Thriving in a Remote Work Culture: Tips for Productivity and Connection

hello hello friends I am so excited to be here with you today even if it's through a screen we get a

little community we get a little bit of learning I actually want to start off today's webinar with something a little

different which is tell me something you're grateful for so pop in a chat say hello tell me something you're grateful

for in a time like this I feel like we need to really keep those gratitude thoughts close I will tell you I am

incredibly grateful that we have technology when we can be with each other how lucky is that but even though

I think we've spent the last few days alone I actually get to communicate with you teach with you hear from you see you

around the world I'm pretty grateful for that grateful for my health and my puppy connecting with my friends on FaceTime

that's such a good idea I just talked to my friends and I think we're gonna do virtual happy hours next week you know

glass of wine put on some music my friends has some record that she wants to play I love it grateful for my family

grateful for my house grateful that I get to hang in a home school my daughter it's true so Chris said that I'm getting

amazing time with Siena and she loves this social distancing she's like lots of mommy and daddy time she loves it

grateful but I still have a job and health yes okay so just this feels good right like just read those read those

comments like there is a lot to be grateful for that is what I'm talking about today I want to welcome you I want

to talk about what we can learn what we can do how we can leverage this time how we can be grateful how we can think

about all the things in our life that we can actually improve during this time oh I love it grateful for family time

grateful for bicycles and puppy and healthy relatives I feel like grateful for puppies it

should just always be a thing look I am universally always grateful for company puppies grateful that spring is around

the corner yes grateful that I have some down time to learn new things and brush up on

current ones John snaps for John okay keep putting your grateful things in check I want to

get started on the learning so i sat down I've been obsessed with this I haven't been sleeping I've been like

what tools can I share that I can give you that we can talk about that we can actually thrive in this remote culture

and so I have a whole presentation I've never taught this presentation before which is exciting for me I get a lot of

dope I mean where's my dope I mean I get a lot of dopamine from teaching new things so I'm very excited okay let's

jump right in all right so we're talking about living virtually working virtually that's

whether or not you're with a team or you're with a company or you're entrepreneur or you're thinking about

site hustling or you're just trying to learn things in your off time here are a couple different ways and tools that I

want you to think about when you think of working from home speaking of working from home when you say I'm working from

home a lot of people think of something like this great cereal all day I don't have to do my hair or makeup or get

dressed like I am totally in pajama pants I am totally in pajama pants right now which is thrilling but I did dress

up for you on top I got a little dress up for you on top so when you talk about working remotely or when you talk about

working from home there are two groups of people and I'm curious which group you are so the first group they are like

yeah working from home pajamas all day no commute win for introverts I saw some introverts in the chat that were saying

that they were so grateful for this oh good Oh Chris said grateful for this community to connect with you all yes so

much so if this is you you're more on the introvert side of the spectrum or maybe alo amber if that's you yes okay I

want you to put it in chat the other camp is all of my extroverts you're like no my social time my people time how am

I gonna get my serotonin how am I gonna get my oxytocin how am I gonna get all those social chemicals chores pets kids

distractions and then the dreaded do I have to turn on my video during this video chat right you're grateful to we

didn't have any on this thing right only I'm on video or some of you are probably I got all dolled up I wish I could be on

video and some of you were like thank goodness thank goodness no video is on today so there are sort of these two

groups of people I want to help you no matter what side you're on whether you're on the yes I thrive working

remotely or you're like how do I do this here's the good news so research has actually looked into remote work and

they have found that working from home can lead to happier more productive teams in other words you can find way

find tools which have set the right tools the right rhythms where you can actually lead a very happy very happy

very productive remote working life including with your teams if you're working with others I will tell you the

start of this week I started to dive into the remote research I was like what research is out there on virtual

workplaces on being remote on staying from saying at home and I was worried what I would find I was like how am I

gonna share with my audience if it's not good news I was so relieved when I read the research I was like ah there is so

much robust research that shows actually this is a great way to be happy and productive as long as we use the right

tools so I felt like this was such good news the very first thing that we have to talk about is creating the right

rhythms so I want you to get out a pen and paper and a paper please or if you want to type or if you want to use a

note on your phone that's okay too is oh oh well I have some low ambivert slow inverts by the way an ambivert is

someone in between an extrovert and introvert they're somewhere in between there and I think most people are

introverts I'm a high M overt so yes if you're a low M over you can swing into that introversion okay I want to get on

a pen and paper I was vamping there did you get your pen and paper oh and here's what I want you

to do on one side of your piece of paper I want you to write your working hours that could be 9:00 to 5:00 that could be

seven to four whatever your working hours are hopefully it's not seven to seven but if it is write those old

working hours out what I'm trying to get you to think about here is we need to take an old way of doing something and

transform it into a better way of doing something we're not trying to take our old

they are old work habits are old communication habits and just shove them into a virtual box actually we're trying

to say okay here were our old things here's what worked for us here's what didn't work for us how can we put it

into a new shape notice how I changed that metaphor box to shape like yours could be a triangle yours could be a

rectangle box yours could be something totally different we're taking something I'm putting into a different container

alright so once you have out there oh good I love the agrees Thank You Amanda and Colleen I love it and by the way we

will also release a replay of this so if you want to pause take some time on it that's also totally fine so I'm going to

go through this pretty fast but hopefully it could take some more time later to do it okay I want you to begin

to slot in what your old work day look like and by the way some of you might have

worked from home a little bit before what did your typical work day look like every hour and if you can break it down

even more great there's two things that might happen here one is you can be like yep it was very very scheduled I have a

very odd a very very solid work day I knew exactly what I had to do it was like the same every day others of you

are looking at this and you're like what did I do all day what did I do at 2:00 p.m. most days

gosh did I really spend four hours on email a day so that's a little bit what happened to me when I did this exercise

again I've never taught this before I this exercise for myself the being of the week and it was incredibly

illuminating to feel like where does my 3 o'clock go and so what I did is actually looked back on my calendar and

I looked back to see what was my normal scheduling like I also keep I love productivity planners I keep pretty

careful notes about what I do every day and I went back and I look to see when that time was going so if you have time

to do that I want you to slot in approximately what your old work day looks like ok here's the fun part

you have an opportunity right now to set up a completely new rhythm I want you to think about what is my ideal workday

so put your times your ideal work times and then I want you to think about the tasks now before you begin to fill it in

I know you're like I know I want to start with reading time and creative time before you fill it in I want to do

one more thing when you're thinking about tasks there are actually two different buckets of tasks the first

bucket are energy producing tasks these are tasks or things that you do or times of day

that create energy for you you have more energy when you do them you get inspired you get stoked you get creative it's

when you lose yourself in it the period of flow in the brain where time just disappears and you're just going at it

when I was writing this webinar I was doing all this research and then I think it was 8 o'clock one night after my baby

had gone to bed I was like ah I've got it and I spent three hours and it was like boom boom boom I hit that flow so

for me teaching and writing curriculum creates energy I get energy from great curriculum this also could be times I'm

a morning person so I typically have a lot of extra energy in the mornings for me I love writing I love teaching I also

get another boost right around three o'clock when I have my afternoon coffee coffee is also a good energy producing

thing that counts that counts and/or I want you to think about your peak times if you look at your workday

when do you typically produce your best work or when are you like I really got this I like what I'm doing on the flip

side I want you to think about your energy draining tasks these are the tasks you dread them you're like oh I

gotta do that these are also the times where you feel like you're moving in slow motion mmm for me I have a total

down energy I think has tipped my blood sugar after meals after I eat lunch I'm like so ready for a nap

it could be also a own time so time in your work day where it's slower maybe emails are slower or

things in your industry are slower you might also find that right now you have new energy training activities more

phone time I hate the phone anyone else any real babe I'm not I'm not a phone person the more time I have to put on

the phone the hardcore my workday is the more energy I have drained I like video calls but some people are like super

drained by video calls so what are your new or old energy draining tasks so I'm going to make a big list and Christine

said Heretic phones are awesome phones are good okay phones keep us in touch I love a phone it's very good phone angels

don't punish me for that I like phones are good but they're just so draining oh okay here's what I want

you to do and again this might take some time later after this webinar what is your ideal workday what would set you

off with energy producing activities in those first few hours how can you be purposeful about those tasks so for me I

can do anything I want in the morning but I try especially on my creative days no calls no emails especially no calls I

know that those are energy draining so is I can do anything I can read I can write I can talk to people I can do

whatever I want I just can't do those things because they take away from my most productive time 11:00 a.m. I

typically reserved for emails I like doing a working lunch so I really like either watching videos or eating on

phone calls I actually like that that actually gives me energy actually keeps my energy up through a meal and then the

trick that I play for myself is my energy downtime my energy low and I want you to think about what's your lowest

energy point of the day and set yourself up triggers that can re-energize you so I scheduled my podcasts my filming my

calls ideally from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and that's because if I have a call or if I have a video call if I have a podcast

interview a I know I have to really get psyched up for that but be I can't take a nap I can't take a little snooze

because I have something on the calendar so I set up my day a way to protect that downtime to

get me back up so I want you to think about your ideal home work day not just the tasks you want to get done but the

energy that they produce listen to your own apps and flows so I have a piece of encouragement for you

there is a 24-hour news cycle going on right now it's really hard watching the news you

never know what's what big piece of information is going to come through I really want to encourage you at this

moment together let's make a pledge let's go on a news diet this doesn't mean that you shouldn't watch the news

it just means that you should be purposeful about it in your work day in your day I want you to think about the

specific time that you are gonna check the news and how right now if you're like me or my husband you have news on

your phone you have news on your computer and you have news on the TV so literally it's in every single room

right like it's in every single place that you look I want you to think about how you want to consume your news and

when you want to consume your news and let's diet you could have a little bit of it right a little bit of a dessert

never hurt anyone actually it's not really dessert a little bit of fattening french fries

never hurt anyone my french fries are so good too okay I can't think of a good metaphor for that

one forgive me news diet right purposeful I also want you to think about we are spending so much extra time

on social because our phones are near us we're checking in with friends we're talking with loved ones I want you to

check in with friends I want you to stay connected that's really important but I want you to schedule it when are you

gonna go on Instagram when are you gonna go on Facebook when are you gonna cruise YouTube schedule that in so it's limited

it's bracketed and you can prepare yourself with energy-producing tasks afterwards there's nothing like having a

half an hour sucked into the news cycle and Instagram and then feeling a little bit down a little bit depressed and then

trying to get something done it just doesn't work so schedule it in and schedule uproot energy-producing tasks

afterwards I also really want to encourage you follow only people you care about

follow people who are giving you positive information my challenge for you is to go on your social media and

unfollow people this is the time for some spring cleaning follow the people who make you feel good follow the people

who are helping all the people you genuinely care about go through a little spring cleaning permission from me on

that and then of course limit your browsing time so just general browsing time when working at home always goes up

so be sure to schedule that in okay I won't belabor that point any more okay ah Karolina said let's send some fun it

means two friends after lunch yes right what if oh my gosh Karolina major snaps so if you decide that you're gonna

browse during lunch make your goal you're gonna find a fun meme to send to your group of friends to send to your

colleagues after lunch and that completes your browsing time and then your friends and your colleagues are

like oh this was great and you're back in the shop you're back in to work I love that one I might take that one for

this next version okay here's the most important thing about this if you're on a team you can decide on your ideal

workday you have to get buy-in from your team for example if you decide that you don't want to do calls in the morning

because that's a really productive time but your teammate is doing like they usually do and they're always calling

you for a 9:30 a.m. check-in it's not gonna work so this is the most important part if you work with people you need to

share that ideal workday you need to discuss it there might be some compromise that goes back and forth and

then you have to sync it make sure you are synced up with your closest colleagues so they have an idea of what

your ideal schedule is why you're going for it and then you can honor theirs as well this is the most important piece if

you work with other people because if you don't get buying on it if you don't sync it it will be really really hard to

stick to your ideal workday all right I also want you to if you're working on a team not only share your ideal workday

but I also want you to do your start time and end time working remotely our homework and our

work work blends right like chores during lunch work hours but childcare when's my clock out I checked my email

at 8:00 right like it gets really really confusing I want you to sit with the people you work with and ask them what's

an appropriate time for us to clock in oh wow okay greg has his doing a 5:00 a.m. shift before his kids get up okay

that's good to know Greg I won't probably be on until 8:00 if that's okay but I'm gonna stay on until seven

o'clock on Tuesdays and Thursdays like get as specific as possible on that start and end day because then you have

a lot of clarity around team sync when can you reach me how can you reach me so you have to decide on your team if you

want to be always on and by the way even if you're not on a team you need to decide if you always want to have your

notifications on if you always want to have your text and chat on that's really important because you have to know are

you gonna protect any time during your work day I try really hard to protect writing time curriculum time and filming

time right it would be a problem right now if I were getting ding-ding-ding during this webinar so you need to

figure out when are you reachable and how do you want to be reached and we're gonna talk about digital tools

I believe that's next okay all right so the second thing is we talked about the mechanics of the day the second thing is

how do we use digital tools to leverage those wait everyone drink of water mm-hmm okay the water right good deep

breath we need it okay leveraging digital tools there are a couple of resources that we've had for years that

I would love to share with you one is we have a really big free article on tips to be a phone ninja if you're spending

more time on the phone coming from someone who has phone anxiety I wrote a whole guide on how to be better on the

phone we also have a whole tutorial on improving your vocal power have you been noticing that when you get on the phone

or you get on a video call you don't like the sound of your own voice if that is you it's it's the cure to that is

finding your maximum resonance points when we did a whole free tutorial on that go check it out

and tips for video calls so by the way all these links all these links were already up on our website they're

waiting for you there are signs of people.com slash live - training so all the links are in one place every link I

mentioned in this webinar we're gonna put in there okay so that's the first thing go look at the phone article

motivate video article go look at the local power article those are just great tools to have in your back pocket by the

way social distancing or not they're just really good to have now let's focus on which digital tools you should be

using again pull out your pen and paper your any pen and paper and I want you to make a list this is kind of a weird list

to make so hear me out I want you to make a list of what I call your people tasks these are tasks that have to do in

some way with someone else maybe you have to get something from them maybe you have to run something by them maybe

they're a collaboration they're they have to do something with someone else so like for me brainstorming editing

articles any kind of collaboration on products that we're doing project management designing filming bonding is

one of those tasks like just regular old how are you chitchat I want you to make a list of all the things that you do

that involve other people so all your people tasks and get as specific as you can I have these kind of broad cuz I

wanted it to stimulate ideas for you but get as specific as possible like it could be turning in my report to Jen

every Thursday it could be that specific as specific as possible okay that list should probably be way longer than my

list it should be like depending on how often you work of people 15 items long 30 items long right anything that has to

do another person I want to make all those things the reason for this is because when you worked in an actual

office those things had cadence to them they had a rhythm they got done in a virtual work place you have to choose

what is the best way to get this done and it might be different than when you were in the office on the other side of

your page I want you to make a column called digital channels these are all the different digital

channels that are open to you in your workspace so email phone video chat text DM however you're communicating with

people whether ever software you're using in your company all the different ways you communicate so I think our team

uses Google Chat we also use a little bit of asana task management software's as well we also use a lot of email we

also use text we have a lot of different digital channels so we need to make a list of all those digital channels can

you see where this is going this is like that mix and match activity you did in third grade we are going to

assign the best digital channel to each of your tasks so what I want you to begin to do is go through each and every

task and decide in this new remote virtual workspace what is the best tool so maybe you used to have brainstorming

meetings in person is that best over email is that best over the phone is that best of our video chat is it best

with two people or the entire group of people I want you to think about choosing the best tools don't just go to

the default the default is not always video chat I love a video chat don't get me wrong I love video chat we have it

article coming up on I think 15 ways to improve your video chat I love a video chat but it's not the best thing all the

time so we need to think about what they are so for brainstorming maybe it's video for project management maybe it's

chat because they're a little back and forth one offs for bonding maybe that's text right checking it how are you how

are you feeling are you healthy how are your kids so what do you think about all those tasks and assign them to an ideal

digital channel here are my channel rules of thumb so this is just my rules of thumb you can take or leave it as as

you wish this is kind of what I keep in mind if it's one sentence so if you're writing someone something and it's like

only one sentence like a yep got it or on it or no problem I will often send that in shock I won't usually set a

whole email for it depending if it's more than one paragraph so if I'm in the chat if I'm in our team chat and I'm

writing a one paragraph I'm like this should be an email right so if you're in chat or you're into

it's longer than a paragraph probably better to go to email if it's more than three paragraphs so if I'm in an email

and I'm just like writing a small novel I'm just like writing everything out that I possibly need I will often say oh

this should probably be a phone call I should probably just call them if it's more than five questions so if I have an

email with lots of one-off questions where I'm like if yes if no I'm like this should just be a video call like I

should just ask them the questions right away and then give them the information they need so more than five questions I

usually go to a video call and then this is the one that everyone forgets this actually comes from mr. Scott Edwards

this is if you are on a video call or you are on a phone call and you are talking for more than five minutes you

should have a slide deck people under utilize the power of slides the reason for this is because slides not only help

keep you organized they also help keep other people engaged so one of the things we talk about with our students

is multi-modality if I'm just talking at you for five minutes it's really hard for your brain to keep listening for

more than five minutes but as I'm talking and I switch slides and then I use a hand gesture and then I tell a

story we're switching modes and your brain has an easier time paying attention so if you have a small

presentation of more than five minutes and a phone call or video call consider doing two to five slides ten slides if

you need it add a couple of visuals that will help people stay engaged that's the most underutilized one here I highly

highly recommend adding slides to your videos adding slides to your phone calls it really really change it's a game

changer for attention again none of this works as well if you don't share it discuss it and sync it

so once you think of okay I think that it would be better if we transitioned our brainstorming meeting on Tuesdays to

a video call discuss that with your team see what they think see if you can sync that up if you're

like you know what we've been doing a really really long phone calls check-in phone calls there over an hour

long I think we should be sending checking email I think we should be doing one big email

from everyone at being of the week and that will make our phone calls so much shorter so I want you to talk with your

team but all the people tasks you do and then agree compromise and sync up the digital tools all right okay we're

getting into the good stuff number three most people think of social time and productive time that those are two

separate things what I want to share with you is actually social time contributes to productive time and the

research shows this the problem is that in our workplace our social time happened accidentally

it just occurred it was so much easier to do it casually it happened around the break room it happened when you picked

up lunch it happened in the elevator has happened in the parking lot it happened on your coffee break and so you didn't

have to really work at that social time it just was this free-floating glue that helped your team feel like it was sticky

together what I want to encourage you to think about is your social time has to be stoked and the reason for this is

because it contributes to your productivity studies have shown that friendships within a team lead to better

performance doesn't that make you feel good alright like your social time your texts

you're funny gifts that actually helps you be more productive that helps you and your team work together social time

isthmus is a necessity for productive time you can also produce oxytocin through a webcam I was so relieved when

I saw this study because I'm an oxytocin addict I love that feeling of connection so oxytocin is a chemical that we feel

when we get the warm and fuzzies with someone so hopefully when you logged on and I said hello you were like ah

Vanessa we're here together and I got that warm and fuzzy feeling so I'm giving you a lot of oxytocin because

hopefully you're seeing me in my ideal world you would also be seeing you and we can actually produce oxytocin through

webcams so there you go oxytocin coming your way okay lastly here regular phone calls I know

phone calls but they do regular phone calls can help keep relationships fresh why do you think I spent three days

writing a guide to phones I don't even like phones but I know they are critically important so even if you have

a little bit of phone anxiety they actually are really important for keeping those relationships fresh Oh

Maron said absolutely happy oxytocin whatever you say hello thank you and also I think like whenever I wave hello

and it also makes feels calmer and safe yeah okay this is like a fire go with me in the metaphor with this every

relationship you have with people you work with whether that's your team or contractors or people that you're

pitching or clients they all have these little sparks and if they are not stoked they go out you have to stoke the

friendship fires if you want to be productive during this time if you want to feel connected during this time if

you want to feel more fulfilled with what you're doing with your workday you have to invest in your social

relationships in the workplace here is the good news think of all the time you're saving

working at home okay we're gonna do some math very very basic math I want you to add up here the amount of minutes you

spend or used to spend on these things commuting playing on your pants alright that takes at least two minutes my world

pack in the lunch parking time elevator time makeup time hair time all the time it used to spend getting yourself to

work count up those minutes so maybe 20 minutes commuting two minutes putting on pant pants that makes me about five

minutes back new lunch a home and I already lost the math twenty two five seven twenty seven parking time say five

minutes thirty two elevator time oh one minute and really bad math 32 if you look I'll use their numbers people are

saying 27 32 to 33 okay all those minutes so like let's say that it was thirty three minutes so Annie said hers

is 32 33 minutes I want you to spend those 33 minutes doing social stoking so you save

time right by not going into work that means you can use that time for a little bit of social stoking so we're not

having to create new time for this we're actually just borrowing a little bit of gained back time does that make sense

they don't believe me on that with the map this is of course non-aqueous social stoking as many of you know I'm a

recovering awkward person so I'm all about the non awkward social stoking I have found that if you socially Stoke

correctly you avoid awkwardness in a remote workplace here are the top three things that are the most awkward in a

remote workplace very ready the awkward silence at the beginning of a video call or conference call it sound like this

usually happens on the phone which is why you dread the phone mm-hmm hi this is Vanessa I yeah good morning

om good thing hello right like that is awkward silences that comes from not having purposeful social stoking of the

behavior cause that was my improv of the day the second most awkward thing that happens in a virtual work place is

meandering banter so in the office there's a lot of context cues so in my conversation videos I talk about context

cues is great opportunities for conversation you're in the break room and you're like oh how's the coffee this

morning how's the doughnut this morning you have all this context to make conversation in a remote workplace you

don't really have a shared context so your video calls start like this hi hi oh sorry can you see me can you hear hi

hi how are ya I don't think Greg's on yet I think we're waiting for Greg you've been good

yeah Oh Greg how are you because you're waiting people to get on you're not sure what to talk about should you get into

deep conversation with them you're trying to make sure you don't look all Genki are trying to make sure that you

don't have any food in your mouth like it's a whole thing that only happens remote don't worry I'm gonna tell you

how to solve all these things and Maron said the Grammy goes to thank you the last awkward thing that happens

remote workplaces is especially right now the doom and gloom and this one's a really hard one and I will be serious

about this because it's a real problem where you get on a call or you open an email and you're scared you just heard

big news or you truly are worried that someone is not feeling healthy and so the calls start with are you okay

oh this is crazy this is so hard I'm so worried I'm so scared and you have this really alone challenging conversation

and then you're supposed to be productive it's very hard to hear someone talk about something they're

struggling with or something they're afraid of or how hard the time is and then be like well let's talk about that

client work the transition is so awkward so here is what I want to encourage you to do the research has proven that

shared rituals are one of the best ways to produce serotonin and oxytocin on remote teams a shared ritual is when you

do something you agreed to as a group that you repeat over and over again that you can rely on it and depend on it so

studies have found that sharing rituals bond people faster rituals provide predictability and calm this is actually

my favorite part of rituals when we have something we can depend on when we have a purpose it cuts out the awkwardness if

you know that the first five minutes of every video call is talking about something you're grateful for we're

doing a conversation starter or talking about that recent TED talk you watched the awkwardness goes away it gives you

purpose it gives you belonging it gives you ritual and lastly rituals can help create group I

and shared experience when your remote it's very hard to have that sense of groupthink which you actually mean to be

very productive to get along and so starting off everyone on the same page is really important here's something to

consider for remote work what happens is we all get on a video call we're all here but every single person on that

video call has been doing something else before they got on maybe one person was dealing with a toddler meltdown maybe

one person just went on a beautiful walk with their partner in their dog maybe one person has been up all night because

they're worried about the financial crisis or the pandemic everyone came from a different place and so a shared

ritual sinks everyone up it brings everyone together before jumping into the task before observing the duelists

you actually get everyone on the same page the same wavelength that also prevents so much awkwardness Candace

said I literally had all of these this week that's why I hate phone calls can't just read my phone anxiety guy and I

swear it'll make it a little better it'll make it a little better okay here are I think I have five different big

ideas for different ways you can socially stok now for my introverts watching some of these are gonna appeal

to you more than others great fine you pick your favorites for my extroverts you're gonna like your and be like I

want all of them give it to me all of them great I want you to of course sync it share it and discuss it with your

teams you can get buy-in so I'm gonna give you a bunch of ideas I want you to pick the ones that are your favorite

okay the very first thing I highly recommend is doing team conversation starters this is a great way to a sync

up get in the same headspace be you'll get to know each other oops it peaked ahead be get to know each

other so you're actually learning about each other at the same time and then three it produces that feeling of

oxytocin when you laugh together on webcam oh that's such a good feeling right like when I make a joke I hope

you're laughing right like I hope that creates little bit of oxytocin so my recommendation here is to do this

at the first 10 minutes of one phone call a week or one video call a week so if you have a team check-in or a team

meeting or you're talking clients we're talking to people on the phone have one conversation cutter you

can do this as a ritual so you can tell your team send in this webinar and say hey I really want to pick a new

conversation starter every week vanessa has a whole list I have a whole list for you by the way a huge list for you

you're just the first three what's your favorite book of all time if you could learn any new skill what would it be if

you could have any one for dinner who would it be it's just three of them we have a whole

list of them and say hey I'd love to do this together the first 10 minutes you also don't have to get people to know

that you're doing it so you could get on the phone with a conversation starter in your head

so you could know that when you get on the phone with an interviewer or a client you're gonna start with hey how's

it going have you been watching anything interesting recently have you been reading anything interesting recently

alright so you can go in knowing that you're gonna pick a conversation or ahead of time so announce that you're in

ritual or do it on your own okay the next one is this is like my favorite tip I really hope you're gonna do it it's

show-and-tell this is the one opportunity that you can give your co-workers or your clients or your teams

a glimpse into what matters to you I would highly recommend have a team lunch with kids kids welcome just one you know

quick one PB and J's right just one lunch with kids maybe you have one lunch where everyone brings their pet their

fish the dog their cat if you have one lunch or one meeting with the first 10 minutes everyone brings one item to

show-and-tell the answer you're gonna get here are so illuminating so funny so joyous and also you could sort of see

their surroundings meet the baby meet the partner meet the dog meet the cat so I brought some show-and-tell today for

you so on one of the things that's been keeping me sane is I'm trying to learn how to watercolor so I've been watching

watercolor videos on YouTube and this is like my full watercolor set and maybe you're in our next training or webinar

I'll show you one of my paintings so you just learned something kind of interesting about me yes

kind of fun okay Karolina said oh my gosh we can finally see each other's homes I mean if you're brave enough you

can do a home tour might have to clean up first but wouldn't that be fun just like take everyone around to like your

bedroom in your bathroom I don't run that by a jar first you're not sure I like the idea I realize the idea but yes

it would be a good way to see someone's home so show-and-tell here I think is one of the most important ones for

growth learn together so decide on your team or with your colleagues or with your clients that you're gonna learn one

thing together and I want you to actually carve out this learning time you can do this in many different ways

you could watch a Tuesday TED talk every Tuesday either send a TED talk or you watch together here's the cool thing

about learning you can do it asynchronously if you want so you can do it during a meeting but if your meeting

times are precious like if you're like oh my gosh Vanessa we have so we're so busy during our meetings we don't have

much time for this that's okay you can do learning asynchronously meaning someone can say you can rotate every

Tuesday morning one person on the team is gonna send their favorite TED talk and then we can all watch it at our

leisure and that way we're learning or watching the same thing you can do a team book club you could do a podcast

rotation so there's a podcast that you love you could recommend or one person each week recommends their favorite

podcast to the entire group and people can listen to it on their own while they're cooking while they're walking I

also love impact videos if you have videos on YouTube that you found really helpful you found you learn from

something share it share them in this webinar I would be so grateful share the my TED talk show them your

favorite TED talk that way you're inspiring growth and learning and it also creates a shared ritual we have a

ton of learning resources for you so of course captivate of course this webinar I also put a bunch of our free trainings

and webinars from the past in that page so our goal setting workshop goal set do some goal-setting together as a team our

likeability training these are all free by the way you can go grab them watch them send them out I love this link 48

great documentaries on Netflix think about watching documentaries together we also have a ton of interviews and videos

our YouTube channel so just get creative think of what you would love for your team to see and what would create really

great discussion I also recommends pick a lunch a week where you lunch together bring your lunches maybe invite your

pets too and then purposefully discuss something during that lunch bring on a guest speaker author I love the one

silver lining for us and our business right now is I'm able to go and do remote team workshops I'm able to join

teams and actually teach something while they're eating lunch so bring on a guest speaker reach out to your favorite

author ask if they'll come on and do a little lunch and learn you can also rotate leaders so on your team you could

say hey Michelle this week teach us one thing for five minutes that you want to teach us you know Jerry next week is

your week you teach just one thing for five minutes like for example I might if I were a team leader teach everyone had

a watercolor for five minutes or I might teach people how to meditate for five minutes so you could also rotate leaders

see what skills are on the team you could also watch a video together so all those videos I just mentioned if you

have time it's great to watch five to fifteen minute videos together everyone eats their lunch

they watch the video and you can discuss where that sets up your warm-up for the meeting and of course lent with your

kids pets and partners a couple lunch can be really nice to meet each other and it's always a nice thing to do okay

the last one here is the most professional one and this is really important if you are a manager or a

leader or a bus more one-on-ones so the thing that we lose out on a normo culture we have to work to stoke it we

have to get it back is we lose that one-to-one connection you're not seeing each other one-on-one

on the office hallways you're not seeing each other what I wanted elevators I want you to get more one-on-ones in your

schedule so not only having team meetings but having purposeful one-on-one check-ins yes I want you to

talk about work tasks I wanna talk about productivity I want to talk about goals but I also want you to use the time to

learn about each other so there's three different things you could pretend to learn about each other which are super

interesting and super helpful the first one is learn each other's five personality traits so this is one of my

favorite it topics I love the science of personality and this is the only science

that's actually backed up so it's a little different than myers-briggs or just for Enneagram it's called the big

five open this conscientiousness extraversion agreeableness and neuroticism my challenge for you is see

if you can discover all five personality traits of everyone on your team it will be a game-changer and how you

communicate so see if you can sit with each of your colleagues or your clients or your boss and take the personality

quiz together and then discuss the traits we have all this whole personality quiz and tutorial it's free

on our website take it as many times as you want but most importantly start talking about how you're oriented the

next one which i think is really fun is intelligence quiz so Howard Gardner found there are nine different types of

intelligences and I find this super interesting people's intelligence has always surprised me take this little

quiz or just look at the list of intelligences and figure out which one you are talk about which one you think

is second right are you a naturalist are you a mathematician I'm certainly not a mathematician I can tell you that are

you a people skills person that's a really fun one to do in your team and the last one here is figure out your PQ

what is your people skill what's your strongest people skill we have a little quiz you can take you can talk about

your strengths of people skills your strengths with communications is just great ways to know each other there are

great ways to open up conversation and communication couple of other shared ritual ideas is Netflix party gift

Friday so Netflix party is a way that you can watch Netflix together which is really fun / happy hour or lunch give

Friday send funny gifts on Friday write it send something funny I love the idea earlier of using your social time to

actually find a gifts under your team and my favorite of all sharing rituals I do this with all of our people school

office hours is I open every office hours with tell me something good and that means that we have to stoke

something good it's similar to what I'm grateful for but it's basically coming with some kind of success so think about

could you open every meeting with the same opener what are you grateful for tell me something good just as a way to

set yourself up for success share it discuss it sink it pick one ritual for the people you work with or

set these up for yourself so if you're watching and you don't work with a team amazing you don't have to get any buy-in

from anyone I want you to set up some shared rituals for yourself make your own learning lunge make sure that you're

um watching TED Talks or impact videos that you really love I decide you're gonna read one book a week every single

one of these social stoking x' all of them so I'll go back here a guest speaker author go watch interview on

your free time teach yourself one new skill at lunch watch a really impactful video have a Lund a working lunch with

your kids take the personality quiz yourself take intelligence quiz yourself take the people skills because yourself

all of these things you can also do as a share ritual for yourself rituals bring calm and predictability a little bit

opening if you like them and also bring a little bit of pleasure all right last step here and this is this is how I want

to send us off which is be a kindness warrior I think in times like this we get scared and we go into scarcity mode

and I think what we actually need right now is kindness kindness and every way we possibly can and the more kind we are

to each other to our teens the more I think that will feel like we're healing it will feel like we're connected so my

final challenge for you is to pick one one kind thing you can do today one kind of you today and then I want you to do

one kind thing a week at least some ideas and these can be really small start every email with something

positive sometimes being kind is being positive so as that is the best kindness you can give someone go on LinkedIn and

write raving glowing amazing recommendations for people you work with that you love working with them or

people that you work with in the past to make them open their inbox and be like ah someone's all these nice things about

me that's a really easy thing you can do digitally highlight people's great work

if people are doing great work make sure you mention it when we're not in the office it's hard to say

hey great job on that project er thanks so much for getting that back so quickly do it digitally do it virtually do it

publicly announce or highlight someone's great work send check-in texts so think of the people you care about colleagues

friends family say I was just thinking about you I hope you're doing good I'm sending a love and hugs your way all

right those check in text me in the world do a kindness challenge so I have 20 different kindness activities random

acts of kindness and a kindness challenge at the end of 2018 all of our readers where I assigned 20 challenges

people could do pick one of them and do it and lastly capitalize digitally so

capitalization is really a great little psychological skill it's when good news is shared it actually makes it even

better so if I say I have good news or I feel grateful and then you say back to me oh I'm so happy for you that's so

wonderful that actually makes us both feel better and it makes us both feel more connected there's not a lot of good

news right now but there is some when someone shares something good as small as my daughter slept through the night

yay oh my gosh that must feel so good celebrate the small wins celebrate the small pieces of good news right now I'm

so grateful for you I'm so grateful that we have these tools that we can be together even around the world people

were from everywhere we also have the power to gothe go forward and make our remote workplaces our remote culture

even better so you're amazing I am so grateful for you and the last thing I wanted to ask is how can I help you more

I am racking my brain for things I can do to help you research I can do articles that can

write my team has been amazing Rob Allison Scott hos and Kenzie you guys have been incredible and just we

totally scrapped our entire content calendar and I was like we are only putting out content that is incredibly

helpful they were working around the clock very late hours to get really good content out for you so my question for

you is how can we help you more what else coming right about what do you wish that we could research how else would

you like to see digitally connected we are totally here for you I want to send a huge air hug you feel

it do you feel it I'll high-five if you're an introvert you'd only touch just at air high-five that's also fine

or like an elbow bump right I want to send all those good vibes to you if you like these webinars I'm happy to do more

of them I'm going to be literally sitting here for the rest of the day filming more videos more YouTube videos

we have some coming up on 10 conversation servers you can do with your family and friends during social

distancing I'm gonna do a video later on 20 ideas to stay sane during social distancing we're gonna do a video which

I'm super excited about about couples and partners when you're in the house all day all the time with no Britax I'm

thinking about putting together a social skills curriculum for kids and families that they can learn and use at home

whatever you need we're here but we're gonna round the clock I hope that you are feeling well feeling healthy stay

healthy stay positive send those hugs people let's be kind alright bye everyone