Collaboration Archives - CHCI

Mastering Virtual Meetings: A Comprehensive Checklist for Success

admin — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 04:51:29 +0000

In the ever-evolving landscape of remote work, virtual meetings are an integral part of our professional lives. However, creating engaging and productive virtual meetings can often be a challenge. A comprehensive checklist can help you navigate virtual meetings effectively, keeping them lively, efficient, and results driven.

Ready to transform your virtual meetings? Let’s get started! Below, you’ll find our detailed checklist to kickstart more productive virtual meetings.

Before the Meeting

Define clear objectives: Before drafting the meeting invite, ensure there’s a clear purpose or goal. What do you want to achieve at the end of the meeting?
Prepare an agenda: Create a detailed agenda, including the topics to be discussed, the topic sequence, and the time allocated for each. Send the agenda to all participants, or attach the agenda to the meeting invite, 24 hours before the meeting.
Choose the right technology: Choose a reliable video conferencing platform such as Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams. Ensure all participants are comfortable using the chosen technology. If you’ve chosen a popular platform, there will likely be plenty of resources available online, such as written guides, video tutorials, FAQs, and more. Find a few of these resources and share them with the participants in advance.
Test the technology: Before the meeting, ensure your internet connection, camera, and microphone are working correctly. Encourage participants to do the same.
Prepare materials: If there are any presentations or documents to be discussed, prepare them in advance and consider sending them out beforehand for attendees to review.

During the Meeting

Start with an icebreaker: Start the meeting with a brief, friendly conversation or an icebreaker activity to make participants feel comfortable and encourage interaction. Here are two examples of icebreakers:
- The One-Word Icebreaker: At the start of the meeting, ask participants to share one word that describes their mood or day so far. This simple activity not only allows everyone to speak but also sets a tone of empathy and understanding.
- Two Truths and a Lie: Each participant shares three statements about themselves – two truths, and one lie. The rest of the team tries to guess which statement is the lie. This can be a fun way to learn more about each other and spark conversation.

Encourage camera usage: Encourage all participants to use their cameras. Studies show that meetings are generally more effective when participants can visually connect with one another. It helps to create a sense of community, encourages active participation, and enhances communication clarity.
Appoint a Facilitator and Tech Support: Assign one person to lead the discussion and keep the meeting on track (Facilitator). Appoint another person to handle any technical issues (Tech Support). This keeps the meeting focused and minimizes disruptions.
Establish meeting norms: At the beginning of the meeting, set some meeting norms such as one person speaking at a time, muting when not speaking, staying engaged, etc.
Use engagement tools: Use features like ‘Raise Hand’, polls, whiteboard, or Q&A to engage participants and gather feedback.
Monitor the chat: Keep an eye on the chat box for questions, comments, or technical issues that attendees may have.
Actively involve participants: Regularly invite comments, questions, or inputs from participants to maintain engagement.
Limit presentation length: If there’s a presentation, keep it brief. Prioritize discussion and conversation.
Appoint a jester: This person would have the authority to tell people when they are monopolizing conversations or drifting off-topic, helping keep the meeting on track.

After the Meeting

Summarize and assign next steps: At the end of the meeting, summarize the main points, decisions made, and assign tasks with clear deadlines.
Follow-up: Send a follow-up communication to all participants summarizing the meeting, the tasks assigned, and their deadlines.
Ask for feedback: Regularly seek feedback on how to improve future meetings.

By implementing the strategies outlined in this checklist, you can create an environment that encourages engagement and collaboration. Remember, the success of a virtual meeting does not merely rely on the technology used; how we communicate and interact with each other is just as important. Here’s to better and more productive virtual meetings in the future!

How have you implemented strategies to improve your virtual meetings? We’d love to hear your experiences, insights, or questions about mastering virtual meetings. Share your experiences, insights, or questions. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or connect with us on Twitter.

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Collaboration: How, When, and When Not To Do It

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 09:54:59 +0000

We use the term ‘collaboration’ all the time, by saying something like, “Oh, I just collaborated with Gina on that project.”. More than likely you actually brainstormed with Gina, or shared ideas with Gina. That’s not collaboration. But what if you and Gina share an office, get along well, support each other and work in the same department? Nope, that’s not collaboration either. And if you and Gina are working on the same project, but Gina has all the say in the matter, and you just continually cave, that’s—you guessed it—not collaboration.

To be clear, collaboration is NOT:

Being co-located
Liking each other
Accommodating, giving in, caving into others
Getting along without challenging one another
Compromising, splitting the difference

So what is collaboration? The American Management Association’s definition of collaboration is:

Collaboration is a process whereby people connect and work together in an interactive, interdependent, unified, cooperative, and synergistic way to achieve a common goal.

When dissecting this definition, it’s important to notice the key points, which are that collaboration is a set process, with people work together toward a common goal that supercedes personal, individual goals. While collaboration is a good thing, it’s also resource intensive, so it’s important to choose your collaboration projects wisely.

When and When Not to Collaborate

Now that you know what collaboration is and is not, let’s look at when you collaborate and when you don’t.

Collaborate? Yes!

You do want to collaborate when there is a need for:

Generating new ideas, products, processes.
Planning, coordinating, carting out complex work.
Dealing with uncertain, complex, or risky problems.
Making major decisions affecting many people.
Improving quality, efficiency, or customer service.
Learning new insights, perspectives, or methods.
Gaining commitment from all affected parties.
Dealing with divisive conflict when relationships matter.

Collaborate? Nope.

However, you don’t want to collaborate when:

The costs of collaboration exceed the benefits.
Individuals have enough information and resources to do the work well by themselves.
Tasks are simple, small, or brief.
Speedy execution is important.
Organizational politics are toxic.
Others are taking advantage of you.

The Superordinate Goal

As outlined in the definition, collaboration works best when all participants share an important, valuable goal that transcends all their personal goals. This is known as a superordinate goal. According to the P2P Foundation, a superordinate goal is something that is big enough and compelling enough to aid individuals and groups to overlook personal differences in order to achieve something significantly beyond their current reach, something that cannot be privately held by any of the members.

An example would be a soup company that wants to create a new soup that is healthy and inexpensive. Instead of saying, “We’re going to make another soup flavor.”, they could say “We’re going to keep low-income families healthy.” The former is just another ‘soup of the day’ discussion while the latter is a bigger cause that everyone can rally around.

So how do you collaborate? Here is the 9-step process from the American Management Association:

The 9-Step Process to Collaboration

Mindset: Decide to be collaborative and use collaborative behavior
Specific Collaborative Event: Choose what to collaborate on
Superordinate: Clearly state and refine what needs to be accomplished
Identification: Decide who should collaborate with you (team/s, internal and/or external colleagues)
Role Responsibility: Assign roles and responsibilities to collaborators
Communication: Determine what you will say to different individuals to engage them in the collaborative effort
Network: Consistently and Consciously
Measure Results: Meet often to assess, analyze, celebrate, and share results
Future Thoughts: Conduct a “stop, start, and continue” to refine your processes for the next collaborative initiative

Let’s go into each step in detail:

Collaborating is a choice that will use resources including time, money, and teams. Pick one project that is worth the effort.
Pick one project to collaborate on. It could be within a current project or starting a new project. Define clear objectives and measurements.
Define the superordinate goal. Keep it bigger than any one individual.
Who should be on your team? Think internally and externally. Ask yourself: Why is it imperative that this person be on the team?
What role will each person have? Clearly define the role with the individual. Here are some ideas:

Leader
Facilitator
Recorder
Reporter
Timekeeper
Loyal Opposition/Devil’s Advocate
Observer/Evaluator
Logistician
Liaison to Other Teams

Now that you have the outline in your head, it’s time to start communicating your idea. What is your pitch to engage them on this project?
Network your idea internally and externally. Let people know what you’re doing and get their feedback.
Measure and evaluate the progress with regular milestones. Celebrate milestones along the way.
Conduct a team debrief so that you can tweak the process for the next collaborative initiative.

Check out these perfect examples of collaboration. Can you spot the nine steps?

Collaboration Culture” by the BBC – with Gaston Acurio and Jordi Roca Video: “Collaboration Culture” video, there is a 1 min pause around minute 8:16… then a title card that announces part II.

Now, we can’t forget that collaborating has to do with human beings, who can sometimes display challenging behavior—especially in a group! You’ll need to rely on your emotional intelligence and communication skills to help you successfully navigate these group dynamics. However, some people have non-collaborative behavior right out the gate.

For example, if you feel like a team member never believes your ideas are valid, or your research is constantly being questioned—you may be dealing with The Skeptic or The Cynic.

Or maybe one particular person on the team always sees the downside of things. You might hear things like, “We’ll never meet that deadline,” or “I doubt leadership will approve that,” or “That’s just not going to work,” echo through the room. We like to call those Message Killers.

Even that extra, super nice team member can make collaborating hard. When someone says yes to everything and never imposes their opinion, a valuable perspective is lost. Plus, you can tell that they don’t really agree or want to do certain things. In that case, you’re dealing with A Doormat.

Seven People Who Cause Major Problems When Collaborating

But there are more. Here are seven types of personalities that cause major problems during collaborations. Recognize any?

Skeptics and Cynics: not trusting others
Hoarders: not sharing information and resources
Solo Artists: doing it by themselves
Narcissists: me, me, me: first, last, and always
Doormats: giving in quickly, “disease to please”
Message Killers: negativity
Pontificators: think-they-know-it-alls

Dealing with personalities like these in a collaborative situation will take extra effort. I recommend reading these eight quick tips for interpersonal communication and relationship building. The effort will be worth the results!

I’ll leave you today with this question: How do you want to be known as a leader when collaborating? Tell me in the comment section below.

Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter. It will be extremely interesting to hear different perspectives!

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The post Collaboration: How, When, and When Not To Do It appeared first on CHCI.

Leading Collaboration in a Virtual World

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 09:30:28 +0000

In the blink of an eye, the new normal has become working from home. The expectation is to become a high performing team that is able to collaborate remotely and successfully achieve all of its goals. This means that overnight, leaders are expected to become experts in how to lead collaboration in virtual teams.

New technology such as video conferencing, Google Docs, and remote desktops give us ways to collaborate without being in the same physical space. Learning new technology can help leaders facilitate virtual collaboration. Technology provides valuable tools that help us to navigate working remotely. However, there are some items that are critical to leading collaboration in a virtual world: trust and communication.

Why are Trust and Communication so important?

Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. Communication is imparting or exchanging of information or news, ideas, or feelings. Trust and communication are important to teams, whether they are virtual or not. But they are even more important to remote teams because there is no physical interaction to draw from. Trust develops differently with virtual teams. Colleagues in an office setting typically build relationships and trust through social interaction and collaborative work. In a virtual work environment, there are reduced opportunities to form social bonds and obtain non-verbal cues. This creates an increased likelihood for miscommunications, misunderstandings, and hurt feelings.

It is challenging to build a strong team without typical daily physical interactions to make trust and communication your foundation. However, there are six steps that leaders can take to avoid pitfalls.

How can leaders build a virtual collaborative team?

The six simple steps that every leader can take to foster collaborative teams are:

Act with Integrity

Communicate Goals and Objectives

Check in on the team

Provide clear standards

Respect schedules

Recognize contributions

Act with Integrity – Lead with morals and honesty. Ethics will always guide a leader with integrity. If your virtual team consistently sees you acting with integrity, it will help them to believe you will treat them fairly and begin to establish trust.
Communicate Goals and Objectives – Know what the desired outcome is and be able to clearly convey it to your team. If you do not tell your team where they are going, they will never arrive at the desired destination. In a virtual work environment, there will be fewer physical cues to help your team correct course if they get off track.
Check in on the Team – Monitor the well-being of your team, including mental, physical, and emotional needs. Be open to exchanging feedback. In a virtual work environment, you will have less non-verbal warning signs if something is wrong. It is crucial that you take the extra time and effort to check in on the team.
Provide Clear Standards – Set up ground rules and establish guidelines for how the team will interact with clients, customers, key stakeholders, and each other. When working with virtual teams, this must be established early on. Since their leader is not physically there, having clear standards provides support to the team.
Respect Schedules – Be on time for meetings and business calls. Have regard for your teams’ planned business hours. This simple courtesy will show your team that you have respect for them and for their time.
Recognize Contributions – Acknowledge the hard work and time your team sacrifices to accomplish the workload. Sometimes it may take longer to accomplish a goal when working remotely. Be sure to let your team know you appreciate all they do to help the team be successful!

Following these six simple steps will help your virtual team become collaborative and high performing!

Let us share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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