Guest Contributor and long-time colleague, Amy Connell, has worked in a highly visible marketing capacity for three Fortune 500 companies. Read her story and suggestions here.
Also, my first on-demand course is available through this blog post. The Powerful Role of the Virtual Leader is an introductory course to the virtual management model I teach in Working Virtually: Transforming the Mobile Workplace.
I’m reposting the last The SMART Workplace Blog post on what great leaders say to engage their teams. People are taking Virtual Workplace University’s Kickstarter course for today’s team manager, offered free for a limited time.
I’l be speaking at the inaugural EdVET Conference for teachers and trainers on Friday 28 April 2017 in Melbourne. I’ll actually be spending two weeks working with educators on topics such as:
Teaching tomorrow’s workforce today
An engagement-driven rapid course design approach
Teacher as online facilitator – role model, stringent evaluator AND slacker
Aligning course learning outcomes to student learning goals
Where and when to do what – blended learning and flipped classrooms.
What makes a Manager great? As is often the case, we can look to Google for some of the answers. A couple of years ago their People Analytics team studied what makes a great manager. But before they did that, they actually tried to prove that managers don’t really matter. This exercise quickly revealed that managers did matter.
“Best Fit” workplaces consider virtual and co-located work environments as viable places to get the job done. “Best Fit” workplaces find and build talented teams that align with the organization’s desired culture and goals. They’re SMART about how they design the organizational structure so that it “fits” the way work gets done and the way knowledge is stored.
Wishing all of you a very SMART New Year. Take time to set a some positive goals for yourself and your organization. Our Manager Kickstart Class is just one way to get started. COMING END OF JAN.
You know the phrase, “The best laid plans….”? No matter how slowly and carefully we communicate in the flat medium of the written word, misunderstanding and confusion is inevitable. Rather than being frustrated, angry, responding, EXPECT it. For example, as an instructor, I follow instructional design principles and I do my best to communicate clearly. However last time I taught this course, 40% of my students posed the same two questions. I strive to write simply and clearly, so I was a bit deflated because I had obviously missed my mark. I thought I had been abundantly clear.
Then I chuckled, remembering that I am human, and reminded myself that taking a few minutes to clean up a confusing message is simply part of the ‘job’ of online facilitation. Period. The course’s virtual office made it easy to communicate, both questions were easily cleared up (and hopefully won’t recur this term) and the entire class was notified of the clarification in case others were also confused.
Done. Handled. Students served. Professor made changes to course documents for future classes.
It’s harder to “read between the lines” when we don’t have voice tone or body language to help.
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The written medium is flat. Misunderstood writing isn’t a shortcoming unless we don’t take the time to be clear in the first place, or if we won’t take responsibility for answering questions and clarifying meaning to the reader.
Virtual team communication, especially when written, is no different than an online class.
Verification of understanding and clarification of specific detail is, quite simply, normal. You might want to encourage conversation that verifies this shared understanding.
Here are 5 proactive ways to clear confusion:
Take as much time as needed to be sure your writing is as clear as possible before publishing or sending your written communication.
Use the collaboration tools to confirm communications were received, read, responded to, or any other feedback loops you need. In other words, ensure the communication has been completed and understood. Don’t assume.
EXPECT questions. As I said, instead of thinking the receiver of your message is dumb or didn’t read carefully, instead of judging yourself as a poor communicator, just expect some back and forth until everyone understands the intended message.
EXPECT newer relationships and teams to be more iterative until you get to know one another and settle into team rhythms.
Add protocols and efficiency aids as they are needed. (For example, in my teaching, we have consistent, predictable due dates and engagement expectations throughout the week. I teach across global time zones, so we are asynchronous and much of the course learning happens in discussion that requires regular participation.)
If you commit to this kind of clear written communication and openness, as well as get into the habit of asking and expecting clarifying questions, you will save time and frustration for yourself and all your team relationships.
~ Trina Hoefling, Transformation Change Agent, co-founders of The SMART Workplace