06Jun

Feeling the virtual meeting brain-drain? Get smarter about virtual teamwork with these four tips from Microsoft WorkLab.

2020 was the year of meeting overload with much of the workforce transitioning from in-office collaboration to working from home and collaborating virtually. Having a calendar full of calls and video conferences is not just draining, it can also take away from the valuable time teams could be getting work done instead of talking about work to be done.

Microsoft, with its vast customer data, has been studying how people work and collaborate. What the research says: There are ways to meet less often and still feel engaged and informed.

Let’s commit to making 2021 the year of working smarter, with more intentional meetings. Here’s how you & your team can make it happen:

Tip #1: Ask yourself, is a meeting necessary to get this work done?

If it seems like you’re in more meetings than ever, that’s because you are. According to a Microsoft study of Microsoft Teams activity, between February and August 2020 there was a 55% increase in the number of calls per week. As a result of the shift to remote work due to COVID-19, more meetings were added in an attempt to keep teams connected, but ultimately, this shift was unsustainable.

What’s become abundantly clear for many working from home for the past year: work doesn’t always hinge on a meeting. Collaboration can be accomplished without the need for a video call. Sharing documents for collaboration, communication via chat, utilizing planners and workflow modules, and more can allow for more fluid and ongoing collaboration – and can free up time for the real work to get done.

The best way to let go of attachment to meetings? Encourage your teams to keep asking the question, “Do we have to have this meeting?” Consistently ask yourself if there are other avenues that can move a project forward.

Tip #2: Be intentional about time

If you’ve found yourself distracted and unfocused during a long meeting, you’re not alone. Research from Microsoft’s Human Factors Labs suggests that after 30-40 minutes of concentration, fatigue starts to set in.

When possible, try to cap meetings at 25 or 50 minutes, so people have time to have a break or stretch their legs between meetings. In some calendars, like Outlook, you can set this as a default. If a long meeting is necessary, plan in spots for 5-minute breaks. Give yourself & others a chance to recharge!

Tip #3: Trade large meetings for a more meaningful one-on-one

In a Microsoft Harris Poll of people in six different countries, almost 60% of those surveyed feel less connected to their colleagues since transitioning to remote work. That may seem counter-intuitive given the increase in virtual meetings, but what virtual meetings don’t guarantee is a chance for information interactions and connecting with your colleagues.

Light-hearted office chatter creates trust and goodwill and builds a sense of connection. That sense of connection, according to Microsoft Senior Research Economist Sonia Jaffe, is associated with a range of benefits, including job satisfaction and better overall health.

So instead of cutting right to the chase, allow for a few minutes of genuine connection when you meet one-on-one with your teams. At Green Key Resources, we’ve found that a few minutes of chatter rarely take away from the overall productivity of a meeting and has allowed our teams to feel connected, despite not being in our offices together for the last year.

Find opportunities to check in with the people you collaborate with outside of a typical meeting. And don’t forget to reach out to the new employees who were onboarded virtually and haven’t yet experienced your company’s watercooler chatter. Bring your new hires into the fold now so when you’re all back in the office – or in a hybrid work structure – they already feel like part of the team.

Tip #4: Set boundaries

It can be tempting to accept meetings after hours or skip a lunch break when you no longer have a separation between office and home. However, boundaries are essential in this era of meeting and chat overload. Set hard stops – and stick to them – when it comes to meetings, work hours, and the work itself.

Want more help with creating a culture of intentional meetings? Download Microsoft’s Intentional Meetings Checklist to help train your people, and yourself, how to form a better virtual meeting culture.

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

Jun 6, 2023

Honor Martin Luther King, Jr. with a ‘Day On’

Today we honor the memory of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Schools, financial markets, banks, government and many businesses will be closed. But, unlike in years past, because of COVID the nation will celebrate quietly. Parades and gatherings have been canceled with observances moved online.

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What hasn’t changed is the spirit of the day. MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service. It should be a “Day on, not a day off,” says AmeriCorps, which has led the day’s volunteer efforts since Congress first adopted the holiday.

Though in-person volunteer efforts are limited, AmeriCorps has dozens of COVID-safe suggestions for individuals, groups, businesses, and organizations. There’s also a search to find volunteer opportunities near where you are.

The work doesn’t have to be done today. But it can start today.

Photo by History in HD

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Productivity Is a System Problem

Productivity is about systems, not people, says the Harvard Business Review.

Sure, there are hacks and techniques each of us can use to filter out the noise, but in the end, writes Daniel Markovitz, “The most effective antidote to low productivity and inefficiency must be implemented at the system level, not the individual level.”

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“94% of most problems and possibilities for improvement belong to the system, not the individual,” he says, citing the case made by W. Edwards Deming in his book Out of the Crisis. “I would argue that most productivity improvements belong there as well.”

This is a particularly telling point for human resources professionals who are often tasked with providing training on time management. Markovitz says there’s nothing wrong with teaching techniques like Pomodoro, Inbox Zero or one of the many others. What’s necessary is to also address system inefficiencies.

That’s where he focuses his article, offering what he calls “four countermeasures.”

Tier your huddles

Whether you call them stand-ups, check-ins or huddles, Markovitz shows us how to use these meetings to avoid the inefficiency of “scattershot emails about a variety of problems.” Instead of kicking problems up the hierarchy, address problems at the lowest possible level. Problems that can’t be resolved at the staff huddle are the ones, and the only ones, to escalate to the next level huddle.

Make work visible

Because so much of office work is done by individuals working alone, it becomes invisible. Implementing a physical or virtual task board where every task is represented along with who is handling it not only makes a more equitable distribution of work, it also eliminates status check emails and the need to cover that topic in meetings.

Markovitz suggests making downtime equally as visible. Instituting “predictable time off” allows workers to know when someone is unavailable and react accordingly.

Define the “bat signal”

Pointing out that Batman knew flashing the symbol of a bat in the sky meant a crisis, Markovitz suggests companies adopt something similar to indicate when an issue is a real emergency.

“With no agreement on what communication channel to use, workers are forced to check all digital messaging platforms to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. That’s toxic to productivity. Companies can make work easier for people if they specified channels for urgent and non-urgent issues.”

Align responsibility with authority

“If an employee is responsible for an outcome, they should have the authority to make the necessary decisions without being forced into an endless string of emails, meetings, or presentations,” writes Markovitz.

“The pursuit of individual productivity is healthy and worthwhile,” he agrees, though the value is limited because of all the pulls and tugs by others.

“To make a real impact on performance, you have to work at the system level.”

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl | Image by Gerd Altmann

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