work.

“It is up to the facilitator to move and adjust to the learners in the room.”

Day one ended with special prize giveaways and a virtual happy hour with all participants. 

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

After an introduction to open up the day, the second round of lightning talks and workshops consisted of Jennifer Marin Jericho, Kaleem Clarkson, Caitlin Loos, William Aal, Solomon Masala, Alison Coward. 

Jennifer Marin Jericho

How to Pivot When Things Go Wrong

Jennifer Marin Jericho, Co-Founder and Design and Communication Strategist of Jericho Vinegar Works, presented tactics for Effective Facilitation and Facilitation Pitfalls on some of the tips she has learned along the way for when things don’t go the way you expect. We often think of facilitation as the moment when we are in the room, Jennifer said, running a workshop or meeting, but there’s quite a lot of work to be done before and after to host a successful workshop.

“The devil is in the details.”

Kaleem Clarkson & David Klasko

Fighting Isolation and Building Meaningful Relationships through the Power of Play

Kaleem Clarkson, Chief Operating Officer at Blend Me, Inc., and David Klasko, Actor, Comedian, and Founder of Artly Working, presented on what the research says about the dangers of isolation, and how playing simple (and incredibly fun) games can create meaningful human connection in the virtual workplace. Technology has provided a platform to find and foster these relationships, but it takes a thoughtful and structured approach to create a human connection. Based on improv comedy, and built for video conferencing, Artly Working has designed workshops to add humor, vulnerability, and spontaneity to the virtual world – in other words, the human element! Using games and exercises developed specifically for the platform, the goal is to fight isolation and loneliness and build bonds on our remote platforms, and not in spite of them. Participants learned games and exercises that can be implemented with teams right away.

Caitlin Loos & Jordan Hirsch

7 Hours on Zoom…In a good way!

Caitlin Loos, Director of Creative Services at Phase2 Technology, and Jordan Hirsch, Director of Innovation at Phase2, taught participants how they created a 7-hour zoom conference that was energizing, inspiring, & fun. The workshop explored how they turned their annual company conference — a deeply human, connected experience for 100+ people — into a Zoom call that lasted seven hours and spanned four time zones, but still worked. The group experimented and played with activities that helped turn a virtual event into a virtual experience.

“Embracing virtual events should engage all of the senses, incorporate the home, and recognize that virtual is not always better, worse, or the same.” – Caitlin Loos

William Aal

Equity, Power and Conflict in Meeting Design

William Aal, Co-founder and Managing Partner of unConference.net, explored how to disrupt patterns of privilege and oppression that are often overlooked in meeting design in his lightning talk and workshop

 “Explore those dynamics in your facilitation practice. Have fun making the invisible visible!”

In his workshop, participants learned how to set the table for people to fully participate, taking into account the currents of power difference in the space. They also learned how to be aware of their own privilege dynamics; how to acknowledge conflict and use it as a tool to deepen community and when process becomes liberatory and when it furthers patterns of oppression.

Solomon Masala

Zip in your Zoom

Solomon Masala, creator of the Source Consultng Group, reminded participants that most humans have been conditioned to get in front of a screen and go passive. He said we forget that real learning is an active, full-body experience, and in our virtual learning world it’s critical to keep the learning juices activated. In his workshop, Solomon engaged participants in 25+ kinesthetic activities that range from 1 minute to 1 hour, guaranteed to get participants energized and enlivened, regardless of the group.

Alison Coward

Workshop Culture for a Better Workplace

Alison Coward, Founder of Bracket, closed out the day by discussing the lasting impacts of workshops. Her presentation explored the real potential of workshops in improving our experience of work, and what else that may bring. Integrating workshop culture into an environment allows for the intended products of workshops like engagement and progress as well as the unintended possibilities such as open communication and more trust. 

“Workshops bring many of the factors that we want to see in productive, engaged and positive cultures – collaboration, inclusion, motivation, creativity – so how can we take these elements beyond a one-off event and bring them more generally into the workplace?”

Day two ended with prize giveaways and a happy hour with the summit’s participants.

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Summit participants were welcomed with a warm introduction to the final day, followed by lightning talks and workshops from Madelon Guinazzo, Vinay Kumar, J. Elise Keith, Joshua Davies, Elena Astilleros, and Rachel Ben Hamou.

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Madelon Guinazzo

Facilitating Fearlessly with Heart

Madelon Guinazzo, Co-Founder of Cuddlist, addressed that all facilitators have fears, and participants all come with their own fears as well. Her experiential-based workshop explored some common facilitator fears in a safe way. Participants built resilience and the sense of connection that leads to grounded positive action in the midst of fear. Madelon showed attendees how to tap into the powerful potential of transformation that fear holds for both the facilitator and participant. She demonstrated how to let those fear fuel participants into fun and greater trust in themselves and life, and challenged them to explore how to hold fear – their own and others – with equanimity.

“Let your fear out. Exaggerate it. Give it a voice.”

Vinay Kumar

Connecting People and Thinking for Shared Values

Vinay Kumar, Director of Client Engagement at C2C Organizational Development, discussed engagement and creating meaningful connections. In this new age of digital engagement and connection, accessing ways of creating that safe and brave space allows our users to form those bonds and further goals. Using the right brain is not only fun but also helps in drawing out many aspects that participants often find difficult to articulate in a group setting. This is especially true when groups are extremely diverse in terms of experience, cultures, hierarchy, language, etc. Vinay’s workshop explored two methods in creating strong connections that increase the effectiveness of group work.

J. Elise Keith

Facilitating in Real Time, Near Time, and Far Time

J. Elise Keith, Founder and CEO of Lucid Meetings, spoke about facilitating in the present, near, and future. We can take a project from real-time excitement to near and far-time enthusiasm through creating records and remembrances of the occurrence. In her workshop, J. Elise explained that professional facilitators are pretty skilled at planning and running events. But the challenge is how to make sure that the work in facilitated events and the changes these events inspire have an impact on the everyday lives of those being served. Participants explored what it means to facilitate across different time scales and surface ideas we can all use to make a more lasting impact.

“Traditional skills are being replaced.”

Joshua Davies

Moving Minds: Exploring Conversation Maps in Facilitation

Joshua Davies, Founder and Lead Conversation Architect at Knowmium, examined how conversations operate and move in our facilitations. If we are to reach an understanding with others, we must have a path to empathy. Too many conversations are treadmills, endless, going without ever getting anywhere, or broken parallel monologues in search of true dialogue. In his session, participants explored practical techniques for better awareness and co-creation in discussions using conversation mapping, contrasting, and cadence control.

Types of conversations: understanding, problem-solving & exploring, blocking/telling, storytelling/persuading.

Elena Astilleros

$h*t to Hit!! Creating Meetings Participants Love

Elena Astilleros of Empoderment, discussed turning your meeting from “Sh** to hit.” Facilitators are the ones who bring the magic to the room, she said. Our users can’t go further than where we are at ourselves. Elena taught participants how they might be creating the wrong kind of drama (without realizing it) when facilitating. Elena’s workshop taught participants how to lead lively meetings where they (and everyone participating) feel alive and reinvigorated from their time together. She provided attendees with practices they can start using to trigger group genius in their next meeting or workshop and a simple way to up-level the questions they ask their team.

“Do you feel totally drained after facilitating your sessions? When you ask questions, do you get crickets…or worse, only the same handful of people answering every time?” 

Rachel Ben Hamou & Andre Ben Hamou

Onboarding Without Hoarding

Rachel Ben Hamou, Director of Talent Development at PeopleStorming, and Andre Ben Hamou, Co-Founder of PeopleStorming, explored how to develop processes and criteria (that they will genuinely use) that allow facilitators to evaluate exercises and activities at speed. They taught participants how to ‘Yes And’ the great resources they discover, without things becoming unmanageable. By using play and creating a toolkit, we can embrace both the face-to-face interactions as well as creating a space that also includes our virtual interactions as well.

“Since everything has gone virtual, the internet is a treasure trove AND a landfill of every process and exercise humans can imagine. How do you sift through all that noise to find activities that will help YOU facilitate well?”

The final day was wrapped with a raffle prize giveaway and a celebratory happy hour.

We’re already excited about next year’s summit. To be a part of our facilitator community in the meantime, join us for our weekly Facilitation Lab and check out our upcoming events.

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At this point, you likely know all of the virtual tool heavy hitters that make remote work easier. Your team probably has a Slack set up, uses Zoom on the regular, and keeps all of their files in Google Drive. You’ve heard of Figma and MURAL and Canva. Here are 8 virtual collaboration tools that you might not have already heard of.

Virtual Collaboration Tools

1. Nutcache – Nutcache is a virtual project management tool that allows you to plan, track, and organize tasks between team members. What makes Nutcache special amidst a plethora of other task management tools is its emphasis on budget tracking. The software integrates with most major invoice and accounting tools, such as Paypal, Stripe, and Quickbooks. Users can approve timesheets, review expenses, and create and manage invoices within the same platform as their other project management tasks. This is a great virtual collaboration tool for project managers with complicated budget flows and teams whose work requires them to send multitudes of invoices.
2. Mailbird – Teams who collaborate virtually rely heavily on email for communication; while email can be great, inboxes can easily get out of control and overwhelm team members, causing important information or requests to slip through the cracks. The quality and ease of use of team members’ email clients can play a huge role in their ability to manage large amounts of email communication. Mailbird, nicknamed the Outlook Killer, is a multi-account email client for Windows that prides itself on taking no more than 5 minutes to learn. Even those who do not consider themselves particularly good with technology can tame their inboxes with Mailbird.
3. Redbooth – This virtual collaboration tool uses AI to help small and mid-sized teams work transparently and efficiently. Their AI can predict the best team member for a task as well as how long it is likely to take them to complete it. Redbooth integrates with an impressive arsenal of other virtual collaboration tools such as Slack, Dropbox, Outlook, Google Drive – you name it. Redbooth even allows you to conduct HD video meetings from within the program, allowing you to conduct meetings and conferences from the very project management tool that you will be referencing during your meeting.
4. Evernote –  Evernote is a virtual notes app with a plethora of helpful features for virtual collaboration. Pictures, videos, and other files can be attached to notes for visual communication; the app even includes a document scanner so physical documents can easily be added to the virtual note space. Evernote makes it easy to find what you’re looking for with search functions that can detect information in attached PDF’s, even if the information is hand-written rather than typed. The virtual bulletin board features make it easy for teams to share announcements, updates, and words of encouragement.
5. Pastel – If your team is working on creating or updating a website, Pastel is the virtual collaboration tool you didn’t know you needed. Teams can leave comments, mockups, and copy suggestions directly on a view of any website’s pages. This virtual collaboration tool makes exchanging feedback on websites a breeze.
6. Gain – Gain is a virtual collaboration tool for content teams and their clients. Social media posts, video content, blog posts, ad campaigns, websites, emails, newsletters, and any other type of content can be uploaded into the tool. Content can be approved, updated, or given feedback for the rest of the team to work from. Team members can be assigned tasks and tag each other, making for a seamless workflow. The content calendar function allows you to see a visual representation of all content scheduled at a glance and makes organizing or rescheduling content simple.
7. Calendly – Teams collaborating virtually depend heavily on meetings but scheduling these meetings can be a huge pain. Sorting through other’s personal calendars can be overwhelming and back-and-forth emailing about a time that works for both parties is incredibly slow. Calendly helps you schedule meetings and add them to your calendar with ease. Import your calendar, set your availability preferences, then simply share a link with clients or team members. They’ll be able to pick a time that works for them within your availability, then Calendly will add the new meeting to your calendar. Best of all, Calendly is time-zone intelligent, so say goodbye to confusing time zone conversions.8.
8. Yammer – Yammer is a virtual collaboration tool built into Microsoft Office 365; it’s much like a private Facebook for your company. Yammer is a social network for employees that allows them to both collaborate and socialize with their teams and teams from other departments. Users can share updates, customize who appears in their newsfeed, and comment on other users’ updates from within their company’s network. Yammer is a flexible tool that can be used to keep team members up to date on other departments, start meaningful discussions, answer questions, contribute ideas and feedback cross-team, or even rekindle the office small talk that so many of us miss.

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Want to learn more about how to facilitate successful virtual meetings?

Join us every Thursday at our free community Facilitation Lab–a safe place for facilitators to gather, explore, adapt, and practice facilitation approaches and methods. Join us as a participant and learn through connecting with others or signup to lead a session and try out a new method for the first time. 

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How are your virtual meetings going? If there’s room for improvement, we are here to help. Adjusting to the virtual landscape can be a doozy if you don’t have the correct tools and processes–especially if remote work is new to your business dynamic. But you can have productive and effective remote meetings with properly executed virtual facilitation. The following five virtual facilitation strategies are high-level ways to encourage remote team engagement, provide optimal support for attendees, and achieve meaningful results.

1. Turn on your camera

Encourage all meeting attendees to use their cameras. Collaborating virtually already threatens team connection; it’s simply not the same dynamic as being together in the same physical space. You lose the necessary human connection imperative to having meaningful meetings when your team can’t see each other’s faces. When you do not enforce the use of video, you are inviting participants to multi-task with non-related material and you’ll lose their attention.

Partial attention does not foster productive meetings, it fuels unproductive ones.

2. Learn by doing

The best teacher is experience. Make your meetings interactive. This will not only keep people engaged, but it will also help with retention and a sense of ownership. Use a collaborative virtual space like MURAL–a virtual whiteboard tool–or simply use Google Docs to allow team members to engage and work together in real-time. Sitting and staring at a screen, while someone talks at you, is not nearly as enticing and inspiring as getting your hands dirty. You should do the work in the meeting, not after, to achieve the best outcome. Make meetings productive working sessions by getting the entire team involved. This will help you attain meaningful results. 

Pro tip: Assign a scribe to document important meeting notes, capture room intelligence, and synthesize information during the meeting. It is helpful to have a designated person focused on recording big themes and takeaways. 

3. Piecemeal information 

To uphold optimum productivity during virtual meetings, be wary of inflicting cognitive overload on attendees. The virtual landscape is a new frontier. Therefore, you need a new process of facilitation that best serves team members in a virtual space. Develop a process that makes it easy to instruct attendees and give them what they need to succeed.

It takes much more intentional prep-work to run successful virtual meetings.

For example, if you’re giving instructions to the group, provide it verbally on video as well as visually in the video platform’s chatbox. Sometimes information goes over peoples’ heads, especially with the many outside distractions that come with remote work. Provide instructions in various ways incrementally, rather than all at once, to help ensure all attendees retain them and follow them correctly. 

4. Provide necessary support

A key component of virtual facilitation is helping attendees understand technicalities specific to the tools you are using. Make sure everyone understands how to use the features of the video conference platform you are meeting on and any other tools they will need.

Pro tip: send all attendees a list of the tools they will need and how to use them along with a meeting agenda before the meeting so they know what to expect. You can also designate some time at the beginning of the meeting to explain the tools, how they work, and answer any questions. When everyone is on the same page, the meeting will run smoothly. 

If you are using breakout rooms in your meeting, it is helpful to have a facilitator in each breakout room to answer any questions that may arise. If this isn’t possible, make sure to give team members instructions on how to use the help button in the breakout room. Just like a flight attendant call light in an airplane, the facilitator will be notified they are needed in the room when the button is pushed.

5. Use the “raise hand” feature

Have you been in a virtual meeting and felt like you couldn’t get a word in? It can be tough to know when to contribute and how to do so respectfully in a virtual space. The “raise hand” feature in Zoom is a great tool to surpass this roadblock. Ask people to use the button when they want to be called on. It is a clear indicator of desired speaking space and it prevents multiple people from talking at once. You don’t want anyone to feel overlooked or that their opinion doesn’t matter. The “raise hand” feature is a simple yet powerful way to ensure voices do not go unheard.

Meetings matter, make each one count. Add these five strategies to your virtual facilitation tool belt to have more purposeful remote meetings. And check out our Virtual Work Guide for more remote work tools and guidance for fruitful meetings.

Want to learn more about virtual facilitation? 

Voltage Control offers virtual services including Virtual Facilitation, Virtual Transitions, and Virtual Meeting Design. Please reach out at hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

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Virtual teams are the new normal. But that doesn’t mean they’re all successful. Many virtual teams face problematic challenges. While remote work was not uncommon before the Great Pause, the forced shift to the virtual space abruptly mandated this business format for most of the world. Many businesses were required to switch to remote work dynamics, who otherwise would not have, with no prior experience or knowledge on how to do so in order to survive. The truth is that the switch from an in-person to a virtual team is not as easy as putting your work structure online. Remote work requires an entirely different approach. Specific virtual processes and tools must be implemented and utilized in order for your team to function productively and efficiently. 

“Teamwork is working together even when apart.”

We’ve identified five top-of-mind challenges virtual teams face as well as the solves/suggestions for each below. Our hope is that you become aware of common challenges to avoid them. Implement one or a few of the tools and processes in your own virtual teams to experience more success and ease.

5 Virtual Team Challenges

1. Disconnection 

Working remotely has both challenges and opportunities. With the absence of in-person interaction, it is of vital importance to create human connection in and outside of virtual meetings. Your team will not have the experience of running into side conversations with team members throughout the day as they would in an in-person office space–an aspect that should not be overlooked. Company culture is built through connection. Water cooler and coffee break connections are crucial moments to build team rapport, trust, support, and a solid foundation for effective collaboration. 

The solve:

Intentionally schedule time and space for your virtual team to engage in casual “side” conversation. This can take the form of a virtual team happy hour (we host one every Friday), a virtual lunch hour, or a scheduled break to shoot the shit or play a game and unplug from the workday for a bit before diving back in. Humans are built for connection. We need it. While connecting with people via screens is valuable, it cannot replace the real thing. Take special care to implement periods of connection that have nothing to do with work. Any time spent gathering your virtual team to cohesively breathe, check-in, relax, and play is invaluable and will translate into team performance. 

Tools: 

• Kahoot – A game-based learning platform for when your team needs a fun brain break.
• Snap Camera – Show up to virtual happy hour in style with these fun Snapchat lens filters. 
• Zoom Virtual Backgrounds – Take your meeting from the (virtual) beach or Outerspace. Fun backgrounds transform your home office setting. 

2. Distraction

Working from home or anywhere that’s not a controlled environment like a collaborative workspace can breed distractions. From kids to microwaves to attention-seeking dogs, there are a plethora of outside factors that can divert the focus of remote teams. And we don’t blame them. It’s challenging to stay focused on a screen for hours on end with no one physically around to break up the energy or help keep productivity and engagement levels high. 

The solve:

Help your virtual team stay organized and productive by utilizing tools to keep team members in sync. Team communication is best when everyone can work in unison, in real-time (or as close as possible). Requiring all team members to use the same tools will help everyone stay on task and in open communication for optimum focus and productivity. 

Tools: 

• Trello – a Kanban-style list-making application that allows you to assign work and track work progress. Assign individuals to cards to create clear to-do lists and organize priorities.
• Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drive – universally accessible formats to work collaboratively with team members. Work together on pages, interactive templates, and spreadsheets in real-time from afar. Keep all work organized in cloud storage to access any time, anywhere. 
• Basecamp – keep track of everything your virtual team is working on with this real-time communication tool.
  

3. Meaningless Meetings

From project pitches to resolving conflict, meetings make the work world go ‘round. But bad or meaningless meetings can bring it to a near stop. You waste time and money by spinning your wheels; virtual teams greatly suffer from pointless meetings that get them nowhere.

The solve:

Make your virtual meetings meaningful. The first step to do this is to take a close look at why you want to have a meeting. Clearly identify the objective you seek to obtain or the problem you wish to solve. Then, and only then, should you move forward with calling virtual team members together. With a clear meeting propose in mind, set an agenda. This will serve as the outline for your meeting. It must include only the most important topics to cover and the time schedule (how long each topic will take, start and end time, etc.). Pick the proper tools to use (listed below) to support your team and the meeting’s needs. When the meeting is in session, encourage the use of video to build connection. And finally, keep everyone engaged and involved by creating space for people to engage and share their thoughts and opinions.

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Tools: 

• Zoom – Gather your virtual team in one space with videoconferencing platform features that support collaboration and organization. 
• Freehand – Create new ideas and improve productivity with interactive templates for virtual whiteboard collaboration. 
• Mural – Visually collaborate on this digital whiteboard with collaborative templates for planning, brainstorming, and designing.
• Figma – Design, prototype, and gather feedback in real-time in one place on this collaborative design platform. 

4. Scheduling Conflicts

No one likes to wait on someone to show up to a meeting. It’s much more difficult to track down late or no-shows attendees in the virtual space; you can’t walk down the hall to the person’s office to see what’s up. It’s essential for virtual teams to properly coordinate meeting times with team members. With team members dispersed, a sound team schedule is required to sync everyone’s individual schedules–especially if people are in varying time zones.

The solve:

Create weekly and monthly agendas so that your virtual team clearly knows the upcoming landscape and what is expected of them on a daily basis. Use scheduling tools to coordinate virtual team members’ schedules.

Tools:

• 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.

5. Difficulty tracking employee performance

People work differently. You may have some team members that work best when they work according to a certain schedule every day and others who are driven by deadlines and engage when necessary to complete their tasks. It can be difficult to manage employee performance from afar; you have a lot less insight into how much work is actually being done. To conquer the challenge of tracking employee performance, you must make certain that your virtual team is using their time efficiently and effectively. 

The solve:

Set explicit company expectations and standards and clearly communicate them. All team members must know the expectations at all times. Voice any concerns you have about hours logged or the end product of a project as quickly and explicitly as possible. Leave no wiggle room for misunderstandings or confusion. Schedule weekly syncs to connect the team and discuss the work week ahead. It is vital to ensure everyone is on the same page. Additional monthly or quarterly one-on-one check-ins with each employee to evaluate their performance and discuss glows and grows. 

Fear not, virtual teams. With effective processes and virtual tools to combat remote work problems, meaningful work and productivity will reign. The future of work is bright. 

For more helpful tools, tips, and tricks for remote work, check out our Virtual Work Guide.

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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What does it mean to ‘Control the Room’? This question frequently surfaces related to our free weekly Control the Room Meetup that we host in order to 1) convene and nurture our community of facilitators t 2) help facilitators hone their craft to improve the quality of meetings. In addition to supporting GV Design Sprint enthusiasts, we present and share many different methodologies, including Liberating Structures, Game Storming, Thinking Wrong, MG Taylor, Improv, and much more. Voltage Control is on a continuous mission to rid the world of terrible meetings. The Control the Room Meetup is one of the ways we’re working to create a more effective, productive, and inclusive meeting culture across industries, from the inside out. 

Control vs. No Control

In the facilitator realm, the word ‘control’ can get dicey. The big issue is deciding upon the meaning. People hear control and immediately think “tight” control; that a dictatorship is the only way to gain control of a room. This can disturb some people because facilitation 101 enforces non-biased and inclusive leadership; a good facilitator is a mirror that reflects the group back to themselves to help them arrive at solutions, not one who imposes their will against others. We believe that in order to best serve teams it is necessary to incorporate an element of control to triumph over the chaos of unproductive meetings.

This is not about controlling people. It’s about controlling the magic happening in a room. It is about intention. The heart of the purpose of a magical/Jedi facilitator is “controlling energy”, “controlling attention”, and “controlling room intelligence”.

A good facilitator liberates the people in the room by controlling the environment and attention so that everyone can thrive, together.

It takes true mastery to do this fluidly. That’s the inspiration behind the name of our weekly meetup, annual facilitator summit, and podcast ‘Control the Room’–to embody the balance of control necessary for facilitators to successfully navigate the structures, and lack thereof, of meetings. Each space offers thought-provoking insight into and active participation of the concept of control vs. no control. 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. The steady question is, “How do we control and how do we do it with ease to achieve a purpose?” 

I started the Control the Room Podcast to explore this question. It is a series devoted to the exploration of meeting culture and uncovering cures for the common meeting. Some meetings have tight control, and others have loose. The podcast delves deep into understanding how these opposing approaches translate into meeting success or failure across industries, and ultimately how a balance can achieve the best results. 

Forced Control in the Virtual Landscape

The controversial topic of control vs. no control has reached a new height in the recent forced shift to the virtual landscape. For me, it has prompted the questions, “How can I control less in this new space? In what ways am I controlling more?” The thing is, we’re in an entirely new frontier. In a virtual space, many things happen that are hard to control that wouldn’t otherwise happen in person. For example, virtual meetings often suffer from people showing up late, poor internet connection, lack of attendee camera use, etc. It’s just a different world. Therefore, the nature of control is different. And the current technology limits our ability as facilitators to read the room and adjust the energy accordingly.

We’re forced to adhere to and be limited by the structure of the online platforms. For instance, it’s nearly impossible to do an Open Space in Zoom. While there is technology that supports loose control strategies and allows you to run Liberating Structures, those tools fall down when you need to rely on tighter control. Therefore it’s much more difficult to adjust the level of tightness/looseness of control in a virtual space. You can’t easily improv or tweak your approach as needed on the fly anymore like in person; you have to be more intentional. 

It actually feels quite counterintuitive: More upfront control is needed to have less control in a virtual space. If you want to create a loose environment for folks, you have to be more controlling to structure it due to the current technology and tools available. We now have to lean in and do a lot of work upfront in order to create an environment that will best serve the (virtual) room. In-person, the environment is all set up. You don’t need multiple apps and various virtual tools to supply attendees with what they need to collaborate and reach their goals. You can improv and not have things go sideways.

Ultimately, a level of control is needed to direct the energy of virtual meetings so that they are productive and successful.

The question is how what level of control is required to achieve our purpose and how might we set our initial conditions such that our outcome is inevitable. 

Tight & Loose Control

Control can be tight or loose, but a lack of control altogether is bad. When folks crop dust your calendar with unnecessary meetings that lack an agenda and instead take a blind “hope for the best” meeting approach, then we are out of control. This leads to poor outcomes and people dreading their work. The danger of bad meetings is real, $541 billion dollars real. An in-depth study by Doodle, the online scheduling service, observed 19 million meetings and over 6,500 interviews with working professionals across the U.S., U.K., and Germany, and found that steep price was the estimated cost of inefficient meetings in the U.S. in 2019. 

Control Stealers

A poor meeting dynamic implodes productivity and falls to disorder and confusion. I.e. a lack of control produces poor results. So what makes a meeting bad? Several things. Here are a few of the top control stealers to be aware of: 

• The meeting lacks a clear purpose. There must be a clear objective to drive a successful meeting. That’s because when a goal is unidentified or vague, there is nothing tangible to work toward. Essentially, you will spin your wheels. You can’t arrive at your destination if you don’t know what it is.
• There is an inadequate agenda. You must consider the overall arc you wish to create for meeting attendees as well as a detailed outline of essential topics you wish to communicate. Identifying the purpose and sought-after outcomes of the meeting will allow you to outline and synchronize a timely and focused flow, which will help you get the most out of the meeting. You need a destination and a roadmap to get there. 
• The environment is one-sided and not inclusive. The role of an effective facilitator is to be the leader, moderator, connector of big ideas and themes, and guider of solutions. This is the best way to serve the group as a whole so that they may achieve their goals. However, this can’t be accomplished if the meeting is a lecture with no room for open discussion and dialogue or if one person is dominating the conversation. The best meetings are ones where all attendees are seen, heard, and are free to contribute their ideas. 

Gain Loose Control With Liberating Structures 

So, lack of control broods bad meetings which stunt productivity and creativity; you have no control when you devolve into chaos. Our antidote to chaos at Voltage Control is loose control, which is achieved via Liberating Structures–they distribute control and unleash everyone. They do not enforce too much rigidity, just enough structure to orient and guide the participants towards outcomes. The facilitation framework has 33 microstructures designed to build trust and enhance cooperation and communication between team members. Participation is the main pillar with Liberating Structures; they are built around improving coordination by including and unleashing all participants. Each microstructure is straightforward and unchallenging to implement, which makes them a great way to gain loose control of the room.

The current virtual landscape only supports some of these adequately, and I’m in constant conversation with fellow facilitators and thought leaders about how, when possible, to implement them more. I’m curious to see what technology comes out to support more Liberating Structures in a virtual space.

Facilitators Lead Change

With the tools that are now available, control can be implemented on either side of the spectrum–tight or loose. It is difficult to move fluidly between the two, and some people would argue that you shouldn’t. At Voltage Control, we believe that finding a recipe that implements loose structures, and therefore loose control, is the best way to help groups achieve their goals–enough structure to constructively guide the energy in the room but not so much control that the energy is disrupted or stunted. It takes skill to find the formula that’s just right–enter a facilitator. A skilled facilitator works to weave the tapestry, seamlessly. That’s why I’m passionate about sharing my experiences and tool kit and educating and empowering other facilitators to be their best. Because a great facilitator has the power to help create impactful and important change. 

If you are interested in building your facilitation skills, please join us for our weekly virtual Control the Room Meetup every Thursday afternoon. The discussion topics vary, and it’s a great way to connect with fellow facilitators and learn about the art of facilitation. Together, let’s change the meeting culture to offer more creativity, collaboration, and transformation so we can create a better world.

Need help building a better meeting? Bring in a professional facilitator from Voltage Control.

Voltage Control designs and facilitates innovation training, Design Sprints, and design thinking workshops, both in-person and virtual. Please reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com if you want to talk.

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Optimal remote team communication needs to be steered by strong structures and methods that capture room intelligence–the idea that many minds are far greater than one–to be most effective. Without equal participation across the board, you are not leveraging the collective intellect, i.e. you are failing to capture room intelligence, and therefore capping the potential for optimal productivity. How do you make sure that every team member is participating in a meaningful way, especially when you’re not in the same room? Incorporating Liberating Structures into remote team collaboration will optimize communication and improves attention management. Let’s dive into what Liberating Structures are and how to use them for your remote team.

What They Are

Liberating Structures is a framework for facilitation created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. It consists of 33 microstructures designed to build trust and enhance cooperation and communication between teammates. Participation is the name of the game with Liberating Structures; this framework is built around improving coordination by including and unleashing all participants.

Each microstructure is easy to learn, so whether you’re a highly experienced leader in a long-standing executive role or a fresh-faced newbie at a grassroots organization, this framework can work for you (with a little practice).

How Liberating Structures Optimize Remote Teams Communication

Even in person, conventional facilitation structures can be creativity’s worst enemy. They frequently result in the exclusion of less out-spoken voices in the room, lack a solid method of organization, and discourage outside-the-box thinking. Who feels included and creatively encouraged during a 25-minute PowerPoint presentation followed by an unfacilitated brainstorm in which the two highest-positioned extroverts in the room do all the talking? (Probably the two highest-positioned extroverts doing all of the talking!)

The pitfalls of conventional facilitation structures only grow deeper when applied to remote meetings. Throwing old behaviors online without regard to the unique challenges of virtual facilitation and participation will lead to apathy and frustration for both you and your team. Remote participants face more distractions, technical difficulties, and slower communication than in-person participants. Even the best of us can find ourselves disengaging from virtual meetings or workshops. You’ll need to put extra thought into engagement and participation to make the most of remote communication.

This is why Liberating Structures is such a great framework for remote teams. The framework’s strengths–participation enhancement, creative empowerment, and cooperation improvement–directly combat the challenges of gathering remotely.

When everyone in the room is empowered to participate, your meetings will produce more and better-quality work. Your participants are invited because they have something of value to offer; it is therefore crucial to empower them to contribute. Cooperation between teammates will heighten individual creativity by allowing everyone to build off of and inspire each other. The room is smarter than any individual.

Liberating Structures can help you harness room intelligence by empowering participants to share and fostering cooperation between team members.

The framework’s focus on participation will make attention management–often a Herculean task in remote gatherings–significantly easier. Liberating Structures operates under the philosophy that every participant has a lot to contribute, which means that every participant is being asked to take an active role. Participants who are actively engaging are much less likely to check out or become distracted.

Examples of Liberating Structures

While we love all Liberating Structures activities, we understand that jumping headfirst into adapting 33 microstructures for remote work can be overwhelming. Here are a few activities that are easily applicable for remote meetings to get you started.

Troika Consulting

This activity allows an opportunity for two participants to become consultants for a third group member (the “client.”) The first client shares a question or challenge, then the consultant has 1-2 minutes to ask clarifying questions. When time is up or the consultants are finished asking questions, the client will mute their audio and allow the consultants to spend 4-5 minutes generating suggestions and advice. The consultants will then have 1-2 minutes to share their most valuable feedback to the client. Group members will then switch roles and repeat until every group member has had a chance to be the client.

We love this activity because it simultaneously gives participants a chance to share their respective strengths and domain of knowledge and builds participants’ confidence in asking for help. The Troika Consulting activity builds trust between teammates and helps participants better understand each other’s strengths and areas of expertise.

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Because this activity requires each participant to step into the role of the expert, it leaves little room for participants to take a backseat. This makes it a good activity for remote facilitations. Even if a participant becomes distracted during their client waiting period, it won’t be long before they’re asked to take on the role of consultant and work with their partner to assist the next group member.

Conversation Café

This is a longer activity that will both make group discussion more structured and train participants to strike an appropriate balance between talking and listening. Participants will break into small groups (5-7 participants); one participant from each group will act as The Host, whose responsibility (in addition to participating in the activity) is to step in when another participant isn’t following one of six agreements.

Within these groups, team members will move through four rounds of conversation. During the first round, each small group member will have one straight minute to share their thoughts or feelings regarding the given conversation topic. After everyone has shared, the second round will begin; small group members will each get another straight minute to share their thoughts and feelings after having listened to what others’ had to say. Traditionally a “talking object” is passed around to signify whose turn it is to speak. Since your team is remote, you will have to find another ritual for signifying who is the speaker. Perhaps everyone else mutes their microphones, or each participant is asked (ahead of time!) to bring a common household item to the meeting, such as a mug or a spatula, to hold up in place of one singular talking object.

The third round is an open conversation in which participants can speak when they wish rather than taking turns. You may choose to continue using your talking object substitutes or to leave them in round two. This is likely where The Host will need to step in the most; ask them to encourage quieter members to talk and over-sharers to leave space for them to do so. After the third round is over (20-40 minutes), the fourth and final round will give each member a moment to share their biggest takeaways from the previous three rounds of conversation (reintroduce the talking object in this round if you removed it for round 3).

This activity is great for remote teams because it requires listening and reflecting rather than just sharing.

Participants will be unable to succeed in rounds 2 or 4 if they check out or get distracted during rounds 1 or 3. It also helps the quieter or more camera-shy participants build confidence contributing during virtual conversation.

If your virtual meeting requires an open discussion section, using Conversation Café rather than jumping straight into an open discussion will produce better conversation. Because the activity moves through four different rounds with clearly defined prompts and expectations, participants’ attention spans will be more solid and better focused on the discussion at hand. The small groups make it harder for a participant to fade into the background and the use of The Hosts within the groups provides peer-to-peer accountability that will keep everyone engaged.

15% Solutions

The 15% Solutions activity gives participants freedom to chisel away at a problem bit-by-bit rather than attack a huge challenge all at once. This activity can help them find a starting point if you have a question or challenge to work through during your meeting that is so large that team members are feeling blocked or powerless.

Traditionally, participants are asked to break into groups of 2-4–however, remote teams can break into groups that are a little bit larger if they utilize a chat storm. Ask your group what their 15% solution is; what contribution can they make with the power and resources already available to them without the pressure of solving the entire problem at hand? Give participants about 5 minutes to think (maybe an extra minute or two for typing) and then have everyone press enter, sharing their 15% solutions at the same time. Once everyone has had time to read through each other’s responses, provide 5-7 minutes per small group member to ask each other questions and offer feedback.

We love this activity for remote facilitation because it captures the room intelligence in such a direct way. It harnesses the individual strength of each participant and then requires team members to contribute those strengths to the ideas of others to make them stronger, more well-rounded, and more complete. It’s easy for members of a remote team to feel alone when overwhelmed by a large challenge; this activity brings participants together to improve each other’s ideas and face challenges as a team.

If you’d like to learn more about Mastering Virtual Liberating Structures to assist with your remote team collaboration, join our workshop during Mural Imagine on August 19 + 20. 

Want to learn more about virtual facilitation? 

Voltage Control offers virtual services including Virtual Facilitation, Virtual Transitions, and Virtual Meeting Design. Please reach out at hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

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In several ways, the virtual landscape has made meetings easier. For example, the removal of travel time–whether from a conference room to your office space or a flight across the country–opens up availability; we technically have more time to work when we’re confined to our home offices. And with a conference video chat just a click away, we can get meeting happy. Approach with caution: more meetings is not the answer to meaningful work. In fact, unproductive meetings are one of the biggest challenges of virtual teams. 

Don’t oversaturate your remote team with meetings for the sake of having them.

On the contrary, you should not have a meeting at all unless you have a clear purpose. You must first have an identified objective that you’re trying to obtain or else there is no tangible goal to work toward. The meeting by structure is therefore unproductive before it even begins. Frankly, there are far too many ineffective meetings and we’re on a mission to rid the world of them. A report by Forbes estimated companies will lose $102 billion annually to wasteful meetings in the United States alone. We can change the wasteful meeting dynamic with intentional focus and strategy. The new virtual landscape is an opportune time to adapt and adjust meeting structures to benefit virtual teams, and the same processes can be translated into in-person meetings. Let’s take a look at how we do that. 

Create a Prototype

We often use the mantra “No prototype, no meeting” at Voltage Control. This means if there is not a clear and tangible “prototype” or idea to flush out and explore, then there is no reason to have a meeting in the first place. 

What do we mean by prototype? Nowadays, prototypes can take various forms, and they depend on your objective. For a strategist or project manager, a “prototype” might be a storyboard, written brief, or sample pitch of the idea. A designer may make a mood board; a developer might quickly code something. Whatever prototype best fits your needs, create it, and then plan your meeting to present it and work through it with your team.

This type of structure sets your remote team up to do the work in the meeting, not after, which leads to maximum productivity and ultimately success. We’ve got things backward: we meet and then do “the work” after the meeting.

We’re so busy talking about the work we need to do when we could be rolling up our sleeves and getting to work in the session itself–enter your prototype.

A readied prototype allows your remote team to discuss it, collaborate, and collectively work on it DURING the meeting instead of saving the to-dos for when people disperse back to their own work zones. And when you do the work at the meeting, you eliminate unnecessary team meetups–saving everyone time, money, and sanity.

Tools for Virtual Prototypes

Here are three virtual tools to assist you in building, sharing, and working on prototypes with your remote team for more productive meetings. 

• Mural: A virtual whiteboard tool that allows you to build and share prototypes with remote team members. It also allows you to collaborate on digital Post-it notes and templates (you can also build your own). 

• Figma: Create vector design assets and remotely collaborate with team members, similar to how you collaborate on text in Google Docs.

• Loom: Share your prototype visually/in real-time. Make quick screen captures with a video inset to show your team your idea when you’re not in-person. This is an especially great tool to use for follow-up demos and instructions post-meeting as your team continues to work on the presented idea. When you would otherwise go to someone’s desk to show them how to do something, you can use a Loom video to demonstrate it. 

Practices for Successful Remote Meetings 

So you have your prototype. Now what? The following three practices, from our Virtual Work Guide, will help you structure and lead successful remote meetings. 

1. Schedule with purpose

Have a clear purpose to meet. This should inform your prototype and vice versa. Why do you want to bring your team together? Is it worth their time?

These questions are especially important to ask and answer with remote teams because people are working from home or another location and your meeting is competing against kids, food deliveries, spouses, background noise, etc.

Pro Tip: Address matters that aren’t worth scheduling a collective discussion for via email, Slack, or a newsletter. Remember, a productive meeting is one where you do work together. 

2. Create and distribute an agenda beforehand

Include only essential topics and the prototype you will share. Let people know what you have in mind so that they come prepared to participate–they may even come with ideas about the prototype. An important aspect of an agenda, especially for virtual meetings, is a realistic time table. What will be discussed, and for how long?

Be sure to leave some extra time at the beginning of the meeting to let people set up the appropriate tools they need to participate and for any “technical difficulties” that may arise. Also, allot time at the end of the meeting for people to ask questions about anything they are unsure about. This will make certain everyone leaves the meeting on the same page. Once your agenda is prepared, send it to all attendees in advance to ensure everyone is prepped and ready. This saves explaining time at the beginning of the meeting and your virtual team can dive in. 

3. Break the ice

An icebreaker or energizer warm-up is a great way to get the creative juices flowing at the start of the meeting. They can increase productivity from the jump. The bite-sized activities get people moving and thinking and keeps the energy high. Because your virtual team is not in the same physical space, you are unable to feel the energy of the room.

Consider the mood you want to encourage and pick your icebreaker accordingly. It should be quick, relatively simple, and straightforward. Here are a few examples:

• Guess the Shoes/Desk–have everyone (anonymously) upload a picture of their shoes or their home desk space in a MURAL template. Take turns guessing which pair of shoes/desk belongs to who.
• Creative Color–Choose a specific color and ask all staff meeting attendees to pick an object near them of that color and show it on screen. Knight the person with the coolest object the winner. The winner then chooses the next color and you repeat the process.
• Check out: Sessionlab Energizers and Icebreaker Games & Online Energizers and our Workshop Methods & Activities for more

Be intentional when you plan your next virtual meeting. Come prepared. Have a prototype. Lead your remote team to success. Let’s change the way the world experiences meetings. 

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 info@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

The post No Prototype, No Meeting appeared first on Voltage Control.

The Voltage Control team has always been remote. Aside from our in-person workshops and events (the last one of which seems like a lifetime ago) our team members are dispersed and connect/collab virtually. While we’ve experienced first-hand the frustrations and obstacles that can come with remote work, we’ve also learned the best ways around them. Our team is well accustomed to digital work sessions thanks to the established collaboration tools and processes we have in place.

Virtual teamwork and meetings are digital by nature which means they rely heavily on tools. Through tons of experimentation and research, we’ve assembled a toolkit that allows our remote team to run virtual meetings that are as effective, if not more effective, than face-to-face interactions. 

These tools make rapid capture and synthesis of data possible.

We can quickly come together and connect immediately which is not possible in real life; the answers are instantaneously accessible at our fingertips. The asynchronous nature of some of these tools offers great advantages as well, meaning that we can make our time together more meaningful because we can build upon work we’ve all done individually at times that suit us best.

The Voltage Control team is oiled by the following remote work tools. From the practical to the entertaining, I’ve outlined the top tools and best practices your remote team needs to accelerate communication, amplify collaboration, and have some fun doing it. 

Stay Organized

It’s crucial to ensure that all team members are on the same page when you’re not in the same office space. Communication is most effective when team members can work in sync with one another. The following tools help remote teams stay on task and in open communication for maximum productivity. 

1.  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.
2. 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. 
3. Google Slides – Interactive work templates with multiple pages to allow individual and collective work.
4. Google Sheets – Collaborative spreadsheets to organize and update tasks and information. 
5. 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. 
6. Basecamp – Real-time communication tool to keep track of everything you’re working on it a shared space. 
7. Focus To-Do – Pomodoro time and task management app that helps you perform tasks efficiently. 
8. Process Street – Make checklists for your team to help you remember and keep track of all of your to-do’s. 
9. SessionLab – Dynamically design, organize and share workshops and training content. 

Get Synched

Remote teams need to create communication norms in order to have clear and consistent communication. Establish communication practices that most efficiently support the team’s needs. While there are a place and purpose for email, consider implementing additional tools to improve communication. 

1. 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. Pro-tip: create different threads for different topics. Ex: #marketing, #general, #productinspiration

1. 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.
   

Smart Scheduling 

Coordinating meeting times with team members has always been important, but it’s even more essential to get it right when working remotely. It is imperative for productivity. A sound team schedule requires consideration of individuals’ busy schedules and different time zones. Create weekly and monthly agendas so that the team clearly knows the upcoming landscape and what is expected of them on a daily basis. The following tools can help you do this successfully. 

1.  Doodle – Calendar scheduling system for time management and to easily coordinate one-on-one and team meetings. 
2.  World Time Buddy – World clock, time zone converter, and online meeting scheduler to coordinate and plan across different time zones.

Run Better Meetings

It’s easy to ping people with virtual meeting invites and fill that white space on your calendar. That doesn’t mean you should always do it. Just like in-person meetings, make sure you have a clear purpose to hold a meeting before scheduling one. Meetings should be focused, productive time to accomplish work together as a team. (One of our Meeting Mantras as Voltage control is: Do the work in the meeting, not after). Make sure to double down on video conferencing etiquette and utilize the following tools to get the most out of your virtual meetings. 

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1.  Zoom – Videoconferencing platform with breakout room capabilities. 
2.  VirtualOffice – Brand your virtual office for your Zoom calls. 
3.  Fireflies – AI asset for Zoom that helps you record, transcribe, search calls, and access metrics and meeting information. 
4.  Krisp – Mute background noise during calls. 

Creative Collaboration 

Gathering team members together to riff creative ideas, plan, strategize, and brainstorm is invaluable. If you’re worried about losing the opportunity to have creative collaboration work sessions, fear not. Bring whiteboard brainstorm sessions to your laptop with platforms that support collaboration in real-time. With features like digital stickie notes, interactive templates, and voting systems, these tools have everything your team needs to join forces and ideate. 

1.  Mural – Digital whiteboard with collaborative templates for visual collaboration including planning, brainstorming, and designing
2.  Figma – Collaborative design platform to design, prototype, and gather feedback in real-time in one place.

Manage Your Devices

Space to simultaneously connect and work can be limited when it’s confined to one screen. That’s why I recommend using multiple devices for remote meetings. This is the virtual equivalent of, say, being in a conference room with your team while using a whiteboard to lead the meeting. Stay connected during remote meetings without sacrificing important assets with these tools. 

1.  Tablet – Join your meeting with a tablet and a computer so you can connect on video with one device and share information or visuals on another. 
2.  Many Cam – Live streaming software that’s helpful if you need to bring in multiple cameras (i.e. a document camera).

Spice It Up

Remote teams don’t have the benefit of in-person team-building experiences like seemingly simple yet vitally important watercooler conversations. This is a key factor that should not be overlooked. Company culture is built through connection. Quality connection builds trust and community which lays a foundation for effective collaboration. So how do you accomplish this virtually?

Create intentional space for connection and fun. Schedule a weekly team happy hour to virtually toast to the end of a good week’s work, then talk about anything but work. Zoom in to your remote meeting from (virtually augmented) outer space or greet team members as a potato.

Why not? Most things are better with an added fun flare. And when your team is far from one another physically, it can be equally entertaining and connective to shake things up. 

1. Zoom Virtual Backgrounds – Choose a fun background for your virtual meetings. 
2.  Snap Camera – Snapchat Lenses to change up your appearance with fun filters for your live streams and virtual meetings. 
3.  JQBX- Team jukebox! Play and listen to music in sync with your team while you work.
4. OBS – Open Broadcasting Software for live streaming and recording video and audio on your screen. 

Take a Break

While it’s great to be productive uninterrupted, it’s important to incorporate breaks. It can be easy to get dialed in on your devices and forget to take a visual and physical breather. You sit down to dive into work and before you know it, you’ve been sitting and staring at a screen for hours on end. Remote work doesn’t offer you the opportunity to walk to and from meetings, eat lunch with a co-worker, or meet face-to-face instead of through a screen. Everything is digital and inherently sedentary. Try these tools to avoid burnout, give your eyes a screen break, and remind yourself to stretch your legs.

1.  AntiRSI – A program that reminds you to take breaks to help prevent RSI (repetitive strain injury).
2.  Iris – Bluelight filter and eye protection software to give your eyes a break. 

Maximize Facilitation

Control Room – Power up your virtual meeting experience with professional facilitator activities. 

We love all of the tools above, but we couldn’t find one that allowed us to implement some of our favorite facilitation methods. So we have been building a tool for professional facilitators and meeting hosts. Currently, it has a few nifty features:

• Share a deck with your participants without sharing your screen and control which slide they can currently see. 
• Facilitate an ideation game with a large group to tap into the collective wisdom and rank the best ideas.
• Manage breakout groups and shuffle them into different activities
• Continuously improve by collecting feedback on your meeting through Rose, Thorn, Bud.

Want to practice your facilitation skills? Join us at our free weekly virtual Factilitation Lab.

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.

The post The Best Tools & Practices for Remote Teams appeared first on Voltage Control.