This post provides all the information you need for Part 3: Setting shared expectations (originally released 5 May ’23). Each part includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Listen to the course podcast
This course is podcast based and you can take part by simply listening each week as a new topic is released.
This week’s episode: S02E14 – How to Lead Virtual Teams: Part 3 – Setting shared expectations
In this third course podcast (33 min), we examine how we can set shared expectations with and for the people we work with and how we communicate those expectations. We are going to examine the difference between expectations and lived experience when it comes to work life balance and in the context of collaborating or meeting online. For this topic, we’ll be referring to examples from Chapter 1 and 2 of Leading Virtual Teams.
These prompts are designed to help you identify blind spots and open up new ways to think about the way you work. Setting aside some time to reflect helps you develop your critical, analytical and reflective skills as a leader or manager:
How do you communicate your expectations to your team?
What do you communicate by example?
How does your approach affirm or contradict your expectations?
How do your expectations differ for yourself and others?
Explore tools and resources
Here are some further tools and resources to explore if you’d like to take a deeper dive:
If you’d like to connect with me and other participants during the course, use the hashtag #lvt23 on Mastodon, Instagram and Twitter. I’ll be posting a few times each week during the course, and I’d love to hear from you.
Catching up?
If you are just getting started with How to Lead Virtual Teams or catching up with topics you have missed, you can find all the information you need to get started on the catch up page.
In February I shared the news that I will step down as ALT’s CEO this September to focus on my work as a coach. This is a monthly update on how things are progressing from my perspective, sharing some of the experiences along the way.
Reflecting on the past month at ALT
April had a very busy start indeed, as it was time for this year’s OER Conference. No matter how busy it was, OER23 was a blast, and I loved every minute of it. It was a special pleasure this year as this was my last big event as CEO. If you’d like to read more of my personal take on the conference, then head over to the dedicated post and, check out #OER23 on social media for lots of interesting conversations and folk involved in the event.
The recruitment panel who will appoint the next CEO of ALT is chaired by Professor Helen O’Sullivan. My part was to meet candidates for informal conversations about the role, and I enjoyed these meetings very much. With the interview process now underway, everyone has been involved in the preparations for these and you can feel the excitement, and nerves, mounting a little. The prospect of meeting the new CEO of ALT is now becoming a very real thing. ALT will be announcing the new CEO in early summer and you’ll have the opportunity to meet them at ALT’s Annual Conference this September. So look out for news #altc.
Other than that, my day to day work continues very much as usual. We are busily induction new members of staff, planning for ALT’s 30th anniversary and Annual Conference this September, and I have a lot of travel coming up, too. As well as attending events this month, I really enjoyed seeing my whole staff team in person for a site visit and lunch. It’s a rare pleasure for us as a mainly virtual team to get together in person, and I value those elements of blended collaboration and catching up very much.
What’s else is happening
With so much going on at work, I’m mindful of setting some goals and engaging in activities that aren’t work related: I’m finally getting back to regular running (having recovered from a serious injury last year) and thinking of signing up for some races to have additional motivation.
I’m also really looking forward to joining formal coach training from May, and spending my Saturday evenings with fellow coaches across different time zones. This is the final part of my formal training before I can apply for ICF accreditation, and I am excited about developing my practice further in the coming months.
And… not to forget my side project at the moment, a podcast-based course all about How to Lead Virtual Teams. It’s been fun designing something completely new to me and I am learning a lot as the course develops.
This post provides all the information you need for Part 2: How we work and onboard new colleagues (originally released 28 April ’23). Each part includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
Listen to the course podcast
This course is podcast based and you can take part by simply listening each week as a new topic is released.
This week’s episode: S02E13 – How to Lead Virtual Teams: Part 2 – How we work and onboard new colleagues
In this second course podcast (40 min), we discuss definitions of different ways of working and why it matters to be clear when it comes to the language we use when we talk about how we work. We will also explore how this relates to recruiting staff and onboarding new colleagues. For this topic, we’ll be referring on Chapter 1 of Leading Virtual Teams.
Effectively reflecting on your practice is a key skill for leading virtual teams. For this topic, use these definitions of different Modes of Working to reflect on your practice. You can either join in the reflection as you listen to the podcast episode, which includes a dedicated section on this, or you can return to this once you have listened to the episode:
What term(s) best describe your mode of working?
How would you describe it to someone else?
To what degree do the policies in your organisation reflect this practice?
What may new colleagues not easily understand about the way you work? What else?
What might be difficult for new colleagues to get used to? Why?
“So what?” The purpose of the reflection is three-fold: first and foremost, it helps you develop your reflective skills. Try to notice how easy or difficult you find it to reflect in particular questions. Secondly, the prompts are designed to help you identify blind spots and open up new ways to think about the way you work. Thirdly, you can use these prompts to identify areas for action or making a change to the way you work.
Explore tools and resources
Here are some further tools and resources to explore if you’d like to take a deeper dive:
If you’d like to connect with me and other participants during the course, use the hashtag #lvt23 on Mastodon, Instagram and Twitter. I’ll be posting a few times each week during the course, and I’d love to hear from you.
Catching up?
If you are just getting started with How to Lead Virtual Teams or catching up with topics you have missed, you can find all the information you need to get started on the catch up page.
If you are registered for this course, you will receive 2 emails from me each week, one on Fridays to introduce the topic and a second one on Thursdays with a round up of resources and a quick recap.
Course overview
Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further. Here is an overview of the course and the dates on which each topic is released:
>> Part 1: Orientation and a brief introduction to Leading Virtual Teams (21 April ’23) Part 2: How we work and onboard new colleagues (28 April ’23) Part 3: Setting shared expectations (5 May ’23) Part 4: Fostering a shared team culture (12 May ’23) Part 5: Leading team activities (19 May ’23) Part 6: Course reflection – Setting intentions for your practice (26 May ’23)
Course companion book
To get started, download the course companion book, Leading Virtual Teams. The book is free to download in different formats and we will use individual chapters from the book throughout the course.
For each topic, individual chapters are sign-posted. The course podcasts include the key points for each topic, so there is no need to read each chapter unless you wish to take a deeper dive into a particular topic.
Listen to the course podcast
This course is podcast based and you can take part by simply listening each week as a new topic is released.
This week’s episode: S02E12 – How to Lead Virtual Teams: Part 1 – Course Orientation
In the first course podcast (29 min), I introduce the topics of the course and show you how to take part. For this orientation session, we’ll be focusing on the Introduction Chapter of Leading Virtual Teams.
You will receive a weekly email as new course episodes are released, and you can also subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss a course episode.
Reflect on your intentions for the course
Reflecting on what’s important to you is a key skill for leading virtual teams. This week, focus on setting an intention for what you want out of this course.
There is no wrong way of doing this. You can choose to write your thoughts down or you might prefer to simply think about things. Get started with these prompts:
What do you most want from taking part in the course?
What practical constraints do you have?
How can best overcome or work within these constraints?
What would you like to change or learn more about?
Not sure where to start? If you’d like to develop your approach to reflecting on your professional practice, then have a look at the dedicated activity in Chapter 2 of Leading Virtual Teams, which includes helpful hints and practical tips to get you started.
Explore tools and resources
As this is our orientation week, your main focus should be on finding your way around the course and the key course materials including the book and podcast. Here are some further tools and resources to explore if you’d like to take a deeper dive:
I have adapted this coaching tool to help leaders and managers reflect on their approach to leading virtual teams. The wheel contains eight sections, including one which is blank for you to add your own category. You can download this template, print it out and add your own scores or make a copy to edit. If you’d like to learn a bit more about how to use this tool, listen to a previous podcast episode that goes into more detail.
Further reading:
There is a wealth of information out there about how to lead virtual and hybrid teams and each takes a very different approach. These are two of the most popular books I’ve comes across:
J. O’Duinn, Distributed Teams, 2nd ed. (John O’Diunn, 2021).
Warzel, C and Petersen, A. Out of Office (Scrible, 2021)
Connect #lvt23
If you’d like to connect with me and other participants during the course, use the hashtag #lvt23 on Mastodon, Instagram and Twitter. I’ll be posting a few times each week during the course, and I’d love to hear from you.
We’ll be getting underway on 21 April. Here is a quick preview of what to expect:
Course schedule
21 April: Orientation and a brief introduction to Leading Virtual Teams
28 April: Week 1 – How we work and onboard new colleagues
5 May: Week 2 – Setting shared expectations
12 May: Week 3 – Fostering a shared team culture
19 May: Week 4 – Leading team activities
26 May: Course reflection – Setting intentions for your practice
Course delivery
Each week you will receive 2 emails from me, one to introduce the topic and a second one with a round up of resources and a quick recap. Each course topic includes a podcast to listen to, prompts to help you reflect on your practice and inspiration to explore the topic further.
No screen time, no rigid schedule
The course is designed to fit around you. You can follow along week by week, or progress at your own pace and dip in or out of topics. You can listen to the course podcast episodes on your preferred platform as you walk the dog, cook or sit in a comfy chair.
Connect #lvt23
If you’d like to connect with me and other participants during the course, use the hashtag #lvt23 on Mastodon, Instagram and Twitter. I’ll be posting a few times each week during the course, and I’d love to hear from you.
Sign up
No already registered? It’s not too late.
The course is free to join and open to all. Once you are registered for the course, you will receive all course information and content via email. You can take the course over a period of four weeks at your own pace or you can dip in and out of topics that interest you. Course content will remain available for at least three months after the end of the course so that you can revisit topics.
Next week, the OER Conference comes to Inverness, and I am very much looking forward to it! There’s a packed programme, lots of ways to engage and the anticipation has been building for months, as these guest posts show. OER23 has a super Conference Committee of nearly 100 volunteers who have worked together for months to peer review papers, organise social activities, help plan conference delivery both in person and online and spread the word about the conference far and wide.
Why this post?
I’ve had a professional involvement with the event since 2015, and I’ve been one of the lead organisers since 2016, helping to steer the event through years of growing in impact and engagement followed by the crisis of spring 2020 and the (post) pandemic years since then.
I’ve had the pleasure and the privilege to be involved in many wonderful events over the past 15 years, and it’s not possible to pick a favourite amongst so many special moments, moving keynotes and memorable evenings.
That said, when it comes to my own practice, the OER Conference is probably the event from which I have learnt the most, at which I had those conversations that changed the path of my career and encounters that have led to a decade of collaboration. Openness in all its forms is fundamental to my work and my worldview and the OER Conference was my gateway to that world.
So, as this is my last year as one of the lead organisers, I want to say thank you to the OER Conference and this blog post is full of love for what has been quite a ride… .
Looking back at my journey with the conference
You won’t be surprised to see that I have written a lot about the OER Conference since 2015. Going through these posts there is so much that jumped out at me, so here are some personal highlights that give you a flavour of the journey we’ve been on to get to Inverness next week:
2022 was the year when things started to come together again (cautiously)
‘Wow. It’s really happening. This time, we are hitting not only the virtual but also the physical road again in order to journey to the OER Conference. OER22 here we come!
The last time the OER Conference took place as planned as in Galway in 2019, and since that time, three years ago, no edition of this very special event has gone to plan. In 2020, OER20 pivoted online with less than two weeks to go, and became very much a pandemic conference. In the crisis mood of those early days of the pandemic, OER20 became a free event with refunds winging their ways across the globe to participants who suddenly had a lot more to worry about than a cancelled conference. …’
What I recall most clearly about last year, is that 2022 was the year of careful hugging.
2021: OERxDomains21
The 2021 edition of the conference brimmed with creativity and joy against a backdrop of bleak pandemic reality. We had hugely high expectations and months of work from everyone all aimed at Reclaiming the Joy of EdTech. OERxDomains21 was also a conference of firsts:
… the first time we had FIVE Co-Chairs – who brought all their expertise, passion and ideas to bear.
… the first time participants remixed 159 conference badges.
… the first time we recorded 220 of 236 participants synchronously networking online on Discord, flooding the Hallway Chat, Introduction Channel and resource pool with contributions.
… the first time that these two organisations (ALT & Reclaim Hosting), and two conferences (OER and Domains), mashed up together to create this new, joint event bringing two communities together.
… the first time that we delivered a synchronous and asynchronous programme for participants from 18 countries and plenty of time zones for a total of 75 hours of programming.
… the first time that we found streaming platforms that made high quality recordings immediately available to participants and then to the public, enabling late arrivals to catch up and supporting delegates from across the globe.
… the first time we delivered an event with a staff team of 11 (up from the usual 5-6), many of whom had never met before.
… the first time that we delivered an online event without Martin Hawksey, who headed up ALT’s event delivery for the past seven years (waving to you, Mr Hawksey, I hope we did you proud :).
… the first time anyone had the most special TV programme design that went from emails to programme pages and beyond thanks to the work led by Reclaim Hosting, enabling our participants to quite literally step into their own Community TV Channel.
… the first time we managed staff handover between time zones seamlessly between sessions as one staff team ended their day and the other arrived.
My most vivid memory from that year is Jim Groom singing ‘we did it again’ over and over.
2020
The year before, 2020, things looked very different. A lot of what I have written about the cancelled conference that lost us a huge amount of money and still happened with 1100 people online with only two weeks notice to move from in person to online… is hard to read now. At the time we had no idea of how long the impact of those early weeks of crisis would stay with us. But even in those dark days, there was joy at OER:
For me personally, there were two moments that really captured both the joy and the sadness of the times in very unique ways.
One was a live online session led by Frances Bell celebrating the FemEdTech Quilt of Care and Social Justice. You can catch both the recording of the session and the accompanying video via the conference page. I have contributed to the quilt project both personally and professionally and yet the power of the live session really took me by surprise. I don’t think any webinar moved me to tears along with half the audience before this. It was a moment of connecting with fellow collaborators across the globe that was so special and made the distances and isolation between us, the crisis we are all weathering, palpable.
The other session was the evening’s #OER20 #KaraOERoke Night. I don’t think I had laughed more than that in weeks. It was very special, but also fun and incredibly moving to see conference participants and their families join in with the Frozen song, reviving classics and demonstrating their singing ability with everything from Motörhead to Kate Bush. Those moments, whether online or in person, are unforgettable.
It still rings true to me, reading this three years later. Those moments are unforgettable. Yes, so much of what we do has started to take place in person again, but not because online wasn’t enough or good. We do so much online. Being able to connect in person, alongside all we do virtually, is a joy (and a privilege), that I wouldn’t want to give up.
2019
No year did connecting in person feel more important to me than in 2019, when OER came to Galway:
Openness is many things to many people and the vision that the conference co-chairs have brought to the event has really inspired me and helped me reach a new understanding of the challenges we face by including more diverse voices and perspectives and also by ensuring that openness has been stitched into the fabric of OER19.
In turn, that has inspired the work that ALT does to support this conference in the run up to the event such as tweaking our systems to encourage more sharing, the Board of Trustees funding more scholarship places for students than ever before, contributing to global events during Open Education Week led by the Open Education Special Interest Group, and post-OER19 to the Creative Commons Global Summit. …
Thanks to everyone involved, everyone who puts time and effort and resources into making OER19 happen, I feel like actually getting to go to the event in Galway is just the finishing flourish. OER19 has been a living, breathing, inspiring part of my professional practice for over a year already. But when I watched the sun rise over Galway Bay nearly a year ago, I didn’t realise how rich, how thought provoking and nourishing a journey working on this event would be. I’m grateful that I have been able to contribute, and I look forward to playing my part in making it happen and to build on what will be shared at OER19 to continue to promote openness and support those involved in the coming year, weaving a stronger thread of openness into the fabric of things.
Being a keynote speaker can be a powerful thing particularly if you choose to use the platform it gives you for a cause that chimes with your audience. And it seems that in the case of OER19 that definitely happened. So much emotional investment and enthusiasm is rare at conferences I attend and as we are now nearly two weeks after the event and the posts and discussions keep on flowing this is further reflected in the continued engagement and activity. So there are fresh role models for me to be inspired by, keynotes to relive that really struck a chord and transcend what you can normally expect from an hour in a lecture theatre. And indeed there are many involved in making OER19 happen whom I have been inspired by in the past, like the Co-Chairs Catherine Cronin and Laura Czerniewicz, alongside Jim Groom, Lorna Campbell and Sheila MacNeill, or Bon Stewart, Martin Weller and Maha Bali and Jane Secker. All of whom have kept their audiences spellbound at previous OER or ALT’s Annual Conferences and I remember sitting back, listening, enjoying what each contributed to those events and to my own thinking. Some of these talks opened up my perspective to completely new concepts or problems, others inspired me with their example and encouraged my own practice. But each have made the hour I spent listening and participating very special, a moment stuck in my mind.
Galway was a beautiful conference destination, and OER Conference fortunately is not too big to take advantage of going off the beaten track. In 2018, OER took over the Waterside cinema in Bristol… and (obviously) it all kicked off with a VHS tape and – shoes!
It all started with a shoe tweet … and like the insightful and thought-provoking narrative that Lorna presented in her opening keynote, the red ribbons on her shoes started to wind themselves through our conversations over the following two days. The anchors and the nautical theme that reflected both Lorna’s research interest and the conference location reflect a thoughtfulness that was part of every aspect of Lorna’s talk and I was grateful to be able to sit back and listen as her vision took shape. …
There is a strong component of gift giving and exchange at OER Conferences as people who have never or only rarely meet in person exchange tokens that express and develop their digitally conducted relationships. It’s an opportunity to show what you stand for, what you believe in, to share and show your colours.…
Far beyond the swag was a boat tour, sunshine (the weather gods are definitely on the side of openness), music, walking tours and apprenticeship – OER18 brought people together to learn from each other, see the world from a new perspective and to listen to the other voices in our community.’
More than swag: #oer18 material & visual culture https://marendeepwell.com/?p=1453
I blogged a lot about OER18, and I still look back at the sunny days at the harbour side in Bristol with real joy. In those years, the event created such momentum, and a wonderful tradition of nearly every participant being a speaker, too!
We used to joke that OER is the conference for which keynotes could be randomly chosen from anyone in the room. Everyone had a story to tell, everyone had a voice. And that’s still the case today. Looking down the list of participants this year, there are so many past and future keynotes.
2017
This was especially true in 2017, when OER came to London for two days of capital fun and high impact open policy making. This was also the conference that opened with Maha Bali’s incredible keynote – that alone made it a stand out year!
My hope for OER17 was to make time for people and conversations. That was probably the most enjoyable aspect of my days, and like many other participants I was delighted to be able to connect in person with many individuals from my social networks. One of the highlights was joining a Virtually Connecting session with Lisa Taner and Lucy Crompton-Reid, facilitated by Martin Weller – and I am grateful to Maha Bali for inviting me. You can now watch it on YouTube .
Meeting participants from different continents and having a conversation that bridges the physical divide was a great way of seeing things through someone else’s eyes. The social events before and during the conference were another good time for catching up and I was impressed by the bowling, ping pong and karaoke going on all around.
London followed Edinburgh and Cardiff as host cities of OER in 2016 and 2015 respectively. I may be biased, as I love Scotland, but I think the glorious sunny days right in the heart of Edinburgh may have been my favourite OER days:
2016
On the train on the way to Edinburgh to the OER16: Open Culture conference I was past York and heading North when the sun came out. A while later the train tracks approached the coast and I looked out at the sea for the first time in months. A wide blue sea under an open sky. In the distance LEGO-brick like shapes of container ships appeared as we neared the shipping lanes and in the brilliant sunshine we approached our destination. It felt like this conference certainly had good meteorological karma. …
Melissa Highton’s closing keynote gave me a glimpse into what it takes (and whom!) to make OER and openness work at scale across a whole institution, for hundreds of staff, tens of thousands of students and the wider community. Armed with a strong vision and persuasive arguments for senior decision makers it was awe-inspiring to hear at what scale and with what commitment Melissa leads colleagues working to achieve the university’s vision for openness. For someone in my position who has to make arguments for openness all the time, there was a lot to take away and adapt in this presentation.
Led by the Open Education Special Interest Group alongside many other groups across the community this engagement continues to further the work ALT does in Open Education, advocating for change and influencing UK policy makers. There is a whole body of policy work that the OER conference has inspired and sustained in the UK and internationally the importance of which is not be underestimated.
2015
Back in 2015, the start of my time with the OER Conference, I had no idea when I was sitting in the beautiful Royal College of Music in Cardiff, that this event would have such an impact on my practice and my wider work for ALT in the years to come.
Looking back at the blog posts that chart my evolving thinking about open leadership, I can trace the connections between those (for me) early days, and the work I now do on leading virtual teams:
When I recorded a podcast this week, on why open practice is so important for leaders in hybrid and virtual workplaces, I looked back at those posts and reflected on how much has changed:
Little did I know then how important open leadership would become for me as we closed ALT’s offices in 2017 and later managed a global crisis from home.
As I look forward to this year’s event in Inverness, I feel grateful for all the fun, inspiration and creativity that the OER Conference has brought me.
With my CEO hat on I have had to carefully balance the bottom line with wider impact and that equation has become more precarious since 2020. But if I’ve learnt anything from my work with the OER Conference is that the balance sheet doesn’t tell you all that’s important and that this particular event is important to so many people, that it happens even when a global pandemic cancels all plans two weeks before.
It takes a village… and fortunately this conference attracts just that: passionate and politically astute co-chairs, committed and hard working committee members, enthusiastic and inspiring speakers who double as participants, unique keynotes, influential researchers and super staff that help bring it all together.
So as we prepare to bring the proverbial band back together online and in the Scottish Highlands next week, aiming to ‘do it again’ as Jim Groom might sing, I say hats off to you for making it happen!
Thank you for your involvement over the years, for your contribution, for helping make this conference a spiritual home for many, me included.
P.S.
2015 was not only the year in which I attended the OER Conference properly for the first time, it was also the year that I met Martin Weller, then OER15 Co-Chair, and later a Trustee and President of ALT until 2020. Little did I know then that six years later, six years that felt like an age thanks to a global pandemic, divorce and several house moves, Martin and I would end up sharing a home, two dogs and our lives together.
Our home has OER sofa cushions and Bryan Mather’s OERxDomains21 conference artwork on the wall, and you won’t be surprised to hear that our shared commitment to openness in general and open education in particular is one of the things we have in common. So in a very personal sense the OER conference has brought me, in a roundabout way, great happiness, and for that alone I will always have a whole lotta love for it.
