Welcome to the first post in the Virtual Teams Book series. Read on or find out more about this project. An introduction: From learning online to working online More and more organisations are moving to working remotely. It’s becoming commonplace in sectors like education to work from home as part of geographically distributed teams. As the number of managers and leaders leading virtual teams is increasing, everyone is looking to learn how to effectively manage…
Maren Deepwell Posts
Life/work balance Last month starting with some well-earned time off. One aim I have set myself for this year is to take work at my own pace. As a CEO I find there is always pressure, too much to be getting on with – but I am doing what I can to work at a pace that is sustainable for my life/work balance. So some of what I enjoyed most about the last month was…
This month is our first full Team Day of the year. This post shares what we did, why and how. The ‘why’ of our virtual Team Days As a distributed team we have had a blended approach to individual catch up and team get togethers for a couple of years. Due to the impact of lockdown living and working from home with family, pets and under pressure, we didn’t have formal Team Days last year…
This month I have been enjoying playing along with the #MayVinylChallenge (thanks to Simon Horrocks, who helped me discover it), which I think was set up by the Founder of Women in Vinyl, Jenn D’Eugenio. As a side note, Women in Vinyl sounds like a great group and reminds me a lot of #FemEdTech. So… I sure I am not the only one who is looking for a bit more fun just now, and I…
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and here in the UK restrictions are lifting and things are getting a lit bit easier and from next week, the slow return to offices and campuses is entering a new phase. Whilst the weather is still a bit mixed we are slowly moving into a brighter time of year. In this month’s post, we are checking in with mental wellbeing for virtual teams. We are NOT going back Over…
In personal news Lots happened in April and I am glad to start this month’s post on a personal note, as I was able to get my first vaccine early in the month: Grateful to have received my vaccine today 🌈🙏 pic.twitter.com/9LKkoRro9k — Dr Maren Deepwell (@MarenDeepwell) April 10, 2021 This was a big moment for me and I am deeply grateful to the NHS here in Wales for a super professional and easy process…
OERxDomains21 is still going on as I am writing this and I am looking forward to some great post-conference workshops closing a week of extraordinary online open education conferencing. If you haven’t already done so, there are a couple of things you don’t want to miss: All the sessions are now openly accessible to all, as part of our commitment to the Open COVID for Education pledge. Browse the keynotes, dig into research, learn about…
Ministers urged to give UK home-workers a ‘right to disconnect’ https://t.co/77NRGHxEZY — Dr Maren Deepwell (@MarenDeepwell) April 13, 2021 “Ministers urged to give UK home-workers a ‘right to disconnect’ is a headline that grabs my attention as the CEO of a virtually-run organisation. I regularly keep up with new legislation regarding home-working, such as the increase from £18 to £26 for Expenses and benefits for homeworking and the ICO’s guidance for working from home. But…
March has been full of adventure and as we near the end of the month lockdown rules here in Wales have been relaxed and I look forward to slightly more options to venture away from home… safely. Cause of (cautious) celebration. So this is my March in ten tweets: FemEdTech Curation and International Women’s Day 2021 It was my privilege to reflect on my fourth year of volunteering as a guest curator for 2 weeks…
We’ve previously written about how important a blended approach is to leading a virtual team (in this post from 2019 about delivering in person events as a virtual team and in this podcast) but the past year has changed that conversation on a global scale. What’s best? Getting ‘back to the office’? Staying with working from home? Who decides and what should we base this decision on? Having led my team from being office based…