A project I’ve been working on for three years is tantalizingly close to completion… it’s a book! The working title: Beyond Virtual Meetings.
I think the world would be a better place if people could work together more effectively at a distance. Based on experience and observation, I’d say that working with a remote team can be pretty painful and frustrating… but it doesn’t have to be. So that’s what I’m writing about: how you, as a team member, team leader, or facilitator, can make remote collaboration better for yourself and everyone you work remotely with.
The Grove recently published a short interview in which I talk about some of the main themes.
One possible path through Part I
Writing the book itself has been an interesting process, sometimes fun, sometimes painful; just like writing any book, I imagine. At this point, the manuscript is complete and I’m doing an editing pass to tighten it up. We don’t have a publication date yet but I’ll post it when we do! The current draft has three parts: the first, illustrated here, is about being facilitative in online settings, finding out what your team needs most, and creating a beautiful virtual workspace to support collaboration. The second part includes agendas and checklists for doing virtual work (both in meetings and in between meetings, when lots of important work happens too!). The third part is a collection of 70 best practices for yourself and your teams to make remote collaboration smoother, easier, and more effective.
There’s a website attached to the book, too, which is where I talk about actual tools. The book’s best practices are linked to types of tools rather than specific ones. Look up the tool type on the website to find specific applications you might want to try. The website will also have a bunch more best practices — there were too many to fit in the book — all targeted at specific areas your team needs to work on. You can see the site in its embryonic stage right now! (Just the tool reviews, though. No best practices there yet.)
Want to stay informed? Sign up to be notified when the book is ready. If you think this book will be helpful, I’d love it if you’d leave a quick comment saying so. Thanks!
I’m hoping this is a great book for us! I work for a large organization where the majority of us work from home full time. Some teams do better than others. Can’t wait to see the book!
Thanks, Susan! I hope you’ll find it useful. What are the biggest issues you find your teams are facing?
Our biggest issues…where to start? We need to figure out virtual collaboration because we typically have no choice – we’re a nonprofit and can’t spend a lot of time and $$ on traveling. We have a lot of employees just afraid to try the online meeting technology (S4B) and they have varying levels of bandwidth at home. So just getting them at a working level is a challenge. There is a lot of reading lines from a deck going on – BORING. So some tend to read the slide and then do something else. Some facilitators are good at adding a poll or a whiteboard to keep participants engaged. We do have a fairly large group willing to try new things and that is who I lean on a lot.
I hear you! Your situation isn’t unusual. If you haven’t tried it yet, take a look at Boardthing (boardthing.com). It’s a shared sticky note tool. Maybe try it with your experimental group next time you need to generate ideas or sort some choices, and see what you think. Good luck!