Like many, I have been inspired by posts and a conversation about writing, in particular these posts:
There are pieces of writing in the comments here that augment and change what was there before. New ideas have shown up. I see now it’s co-written in deep ways. https://t.co/2cCmJT3XxD
I find it resonates with me because I, too, write all day and most of the time my audience is a folder or an upload bar. But I also have the privilege of having a voice and a platform to be heard, in my professional practice, and alongside that I have cultivated spaces (and time) in my life that allow me to write and think out loud on my own domain, in my journals, both in the open and in private.
I think and reflect much through conversations, conversational writing and writing and I find without the discipline to keep articulating what’s in my head and in my heart, I am left with nothing to say. Like Kate writes in her post:
This sense of being choked is spreading around a community of good writers I know, like ocean plastics. It’s as if we’re in an extinction-level event, even as we mostly work in universities, and we are also drowning in words.
I had that post at the back of my mind during a conversation this week about the value of time, the value of creativity in professional practice. We were looking at a table charting progress and I was wondering about where on that particular spreadsheet we had a budget line for time to think. Time, as the poem says, “… and instantly there is space and the radiance of each bright galaxy”.
I value what time to think, time to be creative, to have ideas and reflect, bring to my own professional practice and in my day job I likewise value that in others and for others. But even with those values, it’s hard to carve out space and time and give priority in amidst everything else that shouts much louder. In the matrix of urgent and important things I feel I need another axis for those things which are fundamental to long term well being and inspiration, things that mean something to us, that make what we do and say feel worthwhile. We need a budget line for time.
In his post, Martin writes:
Thinking of writing similarly as a finite resource may not be a bad mental trick to deploy for yourself. Where are you going to use that allocation up today? Is that what you want to do?
So this morning, I woke up and with my coffee the cat and I read the Twitter conversation and instead of getting things done and start being productive, I started the day doing what I want to do and write this post.
Hello and welcome to this month’s post on leading a virtual team. In this post (cross-posted here) the two of us, that is Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) and Maren Deepwell (@marendeepwell), continue our series of openly sharing our approach to leadership.
If you are new here, you can catch up on earlier posts and podcasts or find out more about ALT, the organisation we work for as senior staff. We really appreciate comments and feedback and welcome questions or suggestions for future posts.
This time we get creative as we share our favourite ways to have some fun, create, collaborate and share. We also have another think about emoji.. which a year ago we gave a rather cold review.
July
Maren: When I started thinking about this post, I realised that creativity is a much bigger part of how we collaborate as a team than I initially thought. I’m excited about having some fun and sharing a few of my favourite ideas from the last year, starting with this example of an alternative team portrait:
We’ve made others, one with biscuits representing each member of the team particularly sticks in my mind, but this is definitely a favourite. A bag full of craft supplies, a table, an hour of chatting and making together and you have a fun, creative portrait. I much prefer this to posing for artfully smiley photos that end up on social media and the process of making the portrait together acts as a catalyst for conversation.
Another recent example of a bit of remixing fun as a team was creating our own Pet Top Trumps, featuring some of the four pawed companions we have as home workers:
One of the challenges of remote working is to find ways to interact with each other informally, to have some fun and that is particularly important when things are busy! Creating and sharing our Pet Top Trumps developed some new skills and really improved our spirits on a hot, long and busy summer day. These cards were remixed using the Fabulous Remixer Machine, which we also use in other creative ways.
Martin: Informal interaction is a really interesting point and thinking about it probably one of the toughest areas in a distributed team to get right. It’s quite easy to add informal conversations to the start/end of video calls but more challenging when catch-ups or team calls aren’t scheduled. It’s also probably easier to incorporate informal chat in one-to-ones because with our team meetings, particularly in Annual Conference prep mode, it feels like there is pressure that chatting might be delaying someone else from getting back to their to-do lists. In the past during busy periods we’ve also scheduled coffee breaks where we can hangout together. One of the challenges I find is when these have been purposefully set up they lose some of the spontaneity that you might get in a traditional office environment. Something I’ve found that works well is working with someone on a piece of work whilst in a video call with them. This could be a task like writing a piece of text together or working on some spreadsheet data. These moments are also useful for those serendipitous moments when you discover something new which might be a different way to do a task or just something you didn’t know about the other person. Within our team we also use a group text chat, which allows everyone to say hello in the morning and gives us opportunities similar to an office based chatting across the room. Currently we are using Google’s Classic Hangouts Chat for this which doesn’t have some of the additional features you get in the newer version, or other tools like Slack. Having used newer chat interfaces as part of other communities I’m part of I find my original dislike of emoji’s and reactions, which we talked about last year, slowly being eroded. I’ve yet to use these tools in the context of a virtual team and I can’t wait for Google to integrate the new Hangouts Chat into Gmail. When we talked about emoji almost a year ago you had similar hesitations for using these in a distributed team. Has your own view changed?
Maren Bitmoji
Maren: No. Yes. Maybe. My emoji literacy is still poor. I am one of those people who has to search for explanations of what ‘:s’ means… someone who having made her first ever Bitmoji promptly never made a second one. My icon vocabulary is rudimentary at best. I speak more Greek than emoji! That said, sometimes only a ‘:)’ will do, so I adjust how I express myself according to my audience. I value instant chat a lot for spontaneous interaction. Like you, I’m a year further into my experience using more ‘engaging, agile, responsive…’ chat interfaces. My feelings are still very mixed: I dislike that at times the volume of reactions/interactions can make the interaction meaningless, it becomes noise. I find the amount people have to actually engage or think about how they are reacting is minimal, which devalues the increase in interaction for me. I prefer someone not engaging to token reactions. I object to the notification push these interfaces try to dictate, i.e. ‘check who has liked your comment in the last hour…’. I don’t want to be notified in this way. And then there is context. Someone being silent can speak volumes and if they click the occasional ‘like’ I might miss their silence. So there are still a lot of downsides to the world of chat and emoji to me (and chatbots, for that matter). On the other hand, I love the playfulness, the fun, the sense of humour, creativity and flexibility these tools enable us to have. And that is really important in a team setting. I had an experience today discussing email, and a colleague pointed out a way in which we could save emails between us. The suggestion was prompted by them understanding how I work better, getting to know what’s important to me and why. A whole range of formal/informal communication led to that realisation, and to me, that’s what matters. Like drawing or walking or making something, I value things that get us thinking together.
Martin: Inthe case of reactions I can see a distinction between ‘likes’ in a personal setting compared to a professional context but at the same time, as we talked about in our last post, there is often a blur between social networks/chat in a work and personal life setting. I’ve only came across bitmoji recently and while I’ve seen others use them they are not something I’ve played with a great deal. Given the level of expression and potential outlet for creativity you get from some of the designer apps perhaps I should. Something that has put me off, particularly with the basic bitmoji you get with built-in virtual keyboards for Android, is the expression always seems a bit extreme for my mild mannered personality. While I’m becoming more inclined to emoji the next problem is given I’ve previously stated I dislike them in the past it feels more awkward to start using them purely because of my suborn streak. Given the reliance on online tools for virtual teams it’s perhaps worth remembering new tools get added, existing tools change in functionality and tools even get discontinued which means there is a degree of continual change with personal choices so having an organisational cultural alignment that supports this is important. In terms of creativity one of the aspects of my job I really enjoy is the opportunity to produce and collaborate on some of the artwork we use. This includes things like our Annual Conference splash screens to remixing some of the artwork and popup banners for the OER conference. Having recently bought a sticker machine I’ve been enjoying providing one-off creations.
CPD badge
Maren: Stickers are a great example of a creative outlet. I also came across this digital badge, which I made on a drawing app and using Google slides, as part of the team appraisal process a couple of years ago. Making one/off badges for individual staff is a quick, creative way to provide recognition and feedback with a twist. Another example of a creative approach to feedback is the ‘positivity by post’ exercise we did recently. That involved using a template to send each other feedback by post and that was really interesting in that it was a) positive feedback only, b) handwritten and c) delivered by post rather than email. For me personally changing the method of communication made the process both more creative and impactful. The final example I’d like to mention is clothing.. shoes, t-shirts, hoodies:
It’s hot! Even for home-workers. So in this post, which is an ‘outtake’ from my regular series of Virtual Teams posts with Martin Hawksey, I share some of our experiences and tips for home-working during a heatwave…
When I was still office-based hot days were always a challenge. Fans were going on all the desks, commuting was a nightmare (if the trains were running at all) and everyone was trying to schedule as much time away from their desk, taking calls outside, having meetings in the cafe and taking frequent trips to the water cooler to fill up their bottles. Working when the weather is really saying “you should be on a beach… in the park… or in the pub with a cold pint” is always hard.
Dressing for the weather: one of the key advantages of being a home-worker during the heatwave is that you don’t have to leave the house, get on a train or sit in a meeting. You can wear shorts and t-shirts or loose clothing that would not adapt well to commuting or an office environment. For me, sleeveless silk blouses are a friend for formal meetings, but most days shorts and running gear makes work in hot temperatures much more productive!
Cooling your work-space: Airing your work space as much as you can in the early morning or late in the evening is key and I also find drying large sheets/laundry near an open window is a great way to cool air as far as possible. I have a south-facing window in my work space at home, so the blinds come down by about 10am in order to keep the sun at bay during the hottest hours of the day.
Fan yourself: Personally, I don’t like electrical fans, but having recently received a very useful hand fan from a friend I have found that to be an absolute life saver. It’s a great accessory not just during hot weather and will be firmly established in my travel bag.
Care & check-in: Especially during hot weather frequent check ins are important and in our team we use instant chat for that as well as daily video contact. It’s important to check in with each other’s well being and acknowledge the unusual conditions as you would if you were co-located.
Head outside: in my case the proximity of a road and a railway line and a building site makes working outside or in the garden a poor option, but some of my colleagues enjoy taking a laptop and heading outside at least for part of the day.
The fridge is your friend…: One of the things I find much easier at home is keeping hydrated and eating well during the hot weather.
Last week I was invited to contributed to a symposium organised by Policy Connect for the Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL), an independent FE think tank.
The symposium was chaired by Lord Chris Holmes, Chair of the EdTech Leadership Group and APPG for Assistive Technology; and fellow panellists included Paul McKean, Head of Further Education and Skills, Jisc, Deborah Millar, Group Director of Digital Learning Technology, Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education and Dick Palmer, Former Chief Executive, TEN Group, and Adviser to FELTAG. The symposium was closed by Dame Ruth Silver, President, FETL.
I enjoyed contributing to the event and the conversations before and afterwards, which included many inspiring examples of outstanding practice and innovation from different colleges and other providers. Having benefited from formative years in an FE College myself when I had few other ways forward these passionate and authentic perspectives always chime with me. Two things really stuck with me from the event:
First, in the closing remarks, Dame Ruth Silver reflected on the policy landscape and the need to galvanise individual initiatives and bodies into joint action. I picked up one of FETL’s publications (which are CC-licenced and freely available here) entitled ‘Possibility thinking: Reimagining the future of further education and skills‘ published in this edition in 2017 together with the RSA. In it, Dame Ruth Silver writes:
… while the sector must understand where it has come from and where it is now, the very nature of our changing context means that we must be prepared to learn continuously and to look ‘elsewhere and everywhere’ in forging a future for ourselves. … the sector must be cognisant of what has gone before, particularly in a sector in whcih policy memory is notoriously short. But, more than anything else, it must be loyal to the future; bold, creative and unapologetic in claiming its place in this emering terrioty.
A Script for the Future, Dame Ruth Silver, President, FETL
I agree with that perspective and having spent the last 10 years engaging with successive ministerial advisory groups from FELTAG to ETAG up to the current Edtech Strategy, it is only too clear to me that not only is the policy memory in the sector short – but also seemingly little political will to invest in stability, staff development and structures that would enable many of the recommendations made in that period to be implemented beyond pilot schemes or showcase colleges. So often calls for change to inspection frameworks, funding mechanisms and staff training have gone unheard and the resulting patchy development has spread the already broad spectrum of innovation further still.
Which brings me to reflect on the new shores of edtech in FE which we discussed on the day. As I said, there were many examples of great things happening all across the country, teachers learning from other teachers, students leading change, governors and senior leaders seeing the possibilities. But Dame Ruth Silver was right to ask us how so many different strands could come together to make a whole, how (in my words) wider collaboration instead of competition could be fostered between providers, industry, government agencies and sector bodies. In this context, the conversation felt very much like the exchanges which led to the original FELTAG recommendations published in 2013.
True, there is more talk now of AIs, VR and AR, of machine learning and automation. But beyond the tools that keep changing, the issues at the hear of the matter remain the same.
However, whilst the policy makers may not be moving on much, staff and learners are. Change is happening all across the system and whilst it is underfunded and under pressure, life doesn’t stop because policy progress is slow. I felt the perspective from ALT that I contributed was really relevant as it emphasised the need to empower staff through professional recognition and development to engage critically with Learning Technology, to ask difficult questions about ethical implications of technology, of inherent biases and inequality, and to encourage organisations to invest in their own expertise and experience (including the experience of things going wrong) as they approach the new shoes of edtech.
I have collected all kinds of stationary, envelopes and postcards for about three decades and recently I have returned to my habit of sending mail, sending letters more often. I collect books about it, I have folders of postcards that I started collecting in the 1990s, a few that I love, a few that are souvenirs, a few that are waiting for just the right moment, just the right person, just the right occasion to be sent.
Envelopes (sketch)
Welcome to the Envelope Inn
Envelopes (book cover)
Envelopes (book page)
Envelopes (book page)
… und Tschuss (postcard)
Miss you (postcard)
Norwood Cemetery (postcard)
Biscuit (postcard)
The Cure (postcard)
Athens exhibition (postcards)
Adventures in Stationary (book cover)
And there is so much interesting history in the development of reading and writing tools, in the history of postal delivery, the postcard and the letter. In a world where handwritten messages, physical letters and postcards become rarer each year, it’s good to pause and reflect on the joy of these material things.
Nice to CC you by @visualthinkery is licenced under CC-BY-SA.
Hello and welcome to this month’s post on leading a virtual team. In this post (cross-posted here) the two of us, that is Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) and Maren Deepwell (@marendeepwell), continue our series of openly sharing our approach to leadership.
If you are new here, you can catch up on earlier posts and podcasts or find out more about ALT, the organisation we work for as senior staff. We really appreciate comments and feedback and welcome questions or suggestions for future posts.
This time we touch base after both being on international duty for ALT and discuss how our use of social networks often gets blurred between personal and professional. We also think about the role of social media in virtual teams and how social media can be useful for bridging work and social lives, including the challenges this brings to striking the right balance.
June
Maren: I feel like I need to wave hello to start off this post, as the last month has involved a lot of travel for each of us and working together in different time zones and across continents has made our virtual team feel even more distributed. It’s rare for us to travel internationally as most of our work is in the UK, so this past month has been unusual in that we have both given keynotes in other communities, you spoke at Domains19 and I at the ETUG conference. One of the things my visit to a different conference and a new community made me reflect on is how much of my professional practice is about keeping connected. We have often talked about what we do to combat cabin fever or the loneliness of home working, but we haven’t talked much about all that we do to keep in touch and the networks we connect with or how important that is especially for remote workers like us.
Martin: As you mentioned we don’t get much opportunity for international travel and at Domains19 it was a great opportunity to meet a number of people I’ve been connected with for a long time but never met in person. Domains was quite a unique event for me in the fact that it’s probably the first event I’ve been to which overlapped two of my communities, EdTech and Google Apps Script. Events like Domains continue to be a very important way for me to make personal and professional connections, both old and new. There are a lot of benefits of being physically located in the same space but it’s also worth remembering that events like Domains end up being blurred temporally and spatially. In terms of time our communities will no doubt be familiar with how blogging provides opportunities before and after events to make connections and we’ve both blogged about Domains and ETUG. Spatially social media, live streaming and initiatives like VConnecting mean you can get part of a conference experience without physically being there. In the case of Domains there was also some telepresence with Bryan Mathers virtually attending as a Double:
Maren: I met a number of #femedtech activists in Canada whom I have been in contact with only via Twitter before now. I find that particular network is a useful way to expand my horizons and helps me make connections at events, too. Twitter is still my primary social network for work, and I had some interesting conversations with colleagues such as Clint Lalonde about how they manage the overlap between personal and professional lives. I don’t maintain separate profiles for work/non work stuff, but recently I have been more tempted to do so. I try to use different platforms for different aspects of my life but that isn’t really working. Whenever I meet someone new at a conference and they are on first name basis with my cat it’s clear that my work/private divide on social media is blurry at best. Also, being in a different time zone had a big impact on the social media feeds I follow. It gave me a new sense of momentum in a number of conversations I hadn’t followed closely before. I subscribe to some mailing lists and newsletters and there is a certain fellowship in discussing what’s been picked up in a recent edition of OLDaily for example. Blogs are my preferred way of keeping connected, both with what others are thinking about and sharing my own ideas. My blog, my domain, is a constant wherever I am, however distributed the work I do or the people I work with may be.
Martin: Similarly Twitter is my main social network but I’ve got a slightly different approach in that I limit personal posts. You’ll see the occasional tweet with a picture of my latest DIY project, runs I’ve completed but unless you know me as a friend or colleague I choose to never do things like mention my 11yo by name, say where I live or wish myself or other people happy birthday. My approach is in part informed by knowing how much data is shared in a tweet and the subsequent profiling that can be done by Twitter but also knowing anyone else with access to the data, aka everyone, can do something similar. Within our team we are the only two who tweet from a personal account about ALT. Something I hadn’t really considered before is in a virtual team setting following your personal account on Twitter is incredibly useful in terms of getting a sense of what is currently interesting you both personally and professionally as well as eavesdropping in on some of the conversations you are having with our community and beyond. There is a fine balance however and I often find I’m censoring myself and I’m always mindful that anything I share in the public domain could be used by someone else. I was recently reminded of this reading the BBC article on The firm with 900 staff and no office which highlights how the company Automatic has an international workforce and no permanent offices. As part of the news item the story features what looks like to me is a personal image taken by one of their staff of a team meet in Thailand. Whilst this is quite a benign example I’ve had friends who have had Twitter conversations become the basis of tabloid journalism.
Maren: I know what you mean. It is tricky to find a balance. I, too, try to stick with that rule never to post anything public that I would not want to see in the press. But the people I care about are so distributed, so many of my relationships, including with family, are mediated by social media in one way or another, that I would miss out on many important moments if I stopped posting anything personal anywhere. When it comes to immediate work colleagues, I ask permission: ‘do you want me to follow you’, ‘do you feel comfortable for me to ‘@‘ you’, ‘are you happy for our official account to mention you by name…’ those kind of questions I ask new colleagues. If I am not completely sure, I won’t post it and sometimes that makes my feeds a bit boring. Where it gets more tricky are social networks I use more for personal things like Instagram. So my Instagram bio for my private account reads: ‘Pictures of my cat, running, things I like. This is just my personal account – no work here :)’. Overall, and particularly on Twitter, I try to strike a balance to contribute as much as I gain by being part of the network and to share what I can that may be useful to others.. like this post! It’s a curated, carefully considered collaboration, sure, but it is also open leadership in practice and that in itself should speak volumes about what we value and how we work.
