Maren Deepwell

Category: VirtualTeamsBook

  • New adventures in podcasting

    For the past few years I have indulged in my love for internet radio. DS106 has been the most fun, a valuable way to connect with colleagues and friends, to have some fun during lockdown and beyond.

    Last year I started remote working radio shows on DS106radio, sharing the story of writing my book, ideas and insights and had some wonderful special guests along the way. It was a great season of chat and music and a wonderful way to connect with listeners.

    The one issue with the radio sessions was that it proved difficult for folk to catch up with it, and it was a challenge for me to schedule the sessions live. I ended up having to reschedule often, and it made it hard for everyone who wanted to listen live or catch up worth the recording.

    So this year, I am embarking on new adventures – this time in podcasting. I love listening to podcasts and I am excited to learn how to record them and make them available.

    It’s been fun and interesting to learn about a new medium and to think about how I want MY podcast to work, given that up to now I only had the opportunity to be on other people’s podcasts.

    And I love it! I enjoy the experimentation and figuring out how to connect with all the different platform, which is definitely still a work in progress.

    Each episode includes tools, resources and strategies for different aspects of hybrid working, and links to blog posts and further reading.

    I hope you enjoy the show. As always, share your ideas and feedback in the comments, or on social media. If you have a specific questions or comment, contact me . I look forward to hearing from you.

    Listen to the podcast

    Recent episodes

  • Book launch week unpacked

    Book launch week unpacked

    I am really, really happy that this week my book is finally going to be published. The digital edition has been ready for a while and the first proof of the print version arrived this week, so it’s starting to feel real. Yesterday I added the ISBN to the cover design and ‘BOOM!’ – it felt like a proper book.

    Publishing a book feels scary. It took me nearly two years to write, although I started with years of blog posts and presentations to draw on. I rewrote pretty much all of the material I already had, cutting and editing along the way. If you have followed the progress of the book or read any of the draft chapters I published along the way, you will know just how much of an evolution this project has been through.

    Even after the editing process was finished, I found an error in the introduction, and fortunately there was time to get it fixed and the files updated. I am sure the print edition will include some typos, too. So I am making a list of things to fix in the 2d edition.

    It’s not perfect, that’s for sure, but I am proud of this piece of work. It’s useful and interesting and an attempt to grapple with issues that many in leadership roles will be familiar with. Obviously I want it to be well-received and reflect positively on ALT, as so much of the inspiration and case studies are focused on my work there. I appreciate it enormously that the book’s digital edition is published by ALT as an Open Access publication. Sharing knowledge is after all what this book is all about.

    I also feel a little sad, to let the book enter the public domain. Since I started working on it, it’s been my project, mine to nurture and progress. It’s been my focus on days off, evenings and weekends and a writing holiday. Sure, I have published extracts along the way, and I have shared some of the resources from the book on radio, in my podcast and the Hacks for Hybrid Working course. And the book has bee read by colleagues and Trustees who helped review it. In some ways, there is little in the book that isn’t already out there.

    Once the book in its entirety is out, then it belongs to all who read it. It becomes lots of different things to many people and they make their own meaning, shaped by their experiences and context. I am excited to see how the book may be used or interpreted by others and I hope that the related resources, blog posts and podcasts will help make it a valuable resource.

    Meanwhile my thoughts have started to turn to the course which I will run in spring 2023, offering a practical approach to leading virtual teams #excited.

  • Monthly News, August 2022

    Hello there 🙂

    The big news is that I have completed the book and sent it to the publisher. After about 18 months of writing and reviewing, editing and finally formatting all the references I sent all the files off for editing yesterday. 

    It’s been such a joy to work on this book at evenings and weekends, but I am also glad to be free to enjoy the summer weather and focus on my main work during a busy period. 

    What’s next

    There is a preview of the cover below. The book is due to come out in late October, and I am planning to share blog posts and resources for each chapter. The Open Access publication will be available to download for free first, and I also hope to produce a print edition on demand. I am also working on some related projects, more of which I will be sharing soon. 

    For now, I wish you all a good run up to the new academic year.

  • Leading Virtual Teams – Monthly Book News, July 2022

    This month I am making the final edits, before sending the book to the publisher for copy editing in mid August.

    I have also been working on the cover and thinking about what resources and activities I want to work on ahead of the book launch later this year.

    As summer is the busiest time for me at work, progress is slow going just now, and I am making the most of the warm weather to spend time away from the screen.

    A blue book cover with several sheets of paper and a notebook, with water color drawings of a cityscape and a digital network of nodes connected by lines.

    Recent blog posts

    I have been blogging more recently and shared an update about a recent team chat & bake, that would make a great addition to the team activities in the book.

    One of the things we really enjoyed about the activity was to spend some time together as a team without having to focus on a particular deliverable. It felt more like a social activity and we also enjoyed sharing jokes about how we were getting on with the recipe. It worked great to all make the same recipe as we could compare our experiences and tastes.

    I have also shared an update about the recent launch of Digital Learning in Higher Education, in which I co-authored a chapter; reflections on designing hybrid conferences and a post on celebrating small successes for a month to get out of a mindset of never quite achieving enough. 

    A photo of a brown dog on top of a rock with the sea in the background.

    My writing buddy Posey had a break from the office and explored Pembrokeshire Coastal Paths… 

  • Leading Virtual Teams: Team chat & bake

    Whilst I have been focusing on editing the book on Leading Virtual Teams, I have blogged a little less about what we have actually been up to as a Virtual Team… So this is a post about a great activity we have recently done: Team chat & bake.

    A mail box from Positive Bakes, including all the ingredients for the team bake.

    We chose a mail order baking kit for vegan & gluten free lemon cakes, which should be made easily and quickly within an hour which we set aside.

    As a team we considered whether we wanted to have video chat whilst baking or use text chat, and we all voted to use text chat only, so we posted messages and shared pictures as we went along.

    Photo of baking in progress… just mixing the dough for the lemon cakes.

    One of the things we really enjoyed about the activity was to spend some time together as a team without having to focus on a particular deliverable. It felt more like a social activity and we also enjoyed sharing jokes about how we were getting on with the recipe. It worked great to all make the same recipe as we could compare our experiences and tastes.

    Picture of baking in progress… lemon cakes fresh out of the oven.

    The cost of the activity for us as a team was around £20 a person, and it took around an hour for us to bake the cakes… and start eating them. We scheduled the activity to take place before lunch, enabling us to move from the baking activity to lunch which worked well.

    Photo of the final baked product – lemon cakes decorated with raspberry sprinkles.

    What worked especially well for this activity was the chat element, which allowed us all to engage as much or as little as we felt comfortable with. Combining hanging out virtually with making (and eating) some practically is a great combination to engage Virtual Teams – bringing a more tangible dimension to a distributed activity.

  • Virtual Teams Book – Monthly News, June 2022

    Virtual Teams Book – Monthly News, June 2022

    Book news

    Work on the book is making good progress at the moment. I am focusing on working through edits and responding to feedback from reviewers.

    Meanwhile I am also working with the publisher on the format, layout and cover. As Leading Virtual Teams will be published online under an open licence, we want to make it as accessible as possible.

    This month I am also planning ahead for the summer, setting out deadlines for the final stages of the editing process before the book gets sent for copy editing. Summer is my busiest time at work as we have our flagship conference in early September and there is always a lot happening in the run up to that. So work on the book may be a little slower for the next period.

    Logo for remote working radio show showing an illustration of a podcast host at the microphone.

    Remote Working Radio Season 1

    As I have been working on my book Leading Virtual Teams, I have been talking about working remotely on DS106 Radio on the Remote Working Radio Show. What started out as a lot of music and a bit of chat from me and sharing updated on the book has grown into an hour of chat with special guests, exploring how we work from home, what challenges we encounter and tips for developing your own practice.

    The show is taking a break over the summer, so here are the recordings from season 1 for you to catch up with and enjoy. A huge thank you to my guests who joined me on air and shared their insights. We will be back on air in the autumn for season 2.

    Recordings

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