Together in Isolation–Top Tips on managing people remotely
Joanna here – the Admin Avenger, working from home. How’s it all going?
Things are tough, right? It’s a given. We’re all feeling it. We’re in it together, so to speak. Except in the sense that we’re not.
Isolation is tough on the spirit and tough on productive work. We’re working remotely. We need our critical friends and coffee partners. We need our TRIBE – for inspiration, for empathy, for energy, for purpose.
This holds true for students needing to engage with their courses and each other, organisations who rely on their teams, freelancers with a network – we all feel it.
We have to connect.
So how do we USE this moment to make innovations to our communication and collaboration? What will take us through this moment and give us exciting options in the future?
Well. Funny you should ask that.
I just started a new job. (Hello Nifty Fox!) I’m working remotely, so I’m not just separated from the (hypothetical) people who are my (hypothetical) comrades-in-arms – I’ve never actually met them in the first place. (Except Laura. Hello Laura!)
What do you do if you’re new to a team? You want to jump in to the culture and splash around. You want to get to know people and feel part of it. But you don’t have the usual channels of connection. There’s no shared coffee break, no accessibility, you can’t sit on someone’s desk and pick their brains. What can you do?
And what can a team leader do, to offer support that meets those needs? Nothing’s going to be quite the same. But there are things that help.
Videos
For training, Laura sends me videos she made of herself talking to me. She uses my name, she talks directly to me as if I’m there, she looks at (the camera) me, she makes me feel like it matters that I am me. She takes the time to do that.
I can’t stress this enough: it makes a difference if people feel like you care who they are. You see them. You genuinely communicate with them. This applies if you’re the boss, a colleague, a new hire, a research associate – we’re all in it together.
So Laura looking at me out of my screen, saying my name, makes me feel like a real person working with another real person. It gives me motivation and skin in the game.
You can easily make videos yourself to share with people you work with, using free software like Loom:
Need to give students feedback? How about a video walkthrough of their work? Easy to do, personal, clear, and gets rid of that pesky tone-of-voice problem that fouls email up.
Need to explain how a document/process works? Show people directly how to do it with the Loom simultaneous screenshare+video yourself function.
Portals:
At the get-go, Laura sent me a central document that had hyperlinks to all the other sites I was going to need. To begin with the doc was a scary magical space, each link like a portal to an unknown world. What would I find if I jumped through? Would I speak the language? Would I be hopelessly lost? Still, I did jump.
Soon the magical portal space became more an ordinary hallway with different work rooms off it. Familiar, comfortable, and useful. From that one place I can access quick links to the Nifty website, Hootsuite, the shared Google Drive, Canva - nice safe places I’ve known for a while - but also enigmatic and possibly dangerous worlds like Trello! Dubsado! Squarespace! Here be dragons, people.
Actually all those things, even the dragon-infested ones, turned out to be super-helpful and supportive places to be. Check ‘em out if you don’t already know them. Trello’s great for creating and managing shared workloads. There are other free digital whiteboards too, like Sketchpad, Padlet and Google Jamboard, all good for different styles of brainstorming and planning. Footle around and find what feels right.
Chat
I’m in a new job! There’s a whole lorry-load of stuff I don’t know. How do I find out, in that hot second when I hit a basic need-to-know and the thing I’m working on comes to a screaming halt?
I send Laura a WhatsApp.
Could be Slack. Could be something else. Whatever works for you. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But a text can feel intrusive, so agree on something easy that you both/all have it to hand. WhatsApp is great for students because you can make groups. I know Laura has her phone close by. I ping her. She gets back to me in real time and I’m back to work as if I’d called my ? across the office to her. ChaCHING!
And we can check in as we go – a quick but sincere “how’s life?” goes a long way. Ask each other about getting out for a walk. Have they? Have you? Self-care can take a nose-dive when you’re isolated.
Newsflash: work relationships are personal relationships. Look out for each other. Work is better for it. That goes for study partners, research teams, faculty teams – everyone, really.
Bigger meetings need bigger platforms. We all love to hate Zoom, but ffs, people, where would we be without it? Or [insert your favourite video-meet option]? We need to see people’s faces. Is it the same as real life? Of course not. Is it a zillion times better than nothing? Yes. Yes, it is. Feeling generous? Look into the camera and the other person will feel as if you’re meeting their eyes. What a gift, honestly.
Set up a virtual coffee break – bring your mug of steaming beverage and look at your colleague’s lovely face. Chat about your project/your dog/the state of the world. Because, again, work relationships are personal relationships. We’re motivated when we care. So even though we’re isolated, let’s get together.
Now go for a walk.
For more inspiring ideas for using tech to work together in isolation, check out this blog entry from our website: https://www.niftyfoxcreative.com/journal/2020/3/19/tips-amp-free-resources-for-teaching-remotely-in-uncertain-times
Questions? Problems? Connect with us on Twitter (@niftyfoxcreativ) and shoot your problem over. Another great resource: Duncan Yellowlees Training on LinkedIn (@d_yellowless on Twitter). Duncan’s really good for camera, sound and virtual teaching software.
For access to laptops and other hardware, the Government are offering support for education: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-technology-for-remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19