Maren Deepwell

Author: Maren Deepwell

  • How we survived a pandemic: Part 3 – Ups and Downs (and sideways) of life as a virtual team

    This is a conversational blog post (cross-posted here) between Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) and Maren Deepwell (@marendeepwell). We are using this approach to create some space to think together in ‘unprecedented times’. 

    For regular readers this is a slight departure from our regular ‘Virtual Teams’ posts (you can read those on our Virtual Teams summary page) taking a broader view of work whilst midst global pandemic. 

    In this month’s post we share some thoughts prompted by our joint talk at a virtual team day held by the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Oxford. You can access the slides from our talk here (CC-BY-SA). As we pass 100 days since the lockdown in the UK commenced we discuss the impact and look to the future as the measures start to be eased.

    June and July… 

    Maren: It has certainly been an interesting 100 days and counting, since our virtual team started working in lockdown conditions. Now that these conditions are gradually easing and parts of life are returning to normal, we are receiving requests every week from organisations who are considering adopting working as a virtual team as their ‘new normal’. Every few days I have calls with senior managers who are trying to decide whether they still need a physical office, managers whose employees want to have more flexibility, less commuting and more virtual collaboration. We talk through things like PO boxes, GDPR for home-workers, financial support and line management – but we also talk about the reasons for such a shift, how important it is to think through strategy and values underlying those moves to virtual teams. More and more I worry that there is a lot that is being left behind, particularly messy HR problems, access issues and long term implications of not meeting in person. For a lot of people I speak to, endless Zoom meetings or Microsoft Teams is all they have to go on when they start to think about what their virtual work world will look like. When I started thinking about what our team would look like online, I must say that tools for video conferencing were not even on my list! I was thinking about consulting employees, drafting what I wanted to be the most equitable changes to employment contracts and setting out a blended model of working together that saved some costs, but also budgeted for others such as team days in person, equipment, travel costs, home-working allowances and so forth. The current situation is a great prompt to reflect. 

    Martin: In the case of ALT we have an established distributed working culture and when we do have vacancies in our organisation often people want to work for us because we operate remotely. This contrasts sharply to institutions suddenly finding themselves having to organise themselves remotely where existing staff miss the benefits of being co-located. In my own journey as a remote worker and as part of ALT’s move to a distributed organization having a transition period where you could still spend time in the office I would say was essential. It’s also interesting to reflect on the impact the current situation has on established remote workers. Many, including myself, have gone from having your own dedicated workspace to suddenly discovering this has become a shared workspace with other members of your household. It’s 7+ years since I’ve had to share an office and back then video conferencing was certainly less predominant. Throw into the mix childcare and home schooling and suddenly even established remote workers are also having to rediscover ways to make things work. In preparing for our talk for the University of Oxford it was a useful reminder that whilst ALT is a distributed organisation there has always been a recognition of the importance of face-to-face time both one-to-one and through team away days. 100+ days of social distancing also means ALT as an organisation has now missed two of our regular face-to-face team days. In some ways I’ve not missed our away days, perhaps given the current situation travel is the last thing on my mind, but also the benefit of time together is more nuanced. As chief executive have you seen a bigger impact? 

    Maren: I do really miss our face-to-face away days and the opportunities to meet individuals in person, even though like you I am not missing the travel just now. Indeed, I am not sure I would feel comfortable to travel for work yet and I am glad that we have already decided as an organisation not to travel until at least October, at which time we will review the situation again. I find however that the longer the period is that we do not meet up as a team the more I feel the impact of not having more informal catch ups. As you have mentioned, many of us are not able to easily find a quiet spot for a conversation in our lock-down homes, and even when you are not surrounded by family, there is a lot going on within the home environment that can be distracting. All of which makes it more difficult to really focus on conversations, particularly in a Line Management context. Fellow CEOs I talk to are finding they are similarly experiencing some deterioration in those important relationships. Some people find it easier to establish an equivalent level of trust and exchange than others. Ideas we have tried to create different kinds of spaces to interact in are:

    • Meeting around documents
    • Walk and talk conversations on the phone, whilst we go for a walk individually
    • Good old-fashioned phone calls
    • Virtual get togethers for social occasions such as birthdays

    In year one of us being a virtual team, we had a lot of change to cope with but enthusiasm was high. Year two was mostly about settling into being a virtual team and ironing out less straightforward issues. We strengthened policies for home working and collaboration that made our way of working more robust and sustainable. Year three started off with a new strategic vision to take us further, to build on what we had established and six months in we have a completely different business model and context to contend with. What I am thinking about really is what year four should look like… . I read a lot about a desire not to return to the old ways, but I don’t really empathise because the way in which we work as an organisation had already departed from the traditional model well before the pandemic forced many into the great online pivot. Personally, I wouldn’t relish a professional life without face-to-face interaction with colleagues or Members. I miss it. 

    Martin: It’s interesting to think back to the start of this year pre-pandemic as one of my personal resolutions was to reduce the amount of air travel I did for work. I was doing well, booking trains 90 days in advance to get the best tickets, getting to see summer lovely sun rises on the East coast line …

    Traveling by train also was proving more effective in opportunities to work while traveling, being mindful of my working hours. There were some downsides, for example, a 3 hour delay on a train from Kings Cross which ended up getting home after 2am, was a long and painful journey. Looking forward using a 90 day booking window still feels problematic given the virality of COVID-19 and the risk of localised outbreaks and any restrictions that might be imposed. The thought of sitting on a train, or any other public transport, with a face mask on also doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm, so do I drive, borrow my parents motorhome? Without an effective vaccine in place I find it hard to see when our next face-to-face will be. I’m not sure what the impact of this will be, or even if there has already been an impact but hidden in a general need to adjust our operational plans? Another factor I think needs to be taken into account is any social anxiety that may have developed whilst we have all been in isolation. 

    Maren: That is a really interesting point. When I recently started to receive invitations to face-to-face events which require travel I thought it would be useful to ask everyone in the team to provide input to our approach from October onwards. I have put in place a feedback form that I hope we can complete every few weeks or months to ask individuals about their personal preferences regarding travel, having meetings or catch ups face-to-face and also going to events – taking into account their personal circumstances and wellbeing. The differences between colleagues who live in different parts of the UK even in our small team have really become clear to me in recent weeks, particularly as the lock-down in Wales, where I live, was last to lift. Meanwhile, talking to colleagues further afield, and hearing their experiences of resuming travel, haircuts and meals out has been heartening as it gives me a sense that in many parts of the world days and weeks are slowly becoming a bit more normal. My first ventures out for an emergency dentist visit, MOT and bakery were quickly followed by making an appointment for a haircut (yay!) and a socially distanced BBQ with friends. It’s nice to hear positive experiences starting to surface after a long period of bleakness. 

    Martin: After a long period of lock down it’s nice to see easing of some of the social distancing measures. For me it feels like after what felt like an age of restricted activity things are speeding up in terms of getting back to some sort of ‘normality’. It will be interesting to revisit this conversation in 4 weeks time to see if we are on a continued positive trajectory. Until next time dear readers stay safe.

  • Still broadcasting on #ds106radio

    It’s the middle of July… and ever since March every Sunday evening three of us, Tannis, Anne-Marie & me, have been meeting up on Radio DS106 http://ds106rad.io/listen/ .

    This little online radio venture started as a crisis support for each other and our listeners. We met up once a week to share lock down tales and even though the immediate crisis has started to relax somewhat in our day to day lives I value the connection and shared Sunday evenings even more now than I did a few months ago.

    It’s a pleasure to meet up and see how everyone is getting on… and shared some tunes along the way (have a look at this playlist of summertime tunes – complete with the Pixies, Cure and Kinks 😉 ).

    It’s great to have a window into how others are doing getting back into the swing of some kind of everyday normality outside of work and my immediate high street. It’s reassuring to see how long it takes for others, not just me, to adjust again.

    We are now talking of first trips… days away from home… new pets… things that a few months ago we didn’t have any hope of doing. And that is a great win for all of us, taking our first careful (and masked) steps back into a more social life.

    I am super grateful to my friends, Anne-Marie and Tannis, for making it all possible and keeping it going. It’s been simply amazing and I look forward to it each week.

    See you on the airwaves and we hope you stay safe & well x

  • No Annual Conference, but a Summer Summit #altc #altcSummit

    Usually at this time of year I start to blog about what’s coming up at ALT’s Annual Conference in September. For over ten years this event has shaped my working life, setting the rhythm of when things go from busy to frantic. It’s not ‘just a conference’, but also a focus point around which engagement in activities that happen at other times of the year is planned (find our more).

    When ALT’s Board of Trustees took the difficult decision to not hold an Annual Conference until 2021, I felt that as an organisation we made the best decision. We put the well-being of everyone involved first as it was very clear that we couldn’t manage the risks involved in holding a large international event with over 500 people in London this autumn. Or indeed at the start of what is looking to be a very demanding academic year for everyone in Learning Technology.

    Yet the need to share knowledge, to learn from each others practice and research is more urgent now as Learning Technology has moved centre stage. Hence we are organising a virtual Summer Summit over 2 days, 26-27 August 2020 – and I am getting really excited about what’s in store.

    From the crisis drop ins, weekly webinars and Members’ feedback in recent months we have picked up topics which are most urgent such as virtual labs, digital inclusion, well being and scaling up blended and fully online provision and for each of these and more there will be practical, parallel sessions running throughout the programme.

    We have put an issue that concerns us all at the heart of the summit, and are fortunate that Angela Saini will be joining the summit for a special Q&A session #BlackLivesMatter.

    Building on the recent success of #GastaGoesGlobal, a special ‘Crisis & Care’ Gasta session features doctoral researchers from the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) and will be chaired in the best #altc GASTA tradition by Dr Tom Farrelly, Institute of Technology, Tralee (ITT).

    Alongside a wonderful line up of featured speakers, we have also been thinking hard about how to translate some of what makes our events special into a new online format. We want to not look at a grid of faces for two days running, so asynchronous sessions are in the programme, too, as well as a quiz, radio and… karaOERke…! There may even be a 2020 #altc community portrait 🙂

    Registration for the Summit is open and tickets are £49 and free scholarship places are available. Register to get access to live sessions, recordings and resources and join us for what is promising to be a very special two days this August #altcSummit.

  • #eAssess20 keynote: Learning from 25 years of TEL history to prepare for an uncertain future

    I am glad to be able to contribute this opening keynote (slides) to what has been a conference long in the making. Originally this conference was to take place in late April – but this being the year it has been, the organisers have worked very hard to create a virtual event.

    The eAssessment Association is a fellow professional body, and like ALT, plays an important role in support a community of professionals who are under a lot of pressure just now to deliver at a scale and within a scope that exceeds much of what we have been used to.

    And that is important to remember and reflect on as we consider what we can learn from 25 years of history in Learning Technology to meet the challenges of an uncertain future.

    I have organised and participated in many virtual events of all shapes and sizes, and I find that being online and watching video for hours is extremely tiring. We have all had many weeks of highly stressful and exhausting days, both at work and at home. So I invite you to sit back and listen. The slides from this talk including links to all the references I mention are openly accessible and there is nothing to do now for the next 25 minutes except to enjoy the start of what I am sure will be a wonderful conference.

    Specifically, this talk will focus on sharing practical insights and expertise in relation to three key questions:

    • how to build staff capacity to use technology for learning, teaching and assessment effectively online and at scale;
    • how to make use of best practice frameworks and open education practices;
    • how to tackle equity and inclusion in online education.

    Before we jump right in however, let me tell you a bit about who I am and the community of thousands of Members from the UK and beyond whom I represent.

    • The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK.
    • We define Learning Technology as the broad range of communication, information and related technologies that are used to support learning, teaching and assessment.
    • The pervasiveness of learning technology means that many working in education will be involved with it in some form, so therefore we embrace the diverse range of roles, titles and terminology in Learning Technology across sectors.

    Until recently, I had no idea what a ‘Learning Technology’ emergency might be. But after months of crisis support, organising webinars, collating resources and sharing whatever support we can, I have a very clear idea of how big a challenge we are facing when it comes to scaling up learning, teaching and assessment with technology.

    @BryanMMathers from 25 Years of Ed Tech is available fro @au_press
    Free PDF, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://aupress.ca/books/120290-25-years-of-ed-tech/

    In the rush to pivot, pirouette or simply rush to virtual ways of doing things, it felt like a whole new audience was discovering questions that many of us were already familiar with. From being a ‘nice to have’ using technology effectively suddenly became a must have for everyone overnight. It’s not surprising that in the early days of the pandemic and the lock down it felt like we had no idea how to meet these enormous challenges. But even though this global crisis is often described as ‘unprecedented’ we do have in fact decades of research and successful practice, partnerships with industry and knowledge sharing networks across the globe. As an Association we celebrated our 25th anniversary nearly two years ago and the expertise and experience we have as a community certainly shows us what steps we might take into an uncertain future.

    It is important for us to learn from the history of education technology, to explore what we know works and what doesn’t – and importantly to gain a sense of perspective that the current crisis makes is extremely hard to retain.

    As staff leading organisations to the start of a new term amidst a lot of uncertainty, taking a longer view can help us gain a better understanding of when technology can help and what it can’t do. Looking back, as well as ahead, also prompts us to reflect on our relationship with technology, and how it mediates the way we work with each other and the way we relate to students.

    Assessment has always been key to using technology in education. It’s an expression of what we value, what we can measure… and what goes left unsaid. Right here, right now, you trust me to present this keynote talk to you and I trust you to participate. There are many, many things going on where we are, family members coming into the room, pets, too, there is probably windows with work emails, windows with social media feeds, windows with personal shopping, windows with… anything else that currently demands your attention. Trust is part of the virtual undertaking just as it forms an important part of how we behave towards each other in person.

    People, not technology, are what makes online learning work – and there is no magic button to solve all the messy, human ‘problems’ that are part of every virtual learning experience. People, staff and students, are always at the heart of our work.

    For several years now, ALT’s Annual Survey has provided valuable insight into current practice in Learning Technology and how technology is used across sectors

    When we look at what the key enables and drivers for use of Learning Technology are, the top results are always student and staff engagement, commitment, knowledge and time. Scaling up design and delivery online is going to require increasing capacity. Professional bodies like ALT can help by providing access to expertise for recruitment, openly sharing research and best practice and facilitating knowledge exchange between organisations across sectors and with industry. 

    Recent estimates shared by Professor Tony Bates showed that institutions in the US and Canada are preparing for an increase in staff supporting Learning Technology by 15-25%. ALT’s Annual Survey 2020 highlights priorities for learning, teaching and assessment that point towards an increase for Learning Technology across the board. Of particular note in the survey is the recorded increasing importance of web conferencing/virtual classroom software and collaborative tools suggesting that the sector was already building capacity in these areas prior to COVID-19. 

    One of the ways we have recently contributed to building professional capacity is to expand ALT’s framework of professional practice and capabilities to reflect the increasingly wide range of roles that have a Learning Technology component. The number of roles which require Learning Technology is only set to increase in the coming years, making it ever more important to set out not just operational standards, but also recognise the wider context of Learning Technology policy, theory and history as fundamental to its ethical, equitable and fair use.

    The analysis of current and future trends also helps establish key areas in which to grow capacity, such as virtual learning environments, particularly in the light of the expanded accessibility legislation; virtual classroom and web conferencing tools, which are now in high demand and also collaborative tools as well as with e-assessment. E-Assessment has continued to be a to priority over the past six years, including online submission & feedback tools.

    Yet as the technology has become more sophisticated and more widely adopted, so have concerns regarding their ethical and inclusive use. Learning Technology as a whole, and technology for assessment in particular, has brought wide ranging concerns and questions to the forefront of professional practice.

    We have to act now, to tackle inequality and discrimination in all its forms, particularly as we look beyond the crisis. We already know that certain groups and communities are more affected by the pandemic and that working and learning at home brings with it a plethora of issues around access to infrastructure, devices and space. Beyond practical considerations, we must consider how complex technologies and algorithms function and how their inherent biases impact on staff and students alike particularly when it comes to assessment.

    ALT has long supported open education in all its forms. In the recent crisis in particular, we have been able to support our Members and the wider community more effectively through open approaches, fostering knowledge sharing and transparency. We encourage professionals and organisations to adopt open licences for course materials, research and other content. Two areas in which this has been of particular importance are policy advocacy for ethical approaches to using data in education, copyright for online learning and sharing best practice around accessibility:

    Weekly webinars organised by Members of ALT started on Friday 20th March in response to queries largely from those in higher education related to  copyright and online learning following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online learning. The webinars are free to all and aimed at  those interested in talking about copyright challenges at the current time and how we can address them. The organisers have published a page full of resources and the original blog post that led to starting this series on Copyright, Fair Dealing and Online Teaching in a time of Crisis.

    I feel it is important to focus on these aspects of using technology as well as more operational questions as these issues are only becoming more urgent as we move more and more students online. Our professional practice has to find ways of tackling (structural) inequalities and help identify the blind spots in our perspectives.

    Last summer when our Annual Conference took place in Edinburgh, I was very inspired by a wonderful keynote given by Jesse Stommel. I’d encourage you to watch the entire talk, Critical Pedagogy, Civil Disobedience and Edtech. For this talk, I’d like to include one particular quote, which encourages us to undertake a ‘critical examination of our technologies, what they afford, who they exclude, how they’re monetized, and what pedagogies they have already baked in. But it requires we also begin with a consideration of what we value, the kinds of relationships we want to develop with our students, why we gather together in places like universities and how humans learn.

    Now, a year ago, this already seemed like an urgent priority, but in light of what has happened this year, it seems even more poignant. As we plan for an uncertain future, trusting in students and trusting in staff, rather than implementing more sophisticated ways of tracking, analysing and watching each other seems like a good place to start. And that is the thought that I hope you will carry with you over the next days and week as you participate in this conference and as you go on to plan for a new, unprecedented, academic year.

  • How we survived a pandemic: Part 2 – Music, spice and other things nice

    mage: CC-BY Maren Deepwell

    This is a conversational blog post (cross-posted here) between Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) and Maren Deepwell (@marendeepwell). 

    We are using this approach to create some space to think together in ‘unprecedented times’. It’s open leadership in practice and in pandemic times. For regular readers this is a slight departure from our regular ‘Virtual Teams’ posts (you can read those on our Virtual Teams summary page) taking a broader view of work whilst midst global pandemic. 

    In this month’s post we share some of the things that have helped us get through the current global situation. As part of this we touch upon some of our senses and stimulants we use in our working lives including caffeine and candles. We also share how music has helped us to make connections and support our wellbeing. We invite you to read and think along and please share your reflections as a result of this month’s post and if you like you can tune in to the ds106 Radio slot with Maren,  Tannis Morgan and Anne-Marie Scott at 7pm (BST) on Sundays at ds106rad.io/listen/. 

    All the best to you and yours. We hope you are safe and we are grateful that we are, too. 

    May… 

    Martin: Over the years I’ve worked in a number of different offices from a room perched up high in a shipyard that gently rocked when the overhead crane moved, to converted school classrooms, large open plan spaces and until I worked from home I never had an office to myself. Looking back at some of the co-spaces I worked in, it’s interesting how the practicalities of the space influenced the office dynamic and also the role of music played in how we worked and interacted. In the shipyard I was working as a CAD operator, part of a small team producing technical drawings. We were all very young with no senior management in the same room and just left to get on with it. One of the areas of tension was what music was played on the CD player. There were only a couple of albums and after The Seahorse was played for the umteenth time in one day each time a little louder I was ready to break (I once hid the remote control with the volume down button stuck on in all the paper drawings for some peace and quiet… this did not go down well). In the converted school classroom the job was very administrative, production focused and we were mixed in age and backgrounds but often we would listen to BBC 6music. If anyone had their own Seahorses moment they never let on and having a mixture of music and a DJ to listen to often create conversation points which helped get through some of the repetitive monotony of the job. And then there are spaces like the big open plan office where if you were going to listen to music headphones were obligatory. This often led to moments when our little desk cluster would all individually have our heads down, bopping away focused on our work in our own little space. The influence of music in the workplace to aid factory production and placate the workforce is well documented, but it was only recently whilst out running I realised just how much music had a physical effect on my performance. When that banging track kicked in, my body was so ready to kick on through those last 3 miles of a 13 mile run. Music also has helped me get through some deep lows. Whilst many criticise bands like Radiohead and Elbow as producing ‘depressing’ tracks, when I’m low myself this is exactly the music I listen to given the uplifting effect it has on the chemicals whooshing around my brain. Has music played a role in your work?     

    Maren: Music has definitely played a role in my working life… particularly when I was working in a cafe at Ray’s Jazz at Foyles Bookshop in London. I bought many albums in that job, as I was fortunate to work alongside folk who had an encyclopedic knowledge and I discovered a lot of music that year. When I worked in a university setting, a lot of my work was based around teaching or student support, so there wasn’t a lot of scope for listening to music and in my early years at ALT, when we still had a physical office, music wasn’t often part of the daily routine – although we had music hours when we each got to make a request. In recent years, since I started working from home full-time, I find I listen to music most when I travel. I have a lot of meetings each day, so the few quiet hours I can carve out each week are precious for concentration and I don’t listen to music when I have that time. I do listen to music to wind down at the end of a day, or when I am out running, or on the train or plane. That said, I find the right scent really helps my working environment. I have a scented candle next to my desk and I like having a familiar smell that I associate with work. I also have plants in my work space, and as much natural light as possible. One work environment factor that I have recently thought a lot about is the number of different screens I use. Since I moved house during the pandemic, I don’t currently have my largest monitor to work on – but even when I do, I don’t use a lot of different screens. I know you do! I prefer to have one screen for meetings and one screen to work on, but I rarely flip between screens. I don’t check social media during the day unless I am participating at an online event or managing an announcement and I prefer to work on one document at a time. I guess overall, I value a calm workspace when I can create it. 

    Martin: Like you I’m in between house moves so it means I don’t have my usual office setup. Whilst a pandemic lockdown situation wasn’t foreseen I had taken a number of pieces of equipment with me but my screen space has been reduced to two 13” displays. Overall it feels like I’ve adapted but something I’m aware of is with smaller screens there is a risk of eyestrain. Given most of our systems are cloud based with web interfaces it means I’ve made more use of zooming/scaling, I am however looking forward to surrounding myself again with larger displays. 

    I’ve never considered sense of smell and how it can be used to support your working environment. Thinking about other senses and stimulations coffee has become a bigger part of my life. Historically I’m a tea drinker and for the last couple of years have drunk caffeine free Rooibos tea, but over the last 4 months coffee has increasingly featured, now usually starting the day with a cup of joe. I’ll also turn to caffeine and some banging tunes when I have some data processing tasks to get through. When I’ve worked in offices in the past there have been various provisions provided from bring your own to employers supplying refreshments, the best was one employer who kept a fridge stocked with various refreshments (mostly caffeine based … as HR news reports in writing about the benefits of providing workplace coffee machines as a stimulant caffeine can boost productivity)  

    Writing this exchange during mental health week has also been useful to listen to some of the advice and support that has been shared. On Wednesday 20 May on Lauren Laverne BBC 6Music show fellow DJ Nemone, who is also a practicing psychotherapist, highlighted some of the research around the benefits of music including how it can be used to help manage stress levels as well as ‘music being a way of communicating, a conversation between people, the making and listens results in increased feeling of connection’. You can listen to Nemone speak about this in the show recording which is available until 18 June 2020 at the 1:11:17 timestamp. I know that in your spare time you’ve also been involved in a weekly radio show on ds106 Radio and you might want to talk more about that? 

    Maren: yes, that’s true! I have been joining some friends on the crisis radio airwaves. For the last couple of months, we have been playing tunes and sending hugs on Sundays, and more recently also requests from listeners. I have blogged about that, writing about kindness, mental health and radio full of rainbows. My particular favourites include soul soundtrack songs and old singles from The Cure. Listening to the radio, often manned by colleagues in different parts of the world whom I know is a great way of keeping connected in this time of isolation. Even though for many of us the more local measures are gradually being relaxed, my professional life has changed completely from travelling every week and going abroad several times a year to basically no travel at all in the foreseeable future. So it’s especially important for me to keep connected to people whom I might have otherwise met up with at an event or a meeting. And of course, there is the music as well. One recent show featured requests from listeners and closed with a beautiful song called “Weeping” requested by Laura Czerniewicz which resonated with many. If you’d like to listen for yourself to the whole playlist you can find it here.

  • Kindness, mental health and radio full of rainbows

    It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and currently every day feels like it should have its own campaign and come complete with support resources. Head to the dedicated website to find help, advice and support or get involved and show some kindness to those in need.

    When I hear people talk about how well they are coping with ‘the new normal’ I can only hope that they mean being able to have effective online meetings. Because this… period of time… is not normal in any way and neither at work nor in my personal life is there a single person who is not affected or whose mental health is not suffering.

    Fortunately, I have people in my life, some professionals and some family and friends, who are there to support me through tough times – but that doesn’t mean that I don’t struggle. I do. I have to ask for help all the time and I find it just as hard as the next person. As a leader, as a competent person, as someone who many people think of “being always OK and having it sorted” I try and make that as visible as I can. It’s important to set an example to show that it is OK to need support, to not have all the answers.

    An extra delivery of care & affection xxx (CC-BY Maren Deepwell)

    Spending time with friends and spreading some kindness was also the theme on our Sunday Special Radio Show on DS106Radio this week. You can catch up on the recording here https://ammienoot.com/podcast/ . We played a show of only requests from listeners who got on touch via Twitter, requests for family, for friends, for lovers and lost ones.

    I’ll let these tweets tell you the story: